He’s just 17. He’s already played Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Last year, he won the Arthur Fraser Piano Competition at the Southeastern Piano Festival. His name is Michael Wu and Gulf Coast Symphony Music Director Andrew Kurtz is bringing him to the Music and Arts Community Center on April 25.
“He’s amazing,” said Kurtz. “He wanted to play Rachmaninoff and I was like, you’ve got it.”
Not just any Rachmaninoff.
Courtesy of Gulf Coast Symphony
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Gulf Coast Symphony
Gulf Coast Symphony Music Director Andrew Kurtz
“It’s the Rachmaninoff second piano concerto, which is probably one of the top five on everybody’s list of piano concertos,” Kurtz said.
Composed after a period of deep depression and creative silence, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 bursts with sweeping melodies and romantic passion.
But that’s not all.
After intermission, the Gulf Coast Symphony orchestra will perform Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4, a gripping musical battle with “Fate” that erupts into one of the most exhilarating finales in the symphonic repertoire.
It’s called “Passion & Fate: Rachmaninoff & Tchaikovsky,” and performances are at 2 and 7:30 p.m. on April 25.
Courtesy of Gulf Coast Symphony
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Gulf Coast Symphony
Gulf Coast Symphony performs Rachmaninoff.
MORE INFORMATION:
Tickets start at $55, and student tickets are $15.
For tickets, telephone (239) 277-1700 or visit MACCtickets.org.
The Music & Arts Community Center is located off Daniels Parkway at 13411 Shire Lane on the campus of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Myers.
Courtesy of Gulf Coast Symphony
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Gulf Coast Symphony
Pianist Michael Wu
More about Pianist Michael Wu
The Arthur Fraser Piano Competition has been the highlight of the Southeastern Piano Festival since its inception in 2003. Twelve advanced pre-college pianists ages 13-18 are invited each year and adjudicated by a distinguished panel of judges. In 2025, Michael Wu won first prize and Best Performance of a Solo Work.
Wu has been a student of Marina Alekseyeva in the Honors Program at Levine School of Music. Presenting an advanced recital is considered a towering achievement for any piano student at Levine. At 16 years old, Wu not only played a beautiful and demanding recital program, which demonstrated his command of the instrument and passion for music, but also it was his second time giving a recital of this sort.
While at Levine, Wu has performed at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Hylton Performing Arts Center, the Kennedy Center and Embassy of France representing Levine School of Music. He has had master classes with Simone Dinnerstein, Tiffany Poon, Stephen Drury, Emanuel Ax, Philip Setzer from the Emerson Quartet and Anna Geniushene.
Other accolades include top prizes and recognition in various regional, national, and international competitions such as the Piano Achievement Awards Competition of the Northern Virginia Music Teachers Association, the Chopin International Competition at Hartford and Music International Grand Prix. He was also the recipient of the Franz Liszt Merit Scholarship award, highest at Indiana University Piano Academy, and was invited back to the Young Artist Piano Program at Boston University Tanglewood Institute with a $1,500 scholarship. He won the senior division of the 2022 Marlin-Engel Competition as an eighth grader.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.