Daniel Lau, piano
dlau@wau.edu
Education:
Doctor of Musical Arts, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University
MM, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University
BM, Loma Linda University
Biography:
Lau attended Loma Linda University, graduating with a Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance – high honors while winning the Dean’s Award of Arts and Sciences. He then attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music, becoming a member of the Pi Kappa Lambda honorary society while earning Masters and Doctoral degrees. His major teachers include Lillian Freundlich, Anita Norskov Olsen, Samuel Sanders, and Jerome Lowenthal. Dr. Lau is a dedicated educator of music and has given masterclasses and clinics throughout the United States. He has taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of Music, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland and is currently Professor and Chair of the Department of Music at Washington Adventist University.
Research and Professional Activities:
Pianist Daniel Lau has received enthusiastic press notices for both his solo and chamber performances. The Washington Post praised his “exemplary artistry,” the Baltimore Sun noted “Lau’s beautifully shaded playing,” the Intelligencer Journal (Lancaster, PA) lauded his “flair, great technical proficiency and expressiveness,” and La Liberté (Fribourg, Switzerland) cited “playful nuances, translucent phrasing, and miraculous sonorities.”
In recent years, he has soloed with the Loudoun Symphony Orchestra, the Snow Pond Symphony, the Port City Chamber Orchestra, and the Oakville Chamber Orchestra where the Ontario Arts Review stated, “Daniel Lau is a superb pianist whose dexterity, focus and concentration are not spoiled with histrionics or over-dramatization.” He collaborates frequently with singers internationally and is a sought-after chamber musician. With soprano Sabrina Coleman Clark, he has performed a multimedia show, “Marian Anderson – A Legacy of Hope,” to thousands of school children. He performs frequently with Camerata Philadelphia, the Port City Music Festival Players, AmiciMusic, and is a founding member of the Ravel Trio praised by the Swiss Journal du Jura, “Splendid interpretation, vigorous and nuanced playing.”
He has released half a dozen recordings with a variety of artists, including a CD with award winning engineer Marc Arbort and a self-produced solo CD “Transcendent Colors.” With a special interest in Asian American and African American composers, Lau is committed to the performance of living composers. He has premiered many solo and chamber music works and can be heard on a number of recordings of works by contemporary living composers.