© Jason Alden

周善祥｜鋼琴

周善祥在五歲的時候開始作曲，之後便開始學習鋼琴，現在他受邀至全球各大音樂廳演出。
2015年11月，索尼經典唱片發行了他的最新獨奏專輯李斯特作品集《Liszt: Symphonic Scenes》。他前一張在索尼的唱片為2013年9月發行的《巴哈、李格悌、周善祥作品集》，為了強調曲目的原創性，特別收錄巴哈的聖詠前奏曲，這個決定吸引了眾人的目光。德國的文化廣播公司表示：「那是世人等待的少數專輯之一」，北德廣播公司則形容為「充滿情感的個人首張專輯」。
周善祥的樂曲則是由Edition Peters出版社出版。他曾六度獲得美國作曲家、作家、出版社基金會的顧爾德年輕作曲家大獎，因此萊比錫布商大廈樂團、福斯汽車城Movimentos藝術節、基爾愛樂與巴斯夫文化經紀等單位都委託他創作。
周善祥曾就讀於費城的柯蒂斯音樂學院與倫敦的皇家音樂學院。他從七歲開始便在各大學研讀自然科學，包括賓州大學與倫敦帝國學院。他在巴黎第六大學取得純數學碩士學位。
周善祥於2010年獲得德國石荷州音樂節的伯恩斯坦獎；並於2014年贏得德國梅克倫堡波莫瑞州音樂節頒發的WEMAG獨奏家獎項。
13歲時周善祥結識了鋼琴大師布蘭德爾，自此拜入他的門下，大師讚許他「對於偉大鋼琴作品的理解，結合了新鮮的活力與細膩的處理方式，並兼具情感與理智」。英國紀錄片導演馬克‧基德爾把周善祥與布蘭德爾獨特的師徒關係紀錄在《點燃鋼琴凳》一片裡。
2013年周善祥買下了法國伊爾松聖德蘭教堂，計畫要把這座廢棄的教堂/獨特的裝飾藝術遺址，改建為音樂廳/文創中心。自2014年啟用以來，這裡安排的演出節目就充滿了創造力，並邀請知名藝術家演出。

Kit Armstrong started composing at five and shortly after that began piano studies. Today he performs in the most famous concert halls in the world.
In November 2015, Sony Classical released Kit Armstrong’s new solo album Liszt: Symphonic Scenes. His previous album on Sony, with works by Bach, Ligeti and Armstrong was released in September 2013. Illustrating the original nature of his programming, the selection of Chorale Preludes by J.S. Bach attracted particular attention. For Kulturradio (RBB) it was “one of the very few CDs that the world was waiting for”; the NDR Kultur described it as a “debut album full of emotions”.
Kit Armstrong’s compositions are published by Edition Peters. A six time winner of the ASCAP Foundation’s Morton Gould Young Composer’s Award, he has received commissions from the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Volkswagen Autostadt Movimentos festival, the Philharmonic Orchestra Kiel, and BASF Culture Management, among others.
Armstrong studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. At the age of seven, he started studying natural sciences at various universities including the University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College London. He earned his master’s degree in pure mathematics at the University of Paris VI.
Kit Armstrong received Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award in 2010. Kit Armstrong won the WEMAG-Soloist Prize at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival in 2014.
At the age of 13, Kit Armstrong came to know Alfred Brendel, who since then has guided him as his teacher and mentor and ascribes to him “an understanding of the great piano works that combines freshness and subtlety, emotion and intellect”. The unique relationship between Armstrong and Brendel was captured in the film “Set the Piano Stool on Fire” by the British director Mark Kidel.
In 2013, Kit Armstrong acquired the Eglise Sainte-Thérèse in Hirson, France, with the plan of reawakening this disused church, a unique historical Art Deco monument, as a concert hall and creative centre for culture. Following its inauguration in 2014, it has become home to events featuring imaginative programmes and renowned artists.