Music Appreciation Series: Eric Tran, Piano

About this event

“A View Over the Water” UW-Madison lecturer Eric Tran will perform a piano concert on the theme of “Water" with engaging commentary that will make the works easily understood by all. The music will include Chopin, Ravel, and Tran. The concert will conclude with a brief Q&A session. Eric Tran (D.M.A.) is a pianist-composer and teacher. He is a native of the Bay Area, CA, graduating with honors from Stanford University and receiving his MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. After his piano duo—infamously known as “Happy Dog Duo”—won 1st prize and the Abild American Music Award at the Ellis Duo Piano Competition, he went on a 2-year performance tour of the US, which included a guest artist performance at the Chautauqua Institution and a historic performance on the Pleyel Double Grand Piano. Tran moved to Madison, earning his DMA with Christopher Taylor at the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he now serves as lecturer. Tran has performed in Italy, Korea, China, Canada, and in 20 US states. He won multiple awards from the Wideman International Piano Competition, 3rd place from the American Prize, and invitations to the US Chopin National and Virginia Waring International. Tran was selected for a Gilmore Fellowship and has also performed at PianoTexas, Aspen, and Art of the Piano, where he worked with Jonathan Biss, Robert Levin, Leonard Slatkin, and Olga Kern. Tran’s compositions have been performed across the US, including by the St. Lawrence String Quartet and the Friction Quartet. The SF Examiner reviewed his String Quartet as having “a tendency to thwart the usual expectations… fascinating”. His String Quartet also won the 1st Prize in Composition from the Pacific Musical Society, after which no 1st Prize was awarded for almost a decade. It can be heard on Tran’s album Water along with other original solo/chamber music. In addition to writing concert music, Tran has composed over 100 pedagogical pieces for…