Hope and Healing
Jotaro Nakano, Music Director
Chelsea Guo, piano
AUGUSTA READ THOMAS
Fanfare of Hope and Solidarity
PETER ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor
Chelsea Guo, piano
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Symphony No. 5 in D major
About the Community Partner
Shelter Music Boston delivers monthly chamber music concerts to
Greater Boston homeless shelters and substance misuse recovery centers, providing classical music as a social service.
Every note invests in the capacity of classical music to create social change
in environments of great need.
Shelter Music Boston believes all people deserve access to the dignity, creativity, and passion of classical music.
About the Soloist
Chelsea Guo, piano & soprano
Winner of the 2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Chelsea Guo is one of the rare talents equally formidable as both a vocalist and a pianist. Chelsea was also 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 has appeared as both pianist and soprano soloist with the Moritzburg Festival, the Stamford Symphony with Michael Stern, the New Jersey Symphony with Maestro Xian Zhang at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Sociedad Filarmonica La Coruña, New Haven Symphony, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra with Michael Francis, and Oregon Mozart Players with Kelly Kuo. Having won a top prize in the 2020 National Chopin Piano Competition in Miami, Chelsea has performed recitals in Florida for the Chopin Foundation of the United States, the Grand Piano Series, and the Miami International Piano Festival.
Additional recent recital appearances have included recitals in Cremona, Italy, at the invitation of the Fazioli family as part of the Cremona Musica and Fazioli Piano festivals and appearances on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase. She has also participated in a live filming in London with Sky TV, which featured a group of young artists chosen by Classic FM as their "Rising Stars for 2022".
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.
During the 23-24 season Chelsea will make concerto appearances with the Reno Chamber Orchestra, Longwood Symphony (Boston), Gorzow Philharmonic (Poland), Orchestra LUMOS (formerly Stamford Symphony), and the Colgate University Orchestra. She will give recital and chamber music performances with the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, and will also participate in the inaugural chamber music ensemble of YCA on Tour in performances at the University of Florida Performing Arts and BIG ARTS Sanibel Island (FL). As part of Young Concert Artists’ special season finale performance Chelsea will also make an appearance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2024. 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 Georg 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.
2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Audition Prizes:
The Friends of Music Concerts Performance Award
The Harriman-Jewell Series Prize
Sinfonia Gulf Coast Prize
Explore the Music
Audience Health and Safety
The Longwood Symphony Orchestra strongly recommends that its musicians and audience members be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. In addition, we strongly recommend receiving updated vaccines against both COVID-19 and influenza in the Fall of 2023.
Exchanges and ticket donations can be made up to 24 hours in advance of the originally ticketed concert date by emailing info@longwoodsymphony.org or calling 617-987-0100. We cannot guarantee the same seats will be available for the exchanged concert. Refunds will be offered if you are unable to exchange or donate. Subject to availability.
Discounts for groups of 10 or more are available. Please contact info@longwoodsymphony.org or call 617-987-0100 to arrange.
All programs are subject to change.