A PROMISING BEGINNING Meng-Chieh Liu, born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, had shown an early predilection for music. By the age of six, he had already shown extraordinary ability by winning several local and national competitions, including a Kawai Young Pianist Competition that resulted in an invitation to tour Japan. Meng-Chieh’s teacher persuaded the youth’s parents to send him to Taipei for advanced studies. At age 12, he had the fortuitous opportunity to study with a Leipzig Competition winner who had just returned from the USA to teach in Taipei. Alex Sung became not only a kind father figure but also an indelible influence on the shaping of Meng-Chieh’s artistic development. Meng-Chieh flourished in his piano playing and won a national title. He also studied conducting and competed as a violinist on a national level. Meng-Chieh earned the reputation of Taiwan's up and coming pianist in the next generation of international stars. He made newspaper headlines for winning the first Asia-Pacific Youth Competition, among many talented entries from several the countries on the Asia-pacific rim. Gary Graffman, who was on the jury panel and had heard Meng-Chieh three months prior to the competition when he auditioned for Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute, said of Meng-Chieh, “not only was this success a much deserved showcase of his talent, he was a rare discovery for Curtis.” STUDENT YEARS A national hero at the age of 13, he headed to Philadelphia to start his 8-year study at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was accepted on a full scholarship to hone his craft with the late Jorge Bolet, the legendary Romantic pianist. Bolet had a tremendous impact on Meng-Chieh in becoming a pianist with a fervent spirit of lyric romanticism. The last pupil of the late Mr. Bolet, Meng-Chieh had built a large repertoire as a youngster, and had incredible sight-reading ability. After Mr. Bolet retired from Curtis, Meng-Chieh was entrusted to Eleanor Sokoloff, who gave him the technical foundation that helped him win several competitions at that time. Versatile in both solo and chamber music repertoire, Meng-Chieh was much in demand for collaboration. His last three years at Curtis were the most artistically fruitful, as he worked with Claude Frank, whose uncompromising quest for high ideals inspired Meng-Chieh to pursue the more esoteric language of music. Breakthrough His last year at the Curtis Institute was very difficult for Meng-Chieh. Even though he was told that he was not the type to win competitions, he was forced to try his luck at starting a career, to no avail. Even though he was given a full scholarship at Yale University to finish his Masters degree, he felt unsure about his career choices. One afternoon, about two weeks before graduating from Curtis, he was just wrapping up his classes around 4 o’clock. He was on his way home when he received a phone call from Mr. Graffman asking if he would be willing to substitute for André Watts in a recital at the Academy of Music that evening. Not having touched the keyboard all day, he asked to play for half an hour before he agreed to play on a famous recital series in Philadelphia’s concert scene, the All-Star Forum. He came back to the Mr. Graffman’s office, nodded his head and then went home to change into concert clothes before he left for the Academy. The audience was captivated by Meng-Chieh’s performance and gave the young star a prolonged standing ovation. The evening was a sensation and the rest is history. Leslie Valdes from the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a half-page story about Meng-Chieh, and said of the performance, “Before he was off the stage, the Academy audience was on its feet, awarding him a deserved standing ovation…..the young pianist dazzled the audience.” The generous publicity caused a huge crowd to arrive at Curtis Hall for his graduation recital the next week, and for the first time in the history of Curtis, there were so many admirers that countless had to be turned away. People even sat outside of the Hall to watch the recital on a TV monitor. Immediately after this success, Columbia Artists Management signed him to a contract and launched his concert career. In the meantime, he was the youngest person ever to be offered a faculty position at Curtis. ILLNESS After his performances at Spoleto Festival USA in 1995, Meng-Chieh started to sense some unusual discomfort in his hands. Considering his stress level and performance habits, the symptom was unexpected. He immediately went to a rheumatologist who tested him and didn’t find any obvious signs of major disease. When the symptoms started to worsen every day, it was suggested he take prednisone and see what would happen. But the stiffness spread to the whole upper body to the extent that he wasn’t able to stretch with ease. With no obvious sign of recovery from the traditional western medical approach, Meng-Chieh sought different experts for answers. While traveling to various locations in United States and Canada to find out what was causing this devastating condition, which eventually led his entire muscular system to atrophy his weight went from 160 lb. to 95. Twice his heart failed and he was sent to a hospital emergency room. The second time, he became completely paraplegic and over 30 wounds were discovered on his body. This dermatological condition puzzled the doctors and threatened Meng-Chieh’s life. Through numerous lab tests, the doctor’s concluded that it was an immune system related condition and relabeled the diagnosis to vasculitis, a disorder of the blood vessels. Vasculitis denotes a condition where multiple organs fail to function properly due to certain immune responses the body forms. Contrary to an AIDS scenario, where the patient’s immune system is low and unable to fight off viruses and bacteria, a vasculitis patient’s immune system overproduces antigens that eventually beat down the organs. Due to the nature of the condition, different cases display dissimilar symptoms depending on the targets of the antigens; however, the doctors had never witnessed a more traumatic case, in which the whole nervous and muscular systems were affected. With no case model to refer to, the doctors were at a loss as to how to treat Meng-Chieh, and finally thought chemotherapy was best for his slim chance of survival. Even though there were intervening complications which further delayed the use of the chemotherapy, the strategy worked miraculously in rescuing Meng-Chieh. When his condition stabilized within three months, Meng-Chieh began the difficult recovery of the use of his body and hand. He wasn’t able to clasp his fingers around a fork and had no strength in the atrophied leg. RECOVERY Through some mysterious grace, Meng-Chieh convalesced to a stability satisfactory enough that the doctors let him leave the hospital after a six-month stay. Unwilling to settle for the notion of an ordinary life, Meng-Chieh braced himself for challenges. With the distorted and atrophied hands as a result of neural injuries, he faced a paramount challenge (both physical and emotional) that questioned his being as a performer. His urges for musical expression led him to practice with his few functional fingers. After visiting several hand surgeons for their opinions, many believed that with the complications Meng-Chieh currently had, missing tendons, severe contracture and disrupted bone structure, it would be impossible to resume piano playing, let alone a concert career. Meng-Chieh would not surrender to such diagnoses and finally met someone who agreed with his wish to release the contracture surgically. After this, Meng-Chieh began the long process of training and strengthening his fingers once again. Finally he gave a private performance in front of 150 people, two months after the surgery, playing some light Debussy salon pieces, and three months after that, tackling Barber’s piano sonata and Ravel concerto for the left hand. In October 1998, barely a year after his operation, he gave a public recital at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to high praise from the critics in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Then in December of the same year, he performed Beethoven’s Second Concerto with the Curtis Chamber Symphony in New York City. He was ready for a second performing career. Second Surgery In September 2000, Meng-Chieh decided to undergo another surgery in which the doctor would fuse one of his loose joints that had lost its tendons. After nearly three years of experimenting, Meng-Chieh was more confident about his hands and wished to maximize his ability on the piano by putting a titanium nail in his right index finger. He was even awake during the operation to ensure the correct position of the screw!! He was very pleased with the result, “Before I could play the Rachmaninov’s Second Sonata without the nail, but now I can play it better.” MOMENTUM During these rehabilitation years, he took any and all opportunities to perform in public. Meng-Chieh went on several tours with violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama as well as violinists Nai-Yuan Hu and James Buswell to name just a few artists with whom he collaborated. His fascination with dance also opened the door for some engagements with dance companies. In 2000, he was invited to perform with Mikhail Baryshnikov and The White Oak Dance Project on two occasions in which he played works by Chopin and Schumann. In 2001, he was the mood setter for Jeanne Ruddy’s “Marie’s Diary”, playing the atmospheric selections from “Vingt Regards sur Jesus Christ” by Messiaen. Solo performances have taken him to North America, Spain, Taiwan, Japan and Korea. Year 2001-2002 December 2001 marked Meng-Chieh’s first return to Taiwan in a decade. He was invited to perform the Tchaikovsky First Concerto with his hometown symphony on a New Year’s Eve Concert. He was looking forward to coming back more often and bringing the result of his education abroad back home. In April, the Avery Fisher Foundation announced the award of its prestigious career grant to Meng-Chieh. The ceremony, which is taped for telecast on A&E network, took place in New York, and Meng-Chieh impressed the audience with his sensitive rendition of Chopin’s Barcarolle. Merely a week later, the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society also announced Meng-Chieh to be the 2002 recipient of its Career Advancement Award, where he said “To me a successful career occurs when one achieves the goal of conveying the essence, beauty and joy of music to everyone. I will continue to share my passion for it with as many people as I can reach.”