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Frederic Chiu, pianist

b i o g r a p h y...........back to roster....up April 2009 Frederic Chiu's intriguing piano-playing and teaching springs from a diverse set of experiences and interests - his Asian/American/ European background, his musical training, and an early and ongoing exploration of artificial intelligence and human psychology, especially the body-mind-heart connection. With over 20 CDs on the market, his repertoire includes the complete work of Prokofiev as well as popular classics of Chopin and Liszt, with a special place for the piano transcription. Many have been singled out, such as "Record of the Year" by Stereo Review, "Top 10 recordings" by the New Yorker, with raves from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. Season 08/09 brings a return to the Bard Music Festival and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, both with a focus on Prokofiev, and recitals at the Minnesota Beethoven Festival, Howland Chamber Music Circle, Skidmore College as well as a performance of Mendelssohn’s G minor Concerto with the Boca Raton Symphonia. Overseas, he returns to the prestigious Festival Chopin in Paris. Highlights of the 2007/08 season included a 20-concert tour across the Midwest, recitals at the Portland International Piano Festival, Lipscomb University, and the Des Moines Arts Center with a program that included the Liszt transcription of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. In June, he embarked on a major tour across South America with his frequent duo partner, Joshua Bell. Frederic Chiu has performed with many significant orchestras in America and abroad, among them the Hartford Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the Orchestre de Bretagne under Stefan Sanderling, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, Estonia National Symphony, and the China National Symphony. In recital he has appeared in the world's most prestigious halls including the Berlin Philharmonic, Kioi and Suntory Halls in Tokyo, Lincoln Center in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Mr. Chiu's musical partners include Joshua Bell, Pierre Amoyal, Gary Hoffman and the St. Lawrence and Shanghai string quartets. He recently premiered Edgar Meyer’s Concert Piece with Joshua Bell. He has also worked with many composers, including George Crumb, Frederick Rzewsky, Bright Sheng, Gao Ping, David Benoit. He was the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Petscheck Award of the Juilliard School, and was a fellow of the American Pianist Association. He was also the "non-winner" of the 1993 Van Cliburn Competition, where his elimination from the finals caused an uproar in the press Frederic Chiu is also committed to expanding the place of classical music. He has created unusual collaborations with non-musicians, such as the Shakespearean actor Brian Bedford and psychologist/ writer/clown Howard Buten. He does extensive work with children through concert/lectures for schools, and has brought classical music to places where it is rarely heard. Deeper Piano Studies, Frederic Chiu’s innovative workshop program, brings together pianists from around the world to study aspects of piano playing usually left uncovered. Artlces in Piano Today and the New York Times have featured his original approach to learning and performing that draws on ancient traditions of philosophy and meditation combined with the most recent discoveries in psychology and acoustic sciences, using non-traditional techniques such as cooking and learning without using the instrument. After 12 years spent in France, Frederic Chiu recently returned to the United States, where any free time he can find is divided between writing, painting and cooking. b i o.....r e p e r t o i r e....d i s c o g r a p h y r e v i e w s......w e b s i t e back to roster...up . . . .

. d i s c o g r a p h y...........back to roster....up HARMONIA MUNDI RELEASES: BRAHMS Sonatas for violin and piano Pierre Amoyal, violin 1 CD HMU907272 1-2002 SCHUBERT-LIZST Lieder Transcriptions 1 CD HMU907239 9-1998 CHOPIN Douze Etudes op.25 1 CD HMU907282 9-2004 CHOPIN Etudes op.10. Rondos op.1, 5, 16 & 73 1 CD HMU907201 6-1997 CHOPIN Complete Mazurkas 2 CDs HMX2907352.53 10-2003 PROKOFIEV Complete Music for Solo Piano. Violin Sonatas Pierre Amoyal, Violin 1 CD HMU907256 3- 2000 GRIEG Sonatas for violin and piano. Pierre Amoyal, Violin 1 CD HMU907256 3-2000 LIZST Années de Pèlerinage 1 CD HMU907263 5-2001 ROSSINI Piano Music. William Tell Overture 1 CD HCX3957102 9-2001 PROKOFIEV Piano Music (Romeo & Juliette etc.) 1 CD HCX3957150 5-2001 REFLECTIONS Ravel, Décaux, Schönberg 1 CD HMU907166 9-1995 VIRTUOSO PIANO TRANSCRIPTIONS 1 CD HCX3957054 11-2002 PROKOFIEV Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 1 CD HMU907237 5-1999 b i o.....r e p e r t o i r e....d i s c o g r a p h y r e v i e w s......w e b s i t e back to roster...up . . . .

. r e v i e w s...........back to roster....up FANS CHEER RETURN VISIT BY MASTERFUL PIANIST CHIU "When it was learned that pianist Frederic Chiu would return in February for his third appearance in Des Moines, the Art Center's Levitt Auditorium was sold out weeks in advance. Saturday night's intelligent, intense and spectacularly played recital thoroughly fulfilled all the eager anticipation. If the most astonishing thing about Chiu's performance is his dexterity in managing fistfuls of notes, the most riveting is his constant, intense mental concentration. No physical histrionics, no facial clues or emotional cues, just close attention to the keyboard as if he were inventing the music on the spot. Chiu's seemingly improvisatory - even obsessive - way of finding and underlining each mazurka's, or each etude's, single most obsessive figure or color proved both convincing and compelling. This is not your great-grandmama's drawing-room Chopin!" By Bruce Carr - Special to the register. "Chiu achieved some of the most exquisite pianissimos I've heard from any pianist - ever!" "The Vivace-Allegro ben marcato movement (the last in the sonata) was coruscating and breathtaking." Howard Tuvelle, Danbury (CT) News-Times "Mr. Chiu's Bach had an appealing buoyancy and lightness to its textures... He demonstrated an impressive clarity of articulation and an ability to find lively colors and smart harmonic contours within the rapid stream of notes...Mr. Chiu met the demands for virtuoso display [in Mendelssohn's Double Concerto] with his special combination of robust technique and pianistic intelligence." Jeremy Eichler, New York Times "On a peine à imaginer que ce jeune homme aux yeux rieurs est un des pianistes les plus recherchés par les salles prestigieuses partout dans le monde." Presse Ocean, France "Chiu plays with genuine sympathy and a blistering technique when required. The recording is near demonstration quality. This disc I have been replaying for pleasure since finishing the review. What more needs be said." American Record Guide "...exhilarating Prokofiev series...the superior spring of the playing, dynamic nuance and subtle toying with rhythms are obvious. The rest is sheer élan, especially in the brilliantly adapted sisters' quarrels from Cinderella and Chiu's own intelligent homage to Lieutenant Kijé, with superb pianistic handling of the balalaika-thrumming in the famous 'Troika'." BBC Music magazine "...incandescent poetry. Frederic Chiu belongs to an extremely rare species, able to fill silence with music. This sovereign balance between intention and realisation is a pure delight; it is a rarity for will-power to integrate to such an extent with ingenuity. What results is an tremendous sense of freedom, that of a bird and of youth." Le Figaro "Chiu is a stunningly virtuosic pianist with a dynamic range that almost defies the capabilities of modern recording techniques." BBC Music Magazine "I cannot imagine more effective advocacy for [the Mendelssohn Piano Sonatas]. Chiu makes his enthusiasm for them brilliantly evident in his absolutely wonderful playing, which is instinctively elegant, charged with exhilarating vitality and at the same time unfailingly tasteful. This is the way to play this music." *Best of the Year* Stereo Review b i o.....r e p e r t o i r e....d i s c o g r a p h y r e v i e w s......w e b s i t e back to roster...up . . .

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