Amber Yiu Hsuan Liao - Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18; Granados: Goyescas; Schumann: Humoreske (2011)

The three pieces in this recording were all written during difficult times in the lives of their composers. Beethoven composed the E-flat major sonata in the same year he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament. Goyescas was created shortly after Granados learned about both the death of his close friend Issac Albéniz, and the Tragic Week, a bloody confrontation between the working class of Barcelona and the army. When Schumann composed Humoreske, he was an aspiring composer trying to win the approval of Clara’s father, and was staying in Vienna away from home and his beloved. It is touching to hear how the composers rose above the pain, anxiety and desperation in their lives with such grace. They transcended their suffering, and created these beautiful pieces that have enriched the lives of many others in future generations.

Pianist Amber Yiu-Hsuan Liao has given recitals and solo performances throughout United States and Taiwan. Recent engagements include recitals at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center and the Freeport Memorial Library, and the world premiere of Between Stream and Hills III for piano solo by Chih-Chen Wei. Ms. Liao has been invited to participate in several music festivals in Europe, including Courchevel Academie Musicale in France, Internationale Sommerakademie Mozarteum in Salzburg and New Millennium Piano Festival in Gijón, Spain. She has also been selected to perform in the master classes of distinguished artists such as Leon Fleisher, Dmitri Bashkirov, John Perry, Leslie Howard, Oxana Yablonskaya, Michel Béroff and Robert McDonald. As a chamber musician, Ms. Liao’s collaborations with vocalists and instrumentalists have led to performances in the CAMI Hall, Symphony Space and the Lenox Athenaeum, among others. She was the pianist in the Emerald Quintet, a group dedicated to both standard repertoire and the works of contemporary composers. Ms. Liao started her early music training in Taiwan. As a teenager, she was the prize winner of several regional and national composition competitions. She continued her studies in piano performance in the United States under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky and Arkady Aronov. A winner of the Rose Marie Milholland Award and the President’s Award, she received her Master of Music from the Peabody Institute and Doctor of Musical Arts from the Manhattan School of Music. She currently maintains a private studio in New York City, and is on the faculty of Seton Hall University in New Jersey.