Vera Hsu - Master Class & Concert

Dr. Vera Hui-pin Hsu is a pianist/conductor and the winner of the 2009 International Conductors Workshop and Competition in Georgia, U.S.A. She received Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance (under the tutelage of Martin Canin) from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York in 2013. She gave recitals and lecture concerts in Germany, Austria, U.S. and Taiwan. She toured with Haifa Symphony Orchestra in Israel in 2012. Vera Hsu recorded Sung-jen Hsu’s piano concerto, “Pounding Rain,” as the soloist with Taiwan Philharmonic, and the album was issued by Taiwan’s National CKS Cultural Center in the Voice of Taiwan series.

As a pianist, Vera Hsu engages in a wide range of musical activities beyond solo performances. In the capacity of orchestral pianist and rehearsal pianist, Vera collaborates with Taiwan Philharmonic regularly since 2011, participating in performances of compositions by contemporary composers (including a nationally televised world), and rehearsing Verdi’s Requiem, Salome and Fidelio, to name a few. Vera Hsu is also an avid chamber music performer. She appeared in chamber music concerts throughout New York City, including Carnegie Hall (Weill Hall). In 2010, she was selected to participate in the chamber music workshop hosted by the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taiwan, and participated in master classes of Lilya Zilberstein and Mikhail Rudy, among others. In 2007, she was invited to perform in the opening gala concert of a serial of chamber concerts held at Taipei Economic and Culture Center in New York. In recent years, Vera Hsu has keen interests in performing music for piano duos, including premiering John Adams’s Hallelujah Junction (with a solo dancer) in Taiwan.

Vera Hsu’s talents as a conductor have led to performances with many different ensembles. She is now the conductor of Crescendo Ensemble Taiwan. Hsu served as the guest assistant conductor of Taiwan Philharmonic in its 2013 Europe tour at Paris, Berlin, Milan, and Geneva, and several subscription concerts in 2014. She conducted in the opera studio at Taipei National University of the Arts in 2011–2012. She conducted the Macon Symphony Orchestra in its Young People’s concert and collaborated with Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and Astoria Symphony Orchestra. She also served as Chorus Master at Chelsea Opera, NYC, in 2008. From 2001–2005, she was the music director for the Chi-Yen Symphony Orchestra, the Shin-Lin Chamber Orchestra, the Da-Guan, the Nan-Ping, and the Shih-Pie Youth Orchestras, as well as principal conductor of two other youth orchestras. She conducts standard orchestral repertoire but takes particular pleasure in promoting and featuring new compositions by contemporary Taiwanese composers. From 2001 to 2003, she served as an assistant conductor in the Orchestra of Taipei National University of Arts where she earned her M.A. degree in conducting.

In 2004, Vera Hsu was the sole choice to conduct in Maestro Seiji Ozawa’s master class in Taiwan. While living in New York City, Vera Hsu continued her conducting studies with Adrian Gnam, John Farrer, Daniel Lewis, Donald Thulean, and Neil Thompson in various workshops. She was chosen as a runner-up at 2008 International Conductors’ Workshop.

Vera Hsu was sponsored by the prestigious three-year Taiwan Government Scholarship to pursue her doctoral degree at, where her outstanding achievements have also earned her the CUNY University Fellowship. An enthusiastic chamber player, she pursued her interest in the British composer Frank Bridge by examining the forms of his three chamber works titled “Phantasy” in her dissertation, supervised by Prof. Norman Carey.