A Native of Taiwan, pianist Grace Chung began her studies in the United States after winning Taiwan's National Piano Competition at age 14. She made her debut as a soloist with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra in Jordon Hall at age 16.
Winner of the Juilliard Piano Concerto Competition, Ms. Chung performed as the soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. Her other major awards include the First Prize as well as the Best Performance of Chinese Composition in the Seventh International Chopin Piano Competition in Taiwan, the First Prize of the Yamaha Young artist Competition in 1999, and the chosen winner of the concerto competition at Rutgers University which followed 2 concerto appearances. Ms. Chung participated in the performance of Saint-Saens' Carnival of the Animals with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Old York Road Symphony in Pennsylvania, premiered Taiwanese composer Chia-Yu Hsu's Piano Concerto with the Curtis Orchestra, and was invited as a guest soloist with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. Chung is also active as a chamber musician. She has collaborated with many renowned musicians and performed both as a soloist and chamber musician in Jordan Hall and the Gardner Museum in Boston, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Merkin Hall in New York City, among other places in the US, Italy, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia. Ms. Chung was invited to serve as a faculty member at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy in 2013 and 2015.
Ms. Chung graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music (BM), The Juilliard School (MM), and Rutgers University (DMA). Her major teachers include Wha Kyung Byun, Seymour Lipkin, Jerome Lowenthal, and Susan Starr. Ms. Chung is currently full time Professor of Piano at the Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan.
Chiao-Han Liao, a native of Taiwan, is an active performer of solo and chamber music throughout the United States, Taiwan, Japan, and Finland. Ms. Liao is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where she received the Bachalor’s degree and the Master’s degree, respectively. During these six years, Ms. Liao studied with Seymour Lipkin in Piano and Lionel Party in harpsichord. At the Juilliard School, she was the official pianist of Karen Tuttle. Ms. Liao received her second Master’s degree from Yale School of Music in May of 2000, and Artist Diploma the following year, where she studied with Boris Berman.
She began the piano at age of six. Since then, she has won numerous competitions and awards, including the first prize in the Taiwan National Piano Competition, finalist in the Third Memorial Frederic Chopin Competition, and the Chi-Mei Foundation Scholarship in Taiwan. At Yale School of Music, she received Lucy G. Moses Fellowship, Charles S. Miller Prize and Yale School of Music Alumni Prize. Ms. Liao has been chosen to receive the Presser Music Award for 2000-2001 from the Presser Foundation. She participated in XIV International Frederic Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2000, and Internationaler Musikwettbewerb der ARD Munchen in 2002.
As an active chamber musician, Ms. Liao has participated in the Kneisel Hall, the First International Moscow State Conservatory Summer School, the Music Academy of the West, the Norfolk Summer Festival, Aino Ackte Institute in Finland, and Encuentro de Musica Y Academia de Santander in Spain. In the summer of 2005, She was invited to be the piano faculty of Young Artist Program of Yellow Barn Music School and Festival. At the same time she received Theodore Banning Memorial Scholarship to participate Yellow Barn Music School and Festival. She also collaborated with distinguish artists, such as Boris Berman, Natasha Brofsky, Roberto Diaz, Jean-Max Dussert, Chris Finckel, Pamela Frank, Peter Frankl, Clive Greensmith, Mark Hill, Maria Lambros, Violaine Melancon, Roman Totenberg, Pavel Vernikov, Radovan Vlatkovic, Donald Weilerstein and Rodney Winther. In Taiwan she also gives frequent chamber music concerts with Musica Daphne and Homeland Chamber Ensemble.
After returning to Taiwan from 2002, Chiao-han has played more than 600 concerts including solo, concerto, chamber music, contemporary music and vocal performances. In 2011 she has participated in music production of Movie “Make up” and “Father’s lullby”. Chiao-han Liao has made two solo albums, “Encore” and “Xi Shi Fantasy” complete piano solo works of Fu Tong Wong; three chamber music albums, Beethoven complete works for cello and piano with cellist Grancinie Ouyang, “Encounter” and “Floral Sound”; four alnums of Chinese traditional songs, ‘The one I long for”, “The Sound of Antigua”, “Listen to Taiwan” and “Heritage Music of the Heart”. Ms. Liao also translates the Chinese version of Boris Berman’s book “Notes from the Piano Bench” and Michael Friedmann’s book “Ear Training for Twentieth-Century Music”. Currently, Ms. Liao is the Director of the Han Arts, and a member of the boards of directors of the Chamber Music Society of Taiwan and Spring Song Art Culture Foundation.
Pei-Chun Liao, piano Pei-Chun Liao is an accomplished concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She began piano lessons at the age of three and proceeded to serious training at the Taipei National University of the Arts, where her teachers were Tai-Cheng Chen. Liao moved to Europe and continued her studies at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Malcolm Wilson and Philip Martin, graduating with Distinction in both her Masters for the Arts and Diplomain Performance Studies. At the Musikhochschule in Freiburg (Germany) she studied with Professor Vitali Berzon and graduated with the highest award, Auszeichnung. Liao continues to work on her craft, and has participated in masterclasses with extraordinary pianists such as Leon Fleisher, Peter Donohoe, Jacques Rouvier, Hans Leygraf, Paul Badura-Skoda, Stephen Kovacevich and Robert Levin, among many others. Liao has meanwhile made an international career, starting with her UK debut at Birmingham Symphony Hall, where her recital received special critical acclaim. Liao has performed at Manchester Peel Hall, Mozarteum Wiener Saal, Salle Cortot, Rachmaninoff Hall and Barber Institute. As a soloist, Liao has performed with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra, the Taipei Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and the Hunan Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with internationally renowned musicians including Reinhold Friedrich, Peter Donohoe, Benjamin Frith and Benny Kim, among many others. Liao is a prizewinner at numerous competitions, including 3rd prize at the Taipei Chopin international Competition, the Taiwan Young Artist Competition and she was selected as “Young Star of National Concert Hall” in Taiwan. In the UK, she won the Beryl Chempin Beethoven Prize, Birmingham Conservatoire Piano Prize, Birmingham Symphony Hall Recital Prize and the Ludlow Philharmonic Concerto Prize. She received 2nd Prize at the 7th Mauro Paolo Monopoli International Piano Competition in Italy. Liao is active in numerous international music festivals and venues. She was invited to join as guest artist at Ball State University, Illinois State University and The University of Tennessee, as well as the Walled City International Piano Festival and Competition in North Ireland and Ameri-China International Piano Festival in New York. The Beethoven Piano Society of Europe invited her to give a recital and join their Beethoven project at historical Regent Hall in London. Liao is currently a full-time associate professor on the piano faculty at University of Taipei in Taiwan. She is frequently invited to give lectures and master classes, as well as to judge national and international competitions.
Yea-Shiuh Lin, a pianist, who started her first piano lesson when she was six. At age of thirteen, Ms. Lin gave her piano solo debut in Taipei, and also was invited to perform at the Jen-Shen Public Broadcasting Radio Station. After finished her early years of musical training in Taiwan, Yea-Shiuh Lin went to the Cleveland Institute of Music in the United States for pursuing her Master degree in piano performance. At that time, she achieved further improvement both in solo piano and chamber music performance areas as well, under studying with duo-pianists Thomas Hecht and Sandra Shapiro, Anne Epperson, and Weilerstein Duo. Major honor was awarded in 1994 by the Piano Department of Cleveland Institute of Music: the annual “Sadie Zellen Piano Prize for Outstanding Musical Development.” At the same year, Yea-Shiuh Lin began her Doctoral program in the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with full scholarship, and studied with professor Frank Weinstock and Sandra Rivers. Numerous masterclasses Ms. Lin performed during her advanced musical study in the United States, including masterclasses of Jerome Lowenthal, Mack McCray, and Luba Edlina, etc. As a polished collaborative pianist, she was invited to play for vocal masterclasses of Soprano Ally Amily, Vocal coaching Warren Jones, and also was selected as a private studio accompanist by the renowned violin teacher Dorothy Delay and Cellist Yehuda Hanani. During her American years from 1991-1998, Yea-Shiuh Lin was active as a piano soloist and a chamber musician. The important performances were including the Cleveland Orchestra Benefit Concert Series, Cincinnati Contemporary Music Festival, and Bachnallia Music Festival with Cellist Yehuda Hanani, Leslie Parnas, and Shumel Magan. In December 1998, Ms. Lin returned to Taiwan with her Doctor of Musical Arts degree, and since then she started her musical career as a solo pianist, a professional collaborative pianist, and a full-time piano professor in the Music Department of Sun Yat-sen University. Major appearances in recent years include concerto appearances with Music Department of Sun Yat-sen University Orchestra in 2002 and 2017, “Piano Solo Recital Series in Taipei National Recital Hall, 2000-2018”, “ Two Pianos Recital with Yueh-Reng Lin, 2006-2017”. Invited by Hotshot Chamber MusicSeries to appear with Cellist Min-Yuan Lin and Violinist Vicki Hsu in concert tours of Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Tokyo in 2018-2019. Ms. Lin was selected to be listed in Asia Pacific Who’s Who, Volume XVI, 2017.
“Mr. Lu plays with magisterial fluency of technique, beautiful tone at all times, and most importantly a deep passionate emotional involvement…” by Frank Daykin of New York Concert Review
”Lu musizierte filigran und musikalisch, und phrasierte mit glasklarer Brillanz.”Allgäuerzeitung (“LU plays sophisticatedly and musically, and phrasing with crystal clear brilliance”)
“…Yichih LU had the speed, dexterity and sense of devilish fun for Liszt’s Grandes Etudes de Paganini Nos. 5 and 6” South Florida Classical Review
Yi-Chih LU, pianist, composer & arranger Recognized as a virtuosic performer during early stage of his career, Taiwanese pianist Yi-Chi LU has explored the realms of arranging and composing in recent years, meanwhile, championed the works of prestigious Taiwanese composers. Yi-Chi LU made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2022 and the performance was praised by the local critic as having “[The] sweeping sense of lyricism that was enabled by the sureness of his technique…” LU’s virtuosity was recognized by music enthusiasts as early as 2012 when he was awarded The Best Instrumental Performance by the Golden Melody Award (the Taiwanese GRAMMYs) with his solo album My Chopin; My Brahms, and around the same period, his recordings of Kurt Böhm’s piano works were highly praised by Bayern 4 Klassik. In addition to the Western repertoire, LU is a champion of Taiwanese composers, dedicating his skill and musicality to their works. He had recorded full albums of piano pieces by Su-Ti CHEN (Taiwan Sketches) and Chi-Lien HUNG during the beginning of his career and in recent years was invited to perform at The Resonance of Taiwan – KOU Chih Yuan’s 100th Anniversary Concert, as well as Love for God and Homeland - CHEN Su-ti Memorial Concert, as a faithful interpreter of the composers’ seminal works. Started as a musical hobby, Lu is now a skilled arranger. Fashion after the method best advocated by Franz Liszt, LU breathes new lives into Taiwanese folk songs by transforming them into pianistic arrangements with dramatic effects. Sheet music of said arrangements had been published since 2014 and in 2016 an album of his better-known works Zongzi was released. LU’s rendition of Taiwanese folk songs are so popular that they become an essential part of his repertoire and his version of ‘Peach Blossom Takes the Ferry’ has received 300,000 views on Youtube. In 2021, LU’s arrangement of another Taiwanese classic "Longing for Your Early Return" ("bāng-lí-tsá-kui") for string quartet and soprano voice was awarded by the New Taipei City Culture Foundation. To push himself further, LU tries his hand at composing. He has been commissioned to set several works of Taiwanese poets into music, shared credit for the song “Wake Up” which won the "Hakka Melody Award" in 2022, and his work for equal voice chorus “Cabbage” has won the Sing for Love composition competition hosted by Taipei Chamber Singers. Based in Taiwan, Yi-Chi LU has performed overseas in 45 cities in Europe, US, and Asian countries, on the stage of important venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Musikverein in Vienna, Berliner Philharmonie, and major concert halls in Salzburg, Stuttgart, Munich…etc. He has appeared with Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchester BerlinClassicPlayers, Arad State Philharmonic, Seattle Festival Orchestra, Sendai Citizen Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra (NTSO), Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Taiwan Philharmonic (NSO), and Evergreen Symphony Orchestra. LU has worked with conductors: Nian-Fu LIAO, Günther Herbig, Gernot Schmalfuss, Karen Kamensek, MOGI Daisuke, Wen-Pin CHIEN, Jun Märkl, Kuokman LIO, Li-Pin CHENG, Paul Tien-Chi LIN, Wen-chen CHUANG, Huei-Ming TWU, Yu-An CHANG, Dorin Frandes, Christopher CHEN, Pyoung-Young LIM, Yao-Yu WU, Perry SO, Aikuang SUN, Shu-Ling LU, Yin-Fang CHANG, Yu Min LIU, Wen-Hsien Chang, Tingyuh WU, Chen-Sheng LEE, Tzu-Cheng WANG, Po-Hsiu CHIEN, Ulrich Riehl, Tzu Yi Chien, Yen-Ching LU, Wei-Che Hung, collaborated with outstanding musicians: Shien-Ta SU, Richard LIN, William WEI, Li-Wei QIN, Chun-Chieh YEN, and in the coming season, he will share the stage with conductor Bobby Collins and Hsieh Wei-Min. Born in Taipei, Yi-Chi LU studied music at the University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna and received the ‘Cziffra Prize’ in recognition of his exceptional performance. He later received Konzertexamen from the University of the Arts Berlin and won 13 top prizes in international competitions such as Sendai and J.N. Hummel. LU currently holds assistant professorships at the Taipei National University of the Arts.
Born in Brunswick Germany, Rolf-Peter Wille graduated from the Musikhochschule Hannover and received a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music in 1987. He has appeared as soloist with various orchestras, including the Moscow Philharmonic, Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and all the Orchestras in Taiwan. He collaborated with conductors such as Vassily Sinaisky, Lawrence Foster, Henry Mazer, Alexander Rudin, Felix Chen etc. As chamber musician he performed with members of the New York Philharmonic, flutist Andras Adorjan, cellists Nathaniel Rosen, Alexander Rudin, Violinists Daniel Heifetz, Ilya Grubert and many others.
Wille has taught at the Taipei National University of the Arts since 1987. Wille and his wife, pianist Lina Yeh, have toured and recorded extensively as a piano duo, with albums released on the Philips, PolyGram and Universal labels. Wille and Yeh were awarded the National Cultural Award in 1990 and the Friendship Medal of Diplomacy in 2010. Their 30-year anniversary album (Rolf-Peter Wille and Lina Yeh: 30 Years of Piano Duo) won the Golden Melody Award in 2010 for best performance and best classical album.
Photo: Universal Music Chi-He Chou
Andrei Yeh is one of the most reputable Taiwanese pianists of this generation. Trained in the renowned Russian piano discipline of Heinrich Gustavovich Neuhaus (1888~1964), he was pupil to the great professor Lev Nikolayevich Naumov (1925~2005) at Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. Building on the background of his extensive Russian training, Yeh brings to life a wide repertoire of not only numerous Russian masterpieces, but also Baroque to contemporary, German, Austrian, and French works through his interpretation and technical finesse. Yeh has won much acclaim and praise for his performances. Professor Naumov had spoken of Yeh with praise, “Yeh is a very talented pianist and musician who possesses marvelous technique, is musically gifted and multi-dimensional. The audience gives him a warm reception, and enjoys performances of this original and distinctive musical personality.”
Yeh began his piano education at the age of 7, and he moved on to receive training in Moscow from 1992 to 1999. His residency in Moscow was a pivotal point to the artist, the Russian influences enriched his performance profoundly. During his seven years of residency, Yeh was invited to perform concertos and recitals in many of Russia’s main cities. He achieved the Doctorate of Performing Arts from Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Highest Honors.
Yeh was invited to perform Bartok Piano Concerto No. 2, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1, Prokofiev Piano Concertos (except No. 4 ), Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2, 3, and Paganini Variation, Ravel Piano Concerto for the Left Hand, and Scriabin Prometheus, "The Poem of Fire". His collaborations with orchestra have included appearances with the Russian State Symphony Orchestra, Krasnoyarsk State Symphony Orchestra, Tomsk City Symphony Orchestra, Kemerovo Symphony Orchestra, Ufa Symphony Orchestra (based within the Republic of Bashkirstan), Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra. Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Moments Musicaux, The Taipei Chinese Orchestra, Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, Ju Percussion Group… etc. He has performed with conductors: Tien-Chi Lin, Tao Lin, Wen-Pin Chien, Li-Pin Cheng, En Shao, Paul Ching Po Chiang, Gernot Schmalfus, Roger Epple, David Wroe, Antoni Wit…..etc.
In recitals, Yeh has traveled throughout Russian cities, the European continent, and the United States. He has given performances in concert halls such as the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory Grand Hall, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk Philharmonic Hall, Taiwan National Concert Hall. He also took part in renowned music festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and Salzburg Summer Festival.
Yeh has collaborated in concerts with famous Russian-American violinist Nina Beilina, Russian violinist Tatiana Grindenko, violinist Meng-Pin Wu, trombonist Kuang-Ching Sung , bass vocalist Julian Lo, violinist Pei-Hsuan Wu, cellist Victor Chpiller in piano trios, NSO Chamber Concerts, and other performances.
Released CD recordings of Yeh : In 1999, pieces Yeh recorded and released in Moscow, including Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No.8, and Stravinsky’s “ 3 Movements de Petrouchka ”. In 2013 soloist album (by Archimusic Productions) featuring his interpretation of Beethoven: Diabelli op. 120, for which Yeh was awarded the 25th Golden Melody Awards for Traditional Arts and Music for "Best Classical Interpretation".His newest album "Chopin 27 Études" was released on 2017,October 27 by Universal music Taiwan LTD. Yeh is the first pianist in Taiwan to record an album of the complete 27 Chopin Études.
Yeh now holds a Full Time position as an Professor in the Department of Music at Chinese Culture University, and Adjunct Professor at the Taipei National University of the Arts、National Taiwan Normal University and National Taiwan University of Arts.
For more than thirty years Lina Yeh has been one of Taiwan’s most beloved pianists. Her preeminence as this country’s most unique artist came into sharp focus in 1990 when she received the National Cultural Award in recognition of her achievements in the performing arts. Lina Yeh has performed all over the world as recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and in a piano duo team together with her husband Rolf-Peter Wille.
Her recent concert schedule has included tours in Australia and New Zealand, Eastern Europe, South America and the Caribbean as well as appearances in Finland, Estonia, Germany, Russia, Canada, the United States, and the Far East. As soloists and piano duo she performed with various orchestras, including the Russian National Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Ural State Philharmonic, as well as all major orchstras in Taiwan. She collaborated with conductors such as Mikhail Pletnev, Simon Streatfield, Andrei Boreyko, Henry Mazer, Jajah Ling, Alexander Rudin, Carlo Ponti, Shao - Chia Lü, Wen-Pin Chien, Felix Chen and as chamber musician with violinists Ruggiero Ricci, Fredell Lack, cellists Michael Flaksman, Alexander Rudin, and flutist Robert Aitken. She has made guest appearances at festivals, among others “Braunschweig Classix” festival, Germany, the Banff festival, Canada, the Europe-Asian Piano Duo festival in Sverdlovsk, Russia, Klaaspärlimäng festival in Tallinn, Estonia, and the National Concert Hall series, Taipei.
The artist’s refined musicianship in performing the classical repertoire as well as 20th -century Chinese music has won them great critical acclaim. In 1997 Paul Griffith commented in the New York Times on the strong professional musicianship of her playing. Her latest albums having been released on the Philips and PolyGram labels, Lina Yeh has recorded a substantial part of the two-piano and piano-duet repertoire with Rolf-Peter Wille. Having a diverse cultural and educational background and having graduated from and studied at schools as different as Salzburg, Hanover, Banff, and Juilliard, she has distinguished national careers as professor (Taiwan Normal University), writer and broadcaster as well. Her principal teachers include Jacob Lateiner, Hans Leygraf, Kurt Leimer, and Robert Scholz. She has also worked on contemporary music with John Cage and Robert Aitken.