Karen Hsiao Savage

Praised as a “tour de force” (Santa Barbara News-Press), for “breathtaking beauty and pure lyricism” (Le Soleil, Vancouver), and for “fearless performance” (The Straits Times, Singapore), Karen Hsiao Savage is Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano and Coordinator of Chamber Music at UMKC Conservatory. Karen received a doctoral and two masters degrees (in solo and collaborative piano) from Juilliard, and a BMus from University of Victoria. She has performed internationally in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, and Perlman Music Program, with broadcasts on internationally syndicated NPR programs and on Vietnamese and Chinese national television. Recent performances include those with members of the Kansas City Symphony, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Chiara quartet’s Hyeyung Yoon and Gregory Beaver, and a recording of works by women composers with oboist Celeste Johnson.

In April, Karen premiered new works by Yotam Haber and Paul Rudy, written for 88 SQUARED , her piano duo with husband Jeff Savage. The duo received critical praise for international performances and recording premieres of two-piano works by Lowell Liebermann (Albany Records) and by Daniel Ott (Navonna/PARMA Records), at the invitation of the composers who served as the albums’ producers. They won the Ellis Duo Piano Competition, the Abild Prize in American Music, and second prize and special mention at Concours Grieg International Competition (Norway). Karen’s teachers include Jonathan Feldman, Margo Garrett, Sam Sanders, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Robin Wood, with additional coachings with Robert McDonald and Anne Epperson.