
HEIDI TSAI
the listening musician

Heidi Tsai, equally expressive on the harpsichord, fortepiano and piano, performs regularly on all three keyboard instruments. Her versatile musicality brings life to different genres of repertoire from the 17th to the 21st centuries.
Ms.Tsai's latest solo recording (released in October 2018) of early German fortepiano music has earned rave reviews from critics:
"Ms. Tsai possesses a gift of a musical intelligence that keenly balances good taste, beauty and perspective." (Jiro Hamada, Record Geijutsu disc Review, Japan)
"Heidi Tsai delivers an unbelievably exciting interpretation and makes a fantastic statement for almost unheard of repertoire, it shows that she is a brilliant master of the Hammerflügel." (Piano News magazine, Germany)
This recording is masterfully produced by the b-sharp recording studio based in Berlin.
Ms. Tsai holds a doctorate in music in historical keyboards from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to having taught for more than 30 years in higher musical institutions in Europe and the US, she also holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from Boston University, which she regularly incorporates in her pedagogic approach. She has taught both piano and harpsichord at Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Arizona State University and Indiana University. Between 2002-2019, Heidi Tsai was on the faculty in the early music department at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC) in Barcelona, and was both the harpsichord professor and director of the early music ensemble at the Conservatoire in Pau, France.
Ms. Tsai's most recent project involved two performances of the complete sonatas for violin and obbligato harpsichord by J.S.Bach, with Swiss violinist, Gilles Colliard. Ms. Tsai has been invited to play in major concert series and music festivals throughout the United States, Central America, Asia and Europe. In an orchestral setting, she has collaborated with Christian Zacharias, Giovanni Antonini, Leonard Slatkin, Robert King, Stanley Ritchie and Nigel North. Ms. Tsai has co-founded and directs the early music group Barcelona Barroc. Their recording, Chiaoscuro, features the two concerti for the harpsichord, violin and flute, by Johann Sebastian Bach.
Ms. Tsai's live performance of the Goldberg Variations in Spain received enthusiastic and warm feedback, and was recorded and broadcasted by Catalunya Música radio station. She has also been invited and performed on the television program 'El Temps del Picó' (Barcelona).
Her public performances have invited raving reviews:
"Heidi Tsai gave the fortepiano luscious beauty of tone. Her fingering was admirable, close to perfection. Her keen sense of musicality catches surprising twists of the phrases. Ms. Tsai 'sang' the Mozartian Aria from the second movement charmingly."
"As a soloist, she is magnetically engaging to the point of sitting on the edge of one’s seat!" (Nigel North, concert lutenist).
“Fantastic, exciting, imaginative and very distinguished playing.” (Conductor, Robert King, of King’s Consort).
