Steinway rescues young pianist without a paycheck.

Puerto Rican pianist Bryan Ojeda Chevres (lscivicorchestra.org)

By PEGGY ANN BLISS

Special to The STAR

Young keyboard wizard Bryan Ojeda Chevres has played with the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra (PRSO) five times under the baton of Maestro Maximiliano Valdés, the last on the fabled Bosendorfer of the University of Puerto Rico.

But that was some two years ago, with Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, and this is now, at Bellas Artes, with the “Fourth Piano Concerto in D,” penned by Ludwig von Beethoven (1770-1826), reputedly the most complete master of the genre.

So when Valdés needed a pinch-hitter for Brahms in Holy Week, the 28-year-old said yes without batting an eye.

Only later did he realize the gig was to be a volunteer effort.

The fourth concerto by a genius who was almost completely deaf when he wrote it, is to be played on the island’s prime stage with one of the hemisphere’s prime orchestras, conducted by a pro before his own people.

The pianist, who studied at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music with María del Carmen Gil and Teresa Acevedo, will play several modern pieces from his eclectic repertoire. Among his promised offerings are works by French impressionist Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Puerto Rican Alfonso Fuentes (born 1954), a Conservatory professor who fuses western classical music with jazz and Caribbean beats, and Russian-born Jack Delano (1914-1997), who lived in Puerto Rico from 1946 until his death, using native rhythms and subjects to fuel his rich body of work for orchestra, piano and other instruments.

But this emerging virtuoso, having earned his master’s degree at New York University under José Ramos “Kiko” Santana, lives in the Big Apple, center of high hopes and higher bills. He needed to take a plane, wear a tuxedo and be away for at least a week. He didn’t even think about who would pay the rent. But he called his fairy godmother, sculptor and arts promoter Jan D’Esopo, who immediately started planning a pre-concert without thinking twice.

“Bryan was one of my first students, five in 2015,” she told The STAR, referring to the establishment that year of one of the world’s few Steinway Societies. The island’s fledgling organization helps aspiring pianists in their long climb to success and fame.

The concert, to be held tonight at 7 in D’Esopo’s lush Gallery Inn, will feature two friends from the orchestra playing a selection of post-Beethoven music.

Clarinetist Kathleen Jones, despite retirement from the PRSO, seems delighted to help out a colleague. But she’d play Max Bruch’s “Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano” at the drop of a hat. She and PRSO violist Miguel Hernández will offer the German composer’s (1838-1920) collection cut in half.

“A lot of Bryan’s musical friends will want to come (and we have suggested a donation of $40 each), but nobody will be turned away,” said D’Esopo, who did not reveal which of her half dozen pianos will be used for this special concert. “It will depend on the weather, or perhaps a whim. It will be the pianist’s night, to warm up for his big night at the Performing Arts Center, to gather his friends around him and get as much money as possible to make up for what the Orchestra was unable to give him.”

D’Esopo said she had watched Ojeda improve and triumph in his chosen career since he was a teenager.

“There is nothing so rewarding as to see him perform and become the polished professional he deserves to be,” she said. “This setback will serve as a stimulus to him and his fans for Saturday when he will play the exquisite Beethoven concerto with our great orchestra.”

The STAR was unable to get any statement from the people who handle the orchestra’s fiscal matters.

Both Musical Arts Corporation Administrator Melissa Santana, who also heads the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, and Valdés, a Chilean who has been the PRSO music director for over 18 years and was reached in Spain, but referred this reporter to Santana, remained mum on the subject.

D’Esopo’s artistic bent was nurtured at Yale University, whose famous School of Music uses Steinway pianos exclusively. Her father, Joe D’Esopo, a doctor/professor who also studied piano, had one of the first post-war Steinways in the family’s Hartford, Connecticut living room. The magnificent instrument is currently in The Gallery Inn valued at about $4,000, more like $200,000 today.

D’Esopo later followed her own star as a sculptor, studying at Bennington College in Vermont and later at Yale. From the day she moved to San Juan in 1961, she began to leave her imprint in every corner of the Old City. She carved statues, opened art galleries and helped renovate homes.

In many ways, she was the artistic angel on the shoulder of Ricardo Alegria, the visionary who rescued a deteriorating but historic community.

Her eyes saw things that others couldn’t.

Soon others began to envision the paradise D’Esopo had surrounded herself with: music, art and plenty of light. For information, call (787) 233-8403 or (787) 433-4015.