Program and Artist Biography

Pianist Kate Liu, 17 became the First Prize-Winner at the 2010 Fifth New York International Piano Competition, a biennial event presented under the auspices of The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation at the age of 16. She was also the Prize-Winner for Best Performance of the Required Contemporary Work by Avner Dorman. Kate is a scholarship recipient and student of the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program for gifted pre-college musicians, where she studies privately with artist faculty member Alan Chow. A senior at New Trier Township High School, Kate initially studied piano at the Music Institute with Emilio Del Rosario and Micah Yui.

Born in Singapore, Kate Liu began playing the piano when she was four years old, and moved to the United States with her family when she was eight years of age. She won the Illinois Junior Music Teachers National Association Competition in 2007 and 2008 and both the Junior and Senior Divisions of the Chicago Steinway Competition in 2006 and 2007 respectively, and performed on the Young Steinway Concert Series in 2007. In 2008, Kate won Second Prize in the International Institute for Young Musicians Competition, and received honors in the regionals of the Junior MTNA Competition.

In September, 2008, Kate performed a live recital on WFMT radio’s Introductions Program. She was also featured on WTTW Chicago's Tonight show. Following an audition held by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Kate was chosen to perform with the internationally renowned pianist Lang Lang and also to participate in his master class. She played Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor, one-piano, four hands with Lang Lang in two concerts at the Symphony Center in Chicago in November, 2008.

In March of 2009, she traveled with the Music Institute of Chicago to the east coast where she performed at Weill Hall, at Carnegie Hall in New York City, and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. In October of 2009, she won the Junior Division of the Louisiana International Piano Competition. In July, 2010 she performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Cleveland Orchestra as a finalist of the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition,
receiving Third Prize.

In 2010, Kate Liu performed with the Skokie Symphony Orchestra, and in New York at Temple Emanu-El, the Ossining Public Library and the Bohemian Club. In 2011, Kate received a scholarship from the Chopin Foundation of the United States and was also featured on NPR's From the Top.