Today I am going to talk about Han Chen. Han is one of the best piano players IN THE WORLD! I met him at a party at my teachers house playing on a big piano from Steinway and Sons. I sat down with Han, after the performance, to ask him about himself and his career so far.
Han is 26 years old and has been a piano player for 22 years. He started playing from age four (which is really young for a piano player, being one myself). He was really exited the first time he ever went onstage, so exited that he wanted to do it for the rest of his life, and that was when his career as a pianist began.
Han learnt piano in Taiwan, Shanghai, and then received his accelerated Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Julliard School in New York.
I asked Han what he thought about when he was playing music. “I can think about anything: Food, hanging out with friends but mostly things that are related to music” is what he said.
He has been competing in the Honens ’18 Piano Competition, he was playing four pieces of music by Schubert, Liszt , and Thomas Adès (who is English, like me)!
Han also writes his own songs which you can listen to here. I asked him if he copyrights his music and he said “not yet – but that was a good reminder!”
When he is not playing piano, he likes to drink good coffee, see visual arts in galleries, play badminton, and hike.
Finally, I asked him what his goal was for the future. He said “to play my choice of music to share with the world.”
You can see him play in the finals tonight, with the Azahar Ensemble, and tomorrow with the Calgary Philharmonic. I’ll give you an update after the finals!
And that is my report. Bye, followers, and see you on Peter’s U-pick.
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