Acclaimed Pianist Returning to Auburn for Goodwin Hall Performance 2018-01-19

Pianist Tzu-yi Chen will perform a solo piano
recital at Goodwin Hall at 7:30 p.m. on
January 19, 2018. Tickets are $10 for general
public, $5 for students with Auburn
University ID.

Earlier this decade, A Little Lunch Music featured my friend Tzu-yi Chen once or twice yearly for a few years. She's now based in DC teaching and touring internationally. She's amazing. If you can attend this recital at Goodwin Hall, get to the venue early, at least 30 minutes in advance. There's a new policy that is causing Goodwin concerts to fill up pretty quickly with Music Appreciation students. Click here for the event page. I'm helping to promote the event. Below is our news release. -PMc

Tzu-yi Chen Performing Music by Franck, Beethoven, Debussy, Stravinsky, Ugay

Auburn, AL – On Friday, January 19, 2018, at 7:30 p.m., award-winning Taiwanese pianist Tzu-yi Chen will perform a ticketed recital at Goodwin Music Hall, 320 West Samford Avenue, Auburn University. Tickets are $10 for general public and $5 for students with Auburn University ID. They can be purchased at the door or online at aub.ie/music.

After 5:00 p.m., on-campus parking is available in areas marked A or B or in the Stadium Parking Deck at 350 Duncan Dr.

Chen will perform César Franck’s “Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue;” Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 32, Op. 111 in C-minor;” Three preludes by Claude Debussy; and Igor Stravinsky’s “The Firebird,” a ballet suite arranged for solo piano by Guido Agusti. She will also perform a new piece by Liliya Ugay, “carillons à musique."

In 2014, Chen made her Carnegie Hall debut in that historic venue’s Weill Recital Hall for the Distinguished Concerts International New York series. Frank Daykin of New York Concert Review called the performance “Magnificent.”

“She displayed not only the usual technical command one expects, but beautiful tone, total artistic involvement, deep feeling, stylistic understanding, and in an era of cookie-cutter musicians, the feeling of spontaneity, even risk, that makes an evening truly memorable, often electrifying,” Daykin wrote.

As a student and then teacher and performer living in Columbus, Georgia, between 2011 and 2014, Chen performed on separate occasions in Auburn at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art. Returning to the area for concerts in Columbus and Atlanta, she says she is looking forward to also appearing in the university’s recital hall. “When I lived in Columbus, I always wanted to perform at Goodwin,” Chen said. “I am thrilled to have this opportunity.”

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen studied piano when she was very young. She says when she was three, she idolized her five-year-old brother, insisting on sitting with him during his piano lessons. Over time, the teacher observed this quiet, attentive toddler, and enrolled her in private study. “I was overtaken by the music,” Chen said.

Chen has earned degrees from the Paris Conservatory, the National Karlsruhe Music University in Germany, and Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. After graduation from Columbus State, she co-founded the International Friendship Ministries’ Arts Academy to teach children and youth.

Her award-winning career has taken Chen around the world performing solo recitals, chamber music projects, and with orchestras. Since 2014, she has been based in the Washington, D.C. area, teaching at the Levine School of Music and serving on the music staff at the Taiwanese Presbyterian Church.

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