A sought-after pianist, teacher, and gifted entrepreneur, Frederic Chiu has embarked on a career that matches his virtuosic performances with highly innovative projects. Since completing a BM in piano at the Jacobs School with Professor Karen Shaw and a Master’s Degree at the Juilliard School with Abbey Simon, his performing career has taken him to many parts of the world.
Deeper Performance Studies, Chiu’s innovative workshop program, brings pianists together to study aspects of piano playing usually left uncovered. Articles in Piano Today and the New York Times have featured his original approach to learning and performing that draws on ancient traditions of philosophy and meditation combined with recent discoveries in psychology and acoustic sciences, blended with non-traditional activities such as cooking.
In the same innovative spirit, Chiu successfully developed a Kickstarter project to raise funds for the recording of Hymns and Dervishes, a compilation of beautiful and unusual Middle-Eastern music and Western hymns on the piano.
To encourage listener participation, Chiu organizes Classical Smackdown concerts in which audiences are given an opportunity to listen to two composers’ works and then vote for a favorite!
Project Jumpstart recently interviewed Chiu about his views on entrepreneurship and what advice he has for JSoM students.
“There are lots of ideas, but those aren’t innovations. Innovations have to be realized. They have to be fulfilled. You have to do things to get a product and get it out there to people.”
“Collaboration: Once you’ve defined your work, your character, your philosophy you go out there and bump up against others who’ve done the same… That’s where the real incredible creativity comes about.”
Chiu has toured in Europe and the US with the Orchestre de Bretagne and has played with the Hartford Symphony, Dayton Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC Concert Orchestra, Estonia National Symphony, China National Symphony, the FOSJE Orquesta in Ecuador, among others. In recital he has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious halls including the Berlin Philharmonic, Kioi and Suntory Halls in Tokyo, Lincoln Center in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
With over 20 CDs on the market, his repertoire includes the complete works of Prokofiev, as well as popular classics of Chopin and Liszt. He has recorded lesser known masterpieces of Mendelssohn and Rossini, and a variety of demanding piano transcriptions. Many of his recordings have been singled out, such as “Record of the Year” by Stereo Review, “Top 10 recordings” by the New Yorker, with additional glowing reviews from the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
Chiu is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Petscheck Award of the Juilliard School, and was a fellow of the American Pianist Association. His musical collaborations have taken him outside classical music, with artists such as Shakespearean actor Brian Bedford, psychologist/writer/clown Howard Buten, and hip-hop artist Socalled.
For more information about Frederic Chiu and his entrepreneurial ventures, visit fredericchiu.com.
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