About the artist
Award-winning virtuoso pianist
The American pianist Claire Huangci, winner of the 2018 Geza Anda Competition, continuously fascinates audiences with her “radiant virtuosity, artistic sensitivity, keen interactive sense and subtle auditory dramaturgy” (Salzburger Nachrichten). With an irrepressible curiosity and penchant for unusual repertoire, she proves her versatility with a wide range of repertoire spanning from Bach and Scarlatti via German and Russian romanticism to Bernstein, Gulda, Gershwin and Corigliano.
Career
Claire Huangci began her international career at the age of nine with concert performances and competition victories. After studying with Eleanor Sokoloff and Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, she moved to Germany in 2007 for further studies with Arie Vardi at the Hannover Musikhochschule, graduating with honors in 2016 and assisting him. Early in her career, she stood out as an expressive interpreter of Chopin, winning first prizes at the European Chopin competition and US National Chopin competition in 2009 and 2010. She was also the youngest participant to receive second prize at the International ARD Music Competition in 2011. In 2019, Claire was awarded the grand prize at the Chambre Orchestre de Paris Play-Direct academy, chaired by Lars Vogt.
On Stage
In solo recitals and with international orchestras, Claire Huangci has appeared in some of the most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall Tokyo, NCPA Beijing, Paris Philharmonie, Munich Gasteig, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Salzburg Festspielhaus and the Budapest Franz Liszt Akademie. She is a welcome guest of renowned festivals including the Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival and Klavier Festival Ruhr. Her esteemed musical partners include the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, ORF Radio Orchester Vienna, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, together with Elim Chan, Michael Francis, Howard Griffiths, Thomas Guggeis, Pietari Inkinen, Jun Märkl, Cornelius Meister, Sir Roger Norrington, Eva Ollikainen, Alexander Shelley, Markus Stenz, Mario Venzago and Christian Zacharias.
In the 2023/24 season, Claire Huangci intensifies her educational commitment in collaboration with the Swiss Animato Foundation. As director of the Orchestra Academy, she will perform as soloist and conductor at the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Mozarteum Salzburg among other venues, as part of an European tour. In addition to her engagements with various national and international orchestras, Claire Huangci gives piano recitals at the Bern Master Concerts, the Liszt Festival Raiding, the Casa de Música Porto, the Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid and the Prinzregententheater in Munich.
Recordings
Her extensive discography also reflects Claire's artistic versatility. Her most recent album of Mozart concertos together with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and Howard Griffiths (Alpha Classics) received high critical acclaim. A 3-CD box set of Schubert's late sonatas, the Drei Klavierstücke and a selection of songs from Schwanengesang with baritone Thomas E. Bauer will be released at her 10-year anniversary at Berlin Classics in the fall of 2023. Her debut CD in 2013 with solo works by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev was followed by her double album of Scarlatti sonatas, which won the “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” and the Grammophone Editor's Choice Award. In addition to a complete recording of Chopin's Nocturnes and Rachmaninoff's Préludes, her discography also includes rarities such as Paderewski's Piano Concerto and a complete recording of Bach's Toccatas. Claire Huangci is an ambassador for Henle publishing company.
