Eric Lu

Eric Lu (born December 15, 1997) is an American classical pianist. The recipient of the gold medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018, he has performed with many of the world's major orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, and on tour with the Orchestre national de Lille. He records for Warner Classics under an exclusive contract, and has released critically acclaimed recordings of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Schubert, and Schumann on the label.

Early life and education
Eric Lu was born on December 15, 1997, in Massachusetts to a father from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and a mother from Shanghai, China. He grew up in Bedford, Massachusetts, and started piano studies at age six with Dorothy Shi (杨镜钏) in the Boston area. Later on, he enrolled at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, where he studied with Alexander Korsantia and A. Ramon Rivera. In 2013, he was admitted into the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Jonathan Biss and Robert McDonald. He is also a pupil of Dang Thai Son.

Career
In October 2015, Lu won the 4th prize at the 17th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland at the age of 17, becoming one of the youngest laureates in the history of the competition. Shortly afterwards, he performed his debut at the 70th International Chopin Festival in Duszniki, Poland. He went on a tour of Japan and Korea with the Warsaw Philharmonic along with the other prizewinners of the competition in January 2016.

In 2017, Lu won the International German Piano Award in Frankfurt. He also won the audience prize.

In 2018, at age 20, Lu won the First Prize and gold medal at the Leeds International Piano Competition. He was the first American pianist to win since Murray Perahia. He played Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 in the finals with the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner. After winning, he was immediately signed by Askonas Holt and Warner Classics. His first concert after winning Leeds was a debut with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko. He subsequently made recital debuts at Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris, Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, and Shanghai Grand Theatre. His UK recital debut in Bristol was praised by The Guardian: 'Lu seems already to possess something of the magic touch of early Leeds laureates Murray Perahia and Radu Lupu'.

In June 2019, Lu replaced Martha Argerich in a concert with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Lu made his debut at the 2019 BBC Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and Yu Long.

In 2022, he stepped in on short notice to perform with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti, replacing Maurizio Pollini; the Chicago Tribune noted Lu's "perfectly idiomatic" interpretation of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27 (K. 595) and his "pliant, gossamer touch".

In Aug. 8, 2023, Eric return to the LA Phil with Ryan Bancroft. They performed Beethoven's 4th Concerto together at the Hollywood Bowl. This bookends a season in which he has made debuts with the Chicago, London, Boston, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestras, and played recitals at the Cologne and Elbphilharmonies, Southbank, Wigmore, Seoul Arts, and Bourgie Halls.

Discography
Lu currently records for Warner Classics under an exclusive contract. His first major release was in 2020, of an album of Chopin's 24 Preludes, Op. 28; Schumann's Geistervariationen; and Brahms' Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 1. Lu followed this with an all-Schubert disc, which was released in 2022.

Awards

 * 2010 - XII Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists (Germany) - 1st Prize
 * 2013 - III Minnesota International e-Piano Junior Competition - 1st Prize, and Schubert Prize
 * 2014 - IX Moscow International Fryderyk Chopin Competition for Young Pianists - 1st Prize
 * 2015 - IX US National Chopin Competition - 1st Prize, and prize for best performance of a Concerto
 * 2015 - XVII International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland - 4th Prize
 * 2017 - VII International German Piano Award, Frankfurt, Germany - 1st Prize and FAZ-Audience-Award
 * 2018 - Leeds International Piano Competition - 1st Prize, Terence Judd–Hallé Orchestra Prize