Haochen Zhang

Since his gold medal win at the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2009, 26-year-old Chinese pianist Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination and spectacular virtuosity.

He has already appeared with many of the world’s leading festivals and concert series and following his performance of Liszt Concerto No. 1 at the BBC Proms with Yu Long and the China Philharmonic received rave reviews: ‘He made the Allegretto dance with Mendelssohnian lightness and Lisztian diablerie, and played the melody of the Quasi Adagio with melting softness.’Ivan Hewitt, The Telegraph.

A popular guest soloist for many tour orchestras in his native China, Haochen made his debut in Munich with the Munich Philharmonic and the late maestro Lorin Maazel in April 2013, preceding their sold-out tour. Haochen has also toured in China with the Sydney Symphony and David Robertson, in Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai with the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock and following a performance in December 2014 with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in Beijing, Mo. Gergiev immediately invited him to his Easter Festival in Moscow, Russia.

Highlights of the 16/17 season include a new recital CD, to be released by BIS in February, which includes works of Schumann, Brahms, Janacek and Liszt; extensive recital and concerto tours in Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong and Japan; return engagements with Philadelphia Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony and the Pacific Symphony Orchestra.Haochen will also give recitals in San Francisco, Palma de Malloca, Imola, Helsingborg, among others. He makes his debuts with the RTV Slovenia and Asturias Symphony Orchestras, and will tour Europe with the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra having been their resident artist in the previous season.

In past seasons, Haochen Zhang has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony, London Symphony, Japan Philharmonic Singapore Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras.In recital he has performed at Spivey Hall, La Jolla Music Society, Celebrity Series of Boston, CU Artist Series, Cliburn Concerts, Krannert Center, Wolf Trap Discovery Series, Lied Center of Kansas and UVM Lane Series, among others. International tours have taken him to cities including Beijing, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Munich, Paris, Dresden, Rome, Tivoli, Verbier, Montpellier, Helsingborg, Bogota and Belgrade.Haochen is also an avid chamber musician, collaborating with colleagues such as the Shanghai String Quartet, Benjamin Beilman and is frequently invited by chamber music festivals in the US.

Haochen’s performances at the Cliburn Competition were released to critical acclaim by Harmonia Mundi in 2009. He is also featured in Peter Rosen’s award-winning documentary chronicling the 2009 Cliburn Competition, A Surprise in Texas. His complete competition performances are available on www.cliburn.tv.

Haochen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he studied under Gary Graffman. He was previously trained at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Shenzhen Arts School, where he was admitted in 2001 at the age of 11 to study with Professor Dan Zhaoyi.

For more information, please visit:www.haochenzhang.com

Reviews:

Los Angeles Philharmonic debut
Chopin's Andante Spiniato and Grand Polonaise isn't heard as much these days as it used to be either. It is not Chopin at his best, as even Orrin Howard had to admit in his program note. The orchestral part is without interest. Chopin performed it only once.

But the piano writing has elegance, and Haochen Zhang, the gold medal winner of the 2009 Van Cliburn competition, played it with panache. He is a chic young pianist who displays brilliance without undo flashiness and will be worth watching.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-la-phil-chinese-new-year-review-20150221-column.html
Los Angeles Times / Mark Swed

BBC PROM Reviews /Prom No. 2 19 July 2014
Long Yu / China Philharmonic / Haochen Zhang Liszt Concerto no. 1

THE TELEGRAPH
Long Yu’s matter-of-fact decisiveness was actually an advantage in the constant tempo changes of Liszt’s concerto. It provided a firm frame for pianist Haochen Zhang, who proved to be something special. He made the Allegretto dance with Mendelssohnian lightness and Lisztian diablerie, and played the melody of the Quasi Adagio with melting softness, placing a daring pause before the repeat. That was the evening’s best moment,( though there were beautiful episodes of dreamy nostalgia in Chen’s concerto)

By Ivan Hewett

CLASSICALSOURCE.COM
http://www.classicalsource.com/db_control/db_prom_review.php?id=12126

In Liszt’s First Piano Concerto Haochen Zhang, Gold Medal Winner at the 2009 Van Cliburn Piano Competition, showed himself to be another very fine artist from the People’s Republic. He brought a very individual approach to the work, often unexpected in choice of phrase and changes of pulse, but intriguingly re-creative and usually convincing. Also unexpected was a fairly substantial break of several seconds between the opening Allegro maestoso and the work’s second section (the work plays continuously). But the unusual ploy seemed to make sense on this occasion. As an encore Zhang played Liszt’s La campanella, again in an attractively quirky fashion.

By Alan Sanders

THE GUARDIAN
The two very different concertos at the programme's centre were more satisfactory. Haochen Zhang was the soloist in Liszt's First Piano Concerto, flamboyantly moody throughout and injecting some much-needed passion into proceedings. After the interval came the UK premiere of Joie Eternelle, a set of variations on a traditional Chinese melody for trumpet and orchestra, written for Alison Balsom by Qigang Chen, Shanghai-born, Paris-based and a pupil of Messiaen.

By Tim Ashley

FINANCIAL TIMES
Of the evening’s two soloists, one was Chinese, the other British. Haochen Zhang brought lithe energy, crystal clarity and (once past the crunching wrong notes of the opening flourish) impressive precision to Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

By Richard Fairman

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