Canadian pianist Lucas Wong earns a diversified career as performer and teacher, specializing in the art of collaborative piano. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Vocal Coaching at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute. Praised for "his gifts for colour, nuance and tasteful dynamic contrasts" (Gramophone), his career highlights include multiple engagements at the Carnegie Hall, innovative recital programs like "Beyond 88" and the "Mostly Debussy" series, a complete performance of Des Knaben Wunderhorn at the Shanghai Conservatory, directorship of the complete Duparc melodies at Songfest in LA, and collaborations with American composers such as William Bolcom, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen, and John Musto. He has collaborated with reputable artists such as Maghan McPhee, Suzanne Mentzer, Simone Osborne, Edward Parks, Laura Strickling, and Guang Yang.
As a pianist wearing many different hats, Dr. Lucas Wong holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Yale School of Music, under the tutelage of Boris Berman. He also holds a Post-Graduate Associateship from the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and a Teaching Fellowship at the Yale Department of Music. His repertoire includes musical preparation for more than thirty opera productions, hundreds of songs, many solo and chamber works, and last but not least, a handful of iOS apps on the App Store. He has been the assistant conductor for the New York City Opera for two seasons, the repétiteur for the Opera Theater of Connecticut for over ten seasons, and the official accompanist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council district auditions.
As an educator, Dr. Lucas Wong offers innovative resources, such as the recent “The Multifunctional Pianist: The Recipe for Orchestral Color and Playing" essay on the NATS Journal of Singing. He is the author of “The Multi-Functional Pianist” — a four-chapter curriculum designed to strengthen pianists’ awareness of improvisational, fundamental, and piano reduction skills. He is the artistic director of Liederfest of Suzhou, a special program that introduced singers to art songs in various languages including Chinese. Dr. Lucas Wong was one of the founding faculty members of the Soochow Univesrity School of Music, where he was also the chamber music, collaborative piano, staff pianist coordinator. He has been previously invited to perform, lecture, or give masterclass at many world-renowned institutions, such as the University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Seoul National University, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, and the Juilliard School.
Lucas Wong’s first exposure of collaborating with a staged performance began with his music directorship on a couple of musicals as a high school student in the Lord Byng Secondary School, one of the most prestigious arts mini schools across Canada. During his piano performance studies at both UBC and Yale, he also pursued the art of song and opera collaboration with mentors such as Rena Sharon and J. J. Penna. He continued this pursuit with Warren Jones at the Music Academy of the West as a vocal piano fellow, with Margo Garrett, Graham Johnson, and Martin Katz as a pianist at SongFest, and with Frank Corliss at the Bard Conservatory Post-Graduate Fellowship program.
Projects
4D Creatives Inc.
Founder
A portfolio specializes in researching and finding technological solutions, especially in the music and education domains. The team also provides planning, mentoring, consultation, performing services, and much more.
On FAZIOLI F308 with four pedals: “his gifts for colour, nuance and tasteful dynamic contrasts…sexily shaped trills…the point and precision of his détaché articulation…discreet use of agogics and his mastery of the kind of overlapping finger legato…attention to detail and clear commitment unquestionably come across, abetted by fine engineering. Recommended.” (Gramophone)
On the NATS Collab Corner: "As vocal pianists throughout our studies and careers, we all work with piano reductions encountered in choral and operatic repertoire..."
This disc explores transcriptions and works by J. S. Bach, Berlioz, Franck, Godowsky, Grainger, Hahn, Hess, Liszt, Mascagni, Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Puccini, Schubert, Strauss, and Wong
"As long a teacher of collaborative pianists, I have been most concerned in this pandemic about the current lack of successful solutions for partnering singers. I have searched carefully for technology that really works and 4D Piano is the only solution I have found. Amazingly, it is the answer for our current desperation, but it is a superior solution for all times. Invented by a superb pianist, Lucas Wong, whom I have known well for some years as a versatile performer and teacher in solo, chamber, song, and operatic repertoire, 4D Piano not only meets the needs of singers, but it trains them rhythmically, in ways we often neglect, through visual sharing of the piano part. It also trains pianists who, while not actually playing the piano, are in the same collaborative relationship at any given moment by just the movement of a finger! As the operator of 4D Piano, one can partner in ritardandi, accelerandi, and fermati as well as in leadership and sensitive following of a singer just as one would do when actually playing for the singer. There is no lag time and real and detailed ensemble is possible! Thank you, Lucas!"
Margo Garrett Collaborative Performing and Recording Pianist The Juilliard School Emerita
"I have been using 4D Piano on the web for all of my vocal coachings as well as rehearsing for several recitals. Having a clear, instantaneous piano sound (no lag) has been a tremendous help in these sessions. Depending on internet speeds, we (singer and pianist) have experienced very low latency synchronicity while making music. 4D Piano is by far the easiest to use and most inexpensive low-latency platform that I have found for a singer/pianist or instrumental/pianist to use. Having access to the library of tracks and the ability to record and play 4D piano tracks (or use ANY user-created or user-owned midi) file in the 4D system is a game changer. My students are also benefiting from the 4D Piano Pocket Player in the iOS App store. I can record tracks using the 4D web browser or my own DAW and deliver them to singers for use in the iOS app, with tempo adjustments, transposition, fermata, and jump to next chord features. Even as we fully return to in-person collaboration, I expect that 4D Piano will continue to be used as an option-rich resource for collaboration when geographic distance, travel costs and time constraints remain in view, as a supplement and tool for online teaching and rehearsing."
Dr. Casey Robards
"His playing is both brilliant and sensitive, and his tone is like a pearl necklace… Wong builds up a tremendous head of steam, and he does it without ever raising his voice, so to speak. Even in the smaller works, though, he makes a big impression."
Fanfare
"In Wong’s hands, the clarity and deeply expressive moods and colors of the eight preludes come across with the greatest beauty and assurance, leading us to marvel that, apparently, no other pianists have ever recorded this work…Wong’s performances in this recital made the point come across with a greater clarity than I’d ever imagined."
