Andrew Hsu, piano
Daniel Hsu, piano
Sunday, October 23, 2022
3:00 p.m.
Leo Rich Theater
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Sonata in D Major for Piano Four Hands, K. 381 (123a)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Andante and Variations in G Major for Piano Four Hands, K. 501
Robert Schumann
Bilder aus Osten, Op. 66
Claude Debussy
Petite Suite for Piano Four Hands
Franz Schubert
Fantasia in F Minor for Piano Four Hands, D. 940
Andrew Hsu
Andrew Hsu (徐鴻) is a Chinese American composer and pianist based in New York City. The range and versatility of his musical pursuits range from the classical canon to modern masterworks and contemporary experimentalism. His music probes the imagination, searching for a distinct sense of color and timelessness within a delicate sonic palette.
Andrew’s compositions have earned international acclaim from performances across Europe and the USA—notably Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Die Glocke, and Konzerthaus Berlin—and partnerships with some of today’s leading musical artists and ensembles—including the Battle Creek, Juilliard, and Minnesota Orchestras, the Miró and Zorá Quartets, Network for New Music, Lyon-Sasaki Duo, Sasha Cooke, Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Daniel Hsu, Sarah Shafer, Katherine Siochi, Steven Tenenbom, and Angelo Xiang Yu. As a performer, he has been associated with the Battle Creek, Castro Valley, Lansing, Louisville, and Oakland Symphony Orchestras; ensembles Cantata Profana, Metropolis, New Fromm Players, New Juilliard, and Sejong Soloists; and Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor, Chamber Music Northwest, Concert Artists Guild, Conservatoire américain de Fontainebleau, Curtis on Tour, Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, Gilmore Keyboard Festival and Rising Star Series, King’s Lynn Festival, Marlboro Music, Ravinia, Tanglewood, and WQXR. Andrew’s list of honors include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP Morton Gould Award, Aspen Music Festival’s Hermitage Prize, BMI William Schuman Prize, and Gilmore Young Artist Award.
Andrew is a graduate of the Curtis Institute and Juilliard, where he completed his DMA; as a student, he held the Kovner, Rising Star Annual, and C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowships. His teachers included pianists Gary Graffman and Eleanor Sokoloff, and composers Samuel Adler, Richard Danielpour, David Serkin Ludwig, Matthias Pintscher and Steven Stucky. He is married to concert violinist Rose Hsien.
We last heard Andrew Hsu with his wife, Rose Hsien, in a Piano & Friends concert that was streamed in January 2021.
Daniel Hsu
A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Daniel Hsu made his concerto debut with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra at age 8, and his recital debut at the Steinway Society of the Bay Area at age 9, before being accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 10, along with his two older siblings. He quickly gained international recognition and accolades: bronze medal at the 2015 Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, first prize at the 2015 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition, 2016 Gilmore Young Artist, and bronze medal at the 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he also took home prizes for best performance of both the commissioned work and chamber music.
Daniel has made his debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall (CAG Winners Series), and appeared in recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Vancouver Recital Society, and Gilmore International Keyboard Festival. In addition, he performs regularly in duo piano with his brother, Andrew, and appears frequently in chamber music festivals. Ever curious and eager to explore, Daniel worked with rapper Lou Charle$ and singer-songwriter-guitarist Averi Burke to develop and release the single “Free”—which they brought to SXSW in spring 2022—and worked with harpist Bridget Kibbey to provide commentary as a correspondent for the 2022 Cliburn Competition webcast.
Now 25 years old, Daniel graduated from Curtis in spring 2019, where he studied with Gary Graffman, Robert McDonald, and Eleanor Sokoloff. He is a Marvel film buff and enjoys programming—he contributed to the creation of Workflow (now known as Siri Shortcuts), which won the 2015 Apple Design Award and was acquired by the tech giant in 2017.
Daniel Hsu played a Piano & Friends recital for us in December 2018. This is the first time we have heard Andrew and Daniel together.