Zeju Fan
Zeju Fan at St John's Smith Square, London
About the show
What does it mean to play one of the most demanding programmes in the piano repertoire?
Zeju Fan’s debut at Smith Square Hall opens with Beethoven’s Waldstein Sonata — brilliant, propulsive, and immediately engaging. Berg’s Op. 1 follows: compact, intense, and emotionally charged.
After the interval, Ligeti’s Études Nos. 10 and 13 raise the stakes entirely. Rhythmically intricate and physically demanding, they lead directly into Liszt’s B minor Sonata — thirty minutes of continuous, evolving drama, building to one of the most powerful conclusions in the repertoire.
Fan is a full scholarship holder at the Royal Academy of Music and a prizewinner at international competitions. This is a focused, high-impact programme built around contrast, energy, and scale.
Featuring - Zeju Fan
Zeju Fan is a London-based pianist whose work centres on the large-scale European piano tradition, with particular focus on Beethoven, Liszt, Berg and Ligeti. His programming explores connections between the classical canon and twentieth-century modernism, approaching the recital as a single architectural and narrative structure rather than a sequence of individual works.
A central aspect of his artistic direction is the relationship between late Beethoven, Romantic expansion and modernist reinvention. His programmes frequently place works such as Berg’s Sonata Op.1 and the Ligeti Études alongside Beethoven and Liszt, tracing continuities of form, harmonic tension and pianistic sonority across two centuries of repertoire.
Recent appearances include recitals at St Andrew Holborn and St Mary-le-Bow. In June 2026 he gives his London solo recital debut at St John’s Smith Square with a programme featuring Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata, Berg’s Piano Sonata Op.1, Ligeti Études and Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.
Alongside the Austro-German repertoire, his wider interests include Bach, Schumann, Fauré, Chopin and Rachmaninoff. His playing is characterised by structural clarity, tonal control and a focus on long-form pacing and sonority.