Albert Tiu (born March 20, 1969) is a classical pianist from the Philippines.

Biography

Born in 1969 in

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...

, Albert first learned to play the piano at the age of five. At the age of eleven, he was accepted at the Philippine High School for the Arts, a government-run school for the musically gifted at the National Arts Center, in

Mount Makiling Mount Makiling (also known as Mount Maquiling), is an inactive stratovolcano located in the provinces of Laguna and Batangas on the island of Luzon, Philippines. The mountain rises to an elevation of above mean sea level and is the highest fe ...

, Laguna. He studied piano with Nita Quinto at the University of the Philippines College of Music, with John Winther in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and with Michael Lewin at the Boston Conservatory. In 1996, he received his Master of Music degree from the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most el ...

, where he was a scholar and student of Jerome Lowenthal."Albert Tiu, pianist"
Performing Arts.net. Retrieved on 2011-06-05. Between 1996 and 2002, Albert participated in piano competitions, winning First Prizes at the 1996 Unisa Piano Competition in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and the 2000 Web Concert Hall Piano Competition in the U.S. He also won prizes in Calgary (Honens), Helsinki (Maj Lind), Santander ( Paloma O'Shea Santander International Competition), and special awards for his performance of Mozart Piano Concerto K595 and the Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Unisa Competition (see list below). His performance highlights include soloist with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic,

Hamburg Symphony The Symphoniker Hamburg (''Hamburg Symphony Orchestra'') is a German orchestra based in Hamburg, Germany. Founded in 1957, it is one of the city's three largest orchestras. The Hamburg Symphony Orchestra is the orchestra in residence in the La ...

Finnish Radio Symphony The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Finnish: ''Radion sinfoniaorkesteri'', Swedish: ''Radions symfoniorkester'') is a Finnish broadcast orchestra based in Helsinki, and the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). The orchestra prima ...

, Gstaad Festival Orchestra
Baden-Baden Philharmonic

Northern Sinfonia Royal Northern Sinfonia is a British chamber orchestra, founded in Newcastle upon Tyne and currently based in Gateshead. For the first 46 years of its history, the orchestra gave most of its concerts at the Newcastle City Hall. Since 2004, the o ...

(England),

Calgary Philharmonic The Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The orchestra gives the majority of its performances in the Jack Singer Concert Hall at Arts Commons. It is also the resident orchestra for the Calgary Opera, A ...

Winnipeg Symphony Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,60 ...

Louisiana Philharmonic The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) is an American orchestra based in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the only full-time, professional orchestra in the Gulf South. The orchestra performs at the Orpheum Theater. The Louisiana Philharmonic Or ...

, Michigan Chamber Symphony
Johannesburg PhilharmonicCape Town Philharmonic
Guangzhou Symphony, Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra and Juilliard Symphony. He has settled in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

, where he is a Professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory,

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national public research university in Singapore. Founded in 1905 as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School, NUS is the oldest autonomous university in the c ...

Competitions

*1995 St. Charles International Piano Competition in Illinois, USA, First *1996 Alabama International Piano Competition, Second *1996

Honens International Piano Competition The Honens International Piano Competition is a triennial classical piano competition held in Calgary, Canada that awards prizes in piano performance. In addition to monetary awards, the top prize winner receives access to a career development prog ...

in Calgary, Alberta,

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Second *1996 UNISA Competition in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

, FirstRoos, John
"Twenty Years of Music Competitions at Unisa"
Retrieved on 2011-06-05. *1998 Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition in

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, Laureate *2000 Web Concert Hall Competition, First"2000 Web Concert Hall Competition Winners"
. Web Concert Hall. Retrieved on 2011-06-05. *2002 Maj Lind Piano Competition in

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

, Fifth

Notable live performances

He is noted for his interesting thematic programming, coming up with recital programmes entitled "Nocturnal Fantasies", alternating similarly titled pieces (with similar keys as well) by Chopin and Scriabin; "Bee Flat", featuring the two Sonatas in B-flat (Op.22 and Op.106) by

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

; and "Chopin without Chopin", featuring some of Leopold Godowsky's

Studies on Chopin's Études The ''Studies on Chopin's Études'' are a set of 53 arrangements of Chopin's études by Leopold Godowsky, composed between 1894 and 1914. They are renowned for their technical difficulty: critic Harold C. Schonberg called them "the most impossib ...

, the Skryabin Polonaise and the Busoni and

Rachmaninov Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of ...

Variations on the same C-minor Prelude. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with violinists

Pierre Amoyal Pierre Amoyal (born 22 June 1949 in Paris) is a French violinist and is the artistic director of the Conservatory of Lausanne. He owns the "Kochanski" Stradivarius of 1717. It was stolen from him in 1987 and recovered in 1991. Life and car ...

, Cho-Liang Lin,

Robert McDuffie Robert McDuffie is an American violinist. He has played as a soloist with many of the major orchestras around the world including those of New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Minnesota, Hou ...

Kam Ning Kam Ning () is a violinist and daughter of the violinist-composer Kam Kee Yong (甘琦勇), and grandchild of Kam Beng Soo and Ooi Kooi Aun. Born in Singapore in 1975, she was given violin lessons at the age of six by the elder Kam, and had her ...

and Qian Zhou, violist Nobuko Imai, cellist

Li-Wei Qin Li-Wei Qin (; born 16 February 1976) is a Chinese Australians, Chinese-Australian cello, cellist. He won the Silver Medal at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998, and First Prize at the 2001 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, Int ...

, the

T'ang Quartet The T'ang String Quartet (唐四重奏) is a Singapore-based classical string quartet that has played to critical acclaim. Formed in 1992, they are Singapore's first full-time professional chamber group. In April 2022, the Quartet opened their 30t ...

, the St. Lawrence Quartet, the

Australian String Quartet The Australian String Quartet (ASQ) is a chamber music group founded in 1985 and based at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. It delivers an artistic program of performances, workshops, commissions, digital content and education projects ...

, and in duo-piano concerts with Thomas Hecht. In January 2005, he and the

played together in a fund-raising concert at Victoria Concert Hall, ''Concert for Hope'', to aid the victims of the

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami An earthquake and a tsunami, known as the Boxing Day Tsunami and, by the scientific community, the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake, occurred at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+7) on 26 December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Suma ...

. In August 2005, he gave the Singapore premiere of

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

Piano Concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...

with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under conductor Tang Muhai at the

Esplanade Concert Hall An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

. In September 2007, after suffering a dislocated left thumb from a bicycle accident, he performed an entire recital with his right hand alone. Albert arranged eight of Chopin preludes for the right hand and played a commissioned piece by Kawai Shiu.

Personal life

Albert Tiu is married to his wife Susan, and they have two children, Alexander and Lauren.

Discography

#Sentimyento entiment(2000), with Joseph Esmilla on the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

assisted by Albert Tiu, Bookmark Audio. #The Clarinetist Composer (2001) is a compilation of

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

music composed by another clarinetist. David Hattner (clarinet) accompanied by Albert Tiu (piano), Northbranch Records. #Variations: Albert Tiu, Honens International Piano Competition Laureate Series (2002), Arktos Recordings Limited, Canada. #"Salamisim" (Reminiscence) (2002), a collection of short and popular

romantic Romantic may refer to: Genres and eras * The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries ** Romantic music, of that era ** Romantic poetry, of that era ** Romanticism in science, of that e ...

pieces released by Bookmark Audio Philippines."Welcome to JE Labs"
. JE Labs. Retrieved on 2011-06-05). #Concierto para trio (2003) is a collection of pieces by Spanish and South American classical composers performed by Triode, a

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of musi ...

composed of Albert Tiu (piano), Joseph Esmilla (violin) and Sean Katsuyama (

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

), Northbrach Records. #Kawai Shiu: unassuming music (2007) is a compilation of music by composer Kawai Shiu with Albert performing ''"La coral de una mano alberto"'', a piece for right hand, Ablaze Records. #Beethoven: The Cello Sonatas (2010), the five cello sonatas of

with cellist Li-Wei Qin and Tiu (piano), Decca. #Nocturnal Fantasies (2011) is a solo piano collection of works by Chopin and Scriabin, pairing and alternating similar pieces by the two composers, Centaur Records.(2011)
"Nocturnal Fantasies"
Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-05. #Rachmaninov: Works for Cello and Piano (2012) includes the Op.2 pieces, the Op.19 Sonata, a transcription by Tiu of the piano Prelude Op.23 No.3, and some songs, with cellist Li-Wei Qin, Decca.

Reviews

*For his 2002 recording on Canadian label Arktos, ''Variations'', the American Record Guide described him as "an artist of uncommon abilities". * Adam Baer of

The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...

commented, "Tiu plays with this notion in his mind and in his fingers. While he expresses motifs artfully thought out well ahead of performance time, Tiu, like the world's best artists, eventually allows his heart to take over and lets go.""Albert Tiu - 200 Winner"
. Web Concert Hall. Retrieved on 2011-06-05 * American Record Guide on ''"Nocturnal Fantasies"'', Centaur: "this is one of the most inventive recital programs I have ever seen or heard. Chopin and Scriabin work so well together that I'm surprised that I rarely see them combined on one disc - and never as well as this. He has the heart and soul of a true romantic pianist, as well as an abundance of technical skills. He can float a delicate melody one moment and rise to an impressive and exciting climax the next. His writing, based on superb program notes, supports his program-building ability quite nicely. He is a pianist I would go out of my way to hear in concert, and I will look for his future recordings." *

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

describes ''"Nocturnal Fantasies"'' as "performances where heart and mind unite in a deeply affecting union. Tiu is the sort of artist... who can make a single note or chord tell, yet always within an enviably natural, lucid and refined context." *In

Fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets, French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introduction to an instrumental perfo ...

, Jerry Dubins declared: "Centaur has produced, in my opinion, one of the all-time great piano recordings."

References

External links

Albert Tiu
web site from Musical Online

at the 2001 Web Concert Hall Competition {{DEFAULTSORT:Tiu, Albert Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumni Filipino classical pianists Juilliard School alumni Living people 1969 births 20th-century Filipino musicians 21st-century Filipino musicians 21st-century classical pianists Musicians from Cebu