Seventeen-year-old pianist Sophia Liu opens the Gilmore Piano Festival's fall Rising Stars series this Sunday, Sep 20 with a program built around one of classical music's most punishing, least-performed composers.
Speaking with Cara Lieurance, Liu explains why she has centered her Kalamazoo recital — and a companion performance in January at Le Piano Symphonique in Lucerne, Switzerland — on four works by the 19th-century French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. She has admired Alkan since childhood, despite music she calls nearly unplayable. "There's so much passion, there's so much fire, there's so much imagery in his music," she says, arguing that his reputation for sheer technical difficulty has obscured a real depth. She calls the neglect of Alkan's catalog "such a shame," noting it stems partly from how few pianists can manage it.
After Alkan, the program moves to Chopin, then to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite and selections from The Seasons, before closing with Balakirev's Islamey.
Liu, who was born in Shanghai and now lives in Montreal, also reflects on identity amid recent political tension between the U.S. and Canada. "It's about art, it's about connection, it's about humanity," she says. "We're all ultimately from the same universe... whatever political issues there may be, whatever happens, kind of love and art are just things that keep us together."
Looking ahead, Liu describes a packed touring schedule — 21 concerts in the next three months — alongside a growing interest in composing and songwriting beyond classical circles. "I don't really know what things are going to be like in 10 years," she says, "but at the moment, that's what I like to do — play a lot of concertos and share original music." Among her formative influences, she names pianists Evgeny Kissin, Arthur Rubinstein, Martha Argerich, and Radu Lupu.
The concert is sold out, but a waiting list and an option to livestream the concert can be found at thegilmore.org.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
