Fern Flower: an interview with pianist and composer Han Chen
“In Slavic folklore, the fern flower blooms only once each year, on the eve of Ivan Kupala, the midsummer festival later entwined with the feast of St. John the Baptist. Though ferns bear no flowers, legends describe a luminous blossom hidden deep within forests, visible only for a fleeting instant to those willing to wander through darkness in search of it. Said to reveal hidden knowledge or unimaginable fortune, the flower occupies a space between botany and myth, scientific impossibility and collective belief.”
How does one describe a flower that only exists as myth? Nina C. Young’s Fern Flower, which was written for and will be premiered by concert pianist Han Chen on the 7th of August, 2026, explores this myth in sound, silence, and the collective imaginations of Chen and his audience. As part of a recital that pairs Fern Flower with music by Beethoven, Liszt, and Stravinsky, Chen finds connections between these pieces with his program titled, “Departures: Music of Farewell and Emergence.”
Han Chen is intimately familiar with farewells and emergences. Born in Taiwan, this Grammy-nominated pianist immigrated first to China and then, in 2020, to the United States. As an international concert pianist, Chen emerged as a performer with “limitless imagination and uncanny energy.” His four solo albums focused on Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Thomas Adès, György Ligeti, and his concerto album featuring Florence Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement in D minor was nominated for a GRAMMY Award in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. Most recently, he has received international praise for Infinite Staircase, a project for which he commissioned 18 new études to be paired with Ligeti’s 18 Études.
“An artist is of course faced with the questions ‘who are you,’ ‘where are you from’ and ‘where are you going’ all the time, and migration is sort of the catalyst for an artist to answer these questions,” Chen writes. Whether playing past masterpieces, commissioning new music, or speaking eloquently about his work, Han Chen’s elegant pianism and inspiring story hold the wisdom he’s learned from farewells and the hope that’s embedded in emergence. It is an honor to feature him on No Dead Guys.
At what age did you start playing the piano and what drew you to the instrument?
My mom was a piano teacher, so piano was already in my life even before I was born. I remember (or my parents would often recall) that I would hide my toys on the beams beneath the piano and play underneath the piano for hours before I was old enough to touch the keys. I officially started my piano lesson on the day I turned four as my birthday gift, and it was not my mom who taught me. She knew well that she would lose her temper if she taught her own kid, even though she still did listen to my practicing. Piano makes me feel at home, as if it can protect me from the real world. It’s an instrument, a playground, and a protector.
When did you begin composing your own music and what was your first composition?
I started composing around middle school using a five-staff line notebook. I had a “practice teacher” at the time, who was really strict. She saw my composition and berated me for wasting my time on something that wasn’t practicing the piano. So I stopped. I remember the composition being an imitation of Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 14, which I was learning at the time. Of course, I went on to compose here and there secretively and eventually took composition as a non-major course when I got to Juilliard for my Bachelor’s.
As a concert pianist and a Grammy nominated recording artist, you’re a critically lauded performer of both standard classical repertoire and new music. How does performing old and new music give you a deeper understanding of both established and unknown pieces?
I feel it is equally important for a pianist to perform both standard classical repertoire and new music, even though both give me the same kind of excitement. I naturally gravitate towards something new to me, and we pianists are blessed (or cursed) by the vast amount of repertoire available. However, I see commissioning new works as part of my duty, something that gives me a great sense of accomplishment and value. As a result, I try to do that whenever it’s viable. I apply the same kind of rigor of learning classical works to the new works, and I bring the same kind of thrill of new music to the standard repertoire. I find a good balance there.
One of the many things I find fascinating about your multi-faceted career is your ongoing YouTube interview series Migration Music. How much did your own journey from Taiwan to China to the US inspire you to create this series?
Very much so. I started the Migration Music series in tandem with my personal experience of immigration—when I was in the process of getting my US green card. It was during the pandemic; I felt I was seriously making a home here in the US. Reinaldo Moya, the first composer on my series, coincidentally asked me to record a movement from his piano suite The Way North as part of his collaboration series with 13 pianists. My performance of this movement and a chat with him about the immigration stories in The Way North as well as his own life became the first episode. Although the series is on pause at the moment, I am still very fond of the compelling stories I learned from the composers and would very much like to resume it one day.
What sorts of commonalities do you find in your guests’ migration stories and how do you feel immigrating to a new country affects how they create music?
Finding your own roots. Although everyone’s immigration story is different, all those who have emigrated understand the importance of roots. The way composer Lei Liang puts it is very revealing: “I discovered China after I left China.” An artist is of course faced with the questions “who are you,” “where are you from” and “where are you going” all the time, and migration is sort of the catalyst for an artist to answer these questions. That also explains why we have works like The Way North that detail such an emotional journey.
Another part of your career that I admire is your commitment to commissioning new piano music, especially Infinite Staircase—a project where you commissioned 18 new piano solos to be paired with Ligeti’s 18 Etudes. What inspired Infinite Staircase and how did you choose the composers you commissioned?
The idea of commissioning pieces to pair with Ligeti’s 18 Etudes came from composer Nina C. Young. It was during the pandemic, and everyone was locked down at home and isolated from everyone else. The urgency to connect with my friends prompted both Migration Music and Infinite Staircase, as they became my way (and excuse) to Zoom with my friends. This explains why most of the composers in these projects are my longtime friends, and I was also happy to make many new friends along the way. I could not have done this without all of their friendship and support.
Congratulations on your next world premiere which will be in New England Conservatory’s Williams Hall on August 7, 2026 at 7:30 PM. The piece, Fern Flower, was written by composer and sonic artist, Nina C. Young. Did you commission this piece? And what can you tell us about this music?
Thank you! I am so happy to have commissioned Nina C. Young for another piano solo piece since the Infinite Staircase project. I met Nina about a decade ago when she founded Ensemble Échappé, and I joined as the founding member. Since then, I have played many pieces by Nina, and I have always been fascinated by the colors she concocts on the piano. We have talked about a new solo piano piece that is not affiliated with any other preexisting materials for quite a while, and it is just another dream come true. As a result, this piece is completely original, not like the piece she wrote for my Infinite Staircase project, it is within you that the ghosts acquire voices, which brilliantly weaves Ligeti’s Automne à Varsovie into her style.
I understand that Fern Flower “draws inspiration from the imagined ritual world surrounding the fern flower and the ecstatic atmosphere of midsummer night rites.” Can you tell me more about this? And how does Young evoke these things through this piece?
As we know, ferns are not flowering plants, so the imaginary fern flower makes it a powerful image for a piece of music—unattainable with unlimited possibilities. It parallels with the act of music making in general, as musicians are always pursuing the unattainable ideal when stepping onto the stage. It also speaks to Nina’s fascination with flowers, and it was truly a surprise to me when she chose a nonexistent flower as the subject. This is a quest she set herself on to explore her Russian/Ukrainian heritage.
Many of Nina C. Young’s compositions include interactive installations. Is Fern Flower a piano solo or is the sound expanded with recordings or effects?
It is a piano solo work.
Your upcoming recital pairs Fern Flower with music by Beethoven, Liszt, and Stravinsky. What would you say is the connecting thread among all of these pieces?
I am calling this program “Departure: Music of Farewell and Emergence.” I am personally dealing with commemorating the death of my mother, so I am interested in pieces that relate to a similar subject, even if remotely. Beethoven’s Les Adieux is the most programmatic work on the subject, while Liszt’s Funérailles provides a more historical perspective. Stravinsky’s three pieces, Four Études, Three Movements from Petrushka, and Piano Sonata, depict an artistic departure that is more abstract and musical. Nina’s work bridges the gaps among them all and supplements with a mythological, ritualistic take that departs from a lost reality.
I understand that Fern Flower will be expanded into a large-scale piano concerto project entitled The Book of Flowers. What would you be willing to share about this project, and when are you planning to premiere it?
That is our ultimate goal. We are inspired by the close relationship between Ligeti’s Études Book One and his Piano Concerto, so we hope to create something parallel to that with Fern Flower and The Book of Flowers. As we are still figuring out the logistics, all we can say at the moment is that we are both super excited about them!
What future plans are you most excited about?
For now, the world premiere of Fern Flower on August 7th!
What advice can you offer other musicians who are eager to commission and perform music by living composers?
Treat it as making a friend! As my teacher Ursula Oppens would say to her students, “offer to cook them a meal and make a friend!”
A fearless performer with seemingly limitless imagination and possessed with uncanny energy, GRAMMY Award-nominated pianist Han Chen plays scores old and new with rare rigor and insight. Mr. Chen’s 2026 GRAMMY nomination was in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category for the Florence Price Piano Concert in One Movement in D Minor on the Naxos label featuring the Malmö Opera Orchestra led by John Jeter.
Alex Ross, classical music critic of The New Yorker, who selected Mr. Chen’s Naxos disc of the Ligeti Études and Capriccios as a “Notable Classical Recording of 2023,” characterized him as follows: “The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Études and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of the [Liszt] opera transcriptions.” –The New Yorker, September 4, 2023
Gold Medalist at the 2013 China International Piano Competition and a prizewinner at the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition, he has also been praised by Gramophone as “impressively commanding and authoritative” and further cited by The New York Times for his “graceful touch,” “rhythmic precision” and “hypnotic charm.”
Mr. Chen’s musical vision is manifest in his four solo Naxos albums, focusing on Franz Liszt, Anton Rubinstein, Thomas Adès, and György Ligeti. He has appeared as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, China Symphony Orchestra, and Xiamen Philharmonic, among others.
Han Chen studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky, Wha Kyung Byun, and Ursula Oppens at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and CUNY Graduate Center. A Steinway Artist, he is represented by Black Tea Music.
For further information, please contact Hemsing Associates at (212) 772-1132 or visit www.hemsingpr.com.