Daniel Hsu (born June 27, 1997) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

classical

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

. He won the bronze medal, the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work, and the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music at the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Early life

Born in Fremont, California, Hsu began studying piano at 6 with Larisa Kagan. By age 8, he was the youngest winner of the San Francisco Chopin Competition and had made his concerto debut with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra. The following year marked his recital debut at the Steinway Society of the Bay Area. At age 10, he was accepted to the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

to study with

Gary Graffman Gary Graffman (born October 14, 1928) is an American classical pianist, teacher and administrator. Early life Graffman was born in New York City to Russian-Jewish parents. Having started piano at age 3, Graffman entered the Curtis Institute of ...

and

Eleanor Sokoloff Eleanor Sokoloff (née Blum; June 16, 1914July 12, 2020) was an American pianist and academic who formed a piano duo with her husband, Vladimir Sokoloff. She taught piano on the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music from 1936 until her death ...

. He later studied with Robert McDonald as well. Hsu's older brother, Andrew Hsu, and older sister, Ashley Hsu, are also pianists.

Career

Hsu has performed with orchestras worldwide including the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...

Tokyo Symphony Orchestra The (TSO) is a Japanese orchestra, administratively based in Kawasaki. The orchestra offers subscription concert series at its home, the Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall and at Suntory Hall, the Concert Hall of the Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, ...

Grand Rapids Symphony The Grand Rapids Symphony is a professional orchestra located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1930, the Symphony celebrated its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20. In 2006, its recording ''Invention and Alchemy'' was nominated for Be ...

New Haven Symphony Orchestra The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in New Haven, Connecticut. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert on January 25, 1894 and is the fourth oldest orchestra in the United States. Today, the o ...

, and

Fort Worth Symphony The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra (FWSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Fort Worth, Texas. The orchestra is resident at the Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass Performance Hall. In addition to its symphonic and pops concert series, the FWSO ...

. His

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

debut was in April 2017 as part of the

Concert Artists Guild The Concert Artists Guild is an American musical institution, based in New York City and established in 1951. It is dedicated to discovering and nurturing musical talent, and helping musicians start careers. It provides scholarships and grants, and ...

Winners Series. He has given solo recitals at venues such as the

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts The Krannert Center for the Performing Arts is an educational and performing arts complex located at 500 South Goodwin Avenue in Urbana, Illinois and on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Herman C. Krannert, an industria ...

and the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival and has toured across Japan. Hsu has been featured on the radio including WQXR's Young Artists Showcase series and The Greene Space in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. F Hsu has also toured the United States as a chamber musician with the Verona String Quartet. Since winning the San Francisco Chopin Competition at 8 years old, Hsu has earned top prizes and awards including the Gilmore Young Artist Award in 2016, first prize in the 2015

Victor Elmaleh Competition, and bronze medal at the 2015

Hamamatsu International Piano Competition The Hamamatsu International Piano Competition has been held every 3 years since 1991 in Hamamatsu is a Cities of Japan, city located in western Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. In September 2023, the city had an estimated population of 780,128 in 340 ...

. On June 10, 2017, Hsu won the bronze medal of the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in addition to the Beverley Taylor Smith Award for the Best Performance of a New Work (''Toccata on "L'homme armé"'' by

Marc-André Hamelin Marc-André Hamelin, OC, OQ (born September 5, 1961) is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer who has received 11 Grammy Award nominations. He is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music. Biography Born in Montreal, Quebec ...

) and the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music. Out of 290 applicants, the Competition selected 30 pianists to come to

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, covering nearly into Denton County, Texas, Denton, Johnson County, Texas, Johnson, Parker County, Texas, Parker, and Wise County, Te ...

to participate in the live competition. Over the course of two and a half weeks, Hsu was required to perform a total of two and half hours of solo repertoire (divided into three recitals), one piano

quintet A quintet is a group containing five members. It is commonly associated with musical groups, such as a string quintet, or a group of five singers, but can be applied to any situation where five similar or related objects are considered a single ...

with the

Brentano String Quartet The Brentano Quartet is an American string quartet. History Founded in 1992 at the Juilliard School, the quartet's founding members were violinists Mark Steinberg and Serena Canin, violist Misha Amory, and cellist Michael Kannen. At the suggesti ...

, one

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791) was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition and proficiency from an early age ...

piano concerto A piano concerto, a type of concerto, is a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for piano accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuosic showpieces which require an advance ...

with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and

Nicholas McGegan James Nicholas McGegan OBE (born 14 January 1950 in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire, England) is a British harpsichordist, flutist, conductor and early music expert. Biography McGegan received his early education at Nottingham High School. He subse ...

, and another piano concerto for the final round, which Hsu chose Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 under the baton of

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

. As a result of winning the bronze medal, Hsu received $15,000 cash, 3 years of management, a live recording and recording partnership with Universal Music Group, press kits, videos, and a website. For the chamber music award he received $6,000 and for the new work award, he received $5,000. On August 18, 2017,

Decca Gold Decca Gold is a United States–based record label focusing on classical repertoire. It falls under the umbrella of Verve Label Group, owned by Universal Music Group. The label has a new roster of classical artists and partnerships, and was inspir ...

released Hsu's first solo album, ‘’Cliburn Bronze’’. The album was featured as

KUSC KUSC (91.5 FM broadcasting, FM; "Classical California™ KUSC") is a listener-supported european classical music, classical music radio station broadcasting from downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States. KUSC is owned and ope ...

’s Album of the Week in September 2017. Hsu is currently the Richard A. Doran Fellow at the Curtis Institute of Music pursuing a bachelor of music in piano performance.

Awards

Discography

Computer programming

Hsu is also involved in

computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...

. Among other projects, he has contributed to the app called

Workflow Workflow is a generic term for orchestrated and repeatable patterns of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a seque ...

which helps users automate tasks on several Apple devices. The app has received the 2015

Apple Design Award The Apple Design Awards (ADAs) is an event hosted by Apple Inc. at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. The purpose of the event is to recognize the best and most innovative Macintosh and iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός ...

and was acquired by

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

in March 2017.

References

External links

*
Cliburn profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hsu, Daniel Living people 1997 births Prize-winners of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition People from Fremont, California Musicians from California Musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area American male classical pianists American male pianists 21st-century American classical pianists Classical musicians from California 21st-century American male musicians