Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Sixteen-year-old Harmony Zhu displayed disarming poise and unlimited potential at the Folly Theater on Sunday, November 13. The same couldn’t be said for dozens of members of the audience of more than 500 at the Harriman-Jewell Series' free Discovery Concert.
Cacophonous clatter occasionally overwhelmed the pianist’s recital. Babies babbled. Toddlers yammered. Children rolled metal drink canisters on the floor, tossed programs and played with the springs in creaky theater seats. Minors weren’t the only offenders. A few older people hacked and wheezed as if they were in their death throes.
Zhu rose above the tumult as she played four Frédéric Chopin compositions as well as selections by Claude Debussy, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Nikolai Kapustin. Her affinity for Chopin’s deliciously morbid laments is unexpected in a bright young talent who has probably never misbehaved in a concert hall.