Looking to hear the next great classical pianist perform? You won’t have to travel across the globe to faraway concert halls: Newton’s 11-year-old piano prodigy, Rui Gong, performs a lot closer to home. Video of his solo recital at Newton’s Scandinavian Cultural Center on September 7 provides a glimpse of his talent with a challenging Scandinavian repertoire. His concert showcased vibrant Nordic culture in a very fitting venue: The Cultural Center aims to celebrate and promote Nordic arts, music, and literature.
Rui impressed audience members at the Cultural Center with precise, musically expressive renditions of challenging repertoire. The program featured compositions from all five Scandinavian countries, centering on works by Denmark’s Carl Nielsen, Sweden’s Wilhelm Peterson-Berger, Finland’s Jean Sibelius, Norway’s Edvard Grieg, and Iceland’s Jón Leifs. Further program details and information about the concert are included in NewTV’s recent “Newton News” report, which can be found here.
A talent and joy for playing
Rui began studying with a private teacher at age six, but his exposure to the piano began much earlier. Years before his piano skills began to truly flourish, Rui taught himself notes and rhythms on just a seven-key plastic keyboard his father bought from Target. “I just thought about it as a toy for him,” says Shanzhong Gong, Rui’s father.
As time passed, however, the piano became much more than just a plaything. As Rui’s plastic keyboard of seven keys transformed into a grand piano with a full 88-key range, his passion for music remained. “I could see that he was enjoying playing,” Dr. Gong noted. At the age of seven—after just one year spent formally studying with a teacher—Rui played in New York’s Carnegie Hall, winning first prize in the Crescendo International Music Competition. After self-studying countless pieces and etudes, Rui flourished under a private teacher’s instruction. His quick grasp of concepts and pieces has remained constant throughout the years.
Many consider the piano to be a pure, unmixed musical voice, but Rui hears the blend and interplay of many instruments in its sound. He says that the piano is most similar to “having a whole orchestra packed into one instrument.” He loves that he can perform songs meant for many different instrumental arrangements, including “violin and cello parts,” just by playing his instrument. Rui’s favorite piece is Chopin’s Nocturne Opus 27 No. 2, musically known for its ethereal, dreamlike mood of longing and beauty.
Along with his talent for playing the piano, Rui is also a dedicated figure skater and problem solver: He studies challenging math concepts in his free time and practices to solve Rubik’s cubes in a matter of seconds. Rui is committed to all of these passions, from skating with Team Excel as part of the Skating Club of Boston to recording new personal bests as part of his school’s Rubik’s Cube Club.
Studying with Paul André Bempechat
Rui began studying with Paul Bempechat, renowned pianist and pedagogue, in 2024. In such a short period of time, Rui’s piano skills have grown immensely — in large part due to his innate musical sense, which Bempechat describes as “brilliant and immensely gifted,” but also due to the guidance of Bempechat himself. According to Bempechat, Rui has “learned as much repertoire as a college student would be able to absorb in, say, freshman or sophomore year …three Chopin studies, Beethoven’s Sonata Pathétique, a suite by Carl Nielsen, Grieg’s Holberg Suite …and he’s playing them very beautifully.”
Bempechat’s studio in Bedford, MA ([email protected]) is a resource for students of all ages, children and adults alike. The studio’s bookcases are filled with literature that helps build what Bempechat calls an “integrated” music education, something that he has been committed to providing for over 35 years as a teacher. This “integrated” approach not only covers piano technique and musicality, but also gives students essential knowledge of music theory, orchestration, and music history.
Though Bempechat adapts his teaching to best fit Rui’s unique skills, his general philosophy remains the same: to meet students where they are — in terms of commitment, energy, and ability — and build up their artistry from that point. He recognizes that it’s essential for Rui to receive proper instruction in such formative years of his life, especially if he plans to continue with music professionally.
Rui’s potential is seemingly boundless; as Bempechat emphasizes, “with Rui, the sky’s the limit.”
Chloe Carrano is a Fig City News summer intern and a rising sophomore at Newton South High School.
Ed. Note: We updated this article with video and information from Rui Gong’s concert on September 7.
