Dr. Hao Huang, acclaimed pianist and professor of music at Scripps College, will present a solo program Sunday, September 18, at 3 p.m. featuring Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in C minor, Opus 111 and Schumann’s Carnaval, Opus 9. The faculty recital will take place in Balch Auditorium on the Scripps College campus. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the Scripps College Music Department at (909) 621-8280.
Winner of various prestigious international music awards including the Van Cliburn Piano Award at Interlochen, Dr. Huang has gained acclaim in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Dr. Huang performed as a featured soloist at the George Enescu International Music Festival and the Barcelona Cultural Olympiad. He has also appeared with the Timisoara “Banatul” Philharmonic, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, and more. A graduate of Harvard University, the Juilliard School, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he is the chair of music and artist-in-residence at Scripps College and head of piano faculty at Claremont Graduate University.
Dr. Huang’s performance will include the Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Opus 111, the last of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano sonatas, written in 1821-1822. This is a piece rich in drama, passion, and intellectual depth, integrating heroic outbursts with intricate fugal counterpoint. The sonata is a monument to his conviction that problems facing humanity can be resolved if they can be recognized for what they are and be the subjects of conscious transformation. Schumann’s Carnaval, Opus 9 consisting of 21 pieces for piano, was written in 1834-1835. The piece, one of the most beloved works for piano, is a series of tableaux, a masked ball in which one character after another takes centre-stage.
This concert afternoon is sponsored by the Scripps College Music Department, which seeks to offer many opportunities for music study and performance to music majors and other interested students who attend The Claremont Colleges. The program offers a supportive and intimate environment in order to stimulate productive means of personal and artistic fulfillment for the students involved.