A short piano recital given by Chinese pianist and music scholar XinRu Chen (Royal Academy of Music).

Programme

'Kinderszenen's Remembrance': Schumann 'Kinderszenen' Op.15 
Stockhausen Klavierstücke No.1-5 + 7-9

XinRu Chen is a young Chinese pianist and music scholar, appearing across Europe and China both for her performances and research. About to finish herPhD degree from the Royal Academy of music at age 26, XinRu Chen was invited to present her project ‘Reprogramming Schumann and Contemporary Piano Cycles’ at many conferences in 2022, including the AEC European Platform for Artistic Research in Music, the 12th Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900, and the PerformLive festival conference at the National Concert Hall
in Dublin. She was selected as one of the representatives of the PhD department to present on the PhD open day at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021, and also to participate the Sibelius Academy co-seminar in Helsinki, in which her project and performance has received general acclaims.

During the pandemic in 2020, XinRu led a series of experimental concerts related to her project at the Academy Summer Piano Festival, live-streaming on the Academy website. XinRu has performed in many prestigious halls in UK, Finland, Ireland, Spain, Italy and China, including St. Martin in-the-Fields, Southwark Cathedral, Regent Hall, Duke’s Hall, Susie Sainsbury Theatre, and the National Concert Hall in Dublin. Making regular appearances in numerous festivals, XinRu has worked with many renowned musicians, including Christopher Elton, Alexander Kobrin, Pascal Devoyon, Imogen Cooper, Dina Parakhina, and Joseph Banowetz. She was invited to perform the Picture at an Exhibition at the Petworth Festival in 2018 and opened the Beethoven Piano Sonata Series at the Royal Academy of Music Summer Piano Festival. Her repertoire covers a wide range of romantic and contemporary music, recognized by the Janet Duff Greet Prize in the Christian Carpenter Competition in the Academy.

XinRu began her undergraduate study at the Royal Academy of Music in 2014, under the tutorage of Professor Joanna MacGregor, Head of Piano, with named full scholarships — the Leverhulme Trust Undergraduate Scholarship, the American Society for the Royal Academy of Music Scholarship, and the Marjorie McAdams Scholarship. In 2017 and 2018, XinRu was awarded the Arthur Hervey Scholarship and the Franz Reizenstein Prize at the Royal Academy of Music for her excellent academic works. XinRu is currently finishing her PhD degree, supervised by Professor Roderick Chadwick and Professor Christopher Elton.