Pianist Nada’s latest all-digital release is her solo performance of Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 as transcribed for the piano FEATURE REVIEW by James Harrington BRAHMS (transcr. Keller) Symphony No. 2 • Pianist Nada (pn) • 4TAY 4074 (Download: […]
Read More“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind.” ― Johannes Brahms
Welcome to Brahms:
Pianist Nada now brings us the Brahms D-Major
Pianist Nada now brings us the Brahms D-Major Pianist Nada now brings us the Brahms D-Major Pianist Nada now brings us the Brahms D-Major Pianist Nada now brings us the […]
Read MorePianist Nada’s solo performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 Jacqueline Kharouf, Fanfare
Pianist Nada’s latest all-digital release is her solo performance of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 Jacqueline Kharouf, Fanfare
Read More“I finally had the opportunity to meet one of my frequent collaborators here at Fanfare: Pianist Nada.” Jacqueline Kharouf, Fanfare
“In April of this year—a day after my birthday, actually—I finally had the opportunity to meet one of my frequent collaborators here at Fanfare: Pianist Nada.” Jacqueline Kharouf, Fanfare
Read More“Pianist Nada is able to bring her wealth of experience in Brahms’s music to the table.” Colin Clarke, Fanfare
“Pianist Nada is able to bring her wealth of experience in Brahms’s music to the table.” Colin Clarke, Fanfare
Read MoreFalling for Brahms

Pianist Nada on Falling for Brahms
By Dylon Jones
In 2013, the musician who goes by Pianist Nada had an epiphany: Brahms. She can’t explain it. “Suddenly I just knew, and I had to learn everything, and everything seemed to me so clear,” she says. “There are really no words.” In October, she released her fourth album in a series on Brahms, Capriccios & Intermezzos, a 25-track exploration of solo piano works by the 19th-century composer. “I’m more than halfway through recording all of (Brahms’) music and becoming the first woman to have achieved that,” she says.
But Brahms had factored in her life long before she began “investigating” his work in the last few years. In the mid-1980s, Nada studied piano at the Paris Conservatory, an institution on par with Julliard. She was two weeks away from a performance of Brahms’ first piano trio when her 40-year-old mother was killed by mortar fire in Nada’s home country, Lebanon, becoming another casualty of the Lebanese Civil War. In 2016, Nada performed that very same trio at the Clifton Center, in memory of her mother.
The pianist lives in the Portland neighborhood, having moved to Louisville years ago for a marriage that didn’t last. In the mid-2000s, she started “Nada’s Classical Hour,” which is broadcasted on Sundays on WCHQ 100.9 FM. This summer, she worked with the composers’ club that musician and educator Jecorey “1200” Arthur facilitated at the Shawnee Boys and Girls Club, bringing their works to life. “I cannot say how much more of that needs to be done,” she says. “And I would love for those kids to feel like they can go anywhere to listen to classical music; it is also their heritage.”
A version of this story appeared in the December 2018 issue of Louisville Magazine. To subscribe to Louisville Magazine, click here. To find us on newsstands, click here.
Photos by Terrence Humphrey, terrencehumphreyphoto.com