Shuann Chai - Pianos

a portrait of shuann sitting on the floor near her historical piano

Shuann Chai is a versatile pianist who performs on a wide range of early to modern pianos.

Schubert: Impromptu in A-flat major

opus 90 no. 4 | from album 'Extemporize'

Shuann Chai proves to be a master interpreter who puts her playing and the fortepiano one hundred percent in the service of Schubert and opens up new interpretative and sonic perspectives for us all. Highly recommended!

pizzicato

For Shuann, music is a personal means of communication. She sees performance as an opportunity to connect with an audience, as well as a chance to bring the emotional content of music from the past to listeners in the present.

“A performance is like a snapshot of where you are that day. It’s something that evolves over time.”

Ries & Beethoven: Violin Sonatas

with Shunske Sato for Chofu International Music Festival

- New recording

For this recording, Shuann dives into Schubert’s Impromptus and early fugues and doing so, she creates her own Schubert.

“The last decades there's this approach to Schubert that you don't do anything that's not in the score. I always felt that there was an element of narration missing, an element of storytelling, and a deep and very subjective emotion. So then you have to stick your neck out and interpret and do things that are not on the page to create your own Schubert.”

Extemporize

Schubert Impromptus & Fugues

fun facts

Studied the viola as a secondary instrument and still has a soft spot for the sound of an open C string

Most picturesque concert hall she ever played in? Troldsalen in Bergen, Norway: the lakeside cottage where Grieg wrote much of his music is visible from the stage...

Loves studying languages and recently earned her A2 certificate in Japanese

Started piano lesson at age 5 at the local YWCA

As a child, she collected vintage postage stamps, shark teeth, and fossils

Alongside her piano studies, she graduated from Oberlin College with a degree in biology

She was born in Gainsville, Florida, (USA) where her dad was a NASA Scientist

Lives in The Hague,
the Netherlands

She grew up helping in her mom's Chinese restaurant and is still an avid cook of all cuisines

While performing, Shuann is a real storyteller. This comes from an enduring interest in narrative and its context, and in bringing the music to life.

“What draws me into a piece of music is the stories the music can tell. What can we learn about the composer? About their time, their emotions? And what’s happening in this piece, is there action, or romance, or suspense…? If I find an emotional connection to the music, others can connect with it too.”

bio at a glance

Upcoming Recordings

Cobra Records, January 2024

Schubert Impromptus

Sony Records Japan, April 2024

Boxed set of Brahms Piano Trios, Cello Sonatas, and Violin Sonatas

with Shunske Sato, violin and Hidemi Suzuki, cello

Cobra Records, release date TBA

Boxed set of Beethoven violin sonatas

with Shunske Sato, violin

Selected
Recent Performances

De Doelen Rotterdam • Stadsgehoorzaal Leiden • Orlando Festival (NL) • Utrecht Early Music Festival • Suntory Hall Blue Rose (Tokyo) • Izumi Hall (Osaka) • Fukinoto Hall (Sapporo) • Ferdinandeum Museum (Innsbruck) • National Concert Hall of Taipei • Les Musicales de Normandie (France) • Gloppen Musikkfest (Norway)

Recent Collaborations

Hidemi Suzuki (cello) • Shunske Sato (violin) • Steuart Pincombe (cello) • Mattijs van de Woerd (baritone) • Noa Frenkel (alto) • the Dudok String Quartet

Selected
Masterclasses and Workshops

Temple University • University of California at Davis • CodArts Rotterdam • Conservatorium of Amsterdam • Conservatorium of Maastricht • Gulanyu Piano Academy of Xiamen (China) • Central Conservatory of Beijing

Shuann curated her own fortepiano Festival in Zaandijk

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Engaging and creative, she initiated a number of multimedia projects. Working with other musicians, dancers, puppets, images, or texts, she is constantly searching for ways to share her passion for music, from the baroque to newly written compositions.

“In projects that combine music with something else, it is important to me that the musicians are a dynamic, interactive part of the show and not just accompanying from the side wings of the stage.”

Music & more

Amadeus

An Opera2Day/National Theater co-production

Pre-recorded piano performance for the character of Mozart, coached actors in onstage piano-playing

Where are we going? And what are we doing?

A Korzo/Cadance co-production

Modern dance, music of John Cage

Fairy Tales & Nightmares

A Korzo/Stichting Ciaconna co-production

Modern dance, music of Prokofiev, and life-size puppet by Duda Paiva

Beethoven in his own words

The complete Beethoven Sonatas performed with excerpts from his letters and some of his songs

Beethoven: 'Appassionata'

Piano Sonata no. 23 in F minor, op. 57

Allowing her playing to speak for itself, Chai took to the stage in a truly humble yet fresh way. Her touch on the keys gave an impression not only of clear artistic ownership of the repertoire but also a sensitive grasp on the resonance of the strings in the instrument.

Bachtrack

“I think of pianos as an extensive family tree, without a stark ‘historical/modern’ division, and I feel it is my task to get to know the piano that is in front of me. It plays a role in every interpretation, because each piano has its own character, its own voice.”

view her collection