“intelligent, excellent playing. a big rich sound”
Pianist Calvin Hu is a chamber musician, educator, and active food photographer in both SF and NYC.
A native of San Francisco, Calvin started his studies in the Preparatory Division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Jerri Witt, where he discovered his love of music. He then continued his undergraduate studies with Antoinette Perry and Inna Faliks at UCLA and completed his master’s in piano performance at Stony Brook University with Christina Dahl. He is currently pursuing a Doctorate Musical Arts on full scholarship at Stony Brook University.
As a chamber musician, Calvin has been mentored by pianist Gilbert Kalish through his Chamber Music Piano Intensive, as well as members of the Emerson String Quartet. In recent summers he has received fellowships from Icicle Creek Chamber Music Festival and has performed alongside Alan Kay, Carol Wincenc, James Austin Smith, and David Requiro.
A passionate educator, Calvin was the 2019 recipient of the Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation Scholarship, and has previously been on faculty as a chamber coach at the Young Artist’s Program at Stony Brook University. He currently teaches undergraduate piano students at SBU and maintains a private studio with a wide range of students from toddlers to adults.
When not in front of a piano, Calvin is usually behind a phone or a camera!
Growing up on Golden Curry and California rolls, San Francisco native Calvin Hu first got into photography as a way to document the home-cooked meals his mom would make growing up. After moving to LA and NY to pursue graduate school in music, Hu began exploring different urban areas, capturing delicious moments and sidewalk snapshots on the weekends away from the piano. Similar to music, when it comes to photography, consistency is key! If it’s something that you love, it’ll always find its way back to you in some way, shape, or form.
As one of the photographers chosen to be featured in Adobe’s 2021 Rising Stars of Photography, he was able to share his love of capturing food on camera with an international audience and hopes to start projects that involve both music and food photography in the future.