Eric Lu Piano Recital
Eric Lu won the 2025 Chopin International Competition and the 2018 Leeds International Piano Competition. His thoughtful, poetic, and powerful interpretations have made him one of the most distinctive young pianists working today. This recital begins with Brahms’s glowing Theme and Variations (based on Brahms’s own String Sextet); moves through Romantic touchstones by Schumann, Chopin, and Rachmaninoff; and ends with Prokofiev’s precipitous, war-ravaged Piano Sonata No. 7. Lu’s playing “is in a rare class,” says BBC Music Magazine. “This type of sensitivity and emotional intuition does not grow on trees.”
Acknowledgements:
This performance is sponsored by:
The Piano Series is generously supported by Trine Sorensen and Michael Jacobson, and David Wollenberg and The Wollenberg Foundation.
Performance generously supported by:
Program
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 18b
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Prelude in G major, Op. 32, No. 5
Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN: Nocturne in C minor, Op. 48, No. 1
Polonaise-Fantasy, Op. 61
ROBERT SCHUMANN: Kinderszenen, Op. 15
SERGEI PROKOFIEV: Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83
Sergei Rachmaninoff's American Story
Sergei Rachmaninoff immigrated to the United States in 1918 after the Russian Revolution upended his life and career, forcing him into exile. In America, he built a lasting legacy that blended the emotional depth of European Romanticism with the musical culture of early 20th-century America.
"I am very happy to become a United States citizen in this land of opportunity and equality.” — The New York Times, Feb 2, 1943
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