Alec Chien To Perform at RiverStone Center for the Arts

Alec Chien, professor of music and artist in residence at Allegheny College, will perform an all-Chopin program of the composer’s Ballades and Polonaise at the Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts in Foxburg at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 16.

Tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for students. Reservations can be made by calling 412-867-1816.

In addition to serving on the faculty at Allegheny College, Chien is on the adjunct faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, teaching piano literature for graduate piano majors.

He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Juilliard School of Music, where he studied under Adele Marcus. Grand Prize Winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and prize winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition, the Paloma O’Shea International Piano Competition and the Affiliate Artists Xerox Piano Program, he has performed in solo and chamber recitals and as soloist with orchestras on four continents, in concerts in Australia, Austria, China, Greece, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Spain and Taiwan.

Among the major symphony orchestras that have featured him as soloist are the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, American Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

In 1988 Chien was one of 25 Steinway artists to perform at the gala concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City to celebrate the piano company’s 135th anniversary as well as its 500,000th piano. That commemorative piano has been brought to Allegheny twice for his solo recitals.

He also actively performs in chamber music, having appeared with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra as well as with the Alexander String Quartet, the Cavani String Quartet and the Ariel Woodwinds Quintet.