Gala Concert

📅 Saturday 27th September 2025

Time: TBC
Location: White Rock Theatre, White Rock, Hastings TN34 1JX

2024 prizewinners, Curtis Phill Hsu and Harmony Zhu return to Hastings this September for a concert with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra featuring two undisputed pillars of the Romantic piano repertoire.  

Harmony Zhu, was just 18 when she won second prize in 2024 and now not only forging a career as a pianist, but also studying maths at Harvard. She will be soloist in Chopin’s poignant and romantic Piano Concerto No 1, written in 1830 when he was just twenty and about to leave his native Poland to live the rest of his life in exile.   

First prize winner Curtis Phill Hsu is the soloist in Rachmaninov’s monumental Piano Concerto No 2. One of the best known of all concertos, the piece was a huge success when it was premiered in 1901 with Rachmaninov himself as soloist, and later became part of popular culture thanks to its use in David Lean’s 1945 film Brief Encounter and later still Eric Carmen’s 1975 hit (later covered by Celine Deon) All by Myself.  

Save the date for what promises to be a highlight of the autumn season.  

Tickets on sale soon.  

Programme

Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No 1 in E minor, Op 11

Sergei Rachmaninov: Piano Concert No 2, Op 18