The Haunted Keyboard

Enter The Haunted Keyboard — a candlelight piano recital where virtuosity, terror, grief, and supernatural imagination converge.

This is Halloween through the piano’s most explosive and unsettling repertoire: music of funeral processions, flickering phantoms, demonic dances, black magic, and unstoppable obsession. In the intimate glow of candlelight, the keyboard becomes a stage for the uncanny—at once orchestral, spectral, and fiercely alive.

The evening opens with Liszt’s monumental Funérailles, a work of immense sorrow and defiance, with tolling bells, funeral-march rhythms, and thunderous cascades that transform private grief into something epic. Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, containing the world-famous Funeral March, follows: a journey from feverish agitation and tragic lyricism to the solemn procession that seems to emerge from another world.

Liszt’s legendary Feux follets (Will-o’-the-Wisps) brings a different kind of darkness: elusive lights darting through the night, impossible to grasp. It is one of the most dazzling and treacherous works in the piano repertoire, a whirlwind of shimmering whispers, leaps, and ghostly flashes. The program then descends further into the mysterious realm of Scriabin’s Sonata No. 9, “Black Mass,” a hypnotic, fevered vision of ritual and ecstasy, in which seductive murmurs slowly erupt into a terrifying, ecstatic climax.

And more surprises await.

Performed by candlelight, The Haunted Keyboard is not simply a piano recital—it is an immersive Halloween experience: dramatic, elegant, unsettling, and unforgettable. Expect a rare opportunity to hear some of the most powerful and technically formidable music ever written for solo piano, brought together in one uniquely atmospheric evening.

Come for the candlelight. Stay for the shadows.

About the Performer:

Italian pianist, musicologist, and rising star Michele Garzo has been acclaimed for his dazzling virtuosity, commanding stage presence, and emotional depth. A former prodigy who began studying piano at the age of seven, he earned top honors at an early age and completed advanced studies with distinction in both Italy and the United States.

Now performing across leading New York stages, Garzo brings together fearless technique, intellectual insight, and a deeply poetic musical imagination. His performances have a cinematic beauty—part fire, part dream—making him an especially compelling guide through the supernatural visions, explosive drama, and haunting shadows of The Haunted Keyboard.

Food & Beverage Minimum: There is a $25 minimum per person, per set (excluding tax and tip).