Pianist's emotional journey unfolds at Xinghai Concert Hall

At just 8 years old, Guan Xiongzan was a young pianist waiting backstage at Xinghai Concert Hall, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, his face flushed with excitement as he prepared to perform Mozart. Twelve years later, he returned to the same stage as a 20-year-old pianist, bringing with him competition prizes, concert experience and a musical voice of his own.

On Aug 18, Guan presented his solo recital at Xinghai Concert Hall. It was his third appearance at the venue and, in many ways, a homecoming.

His first performance there came in 2014, when he played Mozart with the Tianlai Chamber Orchestra as both piano soloist and second pianist.

In 2020, Guan gave his first solo recital at the concert hall, performing Liszt's Piano Concerto No 1.

Since then, his musical journey has taken him to Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Shanghai and, eventually, the United States. In 2024, he entered the Eastman School of Music in New York, majoring in piano performance. He was also selected for the school's honors musicianship program.

His recent achievements include first prize at the Florence Price International Piano Competition and the championship at Eastman's Brahms Piano Concerto Competition in 2025. He subsequently performed Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Eastman Philharmonia, conducted by Neil Varon.

Back in Guangzhou, Guan designed the concert as a musical journey spanning more than a century, from the late Classical period to the late Romantic era.

The recital opened with Chopin's Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, setting the voyage in motion. It then moved through Liszt's technically demanding Feux follets and Beethoven's Fantasy in G Minor, before reaching Schumann's Piano Sonata No. 2 in G Minor.

The Schumann piece brought the first half to a dramatic close, its increasingly fast finale ending abruptly, as if the voyage had suddenly been caught in a storm.

"I'm not the kind of performer who plays cautiously," Guan said. "Before a concert, I make calm and careful preparations, because passion is never random improvisation. Once everything is ready, I let the music happen naturally. If there is a beast inside it, I let it out."

The second half continued without interruption, moving from two lively Debussy preludes to a Liszt atonal miniature and finally Rachmaninoff's monumental Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor.

Guan said he deliberately chose not to pause between pieces, hoping to preserve the emotional continuity of the journey.

"If there is a break between every piece, both the audience and the performer have to keep going in and coming back out," he said. "So I wanted the music to keep flowing. Just when the audience thinks one chapter is ending, another begins naturally."

His approach to Debussy also avoided the conventional emphasis on hazy atmosphere and nostalgia, instead highlighting movement and restraint. The Rachmaninoff sonata, meanwhile, brought the recital to a powerful climax, with Guan drawing a muscular yet richly colored sound from the instrument.