Ching-Yun Hu, Pianist

Ching-Yun Hu on the CAG Winners Series

chingyunhu — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 05:20:14 +0000

Ching-Yun Hu: Carnegie Hall concert poster

Pianist Ching-Yun Hu, a 2009 CAG Competition Winner, appears on the CAG Winners Series on January 25th at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. Her program features the New York premiere of Carl Vine’s Sonata No. 3 (2007) as well as works by Beethoven, Ravel and Chopin.

Ching-Yun’s Winners Series concert comes at the end of her first US tour, arranged by CAG, and also coincides with the release of her debut CD, Ching-Yun Hu Plays Chopin. The tour takes this dazzling artist to Market Square Concerts in Harrisburg, a series founded by CAG board member Lucy Miller Murray!

Check out Ching-Yun’s new CAG-produced promotional video.

Ching-Yun on the Holidays

chingyunhu — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 11:01:39 +0000

It’s that time of the year again. For me, the holiday season means to literally schedule time off and fly back to Philadelphia from wherever I am to be with my family. Oh, Philadelphia, the very first city I would claim as my second home when I left Taiwan as a 14 year-old girl, full of dreams and hopes. From there, that young girl set out to conquer the world. Now, years later, after having lived on three different continents and having traveled so much of the world already, I finally had the realization that nothing is more important than one’s home and family. And there is not a better occasion for warm, cuddly, family time than the holiday season!

Ching-Yun Hu, Pianist :: 鋼琴家.胡瀞云

This year, I will be flying back to Philadelphia from Germany, where I currently reside. My family is spread over three continents at the moment: Germany, the USA, and Taiwan. But, we always try to be together at this time of the year. Over the New Year, we will play monopoly, eat “homey” food, sleep in, and meet with friends. This kind of life is so rare for me since I am always on the road carrying my suitcase from one city to the next. I think of this feeling of love and security with nostalgia.

The holiday season is also a time to reflect. In the past, when the clock struck midnight, the beginning of the New Year, I had a ritual of playing a Chopin Nocturne on the piano and then writing my New Year’s goal. I stopped the playing part of the ritual a few years ago, for the sake of my neighbors, but the goal-writing continues. It could have been goals concerning my career, good health, and establishing wonderful friendships. But this coming year, it will be something different. It will be about personal growth; about finding truth within myself and reflecting on these revelations through my everyday interaction with people and my music making. And of course, I hope all goes well for my extended concert tours, my new album which is coming out next March called “My Chopin,” my plans to get a deeper understanding of German classics, and many many more adventures waiting out there. What would your New Year’s goals be?

So, I hope you will all enjoy a warm holiday season with your family and loved ones. Don’t forget to give thanks and to forgive, and to make this holiday season the most unforgettable one yet. Let us all embrace the beauty of each other, and may all your dreams come true. See you in 2011!

xoxo

Ching-Yun

Returning to my homeland

chingyunhu — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 12:14:03 +0000

Public concert with the National Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Lu Shao-Chia, Taipei

I am very excited to start a blog on my concert activities as I have always wanted to share my experiences on the road with friends and people that I have not had the chance to meet across the world! At the moment, I am in Hannover, Germany, preparing for my upcoming tour in Taiwan in November. By now, I am very used to the 18 hours of travel from Europe to Taiwan, visiting my home country three to four times a year, and playing with all the major orchestras and in recitals there.

This time, I was invited by the new artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Maestro Shao-Chia Lu, to perform in an outdoor concert outside Taipei at a sports park arena! Since this is the first season with Maestro Lu (who has conducted some of the most prestigious orchestras in the world and was the previous artistic director of the Opera House in Hannover, Germany), the NSO Taiwan cannot be more pleased to organize concerts that share the magic of classical music with the public. In this concert, I will be playing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 and the rest of the program will include the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky’s Opera “Eugene Onegin” and Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Sheherazade”.

The first time I played the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 2 was with the Israel Symphony Orchestra on a tour in Israel four nights in a row. I instantly fell in love with performing this concerto. Since there is a strong sense of Russian culture in Israel, I felt that the orchestra members and the audience really felt this music from under their skin. Here you can take a peek at an interview with the director of the Israel Opera House talking about my experience in Tel Aviv as the winner of the 2008 Rubinstein International Piano Competition:

This is by far, one of my all time favorite concerti. It was said that Rachmaninoff was in a “composer’s block,” where he was unable to come up with any composition or inspiration for a long time, which made him really depressed. Someone suggested that he go to see a psychologist and after a period of treatment, out came one of the most beautiful melodies from Rachmaninoff: the majestic 2^nd Piano Concerto, which some consider to be one of the most romantic works of classical music.

I am very excited to work with Maestro Lu Shao-Chia for the first time. Other than wonderful music making, I can’t wait to go back to my homeland, which is known for its variety of delicious food and beautiful scenery! I will also get to record a debut album, dedicated to the music of Frederik Chopin while I am in Taiwan.

I shall tell you how my experience goes for these wonderful projects on the road!

Til next time ~

Ching-Yun

xoxo