On Jan. 26, pianist Chen-feng Hsieh will be performing at ETSU in the Brown Hall Auditorium at 7:30 pm.

Cheng-feng Hsieh (Contributed / ETSU)

According to a press release, Hsieh is a professor of piano, graduate tutor and director of the piano Art Research Center in the Music Conservatory of Guizhou Normal University in China. Hsieh has also performed throughout Japan, Korea, The United States, Europe, China and Taiwan and has collaborated with many world renowned musicians.

“I met him in Dalian, China in 2012,” ETSU Professor Benjamin Caton said. “I found him to be a wonderful performer and a very fine teacher. He studied and got his Doctorate here in the United States, at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and so he has experiences playing in the United States. When I found out he was going to be in the States this January, we hooked up and he’s going to come and play a recital here at ETSU. And he’s also going to give a master class the next day to for our piano majors.”

Caton also said that this will be Hsieh’s first time performing at ETSU and that he is a Steinway Artist. Caton said that ETSU is an all Steinway School that gives a recognition to people who achieve a certain performance level. Once they reach that performance level they are designated Steinway Pianists.

“He’s going to be playing a very well known Bach Partita, which has several movements, and a Brahm’s piece and a Beethoven Sonata,” Caton said. “And he’s also going to play the 24 Chopin Preludes and most piano students who play piano play about three or four of those. So they will hear things that they’ve studied before and most music lovers will recognize the Chopin Preludes; they’re very famous.”

Caton said that he finds Hsieh’s music technically clean and musical and that Hsieh reaches out to the audience and draws them into his playing. Caton also said students should come see Hsieh’s performance because it will hopefully inspire them.

“I think music expands a person’s whole being and just adds a new dimension to them,” Caton said. “They can come and hopefully be inspired by the beauty that they hear and that can translate into their own lives, whatever their major happens to be.”

Tickets are $15 for general admission, $10 for seniors and free for students with ID. For tickets or more information, visit www.etsu.edu/music or contact ETSU Department of Music at 423-439-4276 or music@etsu.edu

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