Art of Piano Concert: Hung-Kuan Chen, Tema Blackstone & Art of Piano Musicians

Hung-Kuan Chen was born in Taipei and raised in Germany. His early studies fostered strong roots in Germanic Classicism tempered with the sensibility of Chinese philosophy. The winner of the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition and Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the recipient of an Avery Fisher Grant, Chen has collaborated with conductors including Christoph Eschenbach and Hans Graf, and his colleagues include the Tokyo and Shanghai string quartets, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, violinists Cho-Liang Lin and Roman Totenberg, clarinetist David Shifrin, and pianist Tema Blackstone.
 

Image by Linda Li

Tema Blackstone is a dedicated pedagogue, performer, and arts leader. As a faculty of The Juilliard Pre-College Division and President of the Artemisia Foundation NYC, she teaches and lectures in a wide range of settings. At the core of Blackstone’s pedagogy comes from her unique perspective emerging from a strong background in ballet, voice and theatre. She believes interdisciplinary experiences create holistic artists.

Blackstone has presented master classes and lectures at Yale, the International Piano Festival in Shanghai, the Association of Professional Music Teachers in North America, and in summer festivals such as Vivace, Banff, MMB, Chinese Foundation and Aspen. Blackstone has served as an adjudicator for major competitions such as the Honens, Young Concert Artists, Shanghai International, and Steinway among others. She is a former faculty member at NEC and Shanghai guest professor. Her students include, Yuja Wang, Niu Niu, Maxim Lando, and Wilson Liu.

As President of the Artemisia Foundation, Blackstone has produced 85 performances and masterclasses nurturing young talented pianists. Artemisia's mission is to expose young artists to new experiences from a wide variety of mentors ranging from artists to business leaders. Through Juilliard, Yale and the International piano festival in Shanghai, she has been instrumental in securing hundreds of thousands of dollars in financial and grant support for emerging artists while establishing significant institutional partnerships such as the acquisition of the first Fazioli concert grand in Canada. In 2022 she and Heather Edwards collaborated with the Banff Centre to re-invigorate the piano program, where she teaches and performs each summer.

Blackstone maintains an active performing career, with recent duo and solo appearances in major venues including Shanghai Concert Hall, Jordan Hall, Carnegie Hall, Roy Thompson Hall, Barbican, Suntory, Taipei Performing Arts Centre and others with her husband, Hung-Kuan Chen. She has also collaborated with artists such as Janos Starker, Jon Kimura Parker, and Menahem Pressler & Denes Zsigmondy & numerous chamber ensembles worldwide.

Blackstone received her ARCT, Bachelors, Master's, and DMA under the tutelage of pedagogues such as Anthony Di Bonaventura, Russell Sherman, & Hung-Kuan Chen. She is a Steinway artist.

Image by Linda Li

Cheonmi Park was generously supported by the Banff Centre Artist Award.

Cheonmi Park, a South Korean-born pianist and educator based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. With a distinguished blend of performance and teaching experience, she is steadily building a reputation in the classical music community.

Cheonmi began her musical journey at the Seoul Arts Center Academy, where she received foundational training. She continued her studies at Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School, before enrolling at Seoul National University to deepen her academic and musical knowledge. After graduating Seoul National University, she moved to the United States to pursuing her graduate studies at University of Michigan.

At Michigan, Cheonmi completed her Master’s degree in Piano Performance and Cheonmi is pursuing doctorate study under the mentorship of Professor Arthur Greene. Her technical skills and interpretive depth were further enhanced through participation in masterclasses with renowned pianists such as Alexander Kobrin, Jon Nakamatsu, Spencer Myer and Jerome Rose.

Not only a solo pianist but also a chamber and collaborative musician, Cheonmi performed as a member of the Banchan Trio under the guidance of Professor Amy Cheng and had a masterclass with Horszowski Trio. She also has collaborated with musicians including instrumentalists and vocalists. In addition to her piano performance, she has developed a growing interest in the harpsichord, studying with Professor Joseph Gascho.

Cheonmi has also participated in several prestigious summer programs, including the Chautauqua Music School and the Gijón Piano Festival in 2024.

Throughout her career, Cheonmi has earned recognition in several prestigious competitions. She was a finalist in the 2023 SMTD Concerto Competition at the University of Michigan and has won top prizes at competitions such as the Texas A&M Commencement Music Competition in Seoul and the 55th Music Education News Competition. In addition, Cheonmi is honored to be a recipient of the Feltsman Piano Foundation Scholarship, which has provided valuable support in advancing her artistic and academic pursuits.

Cheonmi is equally dedicated to teaching and sharing her passion for music. As a Graduate Student Instructor at the University of Michigan, she works with mostly undergraduate students in group teaching classes or 1:1 lessons. Outside the classroom, she volunteered in "The Gift of Arts at Michigan Medicine" program at the University of Michigan Hospital and Sophie’s Place at Mott Children’s Hospital.

Adam Balogh was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Hungarian pianist, Ádám Balogh is a recipient of the Junior Príma Award, the Cziffra Talent Award, the Kocsis Zoltán Award and the Junior Tüke Award. He was born in 1997 in Pécs. In 2010, he made his debut as a soloist with the Budapest Festival Orchestra, conducted by Iván Fischer. Since then, he has been a regular guest of major domestic orchestras. He has performed in concert halls across Europe, America, and Asia. 

From the age of 12, he studied in the Exceptional Talents Class at the Liszt Academy, where his teachers were Attila Némethy and Gábor Eckhardt. He completed his master’s degree in Hanover in the class of Arie Vardi and later in Budapest under the guidance of Dénes Várjon and Gábor Farkas. 

He has successfully returned from numerous important international competitions. He is the second prize winner of the Bartók World Competition and the fifth prize winner at the Sydney International Piano Competition. He received a special prize at the Honens Piano Competition. He has been a scholarship holder and awardee of the Tel Hai, New York IKIF, PianoTexas, Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy, and Chautauqua festivals. 

He received the Fischer Annie Scholarship in 2019, 2020, and 2022. Since 2020, he has been supported by the Lieven Foundation. He is currently a student at the Doctoral School of the Liszt Academy and a teacher of the Chamber Music Department.
 

Priscila Navarro was generously supported by the Helen Graham Artist Award.

Pianist Priscila Navarro is the first prize winner of several international competitions, including the Liszt-Garritson International Competition in Baltimore, Maryland, Beethoven Sonata Competition in Tennessee, Chopin International Competition of Texas, Artist Series of Sarasota, Florida, Imola City Awards, Italy, and the Heida Hermanns International Music Competition in Connecticut. Priscila made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in 2013 as an international competition winner and returned there this 2022 for further concerts. She received a Special Bach prize at the International City of Vigo Competition in Spain, where she was one of five finalists from over 400 participating pianists, with a jury presided by Martha Argerich. Her performances in England in 2021 were streamed on BBC public radio as well as the Medici TV channel. In 2022, she received the Christa-Marshall Bach foundation prize at the Leipzig Bach competition. 

Priscila is a champion and advocate of Latin American music, conducting research and creative activities to further the propagation of Latin American art. In her pursuit of representation and inclusion, she developed a piano method for children based on Peruvian folk tunes, the first of its kind. She presented a program of Latin American dances at the Bravo Piano Festival in Hilton Head Island. This 2022 she made her Kennedy Center debut with a program combining staple repertoire by Chopin and works by Peruvian and Ecuadorean composers. She received a grant to perform a program of music by Peruvian composer Jimmy Lopez and Cuban American composer Tania Leon in 2023. 

As a chamber musician, Priscila regularly performs with a wide variety of musicians. She did a tour of Peru with violist Jodi Levitz, professor of viola at the University of Miami. This past season, she presented a program of songs by American female composers alongside mezzo-soprano Sarah Barber. Priscila forms a piano duet with Dr. Michael Baron. Their first album was released in December 2021 with the MSR Classics label, followed by a Carnegie Hall premiere concert in March 2022. They have received five-star reviews from the American Record Guide and Fanfare Magazine. 

Priscila holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and pedagogy from the Frost School of Music, where she also completed Master and Artist Diploma degrees as a student of Santiago Rodriguez and Kevin Kenner. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Florida Gulf Coast University where she studied with Dr. Michael Baron. Priscila began her music studies at the age of 9 at the National Conservatory of Peru with Professor Lydia Hung. 

Besides her busy performance career, Priscila is a passionate pedagogue and has been on the jury at several international competitions, including the Florence Price International Competition, Houston International Piano Competition, Chopin International Competition for Latin American pianists, the Heida Hermanns International Competition, and the Parnassus International Competition. She is also the artistic director and founder of the Parnassus Music Society, an organization that focuses on providing high-quality musical events in Latin America, as well as promoting young Latin American pianists with opportunities for performance and education.
Priscila is Assistant Professor of piano at the University of Kansas. As a winner of the 2023 national audition, she also joined the roster of Astral Artists.

Son Duong was generously supported by the Boris Roubakin Memorial Endowment.

Son Duong, age 21, is a Vietnamese-American pianist from Potomac, Maryland currently attending the Eastman School of Music. He is a rising senior studying under Professor Douglas Humpherys. He also studied previously in high school with Professor Yong Hi Moon. 

Son has garnered multiple national and international accolades. He won 1st prize in the Young Artist Division of the Marian Garcia International Piano Competition (2021) along with top awards in the Canadian International Piano Competition (2020), MTNA (2021), YoungArts, NPR’s From The Top, Chopin Foundation, and West Virginia International Piano Competition (2019). He has also played in venues including Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (UT), Strathmore Music Center (MD), Studzinski Hall (ME), and Salle Gilles-Lefebvre Hall (QC). 

Son has had the privilege to work with artists such as Dang Thai Son, Matti Raekallio, Robert McDonald, Boris Slutsky and Haesun Paik, among others. He has attended festivals including Bowdoin, Chautauqua, and Gijón. Son also enjoys playing chamber music, and has been selected as part of Eastman's Honor Chamber program as well as in the MTNA national finals. 

Son is currently pursuing a dual-degree in economics from the University of Rochester, and in his free time enjoys reading, watching football, and traveling.

Sunmi Han was generously supported by the George Brough Memorial Endowment.

Marked by poetic lyricism in solo performance and vibrant imagination in chamber music collaborations, pianist Sunmi Han has appeared in major venues across Europe, the U.S., and Asia—including Munich’s Herkulessaal and Prague’s Smetana Hall—and has performed as soloist with the North Czech Philharmonic, Karlovy Vary Symphony, Kharkiv Philharmonic, Moravian Symphony, and Seoul Philharmonic.

 A devoted chamber musician, she has collaborated with artists such as Arnaud Sussmann, Jörg Widmann, Colin Carr, Denis Várjon, Matthew Lipman, Nicholas Mann, Alan Kay, Pauline Sachse, Seth Knopp, and members of the Emerson Quartet. 

An alumna of The Juilliard School, she also holds degrees from Tel Aviv University and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, and is currently completing her DMA at Stony Brook University. Upcoming projects include Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Copland’s Piano Variations.