//www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/Blog.html Being a pianist trains your body, your mind and your heart - just what you need to use to get along in this world! You can also see parts of this blog at this site. iWeb 1.1.2 //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/Blog_files/001_4.png //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/Blog.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/42EF0FBA-9F89-4057-9F36-7CED8F9D1FD8.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/42EF0FBA-9F89-4057-9F36-7CED8F9D1FD8.html Thu, 23 Apr 2009 10:25:28 -0400 After playing at Lincoln Center's newly re-opened Alice Tully Hall a few weeks ago (Chamber Music Society's Prokofiev Festival), I was very eager to play a solo piano recital in the hall - or at least hear a piano recital! The very successful renovation did relatively little to the acoustics as heard from the stage - I had always found it a pleasant if not rewarding stage to play on, for chamber m //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/663DA19F-E737-4F91-9B14-8FFBF9DA508A.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/663DA19F-E737-4F91-9B14-8FFBF9DA508A.html Mon, 8 Jun 2009 10:23:59 -0400 While attending the Van Cliburn Competition last week (another blog entry later!), there was a symposium on the topic of diplomacy and the arts. On stage were two former diplomats, two current cultural attaches – from Russia and from Italy – and James Conlon. One relatively quick mention by Maestro Conlon on the role of patronage in the arts caught my attention. He said that “great art always has //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/1B4D3B7D-8A4A-4F55-97E0-2D33859EA4F4.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/1B4D3B7D-8A4A-4F55-97E0-2D33859EA4F4.html Tue, 14 Jul 2009 09:22:45 -0400 It's been a few weeks already, but still the memory of this visit to the Instituto Baccarelli persists - the energy, the incredible talent, the intensity of the work ethic. The Instituto is located in the favela of Sao Paulo, and the children who attend the school live among drug dealers, prostitutes, the most needy and the most troubled of the incredibly huge city. In the spirit of the Youth Orch //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/DF0F2B0E-7051-443A-9F6D-3FF72BD3054C.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/DF0F2B0E-7051-443A-9F6D-3FF72BD3054C.html Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:21:28 -0400 It was a fortuitous meeting at a private home after a concert (Josh played with orchestra, and I was not part of the concert that night). The pianist Cristina Ortiz was there. She was a friend of the host, and passing through Sao Paulo. We greeted each other as if old friends, that strange condition of "celebrity" (within the classical music world, at least) making our life story familiar to the o //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/EDEFBAD0-8F41-4194-9602-FD851E84ADCA.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/EDEFBAD0-8F41-4194-9602-FD851E84ADCA.html Sat, 5 Sep 2009 10:20:11 -0400 One of my activities this summer was a visit to our nation's capitol, mixing business and pleasure. Over a hot summer weekend, while the rest of the family went on day-long hikes to the monuments and various Smithsonian museums, I spent the days listening to wonderful amateur pianists, competing in the Washington International Piano Artist Competition. The Gardeckis are the main force behind the e //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/A476408D-4A6C-499F-9F49-71A0DC7FDD72.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/A476408D-4A6C-499F-9F49-71A0DC7FDD72.html Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:14 -0400 Thanks to good weather and competent airlines, I was able to go from the Liszt Society Festival directly to the American Pianists Association’s final evening concert and award ceremony. The juxtaposition of the two made me reflect on the role of competitions today, compared to their role during Liszt’s time. Liszt did win a major competition, an informal one for the favor of the Princesse Belgioj //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/D13CC039-5E72-462F-8297-DF92F43A5F8E.html //www.fredericchiu.com/Frederic%20Chiu%20Official%20Website/Blog/D13CC039-5E72-462F-8297-DF92F43A5F8E.html Mon, 6 Apr 2009 09:26:00 -0400 The weekend was a highlight for this particular Liszt fan - the annual festival/conference of the American Liszt Society. The main reason was the presence of the 1886 Bechstein concert grand in the middle of the grand foyer of the Spencer Museum of Art on the University of Kansas campus, a beautiful instrument preserved in sight and in sound. Being a museum piece, the parts were almost all origina