Award-Winning Pianist Sean Chen Visits Kahilu Theatre

Cliburn Award winning pianist Sean Chen will take Kahilu Theatre’s stage on Saturday, April 25.

The 7 p.m. performance will feature Johannes Brahms’ Variations on an Original Theme, op. 21, Etudes by Chopin, Debussy, Scriabin, Bartok, Rachmaninoff, and Ligeti, Maurice Ravel’s Sonatine, and Richard Wagner’s Overture to Tannhauser.

In 2013, Chen won first prize as the first American to earn a Von Cliburn award since 1997. Just a few months prior, he was named the 2013 Christel DeHaan Classical Fellow of the American Pianists Association.  He has also earned a variety of other awards, including the 2010 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship, Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Award, and an NFAA ARTS week award.

Huffington Post noted Chen’s charisma as having “an exceptional ability to connect with an audience combined with an easy virtuosity.

Chen was born in Florida but grew up in Los Angeles. Currently, he lives in New Haven, CT. Chen completed his artist diploma at the Yale School of Music under Hung-Kuan Chen in May 2014. Prior to attending Yale, the well accomplished Chen attended The Juilliard School, earning both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

Tickets to the Friday evening show cost $20/$36/$46/$66 and can be purchased online, by calling (808) 885-6868, or by visiting the Kahilu Theatre Box Office.

A youth show will performed for local schools, homeschoolers, and others on Friday, April 24.