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Wu Han (pianist)
Wu Han (Chinese: 吳菡; pinyin: Wú Hán; born February 19, 1959) is a Taiwanese-American pianist. She rose to prominence through her activities as a concert performer, recording artist, educator, arts administrator, and cultural entrepreneur. She is currently the co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival and Institute in California, and co-founder of ArtistLed. She serves as artistic advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music in the Barns series and The Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach. She was appointed Artistic Director of La Musica in 2022.[1] CareerWu Han began her musical studies in Taipei, Taiwan, at the age of 9. In addition to the piano, she studied two other instruments, viola and percussion. By age 12, Wu Han was playing concerts and competing. Within a few years, she had earned first prizes in all of Taiwan's major competitions. At the invitation of The Hartt School in Connecticut, she traveled to the United States in 1981 to continue her studies with a double major in viola and piano. Wu Han studied with Raymond Hanson, Rudolf Serkin, Herbert Stessin, Lillian Kallir, and Menahem Pressler and attended the Marlboro Music School and Festival for two summers.[2] Wu Han has gone on to perform on many global stages including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Washington's Kennedy Center, and Wigmore Hall in London. She collaborates with a wide array of artists and ensembles including the Borromeo String Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Escher String Quartet, and St. Lawrence Quartet. In recent years,[year needed] Wu Han's repertoire has expanded to include numerous works by a cadre of composers. Works have been commissioned for and dedicated to Wu Han and cellist David Finckel from Bruce Adolphe, Lera Auerbach, Gabriella Lena Frank, Pierre Jalbert, Augusta Read Thomas, and George Tsontakis, and music by several of these composers is featured on ArtistLed's 'For David and Wu Han' album. Partnership with David FinckelWu Han frequently collaborates with cellist David Finckel. The two married in 1985.[3] They regularly perform in chamber music series in the United States, as well as across Europe and Asia. They also appear in trio performances with violinist Philip Setzer and clarinetist David Shifrin, and as a piano quartet with violinist Daniel Hope and violist Paul Neubauer. In 2002, Wu Han developed and trademarked AudioNotes, a complement to program notes. The listener guides are designed to offer audiences introductions to many concert programs presented over the years. In 2003, Wu Han and Finckel co-founded Music@Menlo, an annual chamber music festival.[3] Alumni of both Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute and internship program have gone on to create and direct more than 30 chamber music organizations worldwide.[citation needed] The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln CenterIn 2004, Wu Han and Finckel were appointed Artistic Directors of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City.[4][5] Other appointments / artistic leadershipThe Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts appointed Wu Han as the Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music in the Barns in 2018, and she continues to curate the series today. Wu Han also serves as Artistic Advisor for Classical Music for the Society of the Four Arts. In 2022, she was appointed as the Artistic Director of La Musica in Sarasota, Florida and was invited to serve on the jury of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. Wu Han served as a member of the artist-faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School for many years, and in 2013 established The Finckel-Wu Han Chamber Music Studio, which ran for two weeks each summer through 2019.[6] MediaWu Han has been featured in numerous articles around the globe and has appeared in publications including The Washington Post The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times,[7] Musical America Worldwide, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Toronto Star, New York Newsday, The Mercury News,[8] The Strad, BBC Music Magazine,[9] San Francisco Classical Voice,[10] Concerti Magazine,[11] Music Matters,[12] Musical America,[13] and Tokyo's Ongaku-no-Tomo. On television, she has appeared on Articulate with Jim Cotter, NBC Nightly News, Channel 13 New York Voices and PBS's AHA! A House for the Arts,[14] and has also been a guest on American Public Media's Performance Today, Saint Paul Sunday, and other classical radio programs.[citation needed] Discography
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