A Bu
Pianist & Composer
Born in Beijing in 1999, pianist and composer A Bu presents a unique merger of the classical and jazz idioms. As the First Prize and Audience Choice winner of the Montreux Jazz Solo Piano Competition, A Bu has performed at many distinguished music festivals and venues around the globe and has released multiple albums, most recently under Germany’s WERGO record label.
At age 13, A Bu was invited by jazz pianist Chick Corea to perform a duet at Corea’s solo piano concert in Shanghai, China. Across the continuum of classical and jazz, A Bu has collaborated with many distinguished artists such as Antonio Hart, Tom Kennedy, Till Brönner, Igor Butman, James Morrison, Dave Glasser, Drew Gress, Larry Grenadier, Eric Harland, and with pianist Hélène Mercier.
As a soloist, A Bu has performed with many orchestras including the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Fabrice Bollon), Moscow Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Moscow Jazz Orchestra (conducted by Pavel Ovchinnikov), Ningbo Symphony Orchestra, Nanchang Symphony Orchestra, Chengdu Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Ji Yu), Suzhou Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Tsung Yeh), and Orchester Musikkollegium Winterthur (under the baton of Maestro Mikhail Pletnev).
A Bu’s newest CD release New Memories (WERGO 740 52), a joint project of German label WERGO and China’s NCPA Classics was released in 2022. The album captured his performance of Russian composer Nikolai Kapustin’s popular Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, Variations Op. 41 and A Bu’s original compositions Fantasie: Sleeping in a Dream, Op. 7 and Piano Sonata No. 1 “Pinus”, a homage piece he wrote in memory of Kapustin.
As an advocate of Kapustin’s music, A Bu became acquainted with Kapustin in 2014 and remained friends with the composer until Kapustin’s passing in July 2020. A Bu premiered many of the composer’s works (Big Band Sounds, Op. 10 [big band + strings version], Nocturne, Op. 16, Minuet, Op. 21) and served as the editor of the first Chinese edition of Kapustin’s piano music, published by the Shanghai Publishing House. In September 2022, together with the musicians from the Mannes School of Music and the College of Performing Arts of The New School, A Bu gave the New York Premiere of Kapustin’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 14 at the opening concert of the Mannes Sounds Festival 2022-2023 Season.
A Bu received his Bachelor’s degree in classical piano performance from the Juilliard School under the guidance of pianist Hung-Kuan Chen and his Master’s degree in both piano and composition at the Mannes School of Music (The New School) in New York City, where he studied under American composer Lowell Liebermann and Bulgarian pianist Pavlina Dokovska.
A Bu is the recipient of the 2019 Ruhr Piano Festival Scholarship, recommended by Grammy-award winning pianist and composer Michel Camilo. He is also a laureate of Artemisia Foundation’s 2024-2025 season and its composer-in-residence.
A Bu has played at concert venues such as the Foundation Louis Vuitton, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, FAZIOLI Concert Hall, Gran Teatro de La Habana, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, American Yacht Club (Rye), New York Yacht Club, National Center of Performing Arts (Beijing), Forbidden City Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, Beijing, Shanghai and at music festivals such as the Umbria Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Jazz en Tête Festival, Jazz à Vienne, Ruhr Piano Festival, Internationale Musikfestspiele Saar, Rheingau Musik Festival, Piano Extravaganza Festival (Sofia), Shanghai JZ Festival, and others.