Fox Chapel Area's Liu a piano virtuoso with international titles

Growing up, Fox Chapel Area junior Lawrence Liu had only one CD to listen to – Michael Jackson’s “Essentials.”

That one album spanned the best of Jackson’s hits from “ABC” to “Beat It” and was the launching point for Liu’s musical achievements.

The teen recently captured top awards in several international piano competitions, including:

- Grand Prize Winner of the Pittsburgh International Piano Competition, receiving a fully-paid trip to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York in late 2022.

- First Prize Winner, Suzanne Culley Virtual Competition and Festival, with an invitation to perform at Carnegie Hall in June 2022.

- Platinum Medal, Quebec Piano Competition, earning the highest-scored pianist in his age group internationally.

- First Prize Winner, the Muse International Piano Competition.

“I began playing piano because of a pretty unconventional reason — Michael Jackson was my childhood idol,” Liu said.

“I began learning music by singing.”

Liu’s parents believed that learning to play an instrument would be more holistic, so he chose piano.

He was enrolled at The Carnegie Mellon University Preparatory School for music where Liu learned early the fundamentals of music theory.

He has studied under teacher Tanya Gelman more than a decade.

“It was this knowledge that became a gateway for my current passion for classical repertoire on the piano,” Liu said.

Once he began his piano studies, Liu didn’t have time to feed his passion for singing. He did however, learn to play competitively the flute.

While he devotes much of his time to piano, Liu stays busy with school activities that include the high school jazz band, pit orchestra, marching band and choir.

Liu was selected by audition to perform with the 2021 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 1 Honors Band.

He also is the captain of the Fox Chapel Boy’s Fencing Team. Liu applied his expertise in the sport to a project called “A Novel Machine-Learning Approach to Fencing Analysis.”

He developed an app that coaches users, many stuck at home during the pandemic, through fencing moves.

For his work, Liu was chosen a district first-place winner in the virtual 87th Annual Region 7 Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science.

Liu has also collected a slew of musical accolades through the years: He was the winner of the 2012 World Piano Competition in Cincinnati and the winner of the 2014 Duquesne piano competition.

Next up, Liu and Gelman are considering which competitions to enter in 2022.

He’s poured such an enormous amount of time into his piano training that Liu is enjoying the recent accomplishments, as they are proof that hard work pays off.

“Throughout covid and online schooling, I had a lot of extra time on my hands so I put all of my time into perfecting the repertoire I had,” he said. “It was probably the most I had ever practiced! I was really afraid that all my practice would go to waste, but these awards really settled my fears.”

Though he cites music as being the most significant influence in his life, his post-high school focus will be computer science.

“I truly adore how much computer science is applicable in almost any field in real life, and I would love to have an education focused on it,” he said.

“As for music, I always want to keep it in my life, so I plan to play piano recreationally in college and do performances occasionally.”

He said a “side hustle” might include accompanying choirs or other productions.

It was an idea spurred from his recent participation in the Fox Chapel Choir’s winter performance.

“I really enjoyed the experience,” he said. “It’d be absolutely amazing to be able to continue accompanying ensembles in college.”