Pianist gives rousing recital in Shenzhen

To celebrate Lantern Festival, Yuan Fang gave a piano recital at the Shenzhen Concert Hall on Saturday.

During the first half of the recital, she performed Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op 27, Schubert's Three Piano Piece, D 946, and Gershwin's Prelude for Piano.

During the second half, Yuan interpreted Debussy's Clair de Lune, Chopin's Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, Op 22 and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody, No 2.

"Lantern Festival is a time of family reunions, so I chose music to bring the audience a sense of warmth and beauty," says Yuan, adding that all of the pieces reflect her own academic research.

"Chopin and Liszt wrote their music to pay tribute to their homelands. I also wanted to show my love for my homeland, so I chose to play Zhang Zhao's In the Faraway Fairyland," Yuan says. "These great compositions, despite being from different cultures, are treasures that have nourished my heart for years."

Brought up in Shenzhen, Yuan began learning to play when she was 4. She graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich in 2008 before becoming an associate professor at the Central Conservatory of Music at the age of 29.

She has performed with leading orchestras around the world, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the China Symphony Orchestra, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, under the batons of leading international conductors such as Zubin Mehta and Lawrence Foster.

In 2021, Yuan became one of the founding professors of the School of Music at The Chinese University of Hong Kong in Shenzhen.

Her Saturday concert marked the ongoing celebration of the university's 10th anniversary.