Since 1989 the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts has been promoting Asian musicians and the Eastern musical heritage through performing arts and has presented over 147 concerts in Boston’s Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Harvard’s Sanders Theater, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Calderwood Hall, and New York’s Carnegie Hall featuring renowned Asian musicians like Yo-Yo Ma, Fou Ts’ong, Tan Dun, Hung-Kuan Chen, Bion Tsang, Nai-Yuan Hu, Dang Thai-Son, The Shanghai Quartet, Ning An, and Haochen Zhang… to critical acclaim. For 30 years, the FCPA had also hosted its Annual Music Festival at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, attracting students from all over the world and included students like Lang Lang, George Li, Yeol Eun Son, Eric Lu and Kate Liu

Its Summer Free Concert Series at the New England Conservatory, resuming after a two-year hiatus, kicks off in a week and will feature 15 concerts between August 11^th and August 27^th including violinists, violists, cellists, pianists, and vocalists. The calendar can be found HERE. Founder Catherine Chan is “…very proud to present such magnificent artists. They should be heard more on the world stage.”

The 2022 Fou Ts’ong International Concerto competition constitutes one of the highlights. Ten semi-finalists from Canada, China, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the USA will compete for a cash prize and a performance with the Mercury Orchestra in Jordan Hall. This year’s judges include Bruce Brubaker, Richard Dyer, HaeSun Paik, Sergey Schepkin, and Channing Yu. Celebrated pianist and Bach specialist Schepkin will also give an all-Beethoven program on the 13^th.

JJ Bui, who wowed the world’s stage at the 18^th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition, opens the series with Chopin, Debussy and Schubert. Kuok-Wai Lio, an Avery Fisher Grant laureate, will play Haydn, Beethoven and one of Schubert’s last piano sonatas. First Prize recipient in the recent 2022 Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, Inmo Yang will carry out works by Sibelius, Brahms, and Schumann. Yang also appears the next night with Sahun Sam Hong and Ensemble 132, where the group performs Hong’s quartet arrangement of Schumann’s Carnival. Coincidentally, the Carnival appears a few nights before, played also with a twist by pianist and improviser, Chi-Wei Lo. In his rendition, he will invent new character pieces. Music by Chen Yi and Tony Schemmer will also be featured. On the 23^rd, cellist NanCheng Chen will collaborate with pianist Yinfei Wang on Brahms, Schumann and José Elizondo. Yinfei Wang also appears with Qianqian Li, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Nathan Vickery as a quartet on the third week. Hsin-Yun Huang, a leading violist, teaches at Curtis and the Juilliard School. Other solo concerts include Evren Ozel and Zhiye Lin.

The series is definitely not lacking for duos. On the 12^th, Rose Hsien, a Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition recipient partners with pianist Andrew Hsu in a well-considered concert of refreshing ideas and heart-aching melodies. Violinist Jean Huang appears with renowned pianist and pedagogue Victor Rosenbaum, in a selection of new and old. Pianist and soprano Chelsea Guo, recently included in Classical FM’s “30 under 30,” will perform on the piano on one half and transform into a soprano on the second, with the help of pianist Xiaopei Xu. Max Tan, Arthur Foote Prize victor from the Harvard Musical Association, closes the Williams Hall concerts.

Channing Yu leads the grand finale on the 27^th, when the Mercury Orchestra performs Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in Jordan hall with the winner of the Fou Ts’ong International Concerto competition.  

A doctoral candidate at the NEC in contemporary piano improvisation under Joe Morris and Bruce Brubaker. Chi Wei Lo does standard rep at prize-winning levels, flashmob, improv, and literate programming.