Hung-Kuan Chen, piano
Saturday, January. 28, 2006, 8 PM
Jordan Hall
One of the most decorated pianists, Mr.
Hung-Kuan Chen, returns to New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall on Saturday,
January 28, 2006 at 8 PM. Presented by the
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, this emerging figure of the leading international
musicians of our time received prizes and awards in the Chopin,
Gèza Anda, the Montreal and the Queen Elisabeth competitions. He won the Gold Medal in
the Arthur Rubinstein and the Busoni Competitions, as well as receiving the award of an
Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1991. Mr.
Richard Dyer
of the Boston Globe
wrote ...'This man plays music with uncommon
understanding and the instrument with uncommon imagination!'
To purchase
your ticket online, please click here
Tickets:
Online order:
$28 (general, open seating), $10 (students and seniors)
Children under 6 are not admitted
It is also available at:
Jordan Hall Box Office
617-585-1260
World Journal Book Store
617-451-1309
Winnie Ip Piano School
617-542-9129
____________________________________________
Mail Order
Mail this form with a stamped, self-addressed envelope with money order/check payable to:
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
3 Partridge Lane, Lincoln, MA 01773
Tel: 781-259-8195, Fax: 781-259-9147
Email: Foundation@ChinesePerformingArts.net
Website: www.ChinesePerformingArts.net
________________________________________
Ticket prices: $28 & $10
Children under 6 are not admitted
Group Discount: 10% off for minimum 20 tickets
No. of Tickets _____ @ $ 28 = $ _________
No. of Tickets _____ @ $ 10 = $ _________
Group Discount (20+,10% off) $ -- _______
Ticket sales cover only a fraction of expenses; please consider making a generous
tax-deductible contribution.
Donor $50+ $ ____________
Sponsor $100+ $ ____________
Patron $500+ $ ____________
Any amount $ ____________
Total amount of this order = $ _________
Tickets can be ordered online at:
www.ChinesePerformingArts.net
_______________________________________
Program (subject to change):
Rondo in A
Minor, K.511
Mozart
Sonata in
B-flat Major Op. 106
Beethoven
Scherzo – Assai vivace
Adagio sostenuto
Largo – Allegro risoluto
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Pianist: Hung-Kuan Chen
Born
in Taiwan and raised in Germany, Hung-Kuan Chen is one of the most decorated pianists,
winning prizes and awards in the Chopin, Gèza Anda, the Montreal and the Queen Elisabeth
competitions. He won the Gold Medal in the Arthur Rubinstein and the Busoni Competitions,
as well as receiving the award of an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1991. He toured under
the auspices of Young Concert Artists, performing with the Houston, Baltimore, Israel, the
Tonhalle, Montreal, Pittsburgh Symphonies, the Royal Orchestra of Belgium, the Mozart
Festival Orchestra of San Francisco and many others. Most recently he played with the
Russian State, Taipei and Guanhzhou Symphony Orchestra. He worked with conductors such as
Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, George Cleve, Josef Silverstein, Andrew Parrett and Sui
Lan. He has collaborated with such artists as Laurence Lesser, Yo-Yo Ma, Chao-Liang Lin,
Roman Totenberg, Denes Zsigmondy, Leslie Parnas, Bion Tsang, Anthony Gigliotti, David
Shifrin;
as well as piano
duo with Tema Blackstone and Hung-Kuan’s
sister Pi-hsien Chen. He has played recitals
in major venues and made a widely praised CD of the Chopin Preludes on the BMG label. Mr.
Chen's gifts as an extraordinary interpreter of Beethoven received high acclaim during
series of recitals in 1989 devoted to the performance of the thirty-two Beethoven sonatas.
When the New York Times failed to cover Chen's Alice Tully concert (due to a labor
strike), Ruth Laredo wrote a rave review in another publication welcoming a great new
artist, exclaiming, “…rarely have I
heard such eloquence and musical understanding. Is anyone listening?”
Then,
in 1992, his right hand suffered serious neurological damage in an accident, which
resulted in Focal Dystonia, a dibilitating disorder. He was told repeatedly that he could
not expect to play again; just as repeatedly, he refused to believe this. Instead, through
a self-practice of Qigong (a traditional Chinese meditation technique) he has regained his
ability to play again. His first solo recital in March of 1998 received rave reviews: "Back in
the '80's, Apollo and Dionysus, Florestan and Eusebius, were at war in Chen's pianistic personality.
He could play with poetic insight, he could also erupt into an almost terrifying
overdrive. Now there is the repose and the forces have been brought into complimentary
harmony. "
(Richard
Dyer, Boston Globe.)
January
1999, Mr. Dyer adds...'This man plays music with uncommon understanding and the
instrument with uncommon imagination!'
Mr.
Chen joined the faculty of Boston University since 1984 and New England Conservatory
extension since 1993. Thereafter he migrated to Canada, and became “Distinguished
Artist in Residence” at Mount Royal Conservatory. Now he is Chairman of the Piano
Department at the Shanghai Conservatory.
He
can be heard on BMG and Bravo label.
