Pre-CBSO Piano Showcase: An Evening of Brahms

Pre-CBSO Piano Showcase: An evening of Brahms

Brahms Piano Pieces Op.118, Nos 1, 2 and 3
Ruowen Hao piano

Brahms Four Serious Songs Op.121
Matthew Pandya (pictured) baritone
Bianca Vancea piano

Brahms's German Requiem, which follows at 7.30pm, was written in the 1860s after the death of Brahms's mother, and his Four Serious Songs, completed in 1896 at the time of Clara Schumann's stroke, turn again to death and Biblical themes. The fourth and final song concludes with some of the most moving valedictory music ever penned, setting as it does Corinthians: "And now abideth faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

Ruowen Hao (pictured) began studying piano at the age of five and joined Lang Lang Music World in Shenzhen, China in 2015, studying with Professor Yafen Zhu, Dr. Andrew Kudriakov and Dr. Marina Novak. She is currently in her final year of undergraduate studies at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, under the guidance of Daniel Browell.

Her performance experience includes performances at the Conservatory of Music in Padua (Italy, 2016),  performances in China (Xi’an Concert Hall, 2019), Shenzhen Steinway Concert Hall (2020), Guangzhou Jinan University (2021), and Zhuhai Steinway Concert Hall (2022). In 2024, she performed in the RBC Chamber Music Festival and Bach Festival and played the accompaniment for Ukrainian songs. In 2025, she attended the Mannes Summer Piano Festival in New York, performing to great acclaim at Stiefel Hall.

Ruowen has won first prizes in international competitions including, the Asia-Pacific International Piano Competition (China), Melbourne Piano Competition (Australia). GMT Youth Piano Competition (USA), Manhattan Morrie Piano Competition (USA), Purcell Piano Competition (UK), and the Oxford Piano Open Competition (UK).

Bianca Vancea is a Romanian pianist currently based in Birmingham. She recently completed her bachelor’s degree in performance with First Class Honours at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and is now enrolled on a Personal Study Programme, studying under Professor John Thwaites and Margaret Fingerhut.

Bianca has performed solo and ensemble recitals across the West Midlands, in venues such as St Martin’s Church, St Paul’s Church, St Hilda’s Church, and Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon. A dedicated collaborative pianist, she regularly works with singers and instrumentalists. Bianca is a joint winner of the John Ireland Prize and has been awarded the Edward Brooks English Song Accompanist Prize, the Edward Brooks Lieder Accompanist Prize, and the Gordon Clinton Prize for English Song Pianist.

In May 2025, she released an album with soprano Maria Willsher featuring a selection of twentieth-century English songs inspired by the theme of nature, entitled Echoes of Our Island. That same month, Bianca performed as soloist with the Romantic Revival Orchestra at the CBSO Centre for the premiere of For Every Round You’ve Walked, a new work for piano and orchestra by composer James Sharif.