“Whoever says Hilda Huang must also say Bach.”

-Leipzig Bach Archive

Pianist and harpsichordist Hilda Huang began her international performing career upon receiving first prize at the Leipzig Bach Competition at 18 years of age. She has the singular distinction of the top prizes at the Leipzig, Tureck, and Würzburg International Bach Competitions. Since presenting her debut recital on the Steinway & Sons Prizewinners’ Concert Network at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in partnership with the Leipzig Bach Archive, she has been invited to perform at the Leipzig Bach Festival, BASF Gesellschaftshaus, and the Montréal Bach Festival.

“alluring extroversion”

-New York Concert Review

As a young artist, Hilda’s association with Bach’s music was shared in the documentary film Bach and Friends alongside Hilary Hahn, Bobby McFerrin, and the Emerson String Quartet. Her interest in Bach’s music on the modern piano led her to the harpsichord, on which her small hands, flair for articulation, and energetic playing style encouraged exploration of a wide range of early music. Hilda’s orchestral debuts saw her on both modern and historical instruments, making her debut recording with Erich Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra for TELARC (2008) and appearing as soloist with Nicholas McGegan and the Philharmonia Baroque. She has since appeared with the Mitteldeutsches Kammerorchester, the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Sweelinck Baroque Orchestra, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

“She has a mind that can multi-task and ears that can “multi-listen.’”

-San Francisco Examiner

Today, the breadth of her musical and artistic inquiry continues to expand, encompassing projects in sacred music and early music. In 2024, she commissioned and premiered a new Missa Brevis for keyboard by the renowned American composer of sacred music, John Harbison. She also regularly contributes music for worship at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity and Trinity Wall Street. As a collaborative artist, she performs chamber music on modern and historical instruments at Chamber Music Northwest, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Helicon Foundation (NYC), and the Académie Baroque of Les Folies Françoises. Upcoming appearances take place at the Festival Musicorum (BE), the Leidse Salon (NL), with the Rietveld Ensemble (NL), and a special harpsichord-piano-organ recital, lecture, and masterclass for the Salon Piano Series (USA).

Hilda Huang resides in Amsterdam, where she is on the faculty of the Sweelinck Academy at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, teaching harpsichord and chamber music. Particularly interested in musicianship formation, she is regularly consulted by colleagues and students for instruction. She has given classes at the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory, the Juilliard School Pre-College, the Sweelinck Academy of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and tonebase Piano Community, among others. She earned her B.S. in Chemistry Magna cum Laude with honors from Yale College, and her D.M.A. in solo piano from the Juilliard School, where her doctoral dissertation about the rhythm of suspensions was distinguished by the Richard F. French Doctoral Prize.

At the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, where she was a 2023 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the Netherlands and a current candidate for a Masters in Early Music, Hilda also studies organ with Matthias Havinga and historically-informed basso continuo practice with Kris Verhelst. She was previously on the roster of Astral Artists in 2021-2024, a Philadelphia-based organization that develops the early careers of extraordinary classical musicians. Hilda Huang was named a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow. Her principle mentors are John McCarthy and David Kuyken.

Hilda Huang is a Steinway Artist and practices on a 1927 Steinway A graciously on loan from the Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds.

“Bach remains an adventure for Hilda Huang.”

-West-Allgemeine Zeitung