The 26th Annual Music Festival at Walnut Hill
胡桃山音樂營
July 20 to August 13, 2017
Concerts and Master Classes
Admission free. Suggested Donation $5 at door

 


Monday, July 31, 2017,  7:30 PM

at

Walnut Hill School, Natick, MA


Han Chen 陳涵 pianist
 

 
   

~Program~

Liszt:
Ballade No. 2, S171

Bellini/Liszt:
I Puritani, introduction et polonaise, S391

Bellini/Liszt:
Sonnambula – Große Konzert-Fantasie, S393iii


~intermission~

Liszt:
Rondeau fantastique sur un thème espagnol – El contrabandista, S252

Liszt:
Sonata in B Minor, S178

 


 “ … Chen’s playing, close to superhuman, astonishes, again and again.
There seems nothing he cannot do, and with grace, musicality, even bounce. … “
-David Moran, The Boston Musical Intelligencer

 


Steinway piano provided by M. Steinert & Sons

Meet The Artists
Han Chen 陳涵, pianist
www.anchenpiano.com

Hailed by the New York Times as a pianist with "a graceful touch... rhythmic precision... hypnotic charm” (2012) and "sure, subtle touch," (2014) Han Chen is a distinctive artist whose credentials at a young age already include important prizes in competitions of traditional music as well as increasing respect in the avant-garde.

Mr. Chen’s debut CD with Naxos Records, which consists of all-Liszt operatic transcriptions, was released in January 2016 as the first prize winner of the 6th China International Piano Competition. Gramophone complimented Mr. Chen’s “brilliant performance” in the CD as “impressively commanding and authoritative.” The website Classics Today also praised for his “assured, elegant and totally effortless technique” by scoring 10 out of 10 in both artistic quality and sound quality. International Piano magazine (UK) described Mr. Chen’s performance in the competition as “[Chen] displayed extraordinary strength, talent and flair.” In addition to the recent champion, he was the winner of the International Russian Music Piano Competition, the Hong Kong International Piano Competition, the Jinqiao National Piano competition in China, among others. Mr. Chen was also awarded the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Scholarship and 26th Chimei Art Prize Piano Category.

As a soloist, Mr. Chen has appeared with many orchestras, including Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (under Maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy), the Aspen Music Festival Brass Ensemble, the China Symphony Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra, Shanghai Conservatory Middle School Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and Xiamen National Orchestra.

Being an enthusiastic advocate for modern music, Mr. Chen actively performs both 20th-century classics and works by emerging composers. His close collaboration with the Juilliard modern music ensemble AXIOM led him to the performance of music by composers such as Pierre Boulez, Toshio Hosokawa, Gyorgy Kurtag, Magnus Lindberg, Steve Reich, Charles Wuorinen. He was appointed as one of the soloists in John Adam’s Pianola Music in the 2012-2013 season, the soloist in the John Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano in the 2014-2015 season, and now on the roster of the New York-based contemporary music group Ensemble Échappé.

As a recitalist, Mr. Chen programs music with highly creative themes and strong belief in promoting living composers. In the summer of 2016, he created an all-transcription program to honor the great technical aspect of the piano as a musical instrument. He celebrated John Cage’s centennial birthday in 2012 by performing his complete Sonatas and Interludes. His all-New-York-based composer program in the new music performance venue, Spectrum, was on the critic’s pick of Time Out New York magazine and the website I Care If You Listen. In the summer of 2014, he attended the Lucern Festival Academy founded by Pierre Boulez, and worked with conductors such as Simon Rattle, Matthias Pintscher and Heinz Holliger. At the same time, he himself is also an avid composer, studying with professor Philip Lasser. His works have been performed in National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Concert Hall, Taiwan Classical Music Society, Paul Hall in Juilliard, Klaiverhaus / Unity Church, Greenwich House Music School, Aspen Chapel, Altered Stages 2, The Dolphin Cafe, to name a few.

Native of Taichung, Taiwan, Mr. Chen attended the Taichung Municipal Guang Fu Elementary School and later on the Shanghai Conservatory Elementary & Middle School. His teachers included Meng-hua Wu, Tsuifong Hung, Siyi Wu, Christopher Zhong and Kuan-wen Wang. After his study in Shanghai, he moved to New York and received his accelerated Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree of Music at The Juilliard School with professor Yoheved Kaplinsky under the C/Kaplan Piano Scholarship, Susan W. Rose Piano Fellowship and Van Cliburn Alumni Scholarship. He has also worked with Thomas Ades, Jonathan Biss, Misha Dichter, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Gilbert Kalish, Robert Levin, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert McDonald, Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Peter Oundjian and Arie Vardi in masterclasses. He is now studying with Ms. Wha Kyung Byun in the New England Conservatory.





Thank you for your generous contribution to
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
 

中華表演藝術基金會
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
Lincoln, Massachusetts
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