Charlie Liu’s Blog

We’ve always liked Richard Clayderman’s A Comme Amour very much.  In fact, I regard it as one of his two best (the other one being Balada para Adelina).  So it’s natural that I wanted Charlie to learn the piece.  He learned it rather quick, although the fast runs in the middle gave him much trouble.  [...]

On this past Sunday, Charlie took part in the annual winter recital of his teacher’s (Ingrid Clarfield) Studio. He was to play the Mozart Sonata K280, the piece he won the Cecilian Music Club Competition with and also had a great Carnegie Hall performance with; and a beautiful and emotional piece by Tchaikovsky - [...]

After entering division Novice II of the Greater Princeton Championship and winning the 2nd place trophy, Charlie jumped from unrated to 721! I guess it’s still provisional because he didn’t play enough games (this is the first tournament where he’s in a rated section). Check details out here.

Charlie performed in Carnegie Hall half a year ago in the Weill Recital Hall (a classical, 268-seat hall out of the 3 halls of Carnegie Hall) with an exciting performance of the 1st Mv. of Khatchaturian’s Sonatina.  This time, he’s performing in the Zankel Hall (a modern, underground, 603-seat Hall), the mid-sized hall out of [...]

In the last Chess tournament Charlie attended, he played in the Novice I group (K-6 beginners).  Despite losing his first game to the eventual 1st place winner who had the only perfect score, he went on to win the rest and won 5th place (he tied for 2nd highest score). Read more details here.
This Saturday, [...]

Charlie calls this his favorite piece (at least for now), so despite that his teacher discouraged him learning it 3 months ago, he didn’t forget the piece. Now that he’s starting several new pieces after NJ competition ended a couple weeks ago, he turned his attention to this piece after getting a little bored [...]

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 [...]