As part of its Cliburn in the Community initiative, the Cliburn welcomes back 2017 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition Audience Award Winner RACHEL CHEUNG to perform several concerts December 6–11, 2018, including three free public performances:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2018 • 6:00–7:00 PM
Fort Worth Central Library
No ticket or RSVP required
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2018 • 2:00–2:45 PM & 4:00–4:45 PM
Sundance Square Pavilion
Santa Claus will also be in Sundance Square from 11:00 AM–7:00 PM
A cash bar will be open in the Sundance Square Pavilion From 2:00–6:00 PM
No ticket or RSVP Required
MONDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2018 • 5:30-6:30 PM
University Baptist Church
For children with special needs and their friends and family, through cooperation with several area non-profits.
Interested groups or individuals should RSVP to rsvp@cliburn.org
Additionally, Ms. Cheung will give private performances in association with Brighter Outlook, Keller Independent School District, Sixty & Better, Inc., and The Stayton at Museum Way.
Cliburn in the Community provides the experience of live classical music performance for free to a broad audience through partnerships with vibrant venues and organizations throughout the Fort Worth area. The program brings in young, emerging artists for weeklong residencies to include performances and other community engagement opportunities.
“The Cliburn’s mission is to spread excellent classical music with the largest audience possible, across cultural and economic boundaries,” said Jacques Marquis, Cliburn president and CEO. “And our dual mandate is the encouragement of excellent music and new artists. With Cliburn in the Community, we are able to answer both by presenting extraordinary young pianists in performances at places easily accessible to the public at large.”
Cliburn in the Community is sponsored by The Stayton at Museum Way.
ABOUT RACHEL CHEUNG, piano
Winner of the Audience Award and finalist at the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2017, Young Steinway Artist Rachel Cheung was described as “a poet, but also a dramatist” displaying “the most sophisticated and compelling music-making” (The Dallas Morning News). She won the fifth prize at the 2009 Leeds International Piano Competition at age 17. A year later, in 2010, she was a semifinalist at the 16th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. Other achievements include first prizes at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Ukraine and the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, second prize and Schubert Prize at the 2008 Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy, and Georges Leibenson Prize in the 2012 Geneva International Piano Competition. In 2016, Rachel was awarded the special prize at the New York Concert Artists Worldwide Debut Audition.
Rachel has appeared in many prestigious music festivals including the International Musical Olympus Festival in Russia, International Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Poland, Virtuosos of Planet 2006 in Kiev, Ukraine, Festival les Transeuropéennes in Rouen, France, Miami International Piano Festival, Golandsky Institute International Piano Festival, and the Sun Valley International Piano Festival. She has also performed at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, Steinway Hall in London, Richmond Hill Centre for Performing Arts in Toronto, and the Philharmonie de Paris.
As an active chamber musician, Rachel has worked with world-renowned musicians such as Vladimir Mendelssohn, Dong-Suk Kang, Jan-Erik Gustafasson, Ning Feng, Trey Lee, Latica-Honda Rosenberg, Jens Peter Maintz, Virpi Räisänsen, Jian Wang, Michel Lethiec, Bruno Canino, the Brentano String Quartet, and Quatuor Leonis.
She has collaborated with St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra with Edo de Waart, Hallé Orchestra with Sir Mark Elder, Sydney Symphony with Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Chamber Orchestra with Christopher Warren-Green, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin and Nicholas McGegan. Most recently, Rachel conducted and played Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris at the Play-Direct Academy led by Stephen Kovacevich, where she was also awarded the Prix du Jury at the closing concert.
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Rachel graduated with first class honors at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts under the tutelage of Prof. Eleanor Wong, and later studied with Prof. Peter Frankl at the Yale School of Music, where she was awarded the Elizabeth Parisot Prize for outstanding pianists.
Her first DVD, “Rachel Cheung – Keyboard Prodigy Live in Recital, Miami International Piano Festival 2005,” was released by VAIMUSIC in June 2007, and her first CD, under the Alpha Omega Sound label of the Chopin Society of Hong Kong, was released in 2009.
Highlights of the 2018–2019 season include a Carnegie Weill Hall debut recital in March, recitals in Mexico, Poland, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as concerto performances with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra with Gábor Takács-Nagy and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra with Jaap van Zweden.