Art of Piano Public Masterclass: Hung-Kuan Chen

One of the most honored pianists of his generation, Mr. Chen won top prizes in the Arthur Rubinstein, Busoni, and Geza Anda International Piano Competitions, and in the Young Concert Artists International Piano Auditions. He also won prizes in the Queen Elisabeth, Montreal International Musical and Van Cliburn International Piano Competitions, as well as an Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Mr. Chen is currently on the faculty of The Juilliard School and is a visiting professor at Yale, and is also on the faculty for Artemisia Akademie at Yale. He previously served as Chair of the piano department of Shanghai Conservatory, and was on the faculty of New England Conservatory. He has adjudicated prominent international piano competitions such as the Van Cliburn, Busoni, Shanghai, and Honens. His 2015 summer teaching engagements included the Chinese Foundation for the Arts, Piano Summer Institute in New Paltz, International Music Akademie in Lichtenstein and Aspen Music Festival. Among notable pianists he has taught or coached are Yuja Wang, Sean Chen and Niu Niu.

Hung-Kuan Chen has enjoyed fruitful artistic collaborations with, among others, Christoph Eschenbach, Hans Graf, George Cleve, Joseph Silverstein, David Shifrin, Roman Totenberg, ChoLiang Lin, the Shanghai Quartet, Sui Lan and Andrew Parrott. His most meaningful artistic partnership is with his wife, Tema Blackstone, with whom he frequently performs as a piano duo.
 

Born in Zhengzhou, 22-year-old pianist Zhuoya Zhu(Kevin) has performed in Beijing, Tianjin, Zhangjiajie, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Rome, San
Francisco, Rochester, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Wilmington, and many other cities and has played solo concerts in many places. He began to learn the
piano at the age of eight, initiated by teacher Limu Zhang and then studied with pianist, educator and Professor Yuan Wu of the Central Conservatory of Musicfor three years. Since the end of 2012, he has studied with Chinese-American pianist, composer,educator and professor Yigiang Sun for almost seven years. Until 2019, at the age of 17, he was admitted to nine famous and prestigious music colleges, including Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, etc. These multiple conservatories also gave him very high scholarships at the same time. He eventually chose to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and re-enrolled in 2023 for a graduate degree after his impressive and successful graduation recital. He is studying in the studio of professor Meng-Chieh Liu in New England Conservatory.

In addition, He also has been taught and guided by many prestigious and well-known pianists and professors in various music festivals, competitions, and master classes: including Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, Alexander Korsantia, Boris Slutsky, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Douglas Humpherys, John Perry,
J, Marc Silverman, Robert Shannon, Jerome Rose, Eduardo Delgado, and many other piano masters.

He has also won many piano competitions, including but not limited to the Gold medal of the 2013 Oushen Cup International Youth Piano Competition; Champion of the 4th China International Youth Piano Competition in 2014; In 2015, he won the gold medal of Henan TV Piano Competition and became the
contracted pianist of the TV station; The third prize in the Steinway International Piano Competition in 2016; Gold Medal of Huanglong International Music Festival in 2017 and 2018; Gold Medal of the 2018 Liszt International Piano Competition in China. He was also one of the two winners of the 2021 Artcial International Piano Competition and Festival. At the same time, he was also invited to give a solo concert at the festival.

He has participated in many famous music festivals, including the Aspen music festival, Artial music festival in San Francisco, the Vivace music festival in Wilmington, the Todi music festival in Italy, etc. He just received the full scholarship in Banff center arts festival in 2024. At these festivals, He received a lot of acclaim and many accolades. Jerome Lowenthal, the former chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School, described his playing as a very balanced and convincing performance; Pianist Yakov Kasman describes his performance as "very impressive, with the power to move people."

Zhuoya (Kevin) Zhu was generously supported by the Artemisia Foundation Artist Award.

Equally at home as a soloist, collaborator, presenter, and educator, James Palmer is a dynamic pianist based in Houston, Texas. James is sought after across the United States for solo recitals, chamber performances, and lecture-recitals. Recent appearances have included the Piano on the Rocks Festival in Sedona, AZ, the America Viola Society Conference in Los Angeles, CA, and numerous solo recitals and performances in the Houston area.  A passionate performer of new music, James is frequently in-demand for premieres and collaborations with living composers.  James sits on the board of the Scriabin Society of America (SSA).

James is a doctoral candidate at Rice University in Houston, TX, where he studied with Dr. Robert Roux.  He previously studied with Menahem Pressler and Emile Naoumoff at Indiana University and with Sandrine Erdely-Sayo as a precollege student. James maintains a private piano studio and recently taught the Summer Piano Intensive for high school students at the AFA Texas Summer Festival in Houston.  James has been a prizewinner and finalist in numerous international competitions and created the YouTube series What is a Piano Prelude (2022-23) and Scriabin Preludes Project (2019-2020).  

James Palmer was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

First prize winner of the 2023 edition of the Auguste-Descarries competition, Antoine Rivard-Landry is a pianist from Montreal known for his expressivity, on-stage charisma and confidence. He made his international debut in 2018 with the Lebanese National Symphony Orchestra. Antoine was recently a finalist at the Orford Music Award, at the Université de Montréal concerto competition and at the 2022 edition of the Stepping Stone. He has studied with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School of Music and in Montreal with Jean Saulnier and Richard Raymond.

At 12 years old, Antoine headlines his first concert with the Orchestre Métropolitain. He also performed with the Orchestre symphonique de Trois-Rivières and the Orchestre de l’Université de Montréal. He performed at the Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur, the Espace Kin and the Orford on the Road concert series. He recently made his Place des Arts debuts as a Promusica guest artist. He also takes part in many chamber music ensembles alongside artists such as countertenor and flautist Hugo Perina, mezzo soprano Mélissa Zerbib and drag queen Miss Badessa.

Antoine Rivard-Landry was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Dakota Perez was born in Dallas, Texas but has lived in Calgary for most of his life. Most recently, he was selected as a winner of the 2024 RBC Concerto Competition, and performed the first movement of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.He made his orchestral debut with the Calgary Civic Symphony in 2021 as a winner of the
Rotary Calgary Concerto Competition, performing the first movement of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 1. For two years (2021-22 and 2023-24), Dakota has been in the Calgary Pro Musica Dick Matthew’s Young Artists Development Program.

Dakota has studied with Katrina Thompson-Fost, Dr. Karen Gerelus, Dr. Lana Henchell, and was a student in the Academy for Young Artists at the Mount Royal University Conservatory. He received his ARCT in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music at the age of 16. He recently graduated from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of
Music in Piano Performance in the studio of Dr. Jani Parsons and will begin a Master of Music in Piano Performance in the Fall, studying with HieYon Choi at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. During his time in Calgary, he has found value in teaching music theory and most of all, his collaborative work and the opportunities and community that it provides.

Dakota Perez was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.