NYC Arts: Pianist Haochen Zhang Profile

NYC Arts

Originally from Shanghai, 27-year-old Haochen Zhang has already established an international career. He first rose to prominence in 2009 as the youngest ever gold medal winner at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. A graduate of the Curtis School of Music in Philadelphia, Zhang is widely respected for his virtuosity and musicality.

Watch the profile video here.

The Guardian: Haochen Zhang's CD review – An Intimate, Artful Piano Recital

A self-confessed introvert … Haochen Zhang.

The Guardian
By Erica Jeal

Haochen Zhang is both a prodigiously award-winning pianist and a self-confessed introvert, and the wide-ranging choice of repertoire on his first studio disc reflects this. He captures the childish, quickly dissipating seriousness of Schumann’s Kinderszenen, and plays it with the kind of artistry that sounds sincerely artless.

Liszt’s Ballade No 2 has Zhang creating great rumbling waves in the left hand, then closing in an atmosphere of hard-won peace. In this, and in Janáček’s Sonata 1 X 1905, he excels in conveying the larger shape of the piece, knitting the phrases together into long paragraphs, yet he doesn’t short-change the showier passages. Brahms’s Three Intermezzos, Op 117, make for an understated close to an intimate, inward-looking disc, and their feeling of slow rise and fall evokes the breathing of a huge creature asleep. Rarely on this recording does his playing make a forceful bid for the attention, but it certainly rewards close listening.

Haochen Zhang Receives Avery Fisher Career Grant

Photo Credit: Benjamin Ealovega

New York City, March 15, 2017 – Chinese pianist and 2009 Van Cliburn Competition winner Haochen Zhang has been selected as a 2017 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient. These Grants of $25,000 give professional assistance and recognition to talented instrumentalists believed to have great potential for solo careers. The Career Grants are a part of the Avery Fisher Artist Program, and are administered by Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Zhang is the only pianist selected of the four winners announced today.

Zhang comments, “Receiving such a prestigious award as the Avery Fisher Career Grant is an incredible honor for me. I am inspired to walk in the footsteps of so many great artists who have won it in the past.”

Since becoming one of the youngest ever winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences at the BBC Proms and Carnegie Hall; has given sold-out touring performances with the Munich Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, NDR Hamburg, and Mariinsky Orchestra; and has made highly acclaimed recital debuts throughout the globe.

Last month, Zhang released his first studio album on the BIS label, featuring works by Schumann, Brahms, Janáček, and Liszt. The recording was featured as a “Classical Pick” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. Highlights of the current season include engagements with Philadelphia Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, as well as numerous solo recital appearances. Past seasons include debuts with LA Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, London Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

Zhang is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied with Gary Graffman.

This year’s recipients are Chad Hoopes and Stephen Waarts, violinists; Haochen Zhang, pianist; and The Dover Quartet.  Previous recipients of the Avery Fisher Career Grant include Gil Shaham, Yuja Wang, Jonathan Biss, Hilary Hahn, Joshua Bell, Escher String Quartet, Anthony McGill, and Augustin Hadelich.

The Career Grant performances are recorded for live webstream and radio broadcast by WQXR, New York’s classical music station, with host Elliott Forrest, and will air on Monday, April 24 at 9 pm on 105.9 FM and www.wqxr.org.

For more information about Haochen Zhang, please visit www.haochenzhang.com

Media Contact:

Patricia Price

+1.509.995.5546

patricia@8vamusicconsultancy.com

The Philadelphia Inquirer: Classical picks - Portrait of a pianist

Haochen Zhang: "Schumann, Liszt, Janácek, Brahms"

The Philadelphia Inquirer
By Peter Dobrin

Portrait of a pianist. Haochen Zhang was a pianist about whom aficionados were whispering expectant superlatives as he came through the Curtis Institute of Music. The next Yuja Wang, perhaps? Now, the 2012 Curtis graduate has released a studio album on BIS Records of some ambition: Schumann's Kinderszenen, the Liszt Ballade No. 2 in B Minor, Brahms' Three Intermezzi, and Janácek's Piano Sonata 1.X.1905, "From the Street."

Some might recall the 2011 Curtis recital when he filled in for Wang after travel problems. Zhang, who won a Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medal in 2009, was 20 at the time of that recital, and many of the characteristics he displayed then are apparent in this recording: restraint and control - until a specific moment of arrival.

The Kinderszenen are lovely, and he alternates between a gauzy dream state and great heat in the Liszt. Janácek arrives with a finely shaped sense of quiet, questioning wonder. Zhang's love for Brahms was clear at that Curtis recital. So, too, here, where he uncovers ideas well beyond those apparent from just the written note.

2009 Van Cliburn Winner, Haochen Zhang, To Release Debut Studio Album

In 2009 at just 19 years old, Haochen Zhang became one of the youngest pianists to win the prestigious Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Now, Haochen Zhang is delighted to announce the release of his first studio album on February 10, 2017 on BIS Records. The album features works by Schumann, Liszt, Janácek, and Brahms.

Haochen reflects on his new release saying:

"This album consists of works which not only speak to me in a very intimate way, but also connect with one another at a corresponding level of intimacy: as a whole they form a unique musical narrative. Although I have always been keen to learn and perform all genres and styles, I feel irresistibly drawn to music of a reflective and introspective nature. This is perhaps in part due to the inward-looking aspect of the classical culture of my home country which has fascinated me since childhood, and also to the innate introverted side of my personality."

Works include:

Robert Schumann: Kinderszenen, Op. 15
Franz Liszt: Ballade No. 2 in B minor, S. 171
Leoš Janáček: Sonata 1.X.1905 "From the Streets"
Johannes Brahms: Drei Intermezzi, Op. 117

Available for preorder now on Amazon and iTunes!

Pianist Haochen Zhang returns to Fort Worth for Cliburn concerts

Van Cliburn, left, joins Haochen Zhang’s victory celebration in this 2009 photo. Credit: Anonymous, AP archives

Star-Telegram
By Punch Shaw

For 2009 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition gold medalist Haochen Zhang, the key to success as a musician is simple.

“Just open up your ears,” said Zhang, who will be performing with the Brentano String Quartet in concerts presented by the Cliburn on Thursday and Friday.

That seems pretty obvious. But it should be pointed out that the Chinese pianist has to keep his hearing in good shape for the performance hall, despite spending a staggering amount of time in airplanes, where ears can open and close during and after the flights.

The pianist makes his home in Philadelphia, where he graduated from the Curtis Institute in 2012. He chatted via Skype last week from a city near his native Shanghai, where he was performing. He had played in Tokyo the night before.

“I have used some tricks in the past, like taking jet lag pills or adjusting sleeping on the plane to the time zone I was flying into,” he said. “But I have learned that time is the best cure [for jet lag].”

Zhang, 26, has logged plenty of air miles since the 2009 competition where, at age 19, he was the youngest pianist to ever earn a gold medal in the Cliburn.

And he credits that competition, at which Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii also received a gold medal, as being a major springboard to his active career. He cited an international tour with the Munich Philharmonic and maestro Lorin Maazel as one of his career highlights since the Cliburn.

“It not just about getting a prize, but about getting all these opportunities that train you to be a professional soloist,” said Zhang, citing the three years of engagements that come with the Cliburn’s top prize. “Through the competition, I have matured so much, both as a musician and as a human being.

“Touring all these places, performing all the time and meeting people of different cultures has really opened up my vision of the world and of music.”

Zhang also credits the competition experience and resulting tours with making him more comfortable at the piano bench.

“I think I was somewhat shy in the beginning. So my attitude toward playing was a little contained,” he said. “And I am still an introverted person. I don’t approach performing in a very outgoing, extremely romantic way, like a lot of young pianists would.

“But now it seems so natural that I don’t have to prepare myself to play, psychologically, as much as I once did. I would say that I have definitely opened up more as a result of performing all the time.”

And when Zhang talks about “open ears,” it really has more to do with performance practice than cabin pressure — and especially chamber music performances.

“Pianists are naturally soloists. So we don’t usually have to compromise in any way,” he said. “But when you are too comfortable in that zone, then you have your ears entirely closed.

“The important thing for chamber music, though, is to always open up your ears. That’s why I wish that all pianists could have more opportunities to play chamber music more often.”

Zhang performed with the Takacs Quartet when he competed in the 2009 Cliburn. The Brentano String Quartet performed with the semifinalists at the 2013 Cliburn and will return for the 2017 competition.

During this week’s concerts, Zhang and the quartet will be performing Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor. Zhang will play Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor , and the Brentano will perform Beethoven’s String Quartet in F major, Op. 135.

The chamber setting, Zhang said, requires a pianist who is used to performing alone or taking the lead in a concerto performance with an orchestra to be more of a team player.

“The key to chamber music is that there is no ego involved,” he said. “I think everyone puts their ego down to serve the music. If there is solo voice, that’s the voice everyone should be responding to. In other situations, you may need to be an accompanist or a collaborator. The only role you really have is to open your ears and listen to what the other people are doing, and react.”

The 2017 Cliburn competition will be webcast throughout China next summer, foundation officials have said — the first time a Cliburn competition will be webcast in the country.

Since Zhang was speaking from his native China, it seemed appropriate to seek his take on the state of classical music there.

“[Classical music] is still evolving and improving at a very fast pace,” he said. “Five years ago we were all still complaining about Chinese audiences not being mannerly enough. They made noise. They chatted. They would applaud between movements. There was no cultural understanding of how to behave at a classical concert.

“But every time I go back to play in China now, the audiences are behaving better, especially when I go back to big cities. So I think the outlook is optimistic for classical music in China.”

And it is, particularly, for the younger generations, he said.

“I would say that ages 20 to 40 are the central demographic,” he said. “A lot of college students and young professionals come to the concerts.”