Search - William Bolcom, Qigang Chen, Halim El-Dabh :: World Keys

"A soaring talent." -LOS ANGELES TIMES "A superb pianist." -BOSTON GLOBE "A versatile and sensitive pianist ? an impressive talent." -WASHINGTON POST Debut album of outstanding young talent Joel Fan, known for his recordings and performances with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project. World Keys features rip-roaring performances of crowd-pleasing Schumann, Liszt, and Prokofiev works along with world-premiere recordings of important works by international composers. Fan was a prizewinner of several international competitions, such as the D?Angelo Young Artists International Competition in the U.S. and Italy?s Busoni International Competition. The National Foundation for the Arts even named him a Presidential Scholar. In recent seasons, Fan has been performing as a member of Yo-Yo Ma?s Silk Road Project, and is featured on the recent award-winning Sony Classical release of music from the Project. Chinese composer Qigang Chen was born in 1951 and started learning music from childhood. When the "Cultural Revolution" broke out in China, he was studying at the Music Middle School of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing! . His father, administrator of the Beijing Academy of Fine Arts, famous calligrapher and painter, was immediately judged "bourgeois" and "antirevolutionary" and sent to a labor camp. Young Qigang Chen was kept in confinement for three years and underwent "ideological re-education." Yet, his passion for music remained unwavering: he went on learning composition and scoring in spite of social and political anti-cultural pressure. In the mid-eighties, he was given a state grant to study with Olivier Messiaen in France. He became Messiaen?s only pupil after the famous composer left the Paris Conservatory. In 2003, Virgin Classics issued the first recording of his orchestral music. Born in Tasmania in 1929, Peter Sculthorpe has become Australia?s most eminent classical composer, and his works are regularly performed and recorded throughout the world. Likewise, Peteris Vasks (b. 1946) is the most eminent serious composer in his native land, Latvia, and his works have been widely performed and recorded. William Bolcom (b. 1938) is one of America?s most popular and honored composers, having won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1988.