At age 26, Helen Huang can already look back on an impressive list of engagements with such orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. Born in Japan of Chinese parents in October 1982, she moved to the United States with her family in 1985 and began piano lessons two years later. Within a year she had won her first competition and several other victories soon followed. In 1995 she became one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant ... read full bio

At age 26, Helen Huang can already look back on an impressive list of engagements with such orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the London Philharmonic. Born in Japan of Chinese parents in October 1982, she moved to the United States with her family in 1985 and began piano lessons two years later. Within a year she had won her first competition and several other victories soon followed. In 1995 she became one of the youngest recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Ms. Huang's first public appearances were with several orchestras in the Philadelphia area. Just after her eighth birthday, she made her debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra after winning its student concerto competition. Similarly, she won the New York Philharmonic's Young Performers Auditions and performed with the orchestra, under Music Director Kurt Masur, in December 1992.

Ms. Huang developed a close association with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, with whom she made her subscription debut in 1995. In addition to her appearances with the orchestra in New York, she has toured with them over the years in North American, Europe and Asia.

Highlights of recent seasons include performances with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, and the Fort Worth Symphony. Abroad she has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France under Kurt Masur, the Israel Philharmonic, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (both in Vienna and on tour in the United States), the London Philharmonic in London and on tour in Germany and the KBS Symphony in Seoul, Korea. In addition Helen frequently appears in recital and chamber music performances in the US, Europe and Asia.

Helen Huang's recordings are available on the Teldec label. She made her debut recording, of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, in live concerts with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, and later recorded the Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 with those forces. She has also recorded a recital album, "For Children," featuring works of Debussy and Schumann. Ms. Huang made her national television debut in a concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra for PBS's "Evening at Pops" and was featured in an A&E broadcast from the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico. She also participated in a special concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations and with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Centre. Helen's most recent recording was a collaboration with Cho-Liang Lin of the works of Georg Tintner released on the Naxos label.

Helen Huang received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize upon graduating from the Juilliard School in 2004, where she was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky at the Juilliard School. She earlier attended the preparatory division of the Manhattan School of Music, winning its concerto competition in 1992. In 1994 she was selected by the New York Philharmonic to receive Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award for promising young artists. Helen is currently studying with Peter Frankl and pursuing her Masters degree at Yale.