Kit Armstrong

Kit Armstrong (Chinese: 周善祥; pinyin: Zhōu Shànxiáng, born March 5, 1992) is an American classical pianist, composer, organist, and former child prodigy of British-Taiwanese parentage.

[6] At the age of 9, he became a full-time undergraduate student at Utah State University studying biology, physics, mathematics as well as music (2001–2002).

[7] In 2003, Armstrong enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music studying piano with Eleanor Sokoloff and Claude Frank, while simultaneously taking courses in chemistry and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania.

He has collaborated with conductors including Ivor Bolton, Riccardo Chailly, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph von Dohnányi, Manfred Honeck, Charles Mackerras, Bobby McFerrin, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, and Mario Venzago.

Solo piano recitals have taken Armstrong to London, Paris, Vienna, Florence, Venice, Baden-Baden, Berlin, Dortmund, Leipzig, Munich, Zurich, Geneva, Bolzano, Verbier, La Roque-d'Anthéron and various cities in the United States.

He performs with the Szymanowski String Quartet and in a piano trio with Andrej Bielow (violin) and Adrian Brendel (cello), and has given lieder recitals with Andreas Wolf and Thomas Bauer [de].

[25] The percussionist Alexej Gerassimez's premiere of Armstrong's percussion concerto with Konzerthausorchester Berlin in 2017 was broadcast on German nationwide radio.

[4] Armstrong has received six Morton Gould Young Composer Awards from the ASCAP Foundation in New York,[28] for Struwwelpeter: Character Pieces for viola and piano.

[29] In 2011, the film Set the Piano Stool on Fire by Mark Kidel was released on DVD, chronicling the relationship between pianist Alfred Brendel and Armstrong.

[33] Kit Armstrong's 2016 recital in Amsterdam Concertgebouw, featuring music by William Byrd, Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, John Bull, and Johann Sebastian Bach was recorded as a DVD and released by Unitel.

[38][39][40][41] In 2023, the film , 1520-2020 : A Musical Odyssey - Une Odyssée Musicale - Eine musikalische Reise by Francis Marcellet, Armstrong, piano solo (2 DVDs Damis Films) Renaud Capuçon and Kit Armstrong recorded Mozart’s sonatas for piano and violin for Deutsche Grammophon in a 4-CD set released in June 2023.