Program

Romantic Piano Favorites

Gluck-Sgambati                              Melody, from the opera Orfeo

Chopin                                              Scherzo in B flat minor, Op.31

Kreisler-Rachmaninoff                 Liebeslied

Scriabin                                            Preludes Op.11

Gershwin                                          3 Preludes
                                                                Allegro ben ritmato e deciso
                                                                Andante con moto e poco rubato
                                                                Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

Schumann                                       Traumerei

Schumann-Liszt                             Widmung   (Dedication of Love)

Liszt                                                  Hungarian Rhapsody No.2 C sharp minor

Rufus Choi    

Rufus Choi, California pianist was First Place and People’s Choice prize winner in the notable and first Jose Iturbi International Music Competition which is making waves in the world press.  He has always felt his American birth and Korean heritage imparted an international aura and underlying wanderlust to a musical career which has found him performing in all parts of the world from childhood to the present, as a Yamaha Artist. 

He has appeared all over the United States, where national as well as local solo television and radio performances on ABC, CBS, KKGO, and WQXR combine with live appearances throughout the country, including some Los Angeles highlights at the Music Center and a recent sold out solo recital at Zipper Hall to benefit AMRON. In New York he performed at Lincoln Center and a Weill Recital Hall solo program at Carnegie Hall. Other U.S. venues include Pasadena’s Ambassador Auditorium; San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre; Savannah Onstage in Georgia; Palm Desert as a major prize winner in the International Joanna Hodges Piano Competition; and Alexandria, also as a winner, in the Louisiana International Piano Competition, including a solo performance with the Rapides Symphony Orchestra.

Venues abroad include Austria, Cyprus, England, France, Germany, Italy, Korea (as a major prize winner in the Han Romanson International Piano Competition), Mexico (with top prize in the Parnassos International Piano Competition), Netherlands (International Liszt Piano Competition and performances), Russia (Moscow International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition and Diploma Awards in 1998 and 2002),  Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan (major prize winner in the Taiwan International Piano Competition and soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra). 

This truly international artist is a graduate of The Juilliard School (BM, MM) and the Soloklassen, which is the highest degree attainable at the Musik Hochschule in Hannover, Germany.  Past teachers include Vladimir Krainev, Konstantin Sirounian, Bruce Sutherland, and Oxana Yablonskaya.

Choi’s highly anticipated debut album will be released by Cambria Recordings this year.  After returning recently from a successful tour in Korea which included concerts at HOAM Art Hall in Seoul, and the Cultural Center in Busan, Choi returned to a sold out season opening concert at the Norris Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles with the South Bay Chamber Orchestra performing the Chopin  Piano Concerto No. 1. 

Highlights in 2009 include a tour of Korea managed by ArtsBank, a solo appearance at Yamaha center in New York, performance of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 with the Peninsula Symphony and the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 with the Santa Ana Symphony.

Funded in part by the Ahmanson Foundation and Harry and Marjorie Johnson.