August 5, 2005
Friday, 7 PM
(pre-concert talk 6:15 PM)
Mr. Hung-Kuan Chen, piano

“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. But now there is the repose and the forces have been brought into complimentary harmony. ....This man plays music with uncommon understanding and the instrument with uncommon imagination!” Richard Dyer, Boston Globe. (January 1999)

Mr. Hung-Kuan Chen is probably the most decorated pianist in Boston. He won the Gold Medals both in Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel and the Feruccio Busoni International Piano Competitions in Italy. He gathered prizes in Geza Anda, the Queen Elisabeth and the Chopin competitions and when the New York Times failed to cover Chen’s Alice Tully debut, after winning Young Concert Artists, Ruth Laredo in another NY publication exclaimed, “rarely have I heard such eloquence and musical understanding. Is anyone listening?”

A true recitalist, he has performed in major venues worldwide. In New York at Carnegie and Merkin Halls, Davis Hall in San Francisco, Jordan, Symphony and Sanders Theatres in Boston. In Europe Mr. Chen performed at the Hercules Saal, Salla Verdi Milan. He has played in halls in Bejing, Tapei, Japan, Warsaw, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Munich, Zurich, and in many cities in

Canada. He has performed the complete Beethoven Sonata cycle, the Chopin Preludes & Etudes in recital and recorded under the BMG label. He has collaborated with such conductors as Christoph Eschenbach, Andrew Parrett, George Cleve, Becker, Yuav Talmi, Uri Segal, Silverstein, Sui Lan, and Hans Graf and Henry Mazer, Mr. Chen has been a soloist with orchestras such as Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Houston, Grant Park, Colorado, Montreal, Tonhalle, Jerusalem, and the Israel Symphony.

Hung-Kuan Chen believes in making music with others and has collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma, Jimmy Lin, Anthony Gigliotti, Lawrence Lesser, Pi-hsien Chen, Peter Eotvos, Anthony diBonaventura. He formed a piano duo with pianist Tema Blackstone and has worked with the Tokyo String Quartet, the Shanghai String Quartet, and many others.

As a pedagogue, he has inspired a studio of international caliber. He taught at Boston University since 1984, himself just 25 years old. A faculty member of New England Conservatory and Walnut Hill since 1993, he is also very involved with the Music Bridge program in China where he helps choose brilliant young students to come study in Canada, where he is presently based, as artist in residence at Mount Royal Conservatory and University of Calgary. Mr. Chen will be the Chairman of the Piano Department, Shanghai Conservatory of Music beginning September of 2005.

Program:

Mozart: Rondo in A minor KV. 511

Schubert: Sonata in C minor D.958
Allegro
Adagio
Menuetto – Allegro
Allegro

Intermission

Liszt: Sonata in B minor


Summer Music Festival