Ching-Yun Hu, Pianist

Hailed for her “...superstar quality that everybody looks for...Musical, energetic and full of flair,” (The Jerusalem Post), Taiwanese pianist Ching-Yun Hu is the winner of the 2009 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. In 2008, she captured the top prize and the Audience Favorite Prize at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. Ms. Hu’s final round performances of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Israel Philharmonic were broadcast live to 38 countries. Deeply impressed by her artistry, the leading Is-raeli newspaper, Yediot Acharonot, proclaimed: “She has the suspense of Brendel, Perahia’s lyricism and Barenboim’s depth.”

This victory resulted in a seven-city recital tour across Israel and a special invitation from the Israel Philharmonic to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, stepping in for Hélène Grimaud on only a week’s notice. Since then, Ching-Yun Hu’s career has flourished with a host of international engagements on five continents.

Featured concerto performances in 2011-12 include the world premiere of a new work with the Taipei Chinese Orchestra and appearances with the National Taiwan Sym-phony Orchestra in her native country, and in the US with the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas and the Dupage Symphony in Illinois. She will be heard in recital throughout Europe and the US, including concerts in the UK, Germany, and East Tennessee State University’s Powel Piano Series, Four Seasons Arts Series in Oakland, CA, WQXR New York Beethoven Sonata Marathon, and Chicago’s PianoForte Series, featuring a live simulcast on WFMT.

In the recording studio, Ching-Yun Hu’s debut CD was released in early 2011 on the Taiwanese label ArchiMusic, featuring solo piano music of Chopin. During 11-12, she records two solo CDs, the first for CAG Records, featuring music of Beethoven, Ravel, Liszt and Tchaikovsky, and also a disc of Scriabin for her debut on Naxos.

Current concerto engagements include the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony (Taiwan) and a tour with the Na-tional Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Portgual’s Orquestra do Algarve, Johannesberg Philharmonic, Israel Symphony Orchestra and the Maidstone Symphony Orchestra (UK). She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in a sold out concert and has also been a featured soloist with the Aspen Concert Orchestra, New York Sinfo-nietta, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, World Festival Orchestra and Viana do Cas-telo Festival Orchestra.

Recent recital highlights include London’s Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, New York ‘s Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (CAG Winners Series) and Alice Tully Hall, Opera House in Tel Aviv, Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, National Concert Hall of Taipei, Washington DC’s Kennedy Center, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Cortot in Paris, Aspen Music Festival, , Munich's Herkulesaal (broadcast on Bayerischer Rundfunk), the Great Hall at Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Vredenburg Festival in Holland, Boston’s Longy School of Music (broadcast live on WGBH), Chopin Interna-tional Festival in Poland, Rubinstein Philharmonic Hall in Lodz and Japan’s Osaka Hall. She has also performed on series and festivals in the US, UK, Israel, France, Spain, Brazil, South Africa and at the Maputo International Music Festival in Mozam-bique, Africa.

Besides a full time performing career, Ms. Hu has given masterclasses in universities throughout Taiwan, and in the UK and US. She served on the faculty of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra International Piano Festival, and is the artistic director and founder of “The Ching-Yun Hu Project – Taipei International Music Festival”, bring-ing international renown musicians and professors to perform concerts, and give mas-terclasses and lectures in throughout concert halls in Taipei.

Ching-Yun Hu was born in Taipei, Taiwan and received an honorary prize in 2008 from the Cultural Minister of Taiwan recognizing her achievements. She made her cCVon-certo debut at age 13 with the Poland Capella Cracoriensis Chamber Orchestra on tour in Asia and won the Silver Medal at the Taipei International Piano Competition at age 16. More recently, she also won the Gold medal at the 2007 World Piano Competition and First prize at the 2006 the Olga Koussevitzky International Piano Competition.

Ms. Hu moved to the US at the age of 14 to continue her music studies at The Juilliard School in New York, studying piano with Herbert Stessin and Oxana Yablonskaya and chamber music with Joseph Kalichstein and Seymour Lipkin, where she earned the Bachelor and Master’s Degrees in Piano Performance. Additionally, she received artis-tic guidance from Richard Goode, Murray Perahia and has worked extensively on her Artist Diploma Degree with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She also lived in Europe, working with Karl-Heinz Kammerling at the Hochschule fur Musik und Drama in Hannover, Germany in the Soloklasse (highest degree in Germany). Ms. Hu is a Yamaha Artist.

Last updated: Nov. 23, 2011