parallax background

Eric Lu

Eric Lu

Biography

20-year old pianist Eric Lu is rapidly building an international reputation as a young pianist with enormous promise, and a distinctive musical voice. Characterized by International Piano magazine as a “serious, mature musician”, Lu is the 1st prize winner of the 2017 International German Piano Award in Frankfurt, where he also captured the audience award nearly unanimously and 1st prize winner of Leeds International Piano Competition 2018.

Eric Lu was first brought to the world’s attention when he was a prizewinner at the 2015 International Fryderyk Chopin Competition in Warsaw at the age of 17, becoming one of the youngest laureates in the history of the prestigious competition. He was previously awarded that same year the 1st prize at the 9th US National Chopin Competition in Miami, where he also received the prize for best concerto performance.

Following these recent successes, Lu received invitations to perform in many important venues around the world in the past two years, including Carnegie Hall in New York, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Alte Oper Hall in Frankfurt, Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston, Taipei National Concert Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, Strathmore Music Center in Washington DC, NOSPR Concert Hall in Katowice, Krakow Philharmonic Concert Hall, Princeton’s Richardson Auditorium, among others. Lu has performed in various prestigious festivals including twice returning to the Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, the International Duszniki Chopin Festival in Poland, and the Nohant Chopin Festival in France. He went on a tour of Japan and Korea with the Warsaw Philharmonic following the Chopin Competition, performing in halls such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Hall, Seoul Arts Center, Osaka Symphony Hall, and Sapporo Arts Center. Lu has extensively collaborated with many orchestras, including the Warsaw Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Staatskapelle Halle, National Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic, Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic, Orchestra of the 18th century, Orquestra Clasica Santa Cecilia, New Jersey Symphony, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Poznan and Kielce Philharmonics, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, Xiamen Philharmonic, etc.

His debut CD was released under the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, recorded from the Chopin Competition 2015, where his performances captivated audiences from around the world. His second CD, recorded live in Nuremberg, features late works by Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms and had been released under the Label GENUIN in April 2018.

Eric Lu has achieved success at a number of earlier international competitions, winning 1st prizes at the Moscow International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists(2014), the Minnesota International e-Piano Junior Competition(2013), and the XII Ettlingen International Competition in Germany(2010). He also received the Tabor Foundation Piano Award at the Verbier Festival Academy 2015.

Lu is described by the New York Classical Review as a musician of “exceptional musical sensitivity”, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung praised his “phenomenal technical mastery”. The critic Michael Moran from the Duszniki Chopin Festival wrote of the performance, “The tone he produced was luminous, the articulation spellbinding and exciting, the legato and bel canto desperately moving. The sound world of each as Lu produced it was simply stunning and breathtaking”. Following his performance of Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 during the final of the International German Piano Award, the Darmstadter Echo wrote, “Lu received thundering applause after a sheer unbelievable performance of the work. Oscillating between melancholy and turmoil, he follows the expressive themes of the work with sensitivity, peeling out melodies with fascinating clarity from the virtuosic, densely-written piano part.”

Eric Lu currently studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Profs. Jonathan Biss and Robert McDonald. He is also a pupil of the pianist Dang Thai Son. He started piano studies at the age of 6 with Mrs. Dorothy Shi. Previously, while at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, he studied with Alexander Korsantia, and A. Ramon Rivera. *Updated as of March 2018.


Press Photos

Eric Lu
Eric Lu
Eric Lu

Released CD

Eric Lu