Mr Hank Xiang
Piano Teacher
Hank Xiang graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium with a Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 2012, studying with Dr Paul Rickard-Ford. Taking keen interest in Russian music, his honours dissertation examined Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in relation to the compositions of the New Russian Nationalist School, led by the composers of the ‘Mighty Handful’, in the late nineteenth century. Following his curiosity in Russian music and culture, he continued his studies at the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory in Saint Petersburg in the class of Nina Seryogina.
Hank has played in masterclasses with Paul Lewis, Markus Schirmer and Akiko Ebi, and in the past has been briefly mentored by Denis Lossev and Inge Rosa. He participated in the Lev Vlassenko competition of 2015, the Australian National Piano Award of 2018 and most recently, was the third-prize winner of the Maria Yudina International Piano Competition in 2019 in Russia. Throughout his studies Hank was a recipient of the John and Dorothy Vimpani Scholarship, the Theme and Variations Foundation and the Ian Potter Cultural Trust.
Hank has performed in numerous iconic concert halls across Australia and Europe and has worked as a soloist with several orchestras in Saint Petersburg and in Novosibirsk. In addition to standard repertoire spanning from Bach to Boulez, Hank has also delved in the field of modern music with a premiere of The Aether Rings… by Martin Friedel on ABC radio in 2010 as part of the ISCM World New Music Days festival, and in 2019 was a performer of the Stop, Prepare, Repair: Variations on “Ode to Joy” for prepared piano by Allora & Calzadilla during its exhibition in the National Art Gallery of NSW.