Historical
Piano Concerts Series
About
the Musicians
Shuann Chai
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Chinese-American pianist Shuann Chai
is an active and engaging performer, critically acclaimed for
interpretations on both modern and historical instruments as well as
for the colorful spoken introductions that accompany her adventurous
programming. Recent projects include a concert tour of China (including
Tsingdao, Wuhan, and at the Forbidden City Concert Hall of Beijing)
with baritone Mattijs van de Woerd as well as performances at the
Grachtenfestival Amsterdam (NL) and in the Chopin Bicentennial at the
Cobbe Collection at Hatchlands Park (UK) featuring the composer’s own
Pleyel grand piano. Last season, she twice performed the complete cycle
of Beethoven’s works for cello and piano (in our concerts and in
Germany), and was the featured artist and guest programmer of the Early
Music Festival at the Honig Breet Huis Museum in Zaandijk (NL).
As a concerto soloist she has performed with the Glière Festival
Orchestra in Kiev (Ukraine), Kamerorkest Vroeg Klassiek (NL) and the
Bloomington Early Music Festival Orchestra (USA) with conductor Stanley
Ritchie. Shuann has also been featured in live radio broadcasts on WGBH
Boston (with cellist Pieter Wispelwey), Harmonia Early Music Radio,
Hong Kong Radio 4, and Radio-Canada.
Shuann completed
degrees in Piano and Biology at Oberlin College and earned a Master's
degree at the New England Conservatory in Boston. Her teachers have
included Jack Radunsky, Norma Fisher, David Breitman, and
Claus-Christian Schuster of the Altenberg Trio. She has long fostered
an active interest in early pianos, and completed a graduate degree in
fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague under the tutelage of
Bart van Oort and Stanley Hoogland. In 2010 she received a full
scholarship at the Banff Centre (Canada), where she was one of eight
pianists from around the world selected to take part in an exclusive
Beethoven Seminar and Master Class with Anton Kuerti.
Alongside
her concert appearances, Ms. Chai has been increasingly in demand as a
teacher. She has conducted master classes and lecture-demonstrations at
UC Davis (USA), the Grieg Conservatory in Bergen (Norway), the Central
Conservatory of Beijing (China), National University of Taipei
(Taiwan), and Duke University (USA). Last year she also received an
appointment at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, where she is now a
Visiting Lecturer in the History of Early Keyboards and Pianos.
She
is the artistic leader of the multi-media Music and Dance production
“Where are we going? And what are we doing?” featuring the music of
John Cage, which will be premiered as a feature in the CaDance Festival
in The Hague in 2013.
Upcoming projects include conducting
a series of master classes at the Gulangyu Piano Academy in Xiamen,
China; recitals at the Fourth Church of Chicago (USA), the Cruquius
Museum (NL), Cantos Collection (Canada), and a 3-concert series for
Stichting de Graafschap (NL) in addition to a Residency at the Banff
Centre. Autumn 2012 will bring a concerto performance with the
New Dutch Academy under Simon Murphy as well as the release of two new
CD recordings: works by Brahms, Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann
supported by the Cobbe Collection (UK), and a recording to supplement a
new edition of Piano Music of the 18th and 19th centuries in
collaboration with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Shuann
Chai’s first solo CD, featuring Beethoven Sonatas on the fortepiano,
was released in 2011 to critical acclaim.
Please take a moment to visit her website, http://www.shuannchai.com/ for more information and performance samples.
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