Daniel Hsu, Bronze Medalist From The 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Characterized by the Philadelphia Inquirer as a “poet…[with] an expressive edge to his playing that charms, questions, and coaxes”, eighteen-year-old Daniel Hsu—a 2016 Gilmore Young Artist—is a fast-rising pianist who was recently named the First Prize winner at the 2015 CAG Victor Elmaleh Competition. He has earned top prizes in numerous other competitions, most recently the Bronze medal at the 9th Hamamatsu International Piano Competition in Japan, and first prize at the San Jose International Piano Competition, Pacific Musical Society Piano Competition and San Francisco Chopin Competition.

A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Daniel Hsu began taking piano lessons at age 6 with Larisa Kagan. He made his concerto debut with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra at age 8, and his recital debut at the Steinway Society of the Bay Area at age 9, before being accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 10, along with his two older siblings.

Since then, he has made his debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra (2016) and Carnegie Hall (2017) as part of the CAG Winners Series at Weill Recital Hall. He has appeared in recitals at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, as well as in Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Portland, Pittsburgh, and New York.

A sensitive and keen collaborator, Daniel has performed with the Tokyo, North Carolina, Grand Rapids, Anchorage, New Haven, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, working alongside conductors Leonard Slatkin, Nicholas McGegan, Cristian Măcelaru, Ruth Reinhardt, Marcelo Lehninger, Eugene Tzigane, and Stilian Kirov.

Recent and upcoming highlights include his debuts with the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra with Hannu Lintu, Eugene Symphony with Francesco Lecce-Chong, and Jacksonville Symphony with Courtney Lewis; chamber tours with Curtis-on-Tour (Europe) and the Verona Quartet (United States); and recitals across the United States and Japan. His Boston debut recital in spring 2019 was hailed as a “powerful, thoughtful, and sensitive program… this deeply inquisitive artist’s inner probing brought fresh meaning to great warhorses, reaching well beyond his stunning mastery of technical difficulties” (Boston Musical Intelligencer).

Daniel’s chamber music performance with the Brentano String Quartet at the Cliburn Competition earned him the Steven de Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music. The Dallas Morning News praised “his impassioned, eloquently detailed Franck Quintet,” proclaiming it to be “a boldly molded account, with a natural feeling for the rise and fall of intensity, the give and take of rubato. Both he and the Brentano seemed to be channeling the same life force.” He regularly tours the United States with the Verona Quartet and in duo piano with his brother, Andrew, and appears frequently in chamber music festivals.

Decca Gold released Daniel’s first album featuring live recordings from the Cliburn Competition of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Beethoven’s Piano Sonata, op. 110, as well as his award-winning performance of Marc-André Hamelin’s Toccata on “L’homme armé.” He has also been featured in interviews and performances for WQXR, APM’s Performance Today, and Colorado Public Radio, and was profiled as one to watch by International Piano magazine.

Now 22 years old, Daniel graduated from Curtis in spring 2019, where he studied with Gary Graffman, Robert McDonald, and Eleanor Sokoloff. He is a Marvel film buff and enjoys programming—he contributed to the creation of Workflow (now known as Siri Shortcuts), which won the 2015 Apple Design Award and was acquired by the tech giant in 2017.

ADDITIONAL 2017 CLIBURN AWARDS: Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work

Source: Daniel Hsu