International pianist opens the Globe matinee series

Pianist Ya-Ting Liou opens the 2020 matinee series at The Globe Theatre on March 1.

The 2020 Globe Sunday matinee series of concerts resumes March 1 with a concert which promises to be stunning.

Although most of the Globe concerts showcase the talent in our region, the matinee series opens with the Taiwanese–born pianist Ya-Ting Liou.

Liou will play a colourful and wide-ranging programme.

It includes two Baroque French pieces about birds, the Eroica variations of Beethoven, a Nocturne by the virtuoso pianist Paderewski, who was at one stage Prime Minister of Poland, a composition by New Zealand composer Gareth Farr, and finally, a Fantasy Sonata by the greatest pianist of the 19th Century, Franz Liszt.

Liou received her Bachelor and Masters degrees from the Peabody Institute of Music, and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance from the University of Missouri .

Taught by Marian Hahn, Ellen Mack, and Robert Weirich, Liou has participated in piano master classes with piano luminaries Jerome Lowenthal, Leon Fleisher, Leslie Howard, Peter Serkin, Stephen Hough, and Peter Frankl.

Critics noted Liou's secure and impressive technique and her ability for expressive and moving playing.

She has presented concerts as a soloist and chamber musician in New Zealand and abroad, with performance highlights including appearances at the Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts in New York, and venues in Italy, Canada, Argentina, and Taiwan.

As an educator, she has given masterclasses at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música Carlos López Buchardo in Argentina and at the Tainan National University of Arts in Taiwan.

The Sunday March 1 concert begins at 2.30pm. Admission is by donation, recommended from $5.