Westminster Conservatory of Music presents “Secret Chambers: Rarely Heard Works of Chamber Music,” a benefit concert on Sunday, March 15, at 5 p.m. in Bristol Chapel. The concert will benefit the Dr. H. Korkina Scholarship Fund for dedicated Westminster students. Admission is free but donations are greatly appreciated.
Students of Larissa Korkina include Charlie Liu, a ninth grade student at High School South and a resident of Plainsboro. Liu, 14, began learning piano at age 4 and has been studying piano with professor Ingrid Clarfield of Westminster Choir College since 2007. He has been a winner in dozens of solo competitions, including third prize in the seventh Bosendorfer and Yamaha USASU International Piano Competition, first place four times in the New Jersey and Massachusetts Music Teacher associations, first place in the Steinway Society Scholarship Competition, gold prize in the American Fine Arts Festival, and second prize in the Bradshaw & Buono International Competition.
At age 11 Liu made his orchestra debut with the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra. He has since soloed with the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and twice with Midwest Young Artists Orchestra in the Millennium Park in Chicago.
In 2008 Liu won the Lang Lang International Music Foundation Scholarship and set a record at age 8 by completing a Carnegie Hall “Grand Slam” (performing in all three concert halls of the world-famous Carnegie Hall). He also performed in the Youtube Symphony Orchestra debut in the Carnegie Hall, and on the Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey shows.
Committed to helping the society and the community through his music, he has initiated and organized benefit events such as “Young Artists for Haiti” and benefit solo recitals for UI Children’s Hospital and Plainsboro Rescue Squad. He regularly helps out at other charity events, fundraisers, and community events, and brings classical music to schools and the community through public solo recitals.
Liu, a recipient of the Scheide Fund Scholarship and a participant of the Westminster Conservatory’s Young Artists Program, competed in the David D. Dubois competition in January in Tempe, Arizona. He played two very difficult Liszt etudes, La Campanella and Mazeppa.
The highlights of this concert program include the rarely performed Concerto for Violin, Piano, and Orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn; Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano by Ottorino Respighi; Elite Syncopations by Scott Joplin; and solos of works by Bach, Chopin, Liszt, and others performed by talented young musicians.
Benefit Concert, Westminster Conservatory, Bristol Chapel, 101 Walnut Lane, Princeton. Sunday, March 15, 5 p.m. “Secret Chambers: Rarely Heard Works of Chamber Music,” a benefit concert for the Dr. H. Korkina Scholarship Fund for dedicated Westminster students. Donations invited. 609-921-2663. www.rider.edu.
