Bethel brings another internationally known pianist to perform on campus.
Brian Keng-Lun Hsu comes to Kansas from the University of Oregon, where he is associate professor of piano. His recital is Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. in the Administration Building chapel, and is free and open to the public.
Since his concerto debut at 16 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Hsu has gone on to establish himself as a pianist of great energy and unusual communicative ability. Critics have noted his “breadth of expression and technical ability.”
Hsu, who is Taiwanese-American, has performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, as well as South Africa.
He has appeared as a concerto soloist with such ensembles as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Sendai Philharmonic and University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra.
He has also been a guest on WQXR radio in New York, and performed in various music festivals, including the Amalfi Coast Music Festival, the Gijon International Piano Festival, the Eastern Music Festival and the Banff Festival.
Hsu’s U.S. debut solo recording, Night at the Opera: Part I, opera transcriptions for solo piano, was released in 2018.
An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Hsu frequently performs with colleagues throughout the music world. In 2011, he participated in the world premiere of Paul Schoenfeld’s Piano Quintet with members of the Pro Artes quartet, recorded for Albany Records in 2014.
In 2016, he premiered Logan Skelton’s Letters to Santa with voice alumni of Loyola University-New Orleans, and earlier this year, he premiered Skelton’s Gershwin song transcriptions for two pianos.
Hsu’s piano trio, Ensemble Peri, completed its inaugural tour in Korea in the summer of 2019.
Hsu has served as a staff accompanist at Juilliard, Yale University, the University of Michigan and the Eastern Music Festival, and as staff pianist, faculty and assistant to the director at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy.
He frequently performs, presents and teaches at colleges and universities throughout the United States and Asia, and collaborates with various artists and faculty.
Hsu’s primary teachers include Logan Skelton, Peter Frankl, Jerome Lowenthal, Yoheved Kaplinsky and Wha-Kyung Byun. He has degrees from the Juilliard School, the Yale University School of Music and the University of Michigan.
Future engagements can be found at www.brian-hsu.com
Bethel is a four-year liberal arts college founded in 1887 and is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Bethel was the first Kansas college or university to be named a Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Center, in 2021. For more information, see http://www.bethelks.edu
