Hsing-Chwen Giselle Hsin

Hsing-Chwen Giselle Hsin is one of the most esteemed pianists from Asia. Her predecessor Fou Ts'ong, internationally the most venerated concert pianist from China, recognizes her as "a true artist", and praises her for "reaching the highest realm in music, especially in the performances of Mozart". She is also a piano professor and served several terms as Director of the Institute of Music at the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. She has adjudicated, lectured and given master classes nationwide and internationally, such as at Portugal’s Coimbra World Piano Meeting, England’s Royal Northern College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School, and Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Germany’s SRIMF, and Israel’s Tel Aviv International Piano Competition.

On CD, her recording of Mozart, Ravel and Chopin, published by Decca of Taiwan, has won her critical acclaim, resulting in the selection of Editor's Choice in the All Music Magazine. She has also won several competition prizes internationally. These include the prestigious Chappell Gold Medal from London's Royal College of Music, the Mozart Bicentenary Piano Competition of Asia, and New York's Chopin Piano Competition. Among the great concert halls of the world, Dr. Hsin has performed in London's Wigmore Hall, South Bank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room; New York's 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Hall; California's Lobero and Arlington Theatres (Santa Barbara); Hong Kong's Cultural Center and City Hall; Guangzhou's Xinghai Concert Hall and Hunan's Cultural Center (China); and Taipei’s National Concert Hall and Novel Hall. She has also given numerous performances elsewhere in England, and in France, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, United States, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

At 17, she performed as a duo with Sir Yehudi Menuhin in the D Minor Violin Sonata by Brahms at the Uppottery Festival, England. That same year she was also invited to give a solo recital debut in the Archbishop of York’s Palace. In her native country Taiwan, she was honored by its President to perform at the Presidential Hall Concert in 1994. As a soloist in concertos, she has performed with USA’s Santa Barbara Symphony, Augustus Symphony, Long Island South Shore Symphony, Stony Brook Orchestra; Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Taiwan Symphony Orchestra; the Guildhall String Ensemble of England, the Guangzhou and Hunan Symphony Orchestras of China, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Moreover, she gave the world premier of Concertino for Piano and Orchestra, written in 1999 for her, by one of Taiwan’s foremost composers, Tsung-Hsien Yang, as well as a Taiwan Premier of Hans Tutschku’s Cells-Lines for piano and live-electronics in 2015. Starting from 2014, her recitals aim to combine musical experience with visual creations in collaboration with artist colleagues. In 2016, her solo recital at the National Concert Hall in Taipei featured imageries for Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, created by visual artist Chi-Min Hsieh on stage. More recitals have taken places including ones that commemorated Debussy and Ma Shui-Long in 2018. Her set of two CDs published by National Chiao Tung University Press includes a Chinese/English dual language booklet of the pianist’s own essay From Bach to Mozart to Chopin: a Retrospective Chopin Approach. This has been widely recognized as a hallmark of integrating scholarship, with exquisite performance.

As an avid and versatile chamber music artist, collaborating in duo and chamber music recitals with internationally renowned first prize winners, including violinist Cho-Liang Lin (Queen Sofia), Qian Zhou (Jacques Thibaud) and Nai-Yuan Hu (Queen Elizabeth), she has also partnered with distinguished international artists, such as violinists James Buswell and Christophe Boulier; violist Hsin-Yun Huang; cellists Gary Hoffman, Antonio Lysy, Pi-Chin Chien, as well as pianists Gilbert Kalish and Pi-Hsien Chen. In 2005, Prof. Hsin founded a leading chamber group of Taiwan, the ChiaoTa Chamber Ensemble, representing NCTU’s Institute of Music and dedicated to the promotion, including the premiering, of classic and contemporary chamber music repertoire in Taiwan.

After winning First Prize at the National Piano Competition for juniors, Ms. Hsin – at 13 - went on to study as a protégé of Baroness Léni Fé Bland at England’s renowned Yehudi Menuhin School. Further studies included a Performer’s Diploma from the Royal College of Music, a Master of Fine Arts from UCLA, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. She has studied with Simon Nicholls, Louis Kentner, Vlado Perlemuter, Kendall Taylor, Jerome Lowenthal, Andras Schiff, Ick Choo Moon, Aube Tzerko, Gilbert Kalish and Leon Fleisher. Combining their inspiration and her own further distillation in artistic search, she enjoys passing a healthy and stylistically suitable way of playing to her students. While developing the students’ technical ease and prowess, she also firmly believes in the power and experience of chamber music towards fine musicianship.