What the Piano Holds invites audiences into an intimate evening of solo piano with internationally acclaimed pianist Claire Huangci. The program traces what a single instrument can carry across a century of voices: the rigor of Corigliano, the intimacy of Tokuyama, the singing line of Zhou Tian, the architectural depth of Rochberg. At its heart is the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission by Grammy-nominated composer Zhou Tian, who joins Huangci in attendance to celebrate the milestone.
John Corigliano's Etude Fantasy opens the program: a major work of late twentieth-century piano literature that sets out the technical and expressive demands of the evening. Minako Tokuyama's Musica Nara follows, drawing on the deep cultural memory of Nara, Japan's ancient capital, in a meditation on stillness and resonance. Zhou Tian's Prelude anticipates the larger commission to come, offering a first taste of the lyrical, harmonically rich voice that has made Tian one of the most performed Chinese-American composers of his generation.
The world premiere of Zhou Tian's Nova Linea Musica commission sits at the center of the program. A Grammy-nominated composer whose music has been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra, Tian writes with an unusual gift for melody and a deep sensitivity to the piano as a singing instrument. Hearing his Prelude and his new commission side by side offers a rare window into a composer's voice across time, and into what Huangci, performing both, brings to a piece written expressly for her.
The evening closes with George Rochberg's Partita-Variations, a sprawling and deeply human work that gathers the strands of the program into a final, resonant statement. Rochberg's late embrace of tonal language and historical reference makes Partita-Variations a fitting close: a piece that holds, within itself, what the piano has held across centuries.
Claire Huangci gained international acclaim by winning First Prize and the Mozart Prize at the 2018 Concours Géza Anda, with additional honors at both Chopin Competitions, the ARD International Music Competition, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris Play-Direct Academy. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Gary Graffman and Eleanor Sokoloff, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall, the Philharmonie de Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Festspielhaus Salzburg. Her recent Alpha Classics releases include a Mozart concerto album with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and the all-American solo disc Made in USA, with a 2026 release focused on German and American female composers.
Tonight's program continues Nova Linea Musica's commitment to resourcing the creation of new chamber music and bringing composers, performers, and listeners into the same room: an evening with one of the most compelling pianists of her generation, in honor of what the piano holds.
