Friday, 26 November, 2021 | 6:00 PM

Chelsea Wong

Entrepreneur, inventor, new music aficionada: the up-and-coming Tin Yi Chelsea Wong has already made an impact on multiple fronts as a piano soloist, improviser and chamber musician. Passionate about bringing both new and traditional music to the people, she has performed at Flower Piano and launched her own series, Piano at the Palace.


Listen

Program

Gabriela Lena Frank (1972-)
Karnavalito No. 1

Jonathan Bailey Holland (1974-)
Intimacy of Harmony

Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969)
Ten Concert Etudes for Piano: Nos. 1, 3

Zosha Di Castri (1985-)
Thinking Eye

György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Études Pour Piano, Premier Livre, No. 4: Fanfares

Viet Cuong (1990-)
Veil (2013)

Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013)
Piano Sonata, III. Chorale et Variations

About the artist

Pianist Tin Yi Chelsea Wong has taken a wide variety of concert stages. From Wienersaal in Salzburg and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, to unconventional yet intimate GroupMuses, and Airbnb concert series, her programming blends classical and contemporary repertoire. Her performances at San Francisco Botanical Garden “Flower Piano” paired Crumb’s Makrokosmos II with Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes, and Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor (piano, four-hands) with Novak’s Rustica Musa II. In her earlier Ross McKee Foundation Piano Break, she presented the Bach/Brahms Chaconne for Left Hand with Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin and Oscar Peterson’s Hymn to Freedom.

An advocate of contemporary music, Tin Yi Chelsea Wong is a founding member of contemporary vocal ensemble Mouthscape Choir. She premiered Ilya Demutsky’s Skomoroshina, commissioned through the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) Hoefer Prize, choreographed and performed at San Francisco Ballet; other premieres include Lukas Janata’s Echi, Ryan Brown’s Mortal Lessons. Fluent in free improvisation and focusing on extended techniques, Tin Yi Chelsea Wong invented the Harmonic Capo to expand the potential of the instrument. Her current project is to advance the prototype, while seeking collaborations and commissioning composers to create new possibilities for the piano repertoire.

Tin Yi Chelsea Wong served as a faculty member at New York University Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, while studying with Alan Feinberg. She graduated from SFCM with a Master’s degree and the President’s award, studying in the studios of Yoshikazu Nagai and Paul Hersh, and received her Bachelor degree from The Boston Conservatory (magna cum laude) under the guidance of Ya-Fei Chuang. In her free time, Chelsea enjoys collecting rare succulents, preparing 10 person+ feasts, boardgames, and rock climbing.

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