Charlie Liu’s Blog

As reported earlier, Charlie made his orchestral debut with the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra this past Sunday.  The debut concert on Mother’s Day 2012 featured 3 other brilliant young artists along with Charlie, with Charlie assigned to close the concert with the exciting Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2, Movement I, the music used for Disney’s Fantasia [...]

As blogged before, Charlie has been looking forward to perform with an orchestra since he was 8. Now he finally gets his orchestral debut after winning the biggest concerto competition in NJ – the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition! As a winner, he gets to perform with the orchestra in the upcoming “Concert Extravaganza” event [...]

When Charlie was 8 years old, he took part in his first concerto competition and did remarkably well, but lost to a 17-year-old. He cried and said he really wanted to play with an orchestra.  Concerto competition has since been his Waterloo – including the first one, he lost in all 4 tries, 3 times [...]

In the just finished 2011-2012 NJ Math League competition, Charlie (6th grade) scored 33 points, the best score (shared with one other person) in the entire Mercer County, which boasts top school districts like Princeton and West Windsor. Moreover, his score is just behind two full-marks (35 points) and five 34-points, and ties for the [...]

I guess it’s not surprising that Charlie’s younger brother William has been learning piano too.  Sibling competition is a concern to many parents, but we’re not too worried. Charlie and William play very well together, despite being 5 years apart. Due to the many activities of Charlie, it was somewhat unfair that we simply could [...]

Thank you, EMI, for the compliment. Charlie performed a beautiful Mozart Sonata (K280) in entirety at age 8, as part of his 10-piece solo recital.  We uploaded this complete sonata to Youtube in 2009 right after the concert, and everyone loved it.  But fast forward to 2011, one day I noticed that the video of [...]

It seems that it’s becoming a tradition that every year, Charlie’s hockey team wins some sort of championship. In 2009-10 season, they did not do great overall but managed to win a hard-fought BSA Ice Arena Thanksgiving Tournament Championship, against two teams that beat them earlier in the season no less! In 2010-11 season, they [...]

Ever since age 8, when Charlie took part in his first concerto competition (in which he played a lovely Mozart concerto brilliantly), he’s been dreaming about one day performing with a real orchestra. But at age 8 and 10, he suffered 3 losses in the 18-yo-or-younger concerto competitions and a loss in the Virginia Waring [...]

I forgot to post this, but Charlie won a 1st place/prize in the Crescendo International Competition and performed in the Weill Recital Hall of the Carnegie Hall again. There were some impressive winners in the recital but certainly some disappointing performances as well. I was really surprised at how well Charlie’s younger brother William managed [...]

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 [...]