Charlie Liu’s Blog

Saturday Nov. 15 was a great day for the Princeton Mites B Hockey Team, and for Charlie personally - because he (and the team) got to play hockey in the huge Prudential Center - Home of the New Jersey Devils and where the New Jersey Nets played on too!! By far, this is the [...]

Hehe, got you! Not that he’s gonna play for the Devils (yeah, I know you didn’t think so), but that he’ll play as part of the “Mites on Ice” program sponsored by the NJ Devils. Each year during some of the home games, one NJ Mites team that won the program lottery would [...]

Haydn Sonata in E-flat, Hob XVI/28, 1st Mv:
Charlie improved on this piece much, despite a China trip, preparing for competitions with other pieces, and heavy hockey/chess/video games schedule. I’m quite proud of what he’s done. He performed this on Mrs. Soo Kyung Cho’s student recital in late Oct, 2008 and the audience loved [...]

Well, this time, certainly NOT a great weekend!  Let me recount the events now:
This weekend Charlie had two scheduled big events - 1. The first chess tournament since he started taking chess lessons. The tournament’s on Saturday from noon to 5.  2. The annual NJMTA piano competition, the biggest and most important piano competition in [...]

Charlie had a busy day today, and it started off plenty well - Charlie just got his first goal in a full court game since becoming a mite! He did get two goals in the 3vs3 tournament a month ago, but that was on a small court 1/3 of the full court size. [...]

After the concert:
Time For Kids: A Rising Piano Star (A short article on Charlie!)
UNIFEED: Lang Lang (with Charlie’s video clip!! But note: Charlie’s 8 not 6. 8.5 year old Anna is indeed obviously taller)
CCTV: Lang Lang shares music excitement with children (with Charlie and Anna’s video clips at here! Again Charlie’s 8 not 6)
qq.com (腾讯网): [...]

Time For Kids, part of the Time magazine family AFAIK, decided to do a small report on the Lang Lang concert where Charlie and two other kids performed. They read the Bios of the three kids, and were so impressed with Charlie’s that they decided to interview Charlie. Ms. Claudia Atticot, senior reporter [...]

Definitely one of the biggest honors ever in Charlie’s short musical career so far is being selected to play in Lang Lang’s concert for the inauguration of his International Music Foundation. Charlie was selected by Mrs. Elena Rossman, the president and founder of AADGT (American Association for the Development of Gifted and Talented), who [...]

Cecilian Music Club Competition is held annually for the students of its member teachers. Year after year, some of the best young pianists compete for (sometimes) the only one winner spot per each age division. This year, when Charlie was entered into the competition, I was thinking - uh oh, we’re putting Charlie’s [...]

On October 20th, 11 AM at New York Town Hall, Lang Lang, the hottest pianist on classical music planet by New York Times, will hold a free concert celebrating the inaugural year of his International Music Foundation, which helps children appreciate classical music and helps with their music studies. There will be two children [...]

Charlie’s been having a “hockey goal famine” - he hasn’t scored any goal the entire last year on the Princeton Tigers Mites C team. He did have assists, so he had some points, but he tends to fall back to defense all the time, and hesitates too much when going offense to take advantage [...]

Charlie finally turned 8!  He’s been so busy with hockey, chess, games, TV … during the summer such that twice in a row his teacher was not happy with his progress.  That was the first time ever it happened.  So we worked harder and the next week his teacher, Mrs. Clarfield, was much happier.
However, the [...]

Here’s a playlist that’s gonna keep growing - Charlie plays Chopin, Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, Senneville …  The most popular pieces (that Charlie could play) from these composers.  Hope you like it!!

Here’s a compilation of some very short clips of Charlie playing hockey during summer 2008. He improved his skills much & his coach said Charlie was doing great for the summer!

The most popular piece performed by Richard Clayderman is Balada para Adelina, composed by Paul Senneville. It’s amazing that Richard Clayderman’s CD of this piece sold over 30 million copies worldwide already. Understandably, this is a beautiful piece. I wanted Charlie to learn this piece because: 1. We both like it. 2. [...]

Charlie played this beautiful and fun piece for a lonnnnnng time. I remember he started the piece in March by himself, and quite quickly he played it reasonably well (to non-professional’s ears). Then he had to focus on several competitions. Then it was his China trip. Then the winners recital and [...]

I let Charlie listen to this piece and he loved it. As a result, he spent some time learning it by himself. He spent little time on it, mostly because the summer activities and games squeezed practice time a lot, and he also has to do the repertoire his teacher assigned. So [...]

“My Homeland” is an old Chinese song about the beautiful country and patriotism. It comes from the movie 上甘岭, which was made in the 50s and was about the Korean War. Political issues aside, this song has a beautiful melody and great lyrics. It probably appeals to 30+ Chinese the most, but I [...]

I have to say that I was surprised that it took so long for us to post another video!  It’s a combination of various factors: 1. It’s summer time, the fun time!  Charlie goes to sports camps most of the time and sometimes do hockey at night.  His practice time went down significantly.  2. Despite [...]

Charlie’s been playing this piece for a while. He was pretty good at the piece back in April already, and practiced little after and during our trip to China. However, he did improve the musicality of the piece a lot after we resumed normal practice (well, to some extent anyhow). This version [...]

Charlie improved upon the previous version of Chopin Waltz in C# Minor (Op 64 No 2) after working on it for 3 more weeks. The hard work resulted in a more disciplined recording with finer details and more musicality of the piece. See below:

BTW, the above video was actually recorded 2 months ago. [...]

Diary of Charlie Liu, Feb the 13th, Friday
Today we went to a competition. Daddy woke me up at 5:50 am. I was tired but I played Tak and the Power of Juju on the car. It took forever to get there! We found that I was wearing sneakers. That was [...]

Charlie’s had a busy season with many piano pieces, so he only had a few hours in total learning the beautiful Chopin Nocturne in C# Minor on his own. Therefore the piece is not polished and must have tons of mistakes - so don’t send his teachers this video! BTW, because it’s not [...]

Charlie improved on his version of Beethoven’s Six Variations. While a 7 y.o. could always polish a difficult piece like this one further (like better octaves - they’re hard on his small hands, better dynamics, better connections b/w variations etc), I thought it was the best version on youtube already … until I saw [...]

As many of you know, a few days ago a huge earthquake struck China. So far over 30,000 people were confirmed dead with the death toll feared to rise to 50,000. Many kids died, became disabled or became orphans. The victims in the earthquake need our help! For those who have [...]