Pianist Ching-Yun Hu to Play Solo Concert at the Kimmel Center August 2

World-renowned pianist Ching-Yun Hu, the founder and director of the Philadelphia Young Pianists' Academy (PYPA), will have her solo debut performance in the Perelman Theater in the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, 300 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia on August 2 at 7:30 p.m. This concert is the opening of the 7th Annual PYPA Festival. Just returning from a sold-out world concert tour, she will perform the Spanish composer Isaac Albéniz's Iberia, Books I and II, and Frédéric Chopin's Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 and Chopin's contemporary, French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan's L e festin d'Esope (Aesop's Feast), Op. 39, No. 12. Tickets are $30 each and be purchased by visiting www.kimmelcenter.com or the box office at Kimmel Center.

Known and praised worldwide for her unmissable performance style and outstanding technique, Ching-Yun Hu has won top prizes at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York City. Ms. Hu has also received honors from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Golden Melody Awards and is also a Steinway Artist.

Hu's performance will be followed by 10 days of concerts and lectures by world-class pianists, master classes by highly respected pianists and professors, student concerts and the Philadelphia International Piano Competition. This year there are 22 talented youth pianists ranging in age from 10 to 25 who will have the opportunity to learn alongside such internationally known concert masters as Gary Graffman, former Curtis Institute of Music president and Concert Pianist; Dang Hai Son, first Asian pianist to win a top international competition; Yekwon Sunwoo, 2017 Gold Medalist; Lydia Artymiw, recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Prize; and Alon Goldstein, winner of numerous competitions, among them the Arianne Katcz Piano Competition in Tel Aviv, Nena Wideman Competition in the US and the Francois Shapira competition in Israel.

Following Hu's debut at the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999, she appeared at prestigious concert halls across the globe including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Wigmore Hall (London), Salle Cortot (Paris), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Herkulesaal (Munich), Klavier-Ruhr Festival, Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest), Duszniki-Dzroj Chopin International Festival and Rubinstein Philharmonic Hall (Poland), Opera House (Tel Aviv), National Concert Hall (Taipei), and Japan's Osaka Hall.

As an active advocate for the promotion of classical music and founder of the Philadelphia Young Pianists' Academy, Hu is extremely proud that the festival has had such a positive impact on students for the past six years. She said recently, "We are extremely proud of reaching this exciting landmark 7th Anniversary for PYPA and making the leap to launching the festival at the Kimmel Center. Over the years, we have worked with many stellar students and we feel privileged to have made such a strong impact on their careers. The unique aspect of PYPA is the focused attention each student receives in a concentrated period of 10 days, while getting immediate feedback from each of the faculty artists on site. This level of individualized training can lead to real progress or even genuine breakthroughs in performance."

Declared a "first-class talent" and praised for her "poetic use of color and confidently expressive phrasing" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), the distinguished Taiwanese-American concert pianist Ching-Yun Hu is recognized and acclaimed worldwide for her dazzling technique, deeply probing musicality, and directly communicative performance style. After winning top prizes at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York City, her career has taken her to prestigious concert halls and music festivals across the globe on five continents.

Ching-Yun Hu made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1999. She has appeared at prestigious concert halls across the globe, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Aspen Music Festival, Wigmore Hall (London), Salle Cortot (Paris), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Herkulesaal (Munich), Klavier-Ruhr Festival, Franz Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest), Duszniki-Dzroj Chopin International Festival and Rubinstein Philharmonic Hall (Poland), Opera House (Tel Aviv), National Concert Hall (Taipei), and Japan's Osaka Hall.

Ching-Yun Hu released her latest solo album, "Rachmaninoff", in Spring of 2018. A collaboration with Philadelphia's WRTI radio, her album received critical acclaims. The Pianist Magazine gave it 5 stars and proclaimed it "essential listening for Rachmaninoff admirers." An avid Chopin interpreter, her debut recording, an all-Chopin CD released in 2011 on the Taiwanese label ArchiMusic, won Taiwan's 2012 Golden Melody Award for Best Classical Album of the Year. The fall of 2013 saw the release of her second CD - music of Granados, Mozart and Ravel - on CAG Records. She recorded for the BMop Sound with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project for Jeremy Gill's work, released in the fall of 2017.

Considered one of the most important concert pianists from her native Taiwan, Ching-Yun Hu has received honors from the Taiwan Ministry of Culture and the Golden Melody Awards. She is a keen advocate for the promotion of classical music. She founded the Yun-Hsiang International Music Festival in Taipei in 2012, and the Philadelphia Young Pianists' Academy - PYPA in 2013. She serves on the piano faculty of the BoyerCollege of Music at Temple University in Philadelphia. Ms. Hu is a Steinway Artist. www.chingyunhu.com