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PIANO DUO RECITAL BY KATE LIU & ERIC LU
SUNDAY 20 OCTOBER 2024
5:00PM
VICTORIA CONCERT HALL
"A grand talent… [Kate Liu] is already a pianist worth leaving home to hear.” (Washington Post)
“An astonishing command of keyboard tone and color… the sign [Eric Lu] is already a true artist. It was a spellbinding experience.” (The Guardian)
Singapore-born American pianist Kate Liu made international headlines when she clinched the bronze medal at the age of 21 at the prestigious 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition held in Warsaw, Poland in 2015. American pianist Eric Lu placed fourth in the same competition, going on to become the first American since Murray Perahia to win First Prize at the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018.
Together as a piano duo, their celebrated lyrical gifts, maturity and arsenal of virtuoso resources will be put to commanding use in a programme of charm, sparkle and extraordinary poetry, comprising music by Schubert, Mozart and Chopin.
PROGRAMME
SCHUBERT – Lebensstürme in A minor, D. 947
SCHUBERT – Fantasy in F minor, D. 940
MOZART – Sonata for two pianos in D major. K. 448
CHOPIN – Rondo in C major for two pianos, Op. 73
(Programme subject to change at the artists' discretion)
THE ARTISTS
KATE LIU, piano
Pianist Kate Liu gained international acclaim after winning the Bronze Medal and Best Mazurka Prize at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw, Poland. She was also awarded the audience favorite prize voted by the Polish public on the Polish National Radio.
As a soloist, Kate has performed in many important venues, such as the Seoul Arts Center, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Severance Hall in Cleveland, La Maison Symphonique de Montréal, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Shanghai Concert Hall, Osaka Symphony Hall, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra Hall, Phillip’s Collection, and others. She has collaborated with orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Polish Radio Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Daegu Symphony Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, and Evanston Symphony Orchestra. Her debut album of works by Chopin was released on the Fryderyk Chopin Institute label in 2016.
Born in Singapore, Kate began playing the piano when she was four years old and moved to the United States when she was eight. Her private studies then were at the Music Institute of Chicago with Emilio del Rosario, Micah Yui and Alan Chow. Early on in her career, she won 1st Prizes at the Third Asia-Pacific International Chopin Competition and the New York International Piano Competition. She received a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, and a Master’s and Artist Diploma degree from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Robert McDonald and Yoheved Kaplinsky.
www.kateliu.com
ERIC LU, piano
"Leeds winner Eric Lu showed an astonishing command of keyboard tone and color.. the sign he is already a true artist. It was a spellbinding experience.” (The Guardian)
“Lu’s playing is in a rare class - sensitive and emotionally intuitive.” (BBC Music Magazine)
Eric Lu won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018 at the age of 20. The following year, he signed an exclusive contract with Warner Classics, and has since collaborated with some of the world's most prestigious orchestras, and presented in major recital venues.
Recent and forthcoming orchestral collaborations include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, Finnish Radio Symphony, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony at the BBC Proms, amongst others. Conductors he collaborates with include Riccardo Muti, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Ryan Bancroft, Marin Alsop, Duncan Ward, Vasily Petrenko, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, Thomas Dausgaard, Ruth Reinhardt, Earl Lee, Kerem Hasan, Nuno Coehlo, Dinis Sousa, and Martin Frӧst.
Active as a recitalist, he is presented on stages including the Köln Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Queen Elizabeth Hall London, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Leipzig Gewandhaus, San Francisco Davies Hall, BOZAR Brussels, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris, 92nd St Y, Seoul Arts Centre, Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, and Sala São Paulo. In 2024, he is appearing for the 6th consecutive year in recital at Wigmore Hall London. He has also been invited for the 7th time to Warsaw's 'Chopin and his Europe Festival' and will debut at La Roque-d'Anthéron Festival.
Eric’s third album on Warner Classics was released in December 2022, featuring Schubert Sonatas D. 959 and 784. It was met with worldwide critical acclaim, receiving BBC Music Magazine’s Instrumental Choice, writing, “Lu’s place among today’s Schubertians is confirmed”. His previous album of the Chopin 24 Preludes, and Schumann’s Geistervariationen was hailed ‘truly magical’ by International Piano.
Born in Massachusetts in 1997, Eric Lu first came to international attention as a Laureate of the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw aged just 17. He was also awarded the International German Piano Award in 2017, and Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2021. Eric was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2019-22. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss. He was also a pupil of Dang Thai Son.
www.ericlupianist.com
