An international concert artist, scholar, and educator, Sarah Chan has engaged a residency of artistry, scholarship, and teaching across three continents. As concert pianist, she has garnered numerous awards throughout her career, including her most recent selection as "Rising Artist" by New York Concert Artists and Associates in 2012 and in 2010, featured solo debut in the 2011 Carnegie Emerging Artists recital series at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, winning The American Prize in Piano Performance in 2011, and featured performances in New York City's Evenings of Piano Concerti III and IV series. As piano soloist with orchestra, Sarah Chan has performed with the National "Mihail Jora" Philharmonic of Romania, Romanian State Symphony, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, making her professional debut by the age of seventeen. She will appear with the New York Concert Artists Symphony this season on May 26, 2012 in New York City. Sarah Chan has performed internationally at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (New York), Merkin Concert Hall (New York), La Cité Internationale des Arts (Paris), Le Cinéma Balzac (Paris), Sala Ateneu (Bacau, Romania), Meany Hall for the Performing Arts (Seattle), Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts (Annapolis), Altamura Center for Arts and Culture (NY), Blaine Performing Arts Center (WA), Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Battelle Northwest Young Artists Series, Seattle Ladies Musical Club Debut-Awards Series tour of Washington State, and the Seattle Art Museum. Playing on numerous occasions at the Eastman School of Music, Paris Conservatory of Music, Peabody Conservatory of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Michigan, Sarah Chan has furthermore participated in the music festivals of L’Académie d’Eté du Haut-Nivernais (France), L’Académie Musicale Internationale de Moulin d’Andé (France), Amherst Summer Piano Festival (MA), and Olympic Music Festival (WA).
A passionate musician and scholar, Sarah Chan hails from Hong Kong and received her training in the United States and in France. She holds the degrees Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature (Minor in Music Theory/Theory Pedagogy) from the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music of Johns Hopkins University, and Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. Further musical training was acheived at Le Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (The Paris Conservatory of Music) and at the University of Michigan. Concurrent with her musical pursuits, Dr. Chan engaged liberal arts studies at La Sorbonne, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, concentrating in French language and literature, with personal interest in 17th-c. French literary works. She holds a certificate in highest level French studies from La Sorbonne's Cours de Langue et de Civilisation Française. Among her awards are the full scholarship Wolaver Award, Branstrom Prize, and James B. Angell Scholar Award from the University of Michigan, and the Harry M. Roth Scholar Award from the University of Rochester. Possessing a keen interest in cultural-historical periods of artistic dialogue, Dr. Chan spent her residency in France examining the aesthetic and cultural interchange resonant in French and Spanish art, architecture and music during the turn of the twentieth-century, from which work culminated her lecture-recital, "Between Paris, Barcelona and Madrid: Flourishing Musical Liaisons in French and Spanish Piano Music at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century". Continuing her interest in cultural dynamics of historical significance, Dr. Chan is currently researching Chinese piano literature in its compositional, aesthetic, and historical relationship with the language of Western art music.
A committed educator, Dr. Chan serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, where she is Director of Keyboard Studies and Music Theory in the Department of Fine Arts. She additionally teaches French at Northwestern under the auspices of the Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Humanities. Prior to Northwestern, Dr. Chan taught at the Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester, where she received the Award for Excellence in Teaching for her work in studio piano instruction. She has also taught at L'Institut de Culture Musicale (Paris), Hochstein School of Music and Dance (Rochester, NY), and Harford Community College (MD). With instructional expertise and experience in piano, chamber music, music theory, music history, applied keyboard skills, vocal/ensemble coaching, pedagogy, and French language studies, Dr. Chan seeks to demonstrate a dynamic and comprehensive approach to music training and education at all levels. Presently, Dr. Chan serves as piano adjudicator for The American Prize Competition 2012, and as Arts Advocacy Captain/Chair of the Committee for Arts in Education for Oklahomans for the Arts.
As concert artist, teacher, and scholar, Sarah Chan engages an ongoing passion for the musical development, academic excellence, and artistic inspiration of others. She is enthusiastic to motivate and train a new generation of movers and shakers in the performing arts, education, culture, and society as she serves a new era of artist-musicians, thinkers, and innovators arising out of the institutions and communities amidst where she is placed.
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Dr. Sarah Chan
Director of Keyboard Studies / Music Theory
Assistant Professor of Music
Office: Fine Arts 315
Telephone: 580.327.8690
Email: sschan@nwosu.edu
Keyboard Studies at Northwestern
Northwestern Piano Festival 2012 - Information