Charlie Liu’s Blog

We have not been active on Youtube for quite a while, so it came as a shock when we heard that Patrick Tabet (aimiklingsor93) had passed away. Patrick had been one of the greatest supporters of young musicians on Youtube, and in real life he had been supporting piano prodigy Aimi Kobayashi for years and [...]

This past Sunday saw two very welcomed results – Charlie won 1st place in New Jersey state piano competition (NJMTA) and his hockey team (Princeton Pee Wee B Central) won a tough away game against a previously unbeaten team despite various adversities. Both results reflected the hard work the kids went through.  And in both [...]

On July 8, the Lang Lang International Music Foundation worked with the City of Chicago to create a wonderful event for the Chicago school kids and aspiring young musicians, the Lang Lang and Friends in Chicago.  Lang Lang and his 3 young Foundation Scholars, Anna Larsen, Derek Wang and of course, Charlie Liu, performed in [...]

Yesterday I drove Charlie and William to NYC for the Make Music New York event, where hundreds of NYC sites became impromptu concert venues, and anyone could sign up to perform at those sites. This idea is not totally new, as last year’s “Play Me I’m Yours” did the same thing in NYC. Too bad [...]

Today, for the 5th time since age 6, Charlie performed for a school kid audience, and for the 3rd time he performed by giving a solo recital. And time and again, the kids enjoyed Charlie’s playing tremendously, and Charlie enjoyed the audience and interaction with them greatly. Ms. Jane Rolf, who knew Charlie from a [...]

Today is Father’s Day. Charlie’s been working on his secret gift on his computer for a while. He usually makes a nicely designed card along with a trademark shy smile for me on father’s day, and with the two-week-long on-and-off prep time for this year’s gift, I was thinking maybe he’s designing an electronic card [...]

This past Saturday (June 18), Charlie’s teacher Professor Ingrid Clarfield had her Annual Spring Studio Recital in Bristol Chapel of Westminster Choir College.  Needless to say, it was wonderful and everyone played up and above their usual level, polished, artistic and extremely musical and expressive. Charlie was honored to have opened the concert with the [...]

It’s been a long while since we last posted videos for Youtube, but the following two new videos are pretty good, and they’re for an even better reason: the Japan Benefit Concert.  Here we present the videos and the dedications to the Japanese people with each piece: Schubert’s timeless masterpiece Ave Maria was initially named [...]

Amanda Li, Charlie’s piano studio mate, is organizing a benefit concert for Japan tsunami victims.  Charlie of course was eager to help out.  So on Sat. May 28 in the Bristol Chapel of Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ, Charlie will perform along with a few other talented young pianists and a vocalist in the [...]

Charlie’s 3rd try at an up-to-18yo Concerto competition again failed.  This time it’s the Ambler Symphony Orchestra’s competition. The most interesting thing about this competition is that it did not require you to play the concerto you studied, not even one movement.  It allows you to choose any two contrasting (in tempo) pieces to perform.  [...]

As I was suspecting, Charlie’s piano Solo Competition winning streak was broken in the 2011 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition.  It was disappointing that he didn’t get in the semi-final round, even though 13 of the 16 contestants were older than 12, 5 of whom were within 3 months to become 13 while Charlie’s only [...]

Some interesting stats for competition results: Junior Solo Intermediate Solo Number of Pianists from: USA China Canada USA China Canada 1st round 12 2 2 21 5 1* Semi-final 3 2 1^ 3 2 1* Final 2 1 0 1 1 1* ^: Fantasie Impromptu was technically difficult for this person in 1st round, and [...]

Charlie’s first master class experience was, well, surprising. It’s during the 2011 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, the junior master class taught by Ms. Elisabeth Pridonoff. Charlie played Beethoven Pathetique Sonata 3rd Movement for Ms. Elisabeth Pridonoff. From what I could tell, he played very well, definitely better than he did in this video, which [...]

Well, unlike the last “Two 2nd Places” post, this time the two 2nd places were still quite some reasons to celebrate! As I mentioned, Charlie’s hockey team, the Princeton Tigers Squirts B team, won the regular season champions of NJ Squirts Patrick division (12 teams) over the long season against some very good competitions.  This [...]

Charlie’s hockey team, the Princeton Tigers Squirts B team, was just assured of the New Jersey regular season Champions ranking with one game left in the season.  With a 32-point and 99 goals-for already under the belt, even if they lost the last game to the 3rd-lowest ranked team in the division by 0-any, they [...]

Feb. 2011 is an interesting yet still transitional month, so far.  Many things are happening in Charlie’s life. At beginning of the month, Charlie and I went to watch Jonathan Biss’ concert with New York Philharmonic Ochestra at the Avery Fisher Hall in the Lincoln Center, courtesy of the Lang Lang International Music Foundation.  Charlie [...]

Unless you’re hiding under a rock, most likely you’ve heard of the hottest parenting topic for the last month – Amy Chua, a.k.a. the Tiger Mom.  There are tons of articles beating the topic to death, but unfortunately, most of them were too happy to judge the style of her parenting philosophy, rather than the [...]

This past Monday (Jan 3), Lang Lang brought Anna, Derek and Charlie to NYC PS334 school (The Anderson School) to perform for the kids. It is an event organized by the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, and Steinway helped with pianos. For the kids, it was a lot of fun! [...]

Last night we received a wonderful news from the Selection Committee of the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition – After reviewing all audition CDs, they have picked Charlie and sent him an invitation to take part in the Junior Master Class, as well as both the solo and concerto competitions! Being invited to the Master [...]

The past week was a little rough, but it ended nicely – so to break out the surprise early – Charlie just won 2nd place in the Distinguished Artist Competition held by the Shore Music Educator’s Association!  That was a pleasant surprise given that the competition is one age group & open to high schoolers, [...]

This past Thursday (Nov. 4), Charlie got a great opportunity from his teacher Mrs. Clarfield. She has a very good friend who’s hosting a fundraising event for Recording For Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D, a wonderful nonprofit organization that aims to provide equal reading access for everyone), and she wanted some musician’s help for the event. [...]

Charlie just got 2nd place in NJ state competition and his hockey team remained 2nd place after losing to 1st place team in their division (it’s their first league loss this season). I’d be lying if I say we weren’t disappointed – we were indeed looking for 1st place in both as Charlie’s piano pieces [...]

Since June 2009, we decided not to enter Charlie in any competitions to focus more on using music for good purposes. Charlie only went to 2 competitions since, both were what his teacher required her students to enter. After the long hiatus, Charlie is starting to take part in competitions again this fall season. Cecilian [...]

For the 2nd month in a row, Charlie skipped school for a day, for good reason. Last month it was for Lang Lang’s masterclass in Manhattan School of Music (a great masterclass that I enjoyed A LOT – the pianists all did really well, but when Lang Lang demos how he’d do it, it was [...]

Charlie’s favorite composer’s Chopin, favorite pianist’s Lang Lang, and favorite singer, if there’s one, I guess now has to be Lady Gaga! Boy, was I surprised! Last weekend Charlie’s mom was playing Lady Gaga’s Youtube videos, Charlie and his younger brother William both got really interested listening to the music! I, in fact, was also [...]