Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, piano
Concerts Café Classico Series
Sunday, November 30, 2025 – 2:30pm

In honour of Canada Music week, one of “Canada’s foremost contemporary music pianists” (CBC Radio) will perform several generations of our country’s finest composers.

The concert will open with an informal conversation between LCMS’ Artistic Director Elizabeth Bergmann and the artist, followed by complimentary coffee, tea and refreshments before the performance. The performance will take place in the Rose Gellert Hall and will last approximately 60 minutes, with no intermission.

Commentary & Coffee – 2:30pm, Concert – 3:15pm

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Concerts Café Classico Series
Single Tickets: Adult $28 / Senior $26 / Student $10
LCMS Piano Students are FREE & their parents/caregivers are 2-for-1! Contact the office to reserve yours today
Flex Pass (4 concerts of your choice): Adult $101 | Senior $94

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To place an order, or if you have any questions, please call the Box Office at 604-534-2848. You can also purchase online at Eventbrite:

About Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa

“Keyboard virtuoso and avant-garde muse.” (Alexander Varty, Georgia Straight)

“The outrageously talented Vancouver pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa … deftly spans an array of atmospheres with impressive mastery and stylistic clarity.” (Jason van Eyk, Musicworks Magazine)

“Pianist Iwaasa quite simply pulls no punches, attacking each composer’s work with passion, intensity and the nuanced playing she’s acclaimed for… she manages to instil a sense of dynamic tension and pull to every note.” (Stuart Derdeyn, The Province)

“…a pianist who uses a tangy inimitable harmonic language to drive you to the delightful madness of a new, full-blooded romanticism.” (Raul da Gama, Whole Note Magazine)

“Canada is blessed with a remarkable roster of talented pianists who are dedicated to championing work by our country’s composers. We can add Vancouver’s Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa to that roster.” (WholeNote Magazine)

Hailed in the press as a “keyboard virtuoso and avant-garde muse” (Georgia Straight) with the “emotional intensity” to take a piece “from notes on a page to a stunning work of art” (Victoria Times Colonist), Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa is recognized among Canada’s foremost contemporary music pianists. Selected to close the ISCM World New Music Days 2017 in Vancouver, Rachel has performed in the Netherlands, Germany, US and across Canada, with engagements including Muziekweek Gaudeamus, Music TORONTO, Music on Main, Vancouver New Music, Redshift, Western Front, Vancouver Symphony, Victoria Symphony, the Aventa Ensemble (Victoria), CONTACT contemporary music (Toronto), New Works Calgary, Groundswell New Music (Winnipeg), and Vancouver Pro Musica.

Rachel has commissioned or premiered works by many of Canada’s most eminent composers, such as Hildegard Westerkamp, Rodney Sharman, Jocelyn Morlock, Nicole Lizée, Jordan Nobles, Jeffrey Ryan, Farshid Samandari, Marci Rabe, and Emily Doolittle. One half of the acclaimed contemporary flute/piano duo Tiresias with Mark Takeshi McGregor, Rachel has also collaborated with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Judith Forst, Heather Pawsey, the Bozzini Quartet, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and Richard Reed Parry of Arcade Fire. Her interdisciplinary adventures have led to work with photo-based artist SD Holman, playwright/director David Bloom, choreographer Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg, and multi-media provocateur Paul Wong.

Rachel’s debut CD, Cosmophony, has been praised as “brilliant” and “unforgettable” (Vancouver Sun) and for “the passion, intensity and the nuanced playing she’s acclaimed for… she manages to instill a sense of dynamic tension and pull to every note” (The Province). Rachel was a co-founder of the Queer Arts Festival in Vancouver, recognized as one of the top 5 festivals of its kind worldwide.