Hung-Kuan Chen

• Pianist
• Teacher

Biography

Hung-Kuan Chen has appeared in the music capitals of Asia, Europe and the Americas and collaborated with many major orchestras including Houston, Baltimore, Israel, Montréal, Pittsburgh, the Tonhalle, San Francisco and Shanghai. He has performed with highly esteemed conductors; Hans Graf, Christoph Eschenbach, George Cleve, Josef Silverstein, Andrew Parrett and Sui Lan; and colleagues including Yo-Yo Ma, Cho-Liang Lin, Roman Totenberg, Denes Zsigmondy, Bion Tsang, Anthony Gigliotti, David Shifrin, and Laurence Lesser and pianists Tema Blackstone and Pi-hsien Chen. Mr. Chen has served as Chair of the Piano Department of the Shanghai Conservatory, and is the Director of the International Piano Academy in Shanghai.

In September 2009, he was appointed to the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 1992 Hung-Kuan Chen suffered an injury to his hand which caused neurological damage and eventually resulted in Focal Dystonia. Through Qi Gong meditation and his own unique research he was able to heal and return to his life as a concert artist. His first post-accident solo recital in March of 1998 received rave reviews and he was described as a transformed artist. Following his 2006 Jordan Hall concert, Richard Dyer wrote in The Boston Globe,” Hung-Kuan Chen is back in prime technical form after years of struggle following an injury, but those years have made him a different pianist, and a better one.

This man plays music with uncommon understanding and the instrument with uncommon imagination.”