Star pianist Bruce Liu insists that it’s all about just ‘enjoying the process’

Seven. That’s how many times pianist Bruce Liu returned to the stage for encores during his sold-out recital debut at Carnegie Hall in May 2023. This was after an energetic and technically dazzling program of Chopin and Liszt in which the 2021 International Chopin Piano Competition winner “blazed past the concert’s two-hour running time,” according to a glowing New York Times review, and “played with feline agility and lightness of touch.”

“But, as a cat can be lethally powerful when necessary,” the reviewer added, “he can also take on a muscularity that turns sensitive phrasing into tintinnabular resonance.”

Looking back at that formative event, Liu said recently, everything fell into line. He was in the right place at the right time, and “in a good mood” to boot. “There were so many things I wanted to express. And the New York audience was amazing, very supportive, very enthusiastic. And they were very good listeners. It was a very magical night.”

Expect a similarly bravura performance when Liu joins the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on July 11, to open the CSO’s 89th annual summer residency at the Ravinia Festival. Liu, who made his Symphony Center Presents debut in June 2024, will be making his CSO and Ravinia debuts with this concert, led by Ravinia’s Chief Conductor Marin Alsop. Liu will be the soloist in Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Liu has an affinity for Russian music, as he demonstrates on his second disc for Deutsche Grammophon, Tchaikovsky’s The Seasons, a suite of 12 short character pieces for solo piano. Since its release on Nov. 1, 2024, the disc has sold well in physical and digital formats.

Only 28, Liu plays with a maturity beyond his age. As one critic wrote, he brings a “musician’s sensibility to issues of balance, rhythm and phrasing as well as a true artist’s grasp of color, space and shape.” Among several factors that shape his musical expression, Liu said, curiosity is central. “I think the most important thing is to have curiosity, to keep exploring, keep being interested, keep chasing.” Being a Taurus, he said, joking, could be one reason for his “stubborn” determination in this respect.

“We all have this moment that we are very sure about ourselves,” he added, “which is a marvelous thing, because we need this confidence to believe in something, to be convinced. If we are not convinced, we cannot convince other people. On the other hand, it’s this balance of moments of believing yourself and questioning yourself. And it’s probably this kind of mindset that helps me to keep finding new things.”

“I’d like to explore many things that I haven’t had the chance to,” he said. “Being a pianist is a luxury. There’s endless repertoire we can explore and so many combinations.”

An enthusiastic and knowledgeable jazz fan, Liu has extolled the jazz-like improvisational elements of the works of Chopin, one of his specialities. “Jazz is very free-flowing,” said Liu, who was born in Paris but grew up in Canada. “It’s known for being spontaneous and free-spirited. And somehow, I feel that listening to jazz increases creativity and inspires new ideas, combined, of course, with this very rhythmic energy. It’s a little bit like incorporating the motion of dance and the inflections of speech.

"Chopin’s syncopation and very irregular accents, along with improvisation, has a huge connection for me in understanding Chopin’s music. And he himself was an improviser. He even wrote that he had difficulty deciding which versions of his piano pieces to put on paper because he played them differently every day. So that had really big influence on my playing, especially when you think about repeating a program so many times a season.”

While he has already been dubbed a “rock star” among concert pianists, Liu doesn’t rest on any laurels. He is determined to keep focusing on the details and searching for inspiration when and where he can find it — in other art forms, for instance, or by talking with other musicians. That, he said, is the way to maintain longevity and relevancy in his rarefied realm. Being physically active is key as well, he said. Swimming, especially, “helps me to relax and empty my mind.” Then, when he returns to music after a respite, “I suddenly feel that my brain is full of new oxygen.”

When it comes to acknowledging the headiest plaudits, including that claim that Liu may well be a musical “genius,” he insists that he “would not even dare” describe himself in such a way. But he did delve into the meaning of a word that is overused and often misapplied. “I think the most common trait that defines a genius may be that this extraordinary ability to apply creativity and imaginative thinking to almost any situation,“ he said. ”And when I think about those [types of] people, I can only think about Albert Einstein or Leonardo da Vinci or Michelangelo. They’re born in a different way. I’m a super normal person, so I [can’t even] compare myself.”

Liu is also reluctant to predict what his future may hold. It’s all about “enjoying the process,” he said, rather than striving for a particular result. “The most important part of life is finding out what you really enjoy,” and that requires being in the moment and reveling in the details he so loves rather than fixating on some far-off goal.

“I’d like to explore many things that I haven’t had the chance to,” he said. “Being a pianist is a luxury. There’s endless repertoire we can explore and so many combinations.”

A version of this article was previously published on Experience CSO.