Helen Huang, piano

Taiwanese-American pianist Helen Huang was discovered by conductor Kurt Masur upon winning the Young People’s Competition, which resulted in in engagements with the New York Philharmonic and a recording contract with the Teldec record label. Known for immaculate technique and her eloquent sensitivity, Huang has enjoyed a multi-faceted career as a soloist and chamber music player and has played with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Abroad she has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, and the Israel Philharmonic, among others. An avid chamber musician, Huang has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and at Ravinia’s Steans Institute For Young Artists.

Huang’s recordings on the Teldec label include Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Mozart’s Piano Concertos K. 488 and K.467, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur. She also recorded an album titled For Children, which consists of works inspired by the theme of children. She collaborated with violinist Cho-Liang Lin on an album of music by Georg Tintner released on the Naxos label as well as a recording of music by Zhou Long with Cho-Liang Lin and Hai-Ye Ni, released on the Delos label.

Born in Japan of Taiwanese parents, she moved to the U.S. with her family in 1985 and began piano lessons two years later. Within a year, she had won her first competition and several other victories soon followed. In 1994, she received Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award for promising young artists and in 1995 became one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Huang received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize upon graduating from Juilliard in 2004, where she was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. She went on to pursue her master’s degree from Yale, under the tutelage of Peter Frankl. Huang has been on the Juilliard Pre-College faculty since 2010, working as an assistant to Kaplinsky. She resides in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters.