Chopin Piano Competition winning pianist Bruce Liu makes his debut at Heinz Hall Friday June 6 and Sunday June 8th with a 360 concert on the 7th playing the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3. He sat down in the Grand Lobby at Heinz Hall after the dress rehearsal with Jim Cunningham to talk about the delights of the Beethoven Third. Beethoven was already experiencing hearing trouble playing the Third from memory at the premiere and giving cues that suggested he could not hear the orchestra clearly and the next year 1803 wrote his Heiligenstadt Testament.

Bruce describes the challenge and atmosphere of the 2021 Chopin Piano Concerto which he won with his unconventional style. Bruce is appearing at the BBC Proms this summer playing the Tchaikovsky Second Concerto and he hopes for a few moments of quiet to think about his latest music repertoire additions. Bruce speaks about recording a recital in one of the Chopin homes in Paris at the Place Vendome available from DG+ and his CD "Waves" with an all French program. He loves Pittsburgh and working with Manfred Honeck. He got the call to replace Alice Sara Ott just a few days ago when he was playing Prokofiev in Vancouver and just a few days before that he was playing Chopin with Yuraj Valcuha in Houston. Yuraj had told him how much he enjoys Pittsburgh. Bruce tells his story from age 8 in Paris to Montreal and says at age 28 he doesn’t mind when airline personnel confuse him with the martial arts film star Bruce Lee.