Up Close Series
Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner
Friday, April 24
8pm
Capitol Theater Stage
$47.28
Age Recommendation
May not be appropriate for young audiences due to content, length or atmosphere.
Hailed as a “gifted virtuoso” (San Francisco Chronicle) with “masterful technique and a veritable deluge of sonorities” (La Presse Montreal), pianist Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner captivates audiences worldwide with his mesmerizing artistry and profound musical storytelling. Winner of the 2022 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and a Gilmore Young Artist, he has graced iconic venues, such as The Royal Concertgebouw, the Louvre, Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, performing for world leaders, including Presidents Obama and Biden.
Beyond the concert stage, Sánchez-Werner’s passion for music as a force for change has taken him from performing with the Iraqi National Symphony to benefit hospitals in Baghdad to playing for economic leaders in Rwanda. His work has been recognized with the Atlantic Council Young Global Citizen Award, alongside honorees like Robert De Niro.
A Juilliard and Yale-trained artist with a daring and adventurous repertoire, Sánchez-Werner delivers performances that are both technically dazzling and deeply moving.
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Fri, Apr 24, 2026
8:00 PM
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Meet the Artist
Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner
“A gifted virtuoso” (San Francisco Chronicle) with “mesmerizing artistry and extraordinary ability to communicate” (The Post-Standard) and “masterful technique and a veritable deluge of sonorities” (La Presse Montreal), 27-year-old Mexican American Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner was selected First Prize Winner of the 2022 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Named a Gilmore Young Artist, an honor awarded to the most promising American pianists of the new generation, his multi-faceted artistry has been featured in the New York Times, CBS, PBS, NPR, CNN International, Mexico News Daily, the Wall Street Journal and WDR-Arte.
Llewellyn’s recent international performances include The Royal Concertgebouw in the Netherlands, CultureSummit Abu Dhabi, the Louvre and Grenoble Museums in France, Smetana Hall in the Czech Republic, Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain and Banff Arts Festival in Canada.
In the United States, he has frequently concertized at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and National Sawdust in New York, Mary B. Galvin Hall in Chicago, Paramount Theater in Oakland, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Art Museum and Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. Llewellyn performed at the Kennedy Center and the White House for President Obama and President Biden, for President Peña Nieto of Mexico, Prime Minister Peres of Israel and President Kagame of Rwanda.
Committed to public service, he received the Atlantic Council Young Global Citizen Award, recognizing his dedication to social action through music in such countries as Iraq, Rwanda, France, Canada and the United States. Fellow honorees included Robert De Niro. General Petraeus commended his “courageous humanitarian contributions through the arts… strengthening the ties that unite our nations.”
On UN World Day for Cultural Diversity, he played with the Iraqi National Symphony in Baghdad, raising funds for the Children’s Cancer Hospital, and in Rwanda, he performed for economic leaders and President Kagame as Rwandans continue rebuilding from the Tutsi genocide. He increased awareness when he was featured on CNN International. In Paris, he performed at the U.S. Embassy for a special event honoring the visit of the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy to Muslim Communities, Shaarik Zafar, which was attended by an American delegation and local representatives from various religious groups and civil society advocates.
Renée Fleming, Eric Owens, Marina Poplavskaya, Richard O’Neill and Cynthia Phelps are among the leading artists Llewellyn has collaborated with as an active chamber musician. He was artist-in-residence at the Canandaigua LakeMusic Festival, Discovery Artist of the New West Symphony and served as music director for a production of Aida at City College Arts Academy in New York. He partnered with the Gershwin family on a concert and biographical tribute to the Gershwin brothers and performed “Hallelujah Junction” for John Adams at his 70th birthday celebration in New York. For a Hilan Warshaw WDR-Arte documentary titled “Wagner’s Jews,” which explores the controversy of performing Wagner in Israel and has been aired around the world, Llewellyn recorded works of Liszt, Wagner and Tausig.
Since making his concerto debut at age 6, he has performed under the batons of such conductors as Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Peter Oundjian, Karina Canellakis and Karim Wasfi. His long relationship with Michael Morgan, with whom he has soloed with three orchestras, expanded beyond performing titans of the concerto repertoire when they took on the rarely performed Carlos Chávez piano concerto in a performance that received the Ross McKee Foundation Grant. His adventurous programming also took him to perform Philip Glass’ piano concerto, “After Lewis and Clark,” under the baton of Tito Muñoz.
Llewellyn was awarded a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’ YoungArts gold medal in music. Further, he performed Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn concerti in partnership with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada and the New West Symphony in 16 concerts for 20,000 North American students to excite more youth about classical music. He continued performing with maestro Boris Brott for an additional 6,000 students as part of an anti-bullying campaign.
A California-born New Yorker, Llewellyn began his first college degree at age five and at age six began performing regularly with orchestras. Principal teachers have included Ilya Itin, Boris Berman, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Robert Durso, composition with Lowell Liebermann and improvisation with Noam Sivan. He has extensively worked with Robert Levin, Joseph Kalichstein, Wu Han, Gilbert Kalish, Robert McDonald, and the Brentano, Borromeo and Shanghai Quartets.
Llewellyn holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Juilliard, where he was awarded the Kovner Fellowship, won the concerto competition and was the youngest admittee to each program at ages 14 and 18, respectively. He received an Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded the Charles S. Miller Prize. Llewellyn is a Steinhardt Doctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor at New York University. He studies with Eduardus Halim.
Llewellyn is exclusively represented by Epstein Fox Performances.
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