"If looking for characteristics of Huangci’s piano playing, one finds them in her superior focus, imaginative abilities, and the resulting poetry of her interpretation."
-Thomas Schacher, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
The American pianist Claire Huangci, winner of the 2018 Geza Anda Competition, continuously captivates audiences with her “radiant virtuosity, artistic sensitivity, keen interactive sense and subtle auditory dramaturgy” (Salzburger Nachrichten). With an irrepressible curiosity and penchant for unusual repertoire, she proves her versatility with a wide range of repertoire spanning from Bach and Scarlatti via German and Russian romanticism to Bernstein, Gulda and Corigliano.
Kicking off a busy 2022/23 season, Claire will open the Frankfurt Museumskonzerte cycle making her debut at Alte Oper, followed by further openings at the Wiesbaden Staatsorchester and Stuttgart Philharmonic. She will travel internationally for concerts with the Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Belgrade Philharmonic, Slovenian RTV orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana and the National Philharmonic Orchestra in the US. Further highlights include a tour with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland Pfalz and performances with the Hofer Symphoniker, Wuerttembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen, Badische Staatskapelle, Baden Baden philharmonic and the Munich chamber orchestra. To celebrate Rachmaninov’s 150th birthday in 2023, Claire presents solo recitals with his preludes in venues such as Beethovenhaus Bonn, Frankfurt Alte Oper and Brussels Flagey piano days.
In solo recitals and with international orchestras, Claire Huangci has appeared in some of the most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall Tokyo, NCPA Beijing, Paris Philharmonie, Munich Gasteig, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Salzburg Festspielhaus and the Budapest Franz Liszt Akademie. She is a welcome guest of renowned festivals including the Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Musik Festival and Klavier Festival Ruhr. Her esteemed musical partners include the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich, ORF Radio Orchester Vienna, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Munich Chamber Orchestra and Basel Chamber Orchestra, together with Elim Chan, Michael Francis, Howard Griffiths, Pietari Inkinen, Jun Märkl, Cornelius Meister, Sir Roger Norrington, Eva Ollikainen, Alexander Shelley and Mario Venzago.
Claire Huangci began her international career at the age of nine with concert performances and competition victories. After studying with Eleanor Sokoloff and Gary Graffman at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, she moved to Germany in 2007 for further studies with Arie Vardi at the Hannover Musikhochschule, graduating with honors in 2016 and assisting him. Early in her artistic career, she stood out as an expressive interpreter of Chopin, winning first prizes at the European Chopin competition and US National Chopin competition in 2009 and 2010. She was also the youngest participant to receive second prize at the International ARD Music Competition in 2011. In 2019, Claire was awarded the grand prize at the Chambre Orchestre de Paris Play-Direct academy.
Her extensive discography again shows her keen interest in a diverse pool of repertoire, with her latest albums (Mendelssohn works with Marc Bouchkov, Howard Griffiths and the Basel Chamber Orchestra as well as the complete Bach toccatas) again receiving high acclaim. Further along in the 22/23 season, Claire will release Mozart concertos with Howard Griffiths and the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, to be released on Alpha Classics. After recording her debut CD in 2013 with solo works of Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev and her prizewinning double album of Scarlatti sonatas (German Record Critics’ Award and Gramophone Editor’s Choice), her solo albums included complete recordings of Chopin’s Nocturnes and Rachmaninoff’s Préludes, followed by her first chamber music album with Trio Machiavelli in 2020. Concerto recordings include Beethoven’s violin concerto in his piano version with the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, Schubert’s Fantasy for piano and orchestra with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chopin and Paderewski concertos with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbruecken.
She is a proud ambassador of the Henle Verlag.