Evelyn Hsu has been playing the piano since she was six years old. As a native of Los Angeles, Evelyn has won numerous competitions in Southern California, some including: MTAC-Pomona Valley’s John Walker Memorial Piano Competition, MTAC-Los Angeles Scholarship Competitions, Southern Youth Music Festival, Robert Turner Piano Concerto Competition, Alice Kitchen Frazier Memorial Scholarship Competition, Performing Arts Foundation for Asian-Americans Scholarship Competition, CAPMT Romantic/Impressionistic Festival, Southern California Junior Bach Festival, Teacher’s Association of California State Panel Honors Competition, the Los Angeles Music Center’s Spotlight Awards, and the Redlands Young Artists Competition.

Currently, she is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in piano under Jeanne Kierman Fischer at the Shepherd School of Music. After graduating in May of 2013, she will be pursuing a Master’s Degree in piano under Brian Connelly at the Shepherd School of Music.
Evelyn has been broadcast on KPAS (Pasadena TV station) and Sunday’s LIVE radio broadcast (from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art). At 12 years old, she performed for the Virginia Waring Gala Benefit Concert in Palm Springs and helped fundraise for the 2005 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. In 2008, she participated in the Austrian International Piano Seminar and Festival and had the opportunity of working with pianists from all around the world as well as perform in a variety of places including: Ebreichsdorf, Neufeld, Vienna, Ebenfurth, and the Marie Therese Military Academy in Wiener Neustadt. Over the years, Evelyn has worked, performed, and collaborated with artists: Leslie Ho, Linda Rose, John Perry, Seymour Bernstein, Yin Yin Huang, Rizia Lin, Elizabeth Pridonoff, Rufus Choi, Adam Wibrowski, and William Wellborn.

In her free time, Evelyn loves playing in senior centers, with friends, and even recitals. The highlight of her musical career thus far has been being a music major in college and learning more about music and the piano. Evelyn really started pursuing piano passionately when she started taking lessons with Yin Yin Huang at the beginning of high school. Ms. Huang taught her to be patient, wise, careful of the details and conscious of style. She often said, “it’s not about the number of hours you put into practicing, but rather the quality of how you practice!”

Evelyn started teaching in her junior year of high school because her high school piano teacher believed that teaching cements one’s understanding of the material. After four years of teaching, Evelyn believes that the first thing that a student must learn to do is how to practice. After all, the majority of your time with an instrument is practicing. Evelyn believes that she can help her students learn by providing different incentives. She believes it is important to use fun, short pieces as well as advanced pieces. She also recognizes the importance of theory, recitals, and concert attendance. All these different things challenge and encourage students and help them to enjoy playing and making music!