Helen Huang, Piano

Biography

Taiwanese-American pianist Helen Huang, was first discovered by the New York Philharmonic and Maestro Kurt Masur upon winning the Young People's Competition resulting in engagements with the prestigious New York Philharmonic and a recording contract with the Teldec record label. Known for immaculate technique and eloquent sensitivity, Ms. Huang has enjoyed to date a multi-faceted career as a soloist and chamber music player and can claim years of experience with an impressive list of performances with such orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, and the Fort Worth Symphony. Abroad she has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony in Seoul, Korea. Her wide-ranging conductor collaborations include Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Leonard Slatkin, Paavo Jarvi, Jahja Ling, Herbert Blomstedt, Giancarlo Guerrero, and Thomas Wilkins.

In addition, Helen frequently appears in recitals and festivals in the US, Europe, and Asia. An avid chamber musician, Helen Huang has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and most recently at Ravinia's Steans Institute For Young Artists, with whom she also toured this spring. Abroad, she has also performed at the Verbier Festival and the Great Mountains Festival.

Helen's recordings of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, Mozart's Piano Concertos K. 488 and K.467, Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur's direction are available on the Teldec label and have received critical acclaim. She also recorded an album titled "For Children" of works inspired by the theme of children. Her most recent recording was in collaboration with Cho-Liang Lin of the works of Georg Tintner released on the Naxos label. Works in progress include a recording of the music of

Zhou Long with Cho-Liang Lin and Hai-Ye Ni, yet to be released on the Delos label. Ms. Huang has appeared on television with the Boston Pops Orchestra for PBS's "Evening at Pops" and was featured in an A&E broadcast from the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.

Born in Japan of Chinese parents, she moved to the United States with her family in 1985 and began piano lessons two years later. Within a year, she had won her first competition and several other victories soon followed. In 1994, she was selected by the New York Philharmonic to receive Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award for promising young artists and in1995, she became one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Helen received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize upon graduating from the Juilliard School in 2004, where she was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. She recently graduated with her Master's degree from Yale, where she studied with Peter Frankl. Helen Huang also teaches at the Juilliard Pre-College. She resides in New York City.