Friday, April 21st, 2023, 7:30 pm
Piano on Park Live presents:
Eden Chen (piano)
Points of Departure
Handel - Allemande and Sarabande from Suite HWV 440 in B Flat Major (and Variant)
Chen Yi - Ji-Dong-Nuo
Ravel - Le Tombeau de Couperin (1914 - 1917)
Prelude
Fugue
Menuet
Toccata
Prokofiev - Visions Fugitives, Op. 22 (1915 - 1917)
Lentamente
Andante
Allegretto
Animato
Pittoresco
Commodo
Allegretto tranquillo
Ridiculosamente
Feroce
Rachmaninoff/Wild -
Where Beauty Dwells, Op. 21 No. 7
Dreams, Op. 38 No. 5
Scriabin - Etude Op. 8 No. 12 in D sharp minor (1894, Variant)
In 1924, Sergei Prokofiev and Maurice Ravel and played a well-documented game of chess. Beginning from identical positions, each man’s play diverges more and more with each passing move. Likewise, Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin exhibit this very symmetry: they begin on the exact same chord, and take us through the composers’ responses to the tumult of the First World War. In both sets, each movement is dedicated to a friend, and evoke the afterimages of a passing old world.
The preceding pieces play with how subtle changes percolate into memories, through alternate visions of familiar pieces, uncanny rhythmic and ornamental similarities, and poignant text. Like in memory, these small and organic alterations open up new vistas of meaning. Accordingly, each selection offers glimpses of hope and joy. Music, as chess does, transmutes conflict into art and play.
Eden Chen has performed extensively in concert halls around the world and in local communities. His artistic impact is enriched by work with other musical genres, fashion, visual arts, and social enterprise. Eden’s performance highlights include recitals at Wigmore Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Pritzker Pavilion. He was also invited to perform at the Grammy Salute to Classical Concert with distinguished artists such as Grammy Award winner Ledisi in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium. Eden is a Young Scholar Alum of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, and a Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist.
Eden’s solo performances have taken him to Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, England, and China. He was guest artist of the Leeds Piano Festival, organized by the Leeds International Piano Competition and has given five performances in Weill Recital Hall, as well as two performances in Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. Eden’s collaborations include performance at Helen Yarmak International for New York Fashion Week and recording with Lang Lang and Deutsche Grammophon for the Disney film, "The Nutcracker and the Four Realms”. He has appeared alongside Lang Lang at JBLFest, The City of Shenzhen’s Exposition in New York, and the Swiss Alps Classics series in Andermatt. He was also featured online by Grammy Award-winning soprano Isabel Leonard and Pianist Magazine. As concerto soloist, Eden has performed with the Torun Symphony in Poland, the Virtuosi Brunensis in Italy, Midwest Young Artists Symphony in Chicago, and the Antelope Valley Symphony in California.
Eden regularly plays for addiction rehabilitation centers, senior homes, and children’s hospitals. He has shared music with thousands of schoolchildren in school visits, including one for an audience of 1,200 in the Leeds Town Hall, and performed two benefit concerts in Zhongshan, China, at the Zhongshan Culture and Art Center. Eden’s virtual performances include Copland’s Appalachian Spring with the Juilliard Green Club and the inaugural “Play it Forward'' virtual concert presented by the Lang Lang Foundation. Eden received the Gluck Community Service Fellowship for designing virtual performances for populations most socially isolated by COVID-19.
Under Hung-Kuan Chen, Eden will graduate from The Juilliard School’s Master of Music program in 2023, and holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, supported by the Gina Bachauer Grant, Celia and Joseph Ascher Fund, and the Judy Gelfand Piano Scholarship. Eden received the New Horizons Fellowship, a full scholarship to the Aspen Music Festival and School.
A multi-faceted artist, Eden has distinguished himself with performances running the gamut from harpsichord to prepared piano. His interdisciplinary work includes dance, animation, and literature, a highlight of which was a program featuring John Milton’s poem, Paradise Lost, and the visual art of Spanish artist Pablo Auladell.
Eden is founder of Goldfinch, a social enterprise bringing healthcare benefits to classical musicians. He is the first Juilliard graduate to earn admission to Columbia Business School’s more competitive Deferred MBA program, where he will gain innovative business insights to supplement his excellence as a modern performer and leader in classical music.