pianist

CASA Magazine: Music Academy of the West Academy Festival Orchestra - Magic Carpet Ride

August 12, 2016 - by Daniel Kepl


"Extraordinarily sophisticated...mature, even ethereal... From her first, breathtakingly powerful notes, Han made it clear she was a worthy winner of this summer’s Music Academy Piano Competition. Entering the stage wearing an elegant, bright red gown, her stage presence confident and thoroughly professional, Han quickly established an authoritative presence at the keyboard after an impassioned orchestral introduction conducted with finesse and intense energy by Gaffigan. The huge structure of this movement can be overwhelming for inexperienced soloists but Han, whose hands did all the speaking while her upper body remained calm, blazed through her first solo passages with gorgeous expressivity, never once falling beneath the often huge orchestral fabric in tutti sections, every note discernable. The audience, captivated by the thrall of Han’s concentration, maintained a reverent silence throughout the performance that added to the magical result."


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Santa Barbara Independent: Music Academy Festival Orchestra Finale - James Gaffigan Conducted Shepherd, Brahms, Rimsky-Korsakov
August 11, 2016 - by Charles Donelan


​ "Soared in a gripping interpretation of the “Maestoso” movement of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 15."


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New York Concert Review: Anna Han, Pianist in Review
November 24, 2013 – by Jeffrey Williams


“After intermission, Ms. Han played a set of pieces also commissioned by the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, Three Etudes, by Avner Dorman (b. 1975)... These three pieces, much like those of Ligeti, call for a player with not only a great technique, but an uncommon intelligence that probes for hidden meanings. Ms. Han is such a player, and when one stops to consider that she is only sixteen years old, one must marvel at such musical maturity at such a young age. It was exceptional.  Beethoven’s Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 31, No. 3 was next, and Ms. Han continued to show the fine sense of style and architecture in her playing, a joy from the opening of the Allegro to the end of the Presto con fuoco. The Beethoven was the high point of the recital. Ms. Han is a sensitive and poetic player beyond her years.”

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Concerto.net: A Champ in the Making
November 21, 2013 – by Harry Rolnick


“In her recital last night at the always adventurous SubCulture Club, Anna Han wasn’t coyly dancing and dodging like a Mohamed Ali. She looked reserved enough, but Ms. Han was a musical Sonny Liston.”
 

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Washington Post: In piano recital at the Phillips, Anna Han, 16, shows firepower beyond her years
November 26, 2012 - by Stephen Brookes


“The prodigiously gifted Anna Han… put on a display of imagination, taste and pianistic firepower that was far beyond her years. It may have been Han’s naturalism and grace at the piano, though, that impressed the most.”

“… swept away in a bravura performance of Sergei Prokofiev’s Sonata in A Minor, Op. 28, No. 3. Played with such incisive power and assurance that you felt you could follow her into battle, Han showed herself completely worthy of the prizes she’s been racking up — a pianist barely at the beginning of her career, but already with a great deal to say.”

Press Reviews

​​Anna Han