Mischa Cheung

Mischa Cheung (born July 16, 1984 in Liestal , Switzerland ) is a pianist . He has been a member of the "Vierflügelformation" Gershwin Piano Quartet since 2007 and has been a soloist at the Symphonic Game Music Concerts since 2014 . He has also been assistant to Konstantin Scherbakov's master class at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2009 .

biography

Mischa Cheung comes from a Swiss-Chinese family of musicians in Tenniken in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft . His father emigrated to Germany from Hong Kong to study piano there, his mother comes from Basel. Mischa has two older siblings, Christopher (* 1970) and Katja (* 1972), who have also become pianists. Born in Liestal , Mischa grew up in Tenniken and attended primary school there, then the Progymnasium in Sissach and finally the Gymnasium in Liestal. After graduating from high school , he went to Zurich, where he still lives today, and studied piano with Konstantin Scherbakov at the Zurich University of the Arts , who had already taught him as a young student during his high school years. In 2009, Mischa Cheung passed his concert exam there with distinction. In the same year he became an assistant in Konstantin Scherbakov's master class. In 2011 he obtained the "Master of Arts in Specialized Music Performance". In the first half of 2012 he represented André Desponds at the Zurich University of the Arts as a lecturer in piano improvisation, in 2016 he led Scherbakov's master class during his vacation semester.

Mischa Cheung learned to play the piano at home from his father at the age of three, and his older siblings were a role model for him. After several smaller concerts, Mischa gave his first full-length solo concert ( recital ) in Sissach at the age of 12, and at the age of 16 he represented Switzerland at the Steinway Festival in the Hamburg Music Hall . As a prizewinner of the Swiss Youth Music Competition, he was allowed to go on a concert tour to Andalusia in November 2003, shortly before his oral school- leaving examination , where he gave 8 recitals in 9 days. This glimpse into the life of a concert pianist further reinforced his intention to pursue a career as a pianist. During his studies he performed as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Symphony Orchestra Nota Bene , the Symphony Tifico , the Collegium Musicum Basel and the young Munich Philharmonic .

Mischa Cheung (left) 2012 with the Ensemble Spark

Mischa Cheung has been a member of the Gershwin Piano Quartet since 2007 , which performs works by George Gershwin and other composers in arrangements for four grand pianos. With the quartet he undertook concert tours in various European and non-European countries, e. B. to China , Brazil and the Middle East . From 2011 to 2015 he was a pianist with the "classic band" Spark , which in 2011 was awarded the ECHO Klassik . Since 2014 he has appeared as a soloist in the Symphonic Game Music Concerts produced by Thomas Böcker / Merregnon Studios . Almost all of the various concert programs in this series include a solo concert for piano and orchestra, all of which Mischa Cheung has now performed. During these concerts he also premiered the solo piano pieces “Suteki da ne” (2014) and “You are not Alone” (2016) by the Japanese composer Nobuo Uematsu in an arrangement by Roger Wanamo. As part of this series, Mischa Cheung has appeared in Germany, France, England, Finland, Hong Kong and Japan, among others.

Mischa Cheung also appears as a soloist and in other formations, for example duo with violin, duo with flute, piano duo. Through his career as a classical soloist and appearances with solo recitals and as a soloist with orchestras, classical music is in the foreground for him; Chopin and Rachmaninov are among his favorite composers. But he also showed an interest in other styles at an early age and developed a passion for jazz and improvisation. His current engagements with the Gershwin Piano Quartet, at game concerts and in classical solo playing correspond to his various interests and offer him variety between the different styles. All in all, he gives around 80–90 concerts a year with all of his projects, mostly in Switzerland and Germany.

Discography

with the Gershwin Piano Quartet:

• 2010: be.four ( ZHdK Records , CD & DVD)
• 2012: Edition Klavier-Festival Ruhr Volume 29 (including three pieces of music)
• 2018: Transatlantiques (Sony)

with Spark:

• 2012: Folk Tunes ( Deutsche Grammophon / Universal )
• 2012: New Directions In Classical Music (sampler by Deutsche Grammophon / Universal with 2 pieces by Spark)
• 2012: A classic in itself - the best albums of 2012 (sampler from Deutsche Grammophon / Universa / Decca, annual review with 1 track from Folk Tunes)
• 2015: Wild Territories (Berlin Classics)

Further:

• 2016: Turrican - Orchestral Selections (with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra)

Awards (selection)

• 2001: First prize at the piano competition of the Basel Music Academy
• 2002: First prize and honorary prize at the Laupersdorf music competition
• 2003: First prize with distinction at the finals of the Swiss Youth Music Competition
• 2005: Prize of the Friedl Wald Foundation
• 2010: Second prize at the 29th Concours Prix Géraldine Whitaker (piano trio with violinist Jakub Dzialak and violinist Anna Savytska )
• 2010: Soloist and Audience Award of the Jmanuel and Evamaria Schenk Foundation
• 2011: Culture Prize of the Basellandschaftliche Kantonalbank
• 2012: Third prize at the International Prokofiev Competition of the IBLA Foundation, New York, in Ragusa Ibla (piano duo with Yulia Miloslavskaya )
• 2013: First prize at the Allround Piano Contest of the Nico Kaufmann Foundation
• 2019: Music division prize in the Canton of Basel-Landschaft

literature

• As if shaken off the wrist . In: The Landbote . Winterthur July 21, 2008.
• I feel very Swiss . Pianist and master student Mischa Cheung (24). In: Migros magazine . August 11, 2008.
• The passion turned into a profession . Mischa Cheung, pianist with great ambitions. In: Volksstimme . Sissach April 3, 2009.
• Andrea Masek: Work hard and let yourself be carried away . Basel pianist Mischa Cheung wants to perform worldwide - and is already doing it. In: Basellandschaftliche Zeitung . January 18, 2011, p. 22 .

Web links

• Mischa Cheung on the Zurich University of the Arts website
• Mischa Cheung on the Gershwin Piano Quartet website
• Mischa Cheung on the Merregnon Studios Game Concerts website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Misha Cheung. In: Website of the Gershwin Piano Quartet. Retrieved December 17, 2012 . 
2. ↑ Misha Cheung. In: Game concerts. Merregnon Studios , accessed April 19, 2019 . 
3. ^ Lecturers and assistants. In: Website of the Frédéric Chopin Piano Institute in Zurich. Retrieved December 21, 2012 (second lowest biography). 
4. ↑ Katja Cheung Bihler. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the Augsburger KlavierAkademie PianoArt. Archived from the original on April 4, 2012 ; Retrieved December 21, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Mischa Cheung, pianist. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the symphony orchestra Nota Bene. 2004, archived from the original on May 8, 2011 ; Retrieved December 19, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
6. ↑ Gershwin Piano Quartet - be.four. (No longer available online.) In: Website of ZHdK Records. Formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 18, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
7. ^ Edition Piano Festival Ruhr Volume 29. In: Website of the Piano Festival . Retrieved December 8, 2012 . 
8. ^ Folk Tunes. In: Universal Music Group website. Retrieved December 20, 2012 . 
9. ↑ New Directions In Classical Music. In: musik-sammler.de. Retrieved January 15, 2013 . 
10. ↑ Eine Klassik für sich 2012. (No longer available online.) In: Website of the Universal Music Group. Archived from the original on February 17, 2013 ; Retrieved January 15, 2013 . 
11. ↑ Wild Territories. (No longer available online.) In: Website of Edel AG. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016 ; accessed on October 16, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Turrican - Orchestral Selections. In: VGMdb. Retrieved April 19, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Winner Soloists from 1995. In: Website of the Jmanuel and Evamaria Schenk Foundation. Retrieved December 17, 2012 . 
14. ↑ The Nico Kaufmann Foundation awards the 2013 scholarship to Mischa Cheung. In: Website of the City of Zurich Presidential Department. Retrieved May 29, 2013 . 
15. ↑ Awarding of the cultural prizes of the Canton of Basel-Landschaft 2018. In: baselland.ch. State Chancellery Canton Basel-Landschaft, May 16, 2018, accessed on June 30, 2019 .