“Pianism in a whole different league, namely: art”. These words from Tel Aviv’s Ha’aretz illustrate Henry Wong Doe’s sincerity and passion for music. Since winning “Audience Favorite” prizes at both the Arthur Rubinstein and Busoni International Piano Competitions, Henry continues to engage audiences with thoughtful programming and insightful performances.
Henry Wong Doe has performed in Carnegie Hall, New York, Heinz Hall, Pittsburgh, Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay Singapore, St.Martin-in-the-Fields, London, U.K., the Sydney Opera House in Australia and Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Israel. He has been a featured artist at the Busoni International Piano Festival in Bolzano, Italy, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series in Chicago, USA and the Brussels Piano Festival in Belgium.
Henry has performed with noted orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Australian Chamber, and Israel Philharmonic, and collaborated with conductors Christopher Hogwood, Mendi Rodan, Fabio Mechetti and Edvard Tchivzel. Appearances on television and radio include BBC Radio 3 (UK), ABC Classics FM and Channel 9 (Australia), Concert FM and TVNZ (New Zealand), WNYC Radio (New York), WFMT Radio (Chicago), WQED Radio (Pittsburgh), RTBF and Canal La Deux (Belgium), and Kolhamusica (The Musical Voice) Israel.
A native of New Zealand, Henry Wong Doe has performed with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, Auckland Chamber Orchestra and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras. Working with acclaimed conductors such as as Fabio Mechetti, Michael Christie, Piero Bellugi and Tobias Ringborg, he has performed concerti by Prokofieff, Mozart, Grieg, Stravinsky, Hindemith, Beethoven, and Rachmaninoff. The New Zealand Herald critic William Dart wrote of his performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Auckland Philharmonia: “Henry Wong Doe took on its many challenges with eases, totally unruffled by glittering passagework and bringing just the right heft to forests of chords. There was admirable restraint in the Adagio Sostenuto”. In the United States, Henry was invited to perform Beethoven's Second Piano Concerto with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
An avid performer of contemporary music, Henry's debut performance at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2008 featured solo and interactive works for piano and computer-controlled piano. Performing on a Yamaha Disklavier Mark IV, the program included the pioneering 1989 interactive work Eight Sketches - duet for one pianist by Jean-Claude Risset as well as a newly composed interactive work by New York based composed Brendan Adamson. An equally passionate supporter of new music from New Zealand, both his 2008 and 2012 recitals at Weill Recital Hall featured solo and chamber works by composer Gareth Farr.
Henry Wong Doe has released seven recordings on the Trust, Rattle, Klavier and HR Recordings labels. Four of the seven albums feature new or recently composed New Zealand music. His albums have been featured on New Zealand’s Concert FM radio programme, WNYC Radio New York and received international critical acclaim. Jed Distler of Classics Today (USA) gave his Landscape Preludes album (Rattle RAT-D046) a 9/10 rating for both artistic and sound quality, writing “the selections are appreciably varied, well crafted for piano…[Wong Doe] mastered the notes and assimilated the music to the highest standards.” Henry’s chamber recordings include an album for Klavier records (K11193) of woodwind chamber music with the Keystone Chamber Winds, and two albums (E161HR, E162HR) for HR Recordings of rediscovered works for cello and piano with Michael Kevin Jones, cello.
Most recently, Henry was awarded a Creative NZ (Arts Council of New Zealand) Arts Grant for his latest commissioning and recording project, Perspectives. This project features six new works for piano by New Zealand composers, with the goal to illustrate each composer’s perspective of events of the last two years. Following the world premiere performance, Perspectives will be recorded and released on Rattle Records in August 2023.
Born in Auckland, New Zealand, Henry Wong Doe received his early training from Susan Smith-Gaddis, followed by Bryan Sayer at the University of Auckland. In the United States, he received a Masters degree from Indiana University Bloomington, studying with Evelyne Brancart and Leonard Hokanson, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from The Juilliard School, studying with Joseph Kalichstein. His doctoral dissertation “Musician or Machine: The Player piano and composers of the Twentieth Century” examined the influence of the player piano on the works of Stravinsky, Hindemith, Nancarrow and Ligeti. A passionate educator as well as performer, Henry Wong Doe serves on the music faculty as Professor of Piano and Keyboard Area Chair at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. When away from the piano, he enjoys snow skiing, jogging and playing tennis.