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Biographies of Pianists Christina Long and Beatrice Long
Born in Hualien, Taiwan, Christina Long and Beatrice Long have been praised by critics for their artistry as a two-piano duo, described as “combining a shared musical conviction, absolute technical precision, and an almost ethereal clarity of performance.”
With their exceptional pianistic technique and seamless musical partnership, the Long Duo won First Prize at the Ellis Duo-Piano Competition, held by the National Federation of Music Clubs in the United States. As the competition had not awarded a winner in this category for six years, the Long Duo was subsequently invited to perform throughout the United States and Asia. Their performances have also been broadcast and featured by NPR, WQXR in New York, CBC/Radio-Canada, Dallas/WRR, Philharmonic Radio Taipei, and Punta del Este Television in Uruguay. The Washington Post offered high praise for the Long Duo, commending the sisters for bringing “a new vitality” to the two-piano medium through stylistic diversity and abundant musicality.
The Long sisters have performed across three continents and in more than twenty states in the United States. Their appearances include performances at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall in New York, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Dallas Museum of Art, Jordan Hall in Boston, the International Piano Festival in South Carolina, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, the Hangzhou Grand Theatre, Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou, Teatro Solís in Uruguay, and music festivals in Germany and Italy.
As concerto soloists, they have been invited to perform with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Montevideo in Uruguay, the Eskişehir Symphony Orchestra in Turkey, the New Jersey Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble du Monde in New York City, and the New England Chamber Orchestra in Boston. Under the Dorian Sono Luminus label, they recorded an album featuring three rare concertos for two pianos and orchestra: the world-premiere digital recordings of concertos by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dana Suesse, and Harl McDonald. The album received unanimous critical acclaim from American Record Guide, London’s arts radio, and Fanfare magazine.
Although the Long sisters began performing piano duets at a young age, each has also established a distinguished career as a solo pianist.
Christina Long has appeared as piano soloist with major orchestras, including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Symphonique du Jura in France, the Monsey Orchestra, and the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra in New York. She has also appeared at music festivals around the world, including the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Fontainebleau Music Festival in France, the Kunsthalle Appenzell in Switzerland, concerts presented by the U.S. Embassies in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Honduras, and festivals throughout the United States.
Christina Long’s recordings for Naxos and her live performances have been featured by NPR, Radio France, and television stations in New York and Washington, D.C., and have received high praise from the BBC, Fanfare, and American Record Guide. She graduated with the Honor Student Award from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Peabody Conservatory, where she studied with Seymour Lipkin, Mieczysław Horszowski, and Leon Fleisher. She also received guidance from Gaby Casadesus and Fou Ts’ong. She currently teaches in the piano department at the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College, City University of New York, where she has nurtured a new generation of performing artists.
Described by critics as possessing “extraordinary flexibility, color, rhythmic clarity, and rich imagination” in her music, Beatrice Long has performed in Poland, Taiwan, Canada, Germany, Italy, Indonesia, Malaysia, mainland China, Turkey, Uruguay, and the United States. Born in Hualien, she entered the National Taipei University of the Arts before receiving a piano scholarship at the University of North Texas, where she also won the concerto competition. In addition to performing with the university orchestra, she was selected for the College of Music’s Outstanding Graduate Student Award and earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance, as well as the Best Performance Dissertation Award.
Beatrice Long has served as Associate Professor and Artist-in-Residence at Westfield State University in Massachusetts, Tabor College in Kansas, and Southeastern Oklahoma State University. An active chamber musician, she is one of the founding members of the New England Lyric Trio. She has recorded for Centaur Records and was commissioned by Ubiquitous Publishing Co. to translate Franz Mohr’s My Life with the Great Pianists.
Beatrice Long won First Prize in the piano concerto division of the International Young Musicians Competition in Kingsville. She currently teaches during the summer at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Germany and Italy. In addition to having been nominated for Texas Teacher of the Year, she was selected by Steinway & Sons in New York for the National Piano Teachers Hall of Fame in 2021.