The year 2022 has been an exciting one for Chelsea Guo. In November, she was named one of four winners of the 2022 Young concert Artists (YCA) Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, affording her management services and expanded concert opportunities. Earlier in the year, Chelsea was proud to be included in “Classic FM’s Rising Stars: 30 Brilliant Musicians We’re Celebrating in 2022”. An artist who has already attracted international attention as a pianist and soprano of remarkable gifts, her dual artistry is featured in her 2021 debut recording on the Orchid Classics label, “Chelsea Guo: Chopin in My Voice”, which includes beloved Chopin solo repertoire, along with two Chopin songs and one Rossini aria in which the artist accompanies herself. The inclusion of the Rossini aria is typical of many of the concert programs Chelsea offers, which include both piano and vocal works, enriching the opportunity for her audience to experience music in a broader context and displaying the influence that singers had on composers of their time. Gramophone Magazine included the recording in their Essential New Albums and Classic FM featured Chelsea for an entire week as a “Young Classical Star.” The album reached #7 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart and received five stars from BBC Music Magazine, which wrote: “A very fine pianist with a beguiling voice;Here is a rare talent.” In China, all of the major digital music platforms prominently displayed the recording on their homepages. Both WQXR and Naxos China highlighted it among “The Best Albums of the Month. ''

Chelsea’s 2021-22 season began with her German debut at the Moritzburg Festival as both pianist and soprano, and appearances in both capacities with the Stamford Symphony and Michael Stern in their season opening gala, as well as an hour-long return visit to radio station WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase. It continued similarly with the New Jersey Symphony and Maestro Xian Zhang, her Spain debut with the prestigious Sociedad Filarmonica La Coruña, her collaboration with the Oregon Mozart Players and Kelly Kuo in the closing concert of their 40th anniversary season, and her debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with the New Jersey Symphony and Maestro Zhang, in Chen Qigang’s “Er Huang Piano Concerto”. Having won a top prize in the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition in Miami, Chelsea’s 21-22 season also included recitals in Florida for the Chopin Foundation of the United States, the Grand Piano Series, and the Miami International Piano Festival.

Chelsea started the 2022-23 season with a recital in Cremona, Italy, at the invitation of the Fazioli family, which was part of the Cremona Musica and Fazioli Piano festivals. She traveled immediately thereafter to London to participate in a live filming with Sky TV, which featured a group of young artists chosen by Classic FM as their "Rising Stars for 2022". Later on in the season, she will perform with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, “Model Room Musicales” of New York Yacht Club, and make concerto appearances with the New Jersey and New Haven symphonies.

Chelsea’s solo piano performances have taken her to Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as prominent venues throughout the United States, England, Austria, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, China, Japan and Canada. A guest artist of the Leeds Inaugural Piano Festival, she was also featured in Europe in solo recitals presented by the Mozarteum Summer Series in Salzburg, and in China, in a six-concert tour under the auspices of the Shenzhen Piano Music Festival. Her orchestral appearances have included the Ft. Worth Symphony, under the baton of Maestro Barry Douglas, and the Torun Symphony Orchestra in Poland. Chelsea was honored to be a Young Scholar of the Lang Lang Foundation, a young artist of the Artemisia Akademie at Yale, and a recipient of the US Chopin Foundation scholarships for four consecutive years.

Chelsea’s passion for piano was mirrored by her love of singing from an early age. Having debuted as a pianist with the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra at age nine, she returned in 2018 as vocal soloist under the baton of Maestro Muhai Tang. She has been recognized for her vocal gifts as a 2019 National YoungArts winner, the first prize winner in the 2019 Schmidt Voice Competition, and recipient of scholarships from the George London and Gerda Lissner foundations.

Chelsea graduated with honors from the Juilliard School’s Pre-College as a double major in piano and classical voice, studying with Hung-kuan Chen, Tema Blackstone and Lorraine Nubar. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in piano at Juilliard under the tutelage of Hung-Kuan Chen and continuing her vocal studies with Jason Ferrante. She has welcomed the opportunity to be mentored by renowned soprano, Barbara Bonney, over the past five years.

Click here to listen on Youtube.

The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor (French: Introduction et Rondo capriccioso), Op. 28, is a composition for violin and orchestra written in 1863 by Camille Saint-Saëns. It was dedicated to the virtuoso violinist Pablo de Sarasate, who performed the solo violin part at the premiere in April 1867.

The Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso was originally intended to be the rousing finale to Saint-Saëns' first violin concerto, Op. 20, though its success as a solo composition at its first performance led Saint-Saëns to publish it separately.

The premiere took place on 4 April 1867 at the Champs-Élysées, with Pablo de Sarasate playing the solo part and the composer conducting.

Several arrangements of the score have been made, including for violin and piano by Georges Bizet, piano duet by Jacques Durand, and two pianos by Claude Debussy.

Read more on Wikipedia.

Click here to listen on Youtube.

Piano Concerto No. 2 in F major, Op. 102, by Dmitri Shostakovich was composed in 1957 for the 19th birthday of his son Maxim, who premiered the piece during his graduation concert at the Moscow Conservatory. It contains many similar elements to Shostakovich's Concertino for Two Pianos: both works were written to be accessible for developing young pianists. It is an uncharacteristically cheerful piece, much more so than most of Shostakovich's works

Read more on Wikipedia.