Patricia Verhagen started playing the piano at the age of 9. Four years later, after having given a sparkling interpretation of Debussy’s 1st Arabesque, she was invited to prepare for the conservatory. Her special connection to the French piano music dates back to this time.
Patricia studied with Edith Lateiner-Grosz and Willem Brons at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. After obtaining her solo diploma she followed master classes with a.o. Sandor Vegh and Vlado Perlemuter.
Patricia performs as a soloist and has played piano concertos by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and Rachmaninoff. She also plays a lot of chamber music. She performed countless times with the Kegelstatt trio Amsterdam. She toured with them in Singapore and Indonesia, and recorded a CD with music by Bruch and Reinecke. She performs regularly with a couple of string players from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and has participated in the chamber music series of “Friends of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Patricia can be heard regularly on the radio, for example from the Mirror Hall in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and appeared several times on television in the Netherlands and abroad.
Concerts and tours
Patricia gave concerts in Italy, France, Germany, India, the Netherlands Antilles and of course the Netherlands. Patricia focused on authentic performance practice too. She played on historic instruments on “Early Music”- festivals in Paris and Berlin and also at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn. She has given concerts on the French grand piano brand “Erard”, her CD of works by Pierre de Bréville was recorded on an Erard from 1907.
Patricia creates programs from a non-traditional perspective, and illustrates the music with matching images and/or films. In addition to the normal classical repertoire, the program “Waltz and Tango: forbidden dances!” and the program “Spanish Passion” with flamenco guitar and dance were received enthusiastically.
CD’s
Patricia’s CD with works by Debussy, Fauré and Ravel on the theme “Wind and Water” is enriched with matching illustrations by impressionist painters like Monet, Sisley and Maillol. Another CD, also released under her own label “PréVue”, includes two piano solo compositions and a viola-piano sonata by the hitherto unknown composer Pierre de Bréville. Jacco Müller’s flamenco CD, to which Patricia Verhagen contributed, is a good illustration of her versatility.
She has recently recorded Sonatas and Tales by the Russian composer Nicolai Medtner.
