Taiwanese pianist Kuan-Hua (Alice) Lai is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach and opera répétiteur. She loves to cooperate with various musicians from piano 4 hands to piano quintet and sextet. In 2018, she formed a piano trio “FAR trio” with flautist Yu-Syuan Li and Cellist Fritz Chung, getting into the final of the Sylvia Cleaver Chamber Music Prize in Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

 

Before becoming an opera répétiteur, Alice had already started to work with conductors since her undergraduate studies at the University of Taipei in Taiwan. Alice has played traditional Chinese instrument the erhu since she was a child and at the university she joined the traditional Chinese ensemble ‘Silk and Bamboo’ conducted by I-Yu Wang, playing piano and erhu in many traditional folk music and contemporary pieces composed by I-Yu Wang. This inspired her to gain interest and be involved with contemporary music. In 2018, working with British composer/conductor Richard Baker, Alice performed the keyboard sampler with Thallein Ensemble for European Conservatoires Conference in RBC Bradshaw Hall.

 

Now Alice is studying as a répétiteur on the Advanced Postgraduate Diploma with Robin Bowman and Paul Wingfield at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. Her recent work including Opera Scenes conducted by Harry Sever and directed by Jamie Hayes, Die Zauberflöte with conductor Christopher Bucknall and stage director Michael Barry in Birmingham Crescent Theatre, and Voxbox: Hugo Wolf Workshop with Helen Yorke in RBC.

 

As a solo pianist, Alice has a wide repertoire from Bach to Falla and Ligeti. She studied Master of Music in Piano performance and graduated with Distinction from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in UK, studying with Daniel Browell, John Humphreys and Mikhail Kazakevich. In 2017, she won the First Prize and awarded the Outstanding Prize of Taipei Excellence Piano Competition in Taiwan. The masterclasses she has taken part in were given by Mark Latimer, Alasdair Beatson, Matino Tirimo and Roberto Plano.

 

This coming June, Alice will be rehearsing and performing Mansfield Park by Jonathan Dove with conductor Paul Wingfield and stage director Michael Barry in Birmingham Crescent Theatre.