Claire Huangci

The American pianist Claire Huangci gained international acclaim by winning first prize as well as the Mozart Prize at the 2018 Concours Géza Anda, as well as receiving accolades in other prestigious competitions, including both Chopin competitions in Europe and the USA, the ARD International Music Competition, and the Grand Prix of the Orchestre Chambre de Paris Play-Direct Academy.

She continuously captivates audiences with her confident and bright interpretations, breathtaking virtuosity and an intelligent and well-thought-out sound palette. Driven by an irrepressible curiosity and penchant for unusual repertoire, she proves her versatility with a broad range of repertoire spanning from Bach and Scarlatti via German and Russian Romanticism to Bernstein, Barber and Florence Price.

Since the 24/25 season Claire Huangci has been working with Alpha Classics. Following a highly acclaimed Mozart concerto album with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, she released an all-American solo disc titled Made in USA featuring works by Gershwin, Beach, Barber and Wild. Widely praised by the press, Piano Heroines was released in early 2026, featuring works by German and American female composers. It was awarded a Diapason d'Or and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

During the 26/27 season, Claure Huangci will make guest appearances with the symphony orchestras of Bilbao, Winterthur, Heidelberg, and Poznań, as well as with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, among others. She will also give recitals in Barcelona, Nuremberg, Chicago, and Lucerne, among other cities.

Claire Huangci is increasingly directing various concertos from the piano in the play-direct tradition, e.g. this season with the Recreation Orchestra of the Styriarte Graz, featuring piano concertos by W. A. Mozart.

As a solo recitalist and partner to international orchestras, Claire Huangci has performed in prestigious concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the National Center for Performing Arts in Bejing, the Philharmonie de Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Prinzregententheater Munich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie Berlin, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Festspielhaus Salzburg. She is a welcome guest at renowned festivals, including the Lucerne Festival, the Carinthian Summer, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival and the Ruhr Piano Festival.

Her esteemed musical partners include the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Fundação Casa da Música, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestrathe Pacific Symphony, the Munich and Basel Chamber Orchestras, and conductors such as Elim Chan, Michael Francis, Howard Griffiths, Pietari Inkinen, Jun Märkl, Cornelius Meister, Sir Roger Norrington, Eva Ollikainen, Alexander Shelley, Mario Venzago, Markus Stern, David Danzmayr and Thomas Guggeis.  

Born in Rochester, New York, the pianist showed an early affinity for the piano and was invited to the White House in 1999 at the age of nine. She studied with Gary Graffman and Eleanor Sokoloff at the Curtis Institute of Music before continuing her studies with Arie Vardi in Hannover where she graduated with honors in 2016. Claire is a proud ambassador for the Henle publishing house and serves as the artistic director of the Erbach Chamber Concerts. She lives with her family in her adopted home near Frankfurt.