Hanni Liang (piano)

PROGRAMME:
Manfred Trojahn
Le silence habité des maisons, Prelude No. 7 (world premiere)

Domenico Scarlatti
Sonata in G Major, K. 455
Sonata in E Major, K. 380
Sonata in D Minor, K. 9 (Pastorale)

Felix Mendelssohn
Variations sérieuses, Op. 54

Alexander Rosenblatt
Swan Lake, Suite-Fantasy on Themes from Tchaikovsky's Suite Op. 20

Performed by Hanni Liang (piano)

tonali

The concert will take place with the amicable support of the Senate and Ministry of Culture of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg

About the Concert

„It is different. It is creative, idiosyncratic and trend-setting in all aspects. It is much more than a difficult to win music contest – TONALi. It drives top sponsorship and at the same time initiates the impulse for cultural education. It addresses young composers, high potential young musicians and numerous young listeners (more than 10,000 in 12 Hamburg based schools), who often find to classical music because of TONALi. It is a total work of art, which has been cleverly and effectively adjusted to the actual music situation. The city of Hamburg, which has strong musical scene, can be proud of TONALI, which no one today wants to miss anymore and which has found much attention far beyond Hamburg.
It is with much personal solicitousness and respect in my role as honorary president that I see the rapid development of TONALi. This unique and highly demanding music project, initiated in 2009 by two young cellists Amadeus Templeton and Boris Matchin will see its fourth edition in 2014 as a result of tireless dedication, voluntary commitment and the support of many personalities, institutions and sponsors.
The 2014 competition focuses on the violin. 12 violinists (with residence in Germany), all aiming for a solo career, may qualify and compete to win the TONALi-prize worth 10,000 Euro. Those making it to the final, will be invited to perform a violin concert in the big hall at Laeiszhalle Hamburg with the renowned The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. This poses a strong incentive for the young musicians to perform at their very best and makes them happily engage themselves with TONALi fundamental principles:
• A distinctive interest in the future of classical concerts, which in its format looks for new ideas, new rituals and contemporary communication.
• Active discussion about the question the musician can take more responsibility for the development of classical concert future.
• The willingness to widely communicate these new formats, encouraged by TONALi by its unique school activities that prove a contemporary relation between audience and musician.
TONALi sets a trend as a result of its threefold structure: „writing (composition prize), performing (Grand Prix) and listening (TuttiContest)“ and challenges many in various ways. Christoph Eschenbach, Conductor and TONALi Honorary President.
The next stage of collaboration between the Mariinsky Theatre and TONALi came with the new cultural and educational project The Sounds of Change. The task of the project is to interest young audiences in classical music concerts and involve them in organising such concerts on a practical level – right in their schools.

Official website: www.tonali.de

About the performers

Hanni Liang was born in 1993 in Bielefeld (Germany). She took her first piano lesson when she was eight years old and became a young student of Barbara Szczepańska after rapid progress, followed by many prizes and concerts. Among them were 1^st prizes at the Rotary Piano Competition, the Van Bremen Piano Competition and the Concorso Pianistico Internazionale di Roma. Concert performances have taken her to Austria, China, Spain, Italy and Poland, where she has appeared at the Tianjin Piano Festival and the International Music Festival Chopin. Furthermore she travels regularly for concerts to Switzerland (the BSI Engadin Festival) and to respected music festivals in Germany including the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Best of NRW, Schumannfest and Gezeitenkonzerte.

In 2010 she was chosen as the “Young Steinway Artist” and was given a Steinway advancement award. Furthermore, she has received sponsorships from the Dörken Stiftung, the Association for Westphalia Cultural Work, Bechstein and the Richard Wagner Foundation among others. Since 2013 she has been an acclaimed TONALi-Musician and has thus developed outstanding skills in musical communication. TONALi has shaped her further career development and influenced her personality in art, as well as her musical engagement, to encourage more young listeners of classical music and to obtain cultural education.

Her close collaboration with the renowned German composer Manfred Trojahn led to the premiere of his piece for piano Leise Gondeln and developed not only into a deep friendship, but also led to a recording of Trojahn’s Six Préludes in 2015. That disc was the pianist's debut recording.

Her frequent collaborations with the Swiss-Uruguayan pianist Homero Francesch have had a fundamental effect on her musical understanding. Other influences have come from such distinguished musicans as Bernd Goetzke, Jacques Rouvier and John Perry.

The 2015-16 season saw Liang undertake a two-week tour of China which included concerts at the country's most prestigious concert halls including the Forbidden City Hall in Beijing, the Tianjin Concert Hall and the Qintai Concert Hall in Wuhan. In July she was honoured to adjudicate the grand finale of TONALi 2016 at the Laeiszhalle Hamburg.

Age category 6+