Description:

Praised by Fanfare Magazine for her “astonishing” and “poetic piano playing” and “symphonic, expansive texture of breathless virtuosity” (Historical Keyboard Society), pianist Chi-Chen Wu has appeared as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand, the Aspen Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, and the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe Concert Series, among others. Her concerts have been broadcast on NPR’s Simply Grand Concert Series and NPR-From The Top in Boston. Musicians and conductors with whom she has concertized include Karl-Heinz Steffens, Jonathan McPhee, Zuill Bailey, members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Takács String Quartet, musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra as well as New York Philharmonic. American Record Guide chooses her recording of Schumann duo sonatas as one of the top recordings, and recommends its reader to “Stick with Kremer and Argerich (Nov/Dec 1987) or DiEugenio and Wu (Sept/Oct 2015) for more enthusiastic performances.”

A native of Taiwan and prize winner of several Taiwanese national piano competitions, Wu came to the United States for graduate study and received two master’s degrees, piano performance and collaborative piano, and a doctorate from New England Conservatory (NEC), where her teachers included Jacob Maxin, Irma Vallecillo, John Moriarty, Kayo Iwama, and John Greer. She has also worked with Thomas Quasthoff, Martin Katz, Kim Kashkashian, Lawrence Lesser, and Gabriel Chodos. Upon her graduation from NEC with Distinction in Performance and Academic Honors, she was appointed Assistant Professor at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU).

In 2007, Dr. Wu accepted a position of visiting scholar at Cornell University, where she taught piano, studied fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson, and conducted research on historical performance practice with Neal Zaslaw. Continuing with her research interests, in the summer of 2011 she presented a research paper on Schumann’s metronome markings at World Piano Conference in Serbia. This paper received “Diploma of Excellence” from the World Piano Teachers Association, the highest accolade of this organization. Her most recent paper “Pianist as Portrayer of Imagery in ‘En Sourdine’ by Fauré and Debussy” was published as a featured article in the September/October 2017 issue of Journal of Singing.

An interpreter of contemporary music, Chi-Chen Wu was the official pianist of Aggregate, a Boston-based composers group and was pianist in the premier of the piano version of John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. She world premiered The Poet and The War by Norber Palej. Recently, she performed Malcolm Williamson’s Concerto No. 2 as soloist with Pacifica Chamber Orchestra in Seattle.

Chi-Chen’s newest album of Schumann Fantasie and Carnaval has won a silver medal in the Global Music Awards. Her recording of the complete Schumann sonatas for piano and violin received two gold medals from the same competition. It was also named in the Top 10 "Best Classical Recordings of 2015" by The Big City, New York. She has recorded Haydn Lieder on a replica of Walter fortepiano with soprano Andrea Folan for Musica Omnia. Her recital and discussion on piano collaboration are featured on the DVD “Performing the Score” released in 2011. This year’s engagements include performance as soloists in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, Wölfl’s Concerto No. 1, and tour in Spain.

Dr. Wu is Associate Professor of Piano and Coordinator of Collaborative Piano at the University of Wyoming (UW). Her students have been prizewinners in numerous competitions, including the northwest division of the MTNA competition, and have been accepted for graduate study to the Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, McGill University, Conservatoire de Paris and other such institutions. She was selected as one of the Top 10 Teachers of 2017 at UW and recently won Extraordinary Merit in Research Award. Chi-Chen is represented by Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates.