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A fearless performer with seemingly limitless imagination and possessed with uncanny energy, pianist Han Chen plays scores old and new with rare rigor and insight.

Alex Ross, classical music critic of The New Yorker, who selected Mr. Chen’s Naxos disc of the Ligeti Études and Capriccios as a “Notable Classical Recording of 2023,” characterized him as follows: “The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Études and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of the [Liszt] opera transcriptions.” –The New Yorker, September 4, 2023

Attending “Infinite Staircase,” Mr. Chen’s recent traversal of the 18 Ligeti Etudes and 18 accompanying world premieres, George Grella titled his review: “Han Chen’s remarkable playing equal to the genius of Ligeti’s Etudes” and went on to exclaim:

...he was astonishing, with some of the finest pianism one has ever witnessed. Beyond sheer dexterity, this was tremendously musical playing, with every phrase clear and pointed in a certain direction, fluid control of dynamics and form, a combination of articulation and force that was hard to believe. One had the feeling that Chen was deep inside the work, opening up every detail of Ligeti’s musical personality. His energy and stamina within each Étude and through the whole concert were extraordinary.

—New York Classical Review, September 25, 2023

Reviewing this event in I Care If You Listen, Lana Norris summarized it as a “marathon of canonical music and new works that displayed exquisite programming, stupendous technique, and forward-thinking expansion of classical music’s best traditions.” —September 28, 2023

Gold Medalist at the 2013 China International Piano Competition and a prizewinner at the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, Mr. Chen has also been praised by Gramophone as “impressively com-manding and authoritative” and further cited by The New York Times for his “graceful touch,” “rhythmic precision” and “hypnotic charm.”

Mr. Chen’s musical vision is manifest in his four solo Naxos CDs focusing on Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Thomas Adès, and György Ligeti’s Complete Piano Études. Reviewing the Ligeti recording in the August 2023 issue of Gramophone, Jed Distler wrote:

[He is] one of the few pianists who handles both gnarly contemporary scores and over-the-top Romantic showpieces with equal authority and style...he surmounts the sophisticated rhythmic challenges of Ligeti's Études to a T, while infusing them with plenty of tonal allure and personality. Chen aims for clarity and balance over sheer speed, yielding steadier results and more cogent interplay between the hands. Within the gorgeous expanding and contracting textures of 'Cordes à vide,' Han makes expressive points through voicing and hand balance alone...[and exhibits] meticulous and consistent détaché/sostenuto differentiation throughout 'Fanfares.' He patiently spins out the shifting rhythmic patterns of 'Entrelacs' as if the keyboard were an expansive and seamless canvas.

Mr. Chen is equally a powerful performer of the classic piano repertoire. Reviewing Mr. Chen performing Beethoven’s Sonata No. 29 Op. 106 Hammerklavier, Lee Eiseman of The Boston Music Intelligencer had this to say:

Oxygenated by powerful intellectual bellows and endowed with muscular forearms, Chen didn’t just hammer Beethoven’s formidably relentless and ever-modern challenge to pianists and listeners; with fire and tempering plunges he alternately annealed, welded, sintered, and sensitively stretched the well-wrought iron into impressive curls and shapely forms. His carefully plotted interpretations conveyed nuance and compelling gesture through very well-graduated colorations and dynamics from white hot to warmly glowing. No two repeated chords sounded the same. Chen’s Beethoven seemed to anticipate Berg and Ligeti on this night.

—August 19, 2023

He has appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, China Symphony Orchestra, and Xiamen Philharmonic. In December 2022 he made his Lincoln Center debut with Riverside Symphony at Alice Tully Hall performing Mozart’s early masterwork, the Piano Concerto No. 9, le Jeunehomme. Mr. Chen has performed as solo recitalist internationally. In demand as a chamber musician, he is a core member of Ensemble Échappé while regularly collaborating with The Metropolis Ensemble. In 2021, Chen launched Migration Music, an ongoing series of performances and interviews with immigrant composers.

Han Chen has studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky, Wha Kyung Byun, and Ursula Oppens at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and CUNY Graduate Center. He is represented by Black Tea Music.

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Updated May 2024. Please discard any earlier versions

陈涵，钢琴家，生于台湾，九岁随父母移居上海。曾获2013年第六届中国国际钢琴比赛金奖，2018年加拿大Honens国际钢琴比赛获奖者、中国音乐家协会钢琴学会评选出的首届华夏琴英称号获得者、拿索斯唱片公司签约钢琴家。其精湛的演出曾被《纽约时报》评为赋有 “优雅的触键、精准的节奏及催眠般的魅力”。

陈涵曾与沃斯堡(Fort Worth)交响乐团、莱克星顿(Lexington)爱乐乐团、茱莉亚学院乐团、加拿大卡尔加里(Calgary)爱乐乐团、仙台爱乐乐团、香港管弦乐团、台湾交响乐团、澳门交响乐团、厦门爱乐乐团、中国交响乐团等著名交响乐团合作演出。

2023年5月，陈涵的第四张独奏专辑由拿索斯公司全球发行，收录了全套利盖蒂Ligeti钢琴练习曲。此专辑被英国《留声机杂志》选为2023年最佳唱片之一。《纽约客》杂志称其为“著名的利盖蒂练习曲诠释者”，并将其选为2023值得注意的古典专辑之一。《纽约古典评论》则称其“令人惊艳并拥有最杰出的钢琴演奏技巧”。

作为现代音乐的推崇者，陈涵委约了18位作曲家以18首利盖蒂练习曲为灵感创作。2023年9月24日，他在布鲁克林的National Sawdust音乐厅连续演奏了上述36首作品，此次音乐会受到大量媒体报道，国际音乐网站Bachtrack称其为“一场盛宴”。

在疫情期间，陈涵在网上定期发布了系列视频Migration Music，采访了十名移民美国的作曲家，并演奏了其钢琴作品。其中包括著名作曲家梁雷、黄若、Vivian Fung等。2023年秋天，陈涵委约著名作曲家梁雷创作了一首长达25分钟左右的钢琴独奏曲，这也是目前梁雷最长的一部钢琴作品。

陈涵先后就读于上海音乐学院附中、纽约朱莉亚音乐学院和新英格兰音乐学院；他的老师包括王冠文副教授、钟听教授、普林斯基教授(Yoheved Kaplinsky)、卞和暻教授(Wha Kyung Byun)和奥本斯教授(Ursula Oppens)。

陈涵目前由经纪公司Black Tea Music经纪演出事务。更多资讯请访问个人网站：www.hanchenpiano.com