Anna Han Archives - Cleveland Classical

Virtu(al)oso Piano Competition:
A Conversation with Anna Han

July 31, 2020 by Daniel Hathaway

by Daniel Hathaway

American pianist Anna Han, 24, was born in Mesa, Arizona, earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard, and has won top prizes in the 2016 Gina Bachauer and 2019 Hilton Head competitions. A keen chamber music player, she is a founding member of the Munin Piano Trio, and has recorded for the Steinway label.

I caught up with Han in Cleveland, where she was hanging out after having recorded her two rounds at the Steinway Gallery. I started by asking her what her life has been like since the pandemic hit in March.

“I’ve spent the last six years in New York City, where I gave a concert with my trio on March 1. At that point, none of us had any concept of what this would turn into. I had a two week residency in Canada that was to start a couple of weeks later, but when that was cancelled, I ended up moving back to Arizona at the end of the month.”

At home in the West, Han settled into a very different style of life. “I had all these pressure-cooker things lined up, and suddenly I didn’t. [Read more…]

Cooper International Piano Competition: three advance to finals, 4th, 5th, 6th place and audience favorite winners announced

July 29, 2010 by Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Oberlin, OH, July 29, 2010

The finalists (l-r): George Li, John Chen, Kate Liu (photo: Roger Mastroianni)

Following the solo rounds in Warner Concert Hall at the Oberlin Conservatory on Wednesday evening, July 28, WCLV president Robert Conrad announced the audience favorite, 4th, 5th and 6th place winners and the three finalists in the 2010 Cooper International Piano Competition. Here is the list with prize money indicated:

Audience Favorite ($500)

Tristan Teo (13, Canada)

6th Place ($1,000)

Tristan Teo (13, Canada)

5th Place ($1,000)

Anna Han (14, Arizona, USA)

4th Place ($1,000)

Sahun Hong (16, Texas, USA)

Finalists

The following contestants (listed here in alphabetical order) will play concertos in the finals with Jahja Ling and The Cleveland Orchestra on Friday evening at 8 in Severance Hall in a concert to be broadcast live over WCLV, 104.9 FM (and streamed on the Internet):

John Chen (16, Virginia, USA) — Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1
George Li (14, Massachusetts, USA) — Chopin, Concerto No. 1
Kate Liu (16, Illinois, USA) — Prokofiev, Concerto No. 3

Tickets for the Severance Hall finals may be ordered through the box office at 216.231.1111.

Singers’ Club of Cleveland: To Dwell in Harmony (Dec. 9)

by Kevin McLaughlin

The Singers’ Club of Cleveland brought the joy of the season to Trinity Cathedral on Tuesday evening with a program titled To Dwell in Harmony, a holiday offering both polished and good-humored. The venerable all-male chorus — whose lineage stretches back to 1891 and includes collaborations with conductors from Beryl Rubinstein to Robert Shaw — now finds itself under new leadership.

Christopher Clark, appointed in August as Artistic Director (while serving concurrently as Director of Choirs at Case Western Reserve University), led his first Singers’ Club concert with easy command. The chorus appeared to trust him from the first downbeat, and the audience received him just as warmly.

Trinity Cathedral, whose acoustics can flatter or expose a chorus in equal measure, proved an asset. The evening opened with one of its most effective moments: Veni, Veni Emmanuel in John Englert’s arrangement. Clark placed the choir on three sides of the audience, creating a surround-sound of chant that was silky and assured — a confident beginning. [Read on…]

Les Délices welcomes the festive season with “Noel, Noel” (Dec. 7)

by Stephanie Manning

Once December kicks in, an almost overwhelming number of holiday programs pop up around Northeast Ohio. But Les Délices’ offering should draw your attention.

While other festive concerts may create the atmosphere of a bustling party by the fireplace, “Noel, Noel” is like observing a snowy evening from the warmth of the indoors. This is music best enjoyed in quiet contentment, and especially live — so it’s no surprise that the early music ensemble brought back this signature program for three performances this month.

On December 7 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, the six-member group presented a lovely ninety-minute program, which is also available on CD and via streaming until the end of the year. [Read on…]

Cleveland Chamber Choir: In Four Voices (Dec. 3)

by Kevin McLaughlin

Renaissance polyphony can bloom in resonant spaces, but the Donna and James Reid Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art presents particular challenges: hard surfaces and a long reverb tend to blur consonants into watercolor. The Cleveland Chamber Choir’s four-voice ensemble met those conditions head-on during its “In Four Voices” program on December 3. What emerged was an evening of consistently beautiful vocal timbre shaped by a group navigating the sonic characteristics of the room.

The concert, to be followed in January and March by appearances of various-sized ensembles, is part of a new development for the Cleveland Chamber Choir, called the Camerata Series — more information here.

To improve their chances of hearing one another, the quartet — soprano Lauren Vanden Broeck, mezzo-soprano Kira McGirr, tenor Joel Kincannon, and bass Dominic Aragon — stood in a traditional “part book” formation, like a diamond, facing inward. This meant that their sound was directed toward each other, rather than outward to the listeners around them. [Read on…]

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