Warm Prompt:
Children under the age of six or 1.2 meters will not be admitted. Each audience should have a ticket (ID card is also needed) regardless of the age.
 
 

 

“It is always a personal thrill to find a ‘fresh voice’ within the jazz continuum. A Bu is a highly creative and accomplished jazz pianist who is also a gifted composer. I regard him as a promising young jazz lion who has a brilliant career ahead of him and will surely be talked about for many years to come”, said by Michel Camilo.
 
Born in Beijing in 1999, A Bu began studying classical piano at the age of 4. At the age of 9, he continued his classical piano studies with Associate Professor Zhang Zhiwei and began to study jazz and improvisation with the Chinese jazz pianist Kong Hongwei (aka Golden Buddha).
 
Since 2011, A Bu started to play in jam sessions in places such as CD Blues Café, East Shore Café, Jianghu Bar in Beijing with local musicians. He also formed his first jazz trio with two Chinese musicians, Ma Kai & Shao Haha and made their debut performance at the 2012 Nine Gates Jazz Festival in Beijing. The trio later toured in most major cities in China and appeared in leading domestic jazz festivals including Oct-Loft Jazz Festival, Clockenflap and JZ Festival. In early 2013, A Bu and his trio went into studio in Beijing with Grammy-Award winner recording engineer Jakob Händel. Spending 4 days in the studio, A Bu completed his first studio album 88 Tones of Black and White, which included the trio’s takes on jazz standards such as “Giant Steps”, “Very Early” “Round Mid Night” and A Bu’s arrangement of one of J.S. Bach’s three-part invention. The album was mixed and mastered by the team of Stockfisch Records in Germany and later released by Sennheiser Media in July 2014.
 
In June 2013, A Bu was invited by American jazz icon Chick Corea to play an impromptu-duet together on Corea’s solo concert in Shanghai. In 2014, A Bu was admitted to the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. There he continued classical piano training with Professor Ernest Barretta.
 
In April 2015, A Bu recorded his second album “Butterflies Fly in Pairs” (featuring A Bu’s original compositions) in the Avatar Studios in New York. The album was released by Sennheiser Media in 2016. In the same year, A Bu won the First Prize and the Audience Choice of Parmigiani Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition as part of the renowned Montreux Jazz Festival. On the competition, A Bu impressed the jury led by French jazz pianist Yaron Herman and received compliments from the legendary producer Quincy Jones. In July 2016, A Bu made his debut performance at the 50^th Anniversary of Montreux Jazz Festival.
 
Besides jazz and improvisation, A Bu kept his interest and studies of classical music. Besides standard repertoire, A Bu also explored in the field of modern music. One important influence is the music composed by Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin (1937-2020). A Bu is regarded by Kapustin as “one of the most promising young pianists” who not only possesses “phenomenal technique” but also beholds “mature understanding of the works he performs”. He has given recitals around the world to promote Kapustin’s music, in addition, he has also premiered numbers of the composer’s early orchestral compositions in Moscow. In 2017, together with the Moscow Jazz Orchestra, A Bu presented concert in Moscow (Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory) honoring the music of Kapustin on the composer’s 80th birthday.
 
A Bu has performed around the globe including China, USA, and European countries. He has played at concert venues around the global such as the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (Moscow), L’Olympia (Paris), Foundation Louis Vuitton (Paris), and the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, Beijing and Shanghai. He has also appeared as soloist performing with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Jazz Orchestra, among others.
 
In April 2019, A Bu won the first prize of the jazz piano category at the Riga Jazz Stage held in Riga, Latvia. A Bu has been invited multiple times by the UNESCO and Herbie Hancock Jazz Institute (former Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz) to perform on the International Jazz Day All-Star Global Concert, sharing the stage together with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Marcus Miller, Igor Butman and many other international jazz stars.
 
In September 2019, A Bu partnered with American jazz bassist Larry Grenadier, drummer Eric Harland to record his third jazz trio album at the Power Station New England studio in Connecticut, U.S. Under the guidance of award-winning jazz producer Matt Pierson, the trio recorded original compositions by A Bu and his arrangements on well-known standards such as “The Lost Season” by Chinese rock singer Cui Jian. The album is released by Chinese jazz record label JZ Music in December 2020.
 
A Bu is currently enrolled at the Juilliard School in New York, studying classical piano under American pianist Chen Hung-Kuan.
 
 
Program
Friedrich Gulda: Prelude and Fugue
Nikolai Kapustin: Andante, Op. 58
A Bu: Paraphrase on Erroll Garner’s “Misty”
Nikolai Kapustin: 8 Concert Studies (Etudes), Op. 40
A Bu: Prelude and Fugue
A Bu: Improvisation
A Bu: Fantasie “Sleeping in a Dream”
Nikolai Kapustin: Variations, Op. 41
A Bu: Piano Sonata No. 1 “Pinus”
 
(Please check program updates at the concert.)