Breathtaking silence in the hall. One is sitting with the back to the piano, one is sitting under the piano. Others are just harking while sitting around the young pianist. Whenever Hanni Liang plays piano, she opens her soul to the music and to her audience and enchant her listeners with a unique experience.
“We want to experience the music together. Everyone on his individual way. While sitting, while lying with the eyes closed or opened. Tonight everything is possible.”
That’s how the young pianist is motivating her listeners to create an inimitable experience of music. Hanni Liang is not only known for her exceptional musical sense, her brilliant technique, but also for her fascination for the tone colors and her individual interpretations.
The virtuosity and fresh approach of Hanni Liang, coupled with her charismatic stage presence have regularly been praised by journalists of the music world.
“For me, music means being free. So my listeners should feel free as well while listening and experiencing my music. There shouldn’t be any rules or seating arrangements.”
In the season 2018/19 Hanni Liang gave her debut at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, playing Liszt’s first piano concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen under the baton of Aziz Shokhakimov. She is regularly invited to the renown Piano Festival Ruhr as well as concert halls like the Mariinsky Theatre, the Forbidden City Concert Hall, Qintai Concert Hall and more.
Hanni Liang was born in Bielefeld, Germany in 1993, receiving her first piano lessons when she was eight years old, before becoming a student of Prof. Barbara Szczepanska after displaying rapid progress. She completed her Bachelor of Music and an additional Bachelor of Arts at the Robert Schumann Conservatory as well as at the Conservatory of Music, Drama and Media Hanover, mainly with Prof. Bernd Goetzke at the latter institute. She has studied with Prof. Matthias Kirschnereit since 2016.
In 2010 she was elected as a “Young Steinway Artist” and received a Steinway Advancement Award. Further awards by e.g. the Dörken Stiftung, the Association for Westphalia Cultural Work, the Bechstein and the Richard Wagner Foundation followed. Since 2017 she is a supported by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.
Since 2013 she has been a successful TONALi-Musician and has displayed distinguished qualities in musical communication. TONALi shaped her further career development and affected her artistic persona. She is actively engaged in generating younger audiences for classical music and in furthering cultural education.
Her close collaboration with the German composer Manfred Trojahn led to the premiere of his piano piece Melodram in 2017 at Piano Festival Ruhr, Leise Gondeln in 2015 and to a recording of his Six Préludes. Hanni Liang describes her debut CD in the following words:
“The Préludes, which are reminiscent of Debussy, are full of wonderful timbres and conjure up atmospheres which continue to fascinate me and all who listen to this music. It is like being under a hypnotic spell.”
The regular collaboration with Maria João Pires shaped her essential understanding of the language of music. Further influences were provided by distinguished musicians such as Homero Francesch, Jacques Rouvier, Michel Beroff, Lilya Zilberstein, and John Perry.
