Hanbo Ma
Visit Professor, Piano Department
Concordia University
DMA, University of Southern California
Establishing herself as one of today's promising emerging artists, pianist Hanbo Ma has made appearances in solo recitals, as well as being featured with orchestras throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Her career began with her performance of Islamey by Balakirev at Severence Hall in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 17, after which she received recognitions by winning the San Jose International Piano Competition, the St. Andrews International Piano Competition, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, as well as others, and was selected as the only recipient of the Cobos Piano Prize given by Eastman School of Music in 2015.
Dr. Ma has given numbers of concert tours such as an All-Liszt recital tour in North America and Europe sponsored by the Embassy of Hungary in Washington D.C, Liszt Memorial Museum in Budapest, Hungry and Hungarian Cultural center in London, England; a series of concerts and master classes on French and Russian Music at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, East Tennessee State University, Biola University and Wuhan Conservatory in China.
An active pianist, Dr. Ma not only performs solo recitals, but also enjoys performing with chamber groups and contemporary composers. In 2013, she was invited to be one of the twelve scholars at Heartland Chamber Music Festival, where her chamber performance was live-streamed on Kansas Public Radio. In 2017, Dr. Ma collaborated with string quintet from University of Southern California to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 while conducting from the piano. Dr. Ma has premiered numbers of works, including a world premier of Ben Kwok’s Sounds From the Lung Fields, Dr. Chih-long Hu’s Formosa Caprices and Elizabeth Baker’s Four Plane, which is a piece the composer dedicated to Dr. Ma. Dr. Ma’s most recent project is in preparation of recording and premiering composer Michael Colina’s Piano Concerto with The Florida Symphony.
Dr. Ma received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California in Piano Performance with legendary pianist, winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition Daniel Pollack. She also studied composition with National Medal of Art Recipient Dr. Morten Lauridsen and orchestral conducting with former Vice President of the New England Conservatory Maestro Larry Livingston. Dr. Ma is currently on faculty of the Appalachian Music Festival and Concordia University Irvine Chamber Music Festival. Dr. Ma is a Steinway Top Piano Teacher and Educational Partner. Her latest CD From Schumann, With Love is now available on all major streaming platforms.