After studies at Indiana University and at the Juilliard School, Frederic Chiu began his career in Europe: his recital debut at the Wigmore Hall prompted the Evening Standard's headline "Call of the Wild Genius". He has since performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Cit de la Musique in Paris and the Philharmonie in Berlin. In North America, Frederic Chiu has performed extensively at the Lincoln Center, Newport Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Ambassador Theatre in Pasadena and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
"He has reinvented virtuosity … a phenomenon that must be heard"
Le Monde
Born and raised in America by Chinese immigrant parents, resident of Paris for twelve years, Frederic Chiu's cosmopolitan background brings a unique approach to his music-making.
A master of the recording studio, Frederic Chiu has released over twenty CDs for the Harmonia Mundi label including the complete piano works by Prokofiev recently released in a newly designed package of 10 CDs, a recording project that has elicited enthusiasm from Fanfare to the Wall Street Journal. His release of three rarely played Mendelssohn sonatas was chosen as Record of the Year by Stereo Review and his Liszt CD was reviewed on BBC Radio 3: "As for the playing, my strongest impression is one of reverence"
After studies at Indiana University and at the Juilliard School, Frederic Chiu began his career in Europe: his recital debut at the Wigmore Hall prompted the Evening Standard's headline "Call of the Wild Genius". He has since performed at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Cit de la Musique in Paris and the Philharmonie in Berlin. In North America, Frederic Chiu has performed extensively at the Lincoln Center, Newport Music Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, the Ambassador Theatre in Pasadena and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
His concert activities also include chamber music in which Frederic reserves a special place for the violin/piano repertoire with performers such as Pierre Amoyal, Joshua Bell and Philippe Graffin, the latter with whom he co-founded the festival Consonances in Saint-Nazaire, France.
A recipient of prestigious awards such as the Avery Fisher Career Grant, it was the lack of an award at the 1993 Van Cliburn Competition that first brought him international notoriety : the New York Times referred then to Frederic Chiu as the "maverick American pianist".
As a Prokofiev specialist, Frederic Chiu performed the Russian composer's piano concertos with the Estonia State Symphony and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras, and a series of recitals at the Valery Gergiev Festival in Rotterdam to great acclaim.
