As one reviewer from the San Francisco bay area recently quoted, “Serious, composed, tiny and full of music, Tien Hsieh lets her artistry on the piano express a warmth and freshness of ideas that surely none but a poet could explain”. Another reviewer said she “…delivered electrifying performances of music of monumentally heroic difficulty. Works by Messiaen, Beethoven and finally Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole were breathtaking in their technical quality and interpretive maturity.” Her Schumann Humoresque, Op. 20 was described as “Grand, relentless, madness explained, love caught through fingertips and galloping hooves trailing off to pastoral dreams.”
Tien Hsieh immigrated to the United States with her family when she was nine years old. Originally from China but born in Taiwan, she began her musical studies with her mother. A prizewinner of competitions including the Los Angles International Liszt Competition, Artists International Presentations Auditions in New York, Pacific Piano Competition and Festival in California, Miss Hsieh is a recipient of the prestigious Roy M. Rubinstein Award from Manhattan School of Music and a recipient of the Li-Ching Cultural and Educational Foundation Grant representing cross-cultural exchange. Following the success of her New York Recital Debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, she appeared in recitals for festivals, colleges and universities, cultural and art centers across the U.S., as well as in Germany, China, and most recently, in Budapest, Hungary, where she performed an All-Liszt program at the Liszt Museum (Old Liszt Academy). Recent orchestral collaborations include soloist with Maestro Gary Sheldon and Spokane Symphony and Maestro Frank Fetta and Redlands Symphony. She has also performed with Houston Civic Symphony, Gold Country Chamber Orchestra and Sacramento Ballet.
As a scholarship student at the Manhattan School of Music, Miss Hsieh received the Professional Studies Diploma and Master of Music Degree under the tutelage of Dr. Marc Silverman. She received the Bachelor of Music degree from University of Houston, where she was a full scholarship student of Abbey Simon and Ruth Tomfohrde. Miss Hsieh is a Touring Roster Artist sponsored by the California Arts Council and has recently joined Northwest on Tour.
Tien Hsieh delivered electrifying performances of music of monumentally heroic difficulty. Works by Messiaen, Beethoven and finally Liszt’s Rhapsodie Espagnole were breathtaking in their technical quality and interpretive maturity.
The Carmel Pine Cone
(Carmel, California)
Serious, composed, tiny and full of music, Tien Hsieh lets her artistry on the piano express a warmth and freshness of ideas that surely none but a poet could explain.
Pacifica Tribune
(Pacifica, California)
Youthful classical pianist Tien Hsieh dazzled an enraptured audience…resulting in a round of standing applause.
Lake County Record Bee
(Clearlake, California)
Tien Hsieh took the audience by surprise when she played (Beethoven) Choral Fantasy for Piano and Chorus. It looked as though her entire being was exploding with vigor as sounds seemingly poured from her fingertips.
Bonner County Daily Bee
(Sandpoint, Idaho)
Hsieh performed Beethoven’s Emperor with the symphony (Redlands Symphony Orchestra)…Like the music, she appeared calm and subdued at times and then feverishly focused on the Bowl’s recently rebuilt Steinway during moments of extreme concentration required by the score. Always watching Fetta from the corner of her eye, Hsieh nimbly fingered her way through the difficult adagio un poco mosso, the symphony supplying her fanfare. By the completion of the rondo allegro, she had her head nearly resting on the instrument before her, coaxing its newly restored beauty into the air of the night. Hsieh received an ovation from the audience, who requested several bows of her before she could leave the stage.
Redlands Daily Facts
(California)
Hsieh traveled this whirlpool of technical command through chaos into calm with enlightened insight and scholarly devotion that dazzled (Beethoven, Op.111). Definitely a student of Olympian deeds, pianist Hsieh traveled her formidable, thoroughly exciting program, with her wits and her virtuoso flights into the sublime on the same page. Bravo.
Pacifica Tribune
(Jean Bartlett, Pacifica, California)
…By the Adagio movement, even Bach must have been as captivated as Hsieh’s audience; here poignancy and delicacy reigned until exploding into an upbeat fugal ending (Bach-Busoni’s Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major). With Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 3, Hsieh’s speed and power were remarkable, her surety through complex passages to be envied by anyone who sat at a keyboard, her articulation of individual notes precise and clear. And then the encore-the Schumann/Liszt Widmung Dedication- floated from her heart as much as from the piano! With these Tien Hsieh played like Michelangelo who discovered his sculptures within the marble.
Independent Coast Observer
(Iris Lorenz-Fife, Gualala, California)
Program subject to change