Tema Blackstone and Hung-Kuan Chen, photo by Linda Li Photography.
Faculty member at the Juilliard School for over 10 years, Hung-Kuan Chen is a deeply expressive pianist and a familiar face at Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, both onstage and in the classroom. He has performed in many of the world’s foremost concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully in New York, the Kennedy Center in D.C., Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and the Tonhalle in Zürich.
Hung-Kuan was born in Taipei and raised in Germany; his early studies blended the musical philosophies of those two cultures. The winner of the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition and the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has collaborated with conductors like Christoph Eschenbach and Hans Graf. In 1992, Hung-Kuan suffered a hand injury resulting in focal dystonia. Through meditation and his own unique research, he was able to heal and return to his life as a concert artist.
Tema Blackstone’s influential work encompasses an impressive concert career, spanning both solo and duo performances, as well as advocacy for music as a force for personal and societal well-being. A faculty member at the Juilliard School, she believes in passing on great music to new generations.
We’re lucky to have both Blackstone and Chen on faculty for the two-week Art of Piano residency, which offers professional pianists and pianist-composers the chance to work with internationally celebrated artists. Participants advance their craft through individual coaching, masterclasses, and performance opportunities.
Art of Piano is generously supported by lead donor Heather Edwards.
Additional support provided by the Alice and Betty Schultz Scholarships Endowment Fund for Dance and Music, Helen Graham, and the Yolanda Freeze Master Artists Music Fund.
About Hung-Kuan Chen & Tema Blackstone
Hung-Kuan Chen
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
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