Han Chen and Roberta Michel
Flute and Piano
A fearless performer with seemingly limitless imagination and possessed with uncanny energy, pianist Han Chen plays scores old and new with rare rigor and insight.
Alex Ross, classical music critic of The New Yorker, who selected Mr. Chen's Naxos disc of the Ligeti Études and Capriccios as a "Notable Classical Recording of 2023," characterized him as follows: "The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Études and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of the [Liszt] opera transcriptions."—The New Yorker, September 4, 2023
Attending Mr. Chen's recent traversal of the 18 Ligeti Etudes and 18 commissioned world premieres, George Grella titled his review: "Han Chen's remarkable playing equal to the genius of Ligeti's Etudes" and went on to exclaim: "He is astonishing, with some of the finest pianism one has ever witnessed."—New York Classical Review, September 25, 2023
Gold Medalist at the 2013 China International Piano Competition and a prizewinner at the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, Mr. Chen has also been praised by Gramophone as "impressively commanding and authoritative" and further cited by The New York Times for his "graceful touch," "rhythmic precision" and "hypnotic charm." He has appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, China Symphony Orchestra, and Xiamen Philharmonic. Han Chen has studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky, Wha Kyung Byun, and Ursula Oppens at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and CUNY Graduate Center.
Brooklyn-based flutist Roberta Michel is dedicated to the music of our time. She has commissioned and premiered hundreds of new works and has worked with many notable composers of our day. Roberta is the flutist and Co-Director of Wavefield Ensemble and is a member of Da Capo Chamber Players, PinkNoise, and Duo RoMi.
Roberta has also performed with: Art Ensemble of Chicago, Cadillac Moon Ensemble (founding member), SEM Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Ecce Ensemble, Portland String Quartet, Newspeak, Wet Ink Ensemble, Argento, Iktus, Wordless Music Orchestra, Ensemble LPR, and Cygnus Ensemble among others. Recent venues include: Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tulley Hall, Merkin Hall, The Kennedy Center, Roulette, Issue Project Room, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She can be heard on New Focus, Chandos, Innova, Tzadik, Bridge, Wide Hive, New Dynamic, and Meta Records. She played on the 2021 GRAMMY-winning album of Dame Ethyl Smyth’s The Prison with Experiential Orchestra. Her recently released solo album Hush, on New Focus Recordings, “digs deep into the possibilities of flute on this gripping solo recital.”
Originally from Maine, Roberta attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and SUNY-Purchase College and has studied with Robert Dick, Tara O’Connor, Alexa Still, and Jean Rosenblum. She holds a doctorate in music performance from the City University of New York Graduate Center and is a winner of the NFA Graduate Research Competition for her dissertation on the flute music of Salvatore Sciarrino.
Roberta is the Assistant Teaching Professor of Flute at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. She previously taught flute at Sarah Lawrence College, Brooklyn College, and music courses at St. Francis College. She plays a Brannen flute with a Mancke headjoint.
