Charlie Liu of West Windsor presents a benefit solo recital on Saturday, March 27, at 3 p.m. in the Channing Hall of the Universalist Unitarian Congregation of Princeton. The program includes works by Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Chopin. This is his second solo recital in Princeton. Tickets are $10.
Liu, 9, a fourth grade student at Millstone River School, has performed on the Oprah Winfrey Show, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and is the youngest Lang Lang International Music Scholarship winner. “He has grown so much both as a performer and, literally, as a young boy and I am very proud of his achievements,” said Lang Lang, the internationally acclaimed pianist, in a press release. “But I am even more proud to see him use his gifts in support of good causes, such as promoting music education and helping children and families in need through donations and benefit concerts.”
The March 27 concert is the second benefit event Charlie initiated this year. The first, “Young Artists for Haiti,” also created and organized by him and his family, featured 10 young pianists from seven countries and four continents performing together to help raise awareness and funds for development efforts in Chile and Haiti. Visit www.charlie-liu.com for more information
Liu has performed at music venues and events on both coasts — including all three of the Carnegie Hall concerts halls. Audience members include Queen Rania of Jordan, Bono of U2, Hugh Jackman, Rupert and Wendi Murdoch, and Sanford and Joan Weill. He has entered 16 piano solo competitions — and won each one.
Proceeds from the concert benefit premature babies at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics Foundation. “We chose it because Charlie was born there and he spent a month in the neonatal intensive care unit there,” says his father, Mingyi Liu, a bioinformatician at Bristol Myers Squibb. “We thought it would be exceedingly nice to have him contribute back to the hospital that help him get started in this world.” The family is in the early planning stages to do something to benefit the WW-P school district and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
His mother, Jen Xie, is a physician in SUNY Downstate anesthesia department. His brother, William, 4, is a student at Bristol Myers Squibb Bright Horizons preschool.
Charlie was born in Iowa and lived in Massachusetts before moving to West Windsor in July, 2007. He began studying piano when he was four, won his first piano competition when he was five, and performed his first solo recital at age six. His teachers include Soo Kyung Cho of West Windsor, and Ingrid Clarfield, professor of piano at Westminster Choir College. A member of the Princeton Mites and Squirts travel hockey teams, he practices and plays four or five times a week.
“Young artists like Charlie need a lot of support but they have something unique to give back — the healing power of music,” said Lang Lang, who began piano lessons at age three and at age five won first place at the Shenyang Piano Competition and performed his first public recital.
Benefit Concert featuring Charlie Liu on Saturday, March 27. Channing Hall of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton, 50 Cherry Hill Road, Princeton, at 3 p.m. 617-487-4138. www.charlie-liu.com. $10.
