This morning on Introductions, we’re going live again: 17-year-old Harry Zhang delivers a solo recital of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Liebermann, and Prokofiev. Thank you to Delmark Records for allowing WFMT to broadcast live from their Riverside Studios in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood.
Harry Zhang was the first-place winner of the 2020 Steinway Piano Competition Chicago Regionals, 2020 Illinois State Music Teachers Association Piano Competition, and 2020 Beethoven with a View International Competition. He is also the second-place winner of the 2021 Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition and the 2020 Piano Star International Competition, and gold medalist of the 2019 New York Schubert International Music Competition.
He was featured in the 36th Young Steinway Concert Series and has performed at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Nichols Concert Hall, Northeastern University Recital Hall, Indiana University’s Auer and Ford-Crawford halls, and Make Music Chicago. Harry was invited to perform at both the Carnegie Hall as one of the winners of the 2020 American Protégé Competition and the Music Institute of Chicago’s 2020 Anniversary Gala honoring pianist Evgeny Kissin.
Harry has participated in piano masterclasses of Dr Svetlana Belsky, Dr Robert Weirich, Dr Peter Miyamoto, Professor Asaf Zohar of Tel Aviv University, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian of the Lincoln Trio.
He has devoted his summers to further hone his piano skills at the Curtis Institute of Music, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Chicago Chamber Music Festival, and the Chicago Duo Piano Festival. Harry has been a Merit Scholar at the Music Institute of Chicago for the past three years, where he studies piano with Dr Soo Young Lee.
Playlist
Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1:
Prelude and Fugue No. 18 in G-sharp minor, BWV 863
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-Flat, Op. 31, No. 3:
I. Allegro
II. Scherzo
III. Menuetto
IV. Presto con fuoco
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor
Lowell Liebermann: Gargoyles, Op. 29:
I. Presto
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat, Op. 83:
III. Precipitato
