Joel Fan

Pianist Joel Fan was born in New York City to parents originally from Taiwan[8]. A native New Yorker, Mr. Fan studied at the Juilliard Pre-College Division as a student of Katherine Parker and Martin Canin.[9] A child prodigy, he made his debut playing with the New York Philharmonic after winning the orchestra's Young People's Concert Auditions[10] at the age of 11[11]. He received his Bachelor degree from Harvard University, where his teachers included the composer Leon Kirchner. He holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Leon Fleisher. He is also a prize winner of several international competitions, including the Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy. He was also the winner of the Kosciuzko Foundation’s Chopin Prize, and named a Presidential Scholar by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts[12].

Joel Fan has recorded for Reference Recordings, Sony Classical, Verdant World Records, and Albany Records.[13] The following is a list of his recording credits:[14]

2018 Leon Kirchner: Music for Orchestra Boston Modern Orchestra Project / Gil Rose Joel Fan, Liner Notes

2014 Dances for Piano and Orchestra Christophe Chagnard / Joel Fan / Northwest Sinfonietta

2013 Leon Kirchner: Revelations Joel Fan, Diana Hoagland, Beverly Hoch, Leon Kirchner

2012 Traditions And Transformations / Yo-Yo Ma, Wu Man

2011 Something to Sing About Lisa Kirchner

2009 West of the Sun: Music of the Americas Joel Fan

2007 Appassionato Yo-Yo Ma

2007 Leon Kirchner - Works For Solo Piano Leon Fleisher, Max Levinson, Peter Serkin, Jonathan Biss, Joel Fan, Jeremy Denk

2006 30th Anniversary Sampler Various

2006 World Keys Joel Fan

2005 Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon Yo-Yo Ma / Silk Road Ensemble

2004 Sounds of Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma

2002 Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet Yo-Yo Ma / Silk Road Ensemble

2001 Silk Road Journeys Yo-Yo Ma

"I’ve always had the goal of bringing 10 new piano compositions to life that would help elucidate the state of modern pianism. I started several years ago, with Leon Kirchner’s last piano sonata as the first of this sequence." - Joel Fan [15]

Leon Kirchner: Piano Sonata No. 3, "The Forbidden"

Leon Kirchner’s music has been recognized with a Naumburg Award (for his Piano Concerto No.1) and the Pulitzer Prize (for the String Quartet No.3 with tape,1967) among other citations. Kirchner taught at Harvard from 1961 to 1989, and "among the beneficiaries of his instruction who have gone on to become champions of his music are cellist Yo-Yo Ma and the pianist Joel Fan." [16]

To pianist Joel Fan, an alumni of Kirchner’s courses at Harvard University, his music is of “pure artistic integrity, revealing the highest ideals for which music stands.”[17] In March 2002, Joel Fan entered into a contract with Kirchner, who agreed to compose a solo piano sonata.[18] Leon Kirchner’s compact Sonata No. 3, “The Forbidden,” which was written for Mr. Fan in 2006, [19] refers to his use of tonality, “forbidden” at the time. This was his way of linking the past with the present, keeping "the art of music alive and well". Joel Fan premiered "The Forbidden" on November 11, 2006 in Cambridge, MA.[20]

The work had gradually evolved in the composer's mind since 2003, undergoing a process of genesis and refinement over the years until its final completion. It started off as the Piano Sonata No. 3, then was cast as the String Quartet No. 4, and finally orchestrated...,[21] commissioned by James Levine for the Boston Symphony Orchestra (2008), are all titled “The Forbidden.” [22]

Joel Fan has recorded "The Forbidden" for Albany Records (2007) and Verdant World Records (2013).

“As a pianist, I’ve always been fascinated by the way music is created… [23] “That’s why I created the Open Source Music Festival – a festival of music aimed at exploration, collaboration, sharing and ultimately, the reimagination of music.” - Joel Fan[24]

Joel Fan, Artistic Director of the Open Source Music Festival, invited four composer couples to write a piece inspired by an existing piece of music. [25] Fan said, “We wanted to explore the tension and interplay of relationships in a collaborative, creative process, and the meaning of reimagination for these acclaimed composers.”[26] Joel Fan performed the World Premiere of each of their works on November 18, 2017 at the Open Source Music Festival in New York, NY.[27]

Augusta Read Thomas & Bernard Rands: Two Thoughts About The Piano

AXIS by Augusta Read Thomas - IMPROMPTU NO. 3 by Bernard Rands

"Two Thoughts About The Piano was inspired by - and is a response to - Elliott Carter's Caténaires, from his Two Thoughts About the Piano. My work is entirely original and does not quote from or share music in common with Mr. Carter’s work".— Augusta Read Thomas[28]

"Augusta then composed a series of about thirteen chords that serve as a potent seed and source embryo for both her work and Bernard’s work... Each in our own way, we used these chords as the harmonic structure of our respective pieces without any further collaboration... Bernard also analyzed the note succession of the Carter and the order in which each pitch occurs until all twelve have arrived. He then composed his IMPROMPTU #3 using the rich harmonies referred to above in the slow sections and the pitch ordering in the alternating fast sections." [29]

AXIS by Augusta Read Thomas and IMPROMPTU NO. 3 by Bernard Rands have been performed as separate works, and together as a single work. Joel Fan performed the world premiere of Rands IMPROMPTU NO. 3 on radio station WQXR in New York City on November 7, 2017,[30] and as a part of Bernard Rands' Four Impromptus in Cambridge, MA on April 18, 2019[31]. AXIS - composed by Augusta Read Thomas, was a mandatory piece for the finalists in the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, September 2019, in Bolzano, Italy.[32]

"Collectively titled 'Two Thoughts About The Piano,' they demonstrate the pianist’s virtuosity, with trills, repeated notes and angular gestures abounding to explore the entire compass of the instrument."[33] Two Thoughts About The Piano received its world premiere by Joel Fan on November 18, 2017 in New York, NY.

Evan Ziporyn & Christine Southworth: Don’t Want to Wait

Christine Southworth is a composer and video artist based in Lexington, Massachusetts, dedicated to creating art born from a cross-pollination of sonic and visual ideas.[34] Composer/conductor/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn's music has taken him from Balinese temples to concert halls around the world.[35]

Christine Southworth and Evan Ziporyn wrote their haunting work Don’t Want to Wait, together, "passing it back and forth like a game of telephone." Their piece is a musical response to the Van Halen tune, Don’t Want to Wait for Tomorrow. Joel Fan performed the world premiere of Don’t Want To Wait on November 18, 2017 in New York, NY.[36] “We loved what he did with our music,” says Ziporyn, who is faculty director at MIT’s Center for Arts, Science & Technology.[37]

Julia Wolfe & Michael Gordon: Hand in Hand

Julia Wolfe's music is distinguished by an intense physicality and a relentless power that pushes performers to extremes and demands attention from the audience. She was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music, and was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2016.[38] Michael Gordon has been honored by the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music collective Bang on a Can.[39] Joel Fan performed the world premiere of Hand in Hand on November 18, 2017 in New York, NY.[40]

Wang Lu & Anthony Cheung: Recombinant

Wang Lu is an Assistant Professor of Music at Brown University, where she teaches composition and theory. She is the Spring 2019 Berlin Prize Fellow in composition at the American Academy in Berlin, and was a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow.[41] Anthony Cheung is the recipient of a 2016 Guggenheim Fellowship, and he has also received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Fellowship and Scholarship) and ASCAP, and first prize in the Sixth International Dutilleux Competition (2008), as well as a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome (2012).[42]

Recombinant was composed by the composer couple in two parts - Part 1 by Wang Lu, Part 2 by Anthony Cheung[43]. Joel Fan premiered the composition by Wang Lu on radio station WKCR in New York, NY on October 29, 2017. Fan subsequently performed the world premiere of Recombinant on November 18, 2017.[44]

World Premiere Recordings

Joel Fan's world premiere recordings include the following:

Leon Kirchner: Piano Sonata No. 3, "The Forbidden"

Dia Succari: La Nuit du Destin

Halim El Dabh: Sayera from Mekta in the art of Kita

Qigang Chen: Instants d'un opera de Pekin

Peter Sculthorpe: Nocturnal

Peteris Vasks: Kantate

William Bolcom: Nine New Bagatelles

Fan is a member of Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project with whom he performed at the BBC Proms for the first time in 2004 alongside Wu Tong, Wu Man and the London Sinfonietta. His other performances with the ensemble range from venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Concertgebouw to television appearances on Good Morning and David Letterman.

Other than winning the Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concert Auditions, Fan has been awarded by several international competitions, notably the D’Anglo Young Artists International Competition and Busoni International Piano Competition. He was also the winner of the Kosciuzko Foundation’s Chopin Prize and named a Presidential Scholar by the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.[45]

Joel Fan is a Steinway Artist.[46]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer has described him as "a superb musician, able to cross one style into another without any diminution in musical sophistication." The Los Angeles Times says he is a " soaring talent - Fan's facility makes his playing a technical wonder." The Washington Post noted him as "a versatile and sensitive pianist – an impressive talent."

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