The Young Artists Series presents Hannah Sun, Award-winning pianist | Press Releases

2 p.m., Sunday, April 15, 2012
Walsh Art Gallery
Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts
Free Admission

Image: Hannah Sun Award-winning pianist Hannah Sun performs at 2 p.m., on Sunday, April 15, 2012, at Fairfield University's Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery located in the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts . The concert is part of the Quick Center's Young Artists Series and is presented in association with The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation . Admission is free and open to the public.

Hannah Sun was named First Prize Winner at the Second New York Piano Competition in June 2004, when she was fifteen years old, in an award presented under the auspices of The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation. As the First Prize Winner, she had the opportunity to concertize in venues up and down the East Coast. Hannah's first concert following the NYPC was performing the Schumann Piano Concerto four weeks later with The Manhattan Chamber Orchestra at New York's Trinity Church, appearing under the baton of Richard Aulden Clark. Hannah's participation in this competition has been viewed nationally in the documentary "Beyond the Practice Room," a behind-the-scenes look at the competition, shown on PBS. Following the competition, she has also appeared several times on the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase hosted by Robert Sherman on WQXR, New York's Classical Music Radio Station.

The gifted pianist was born in 1989 and began studying the piano at the age of two in her native China. Her first teacher was her mother, concert pianist Qi Melody He. After she moved to Australia in 1995, she studied with Nehama Patkin, Stephen McIntyre, and Geoffrey Tozer, and performed several concertos with orchestra. Since moving to New York in 2002, she has studied with Phillip Kawin, the late Constance Keene, and Miyoko Lotto in the Manhattan School of Music Pre-college division as a full scholarship student, and currently with Jerome Lowenthal and Seymour Lipkin in the Master's Program as a scholarship recipient at The Juilliard School.

Her other performances with orchestra have been Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" with the Orchestra of Southern Utah under Xun Sun in 2005, Mozart's "Piano Concerto in A Major," K. 414, with the LaGuardia Symphony Orchestra in 2007, which she conducted from the piano, and Beethoven's "Piano Concerto No. 4" with the Corda Spirita Chamber Orchestra in Brisbane, Australia the following year, under John Curro.

Miss Sun has also received numerous scholarships and awards, such as a scholarship to attend the Fontainebleau Summer Music Festival, where she received the Prix Nadia Boulanger, Silver Award from the National Foundation of the Advancement of the Arts, after which she attended the youngARTS week in Miami, Florida, third prize in the Kosciuszko Foundation's Chopin Piano Competition, first prize in the Long Island School Media Association (LISMA) International Music Competition, full scholarships at the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College of Music, full scholarship to the International Academy of Music in St. Petersburg, Russia, and grants from the Children's Foundation for the Arts.

Hannah Sun also studied conducting at LaGuardia High School, where she was an instrumental student, and at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-college division. She has conducted the LaGuardia Symphony Orchestra, in concert, in Mozart's "Magic Flute" Overture and Mozart's "Piano Concerto" K. 414, from the piano.

The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, through its flagship program, The New York International Piano Competition, is committed to furthering the education, recognition and fostering of a new generation of talented young musicians, directly serving pianists ages 16-21. The Foundation helps aspirants achieve their personal and professional goals through mentoring, career guidance, artistic development, and performance opportunities throughout the year.

For Quick Center Box Office information, call (203) 254-4010, or toll-free 1-877-ARTS-396 (1-877-278-7396). Visit online at www.fairfield.edu/quick .

The Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts is located on the campus of Fairfield University at 1073 North Benson Road in Fairfield, Connecticut. Entrance to the Quick Center is through the Barlow Road gate at 200 Barlow Road. Free, secure parking is available. Access for people with disabilities is available throughout the Quick Center for audience members and performers. Hearing amplification devices are available upon request at the Box Office. Fairfield University is located off exit 22 of Interstate-95. For further information and directions, call (203) 254-4010 or 1-877-278-7396, or visit www.fairfield.edu/quick .

Fairfield University offers its students and the regional community a wide array of opportunities to enjoy the arts and enrich their lives through study, performance, appreciation, and thought. The annual Arts & Minds season of events at Fairfield provides an outstanding array of cultural and intellectual events that include the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts season, the popular Open VISIONS Forum lecture series, professional and student performances, art exhibits, special lectures, and a myriad of other lifelong learning opportunities. For further information, visit www.fairfield.edu/arts .