12 Years Old Composer, Carey Tan, premiered his Piano Concerto “The Explorers” on world stage
On the 5th of August 2025, 12-years-old Carey Tan's original piano concerto, "The Explorers," was premiered at the Arad Philharmonic Hall in Arad, Romania as the first stop of Arad-Vienna Rising Stars 2025 Piano-Concerto Series. The second concert took place on the 9th of August 2025 at the Golden Hall Musikverein, Vienna, one of the world most prestigious music halls for classical music.
Working with Arad Philharmonic Orchestra from Romania, conducted by the renowned German conductor, Martin Braun, Carey played as the pianist for his first composed piano concerto. With three movements, “Pacific Diver,” “Sahara Runner” and “Mars Explorer,” this extensive piano concerto piece uses symphonic music language to portray the extreme challenges, the exotic scenes and the ultimate joys in exploring Deep Sea, Desert and Space by modern explorers.
Below is a YouTube video link to show Carey explaining his thoughts behind composing this piece:
See the YouTube video below for the performance of The Explores in Golden Hall Musikverein Vienna on 9th August 2025.
https://youtu.be/zI3oLR1nx0E?si=ouayBCkDKcZdJt2z
The first movement, "Pacific Diver," opens with a resonant contrabass low B and a surging orchestral current, evoking brave divers wrestling with and taming ocean’s enormous battering powers.
The second movement, "Sahara Runner,” inspired by his school teacher’s participation in running Marathon in Sahara desert, uses driving ostinato and a luminous central reverie to depict the desert runners’ excruciating hardship and resolve to reach their goals.
Underlined with Stravinskian harmonies and piquant achromatism, the third movement, "Mars Explorer” transits from alien mystery to a blazing E Major affirmation. The melodies were crafted by Carey especially to depict the exotic and unearthly journey to Mars, encountering and communicating with aliens along the way, imaging an optimist future for life and human living beyond Earth.
All in all, the sweeping themes and sophisticated orchestration created by the 12 years old Carey as well as his adept and captivating piano performances have impressed the audiences and the orchestra members alike, with long applauses and chants after each performance.
Carey’s original work and performances have drawn considerable media attention in Austria as well as Romania. He was interviews by Prof. Roland Baumgartner, an extraordinary composer and a very popular TV presenter in Arcadia Television™️ which has been broadcast in numerous countries around the world. https://youtu.be/Az2MfNfOvpI
Review from Prof. Helena Chang, a famous music critic
Carey Tan, a Musical Dark Horse Traversing Multidimensional Space and TimeIf contemporary composers continue to explore or deconstruct Schoenberg's serialist aesthetic, finding themselves on a rocky path with no clear path forward, then Carey Tan's sudden emergence is like a musical dark horse traversing multidimensional space and time. He is gifted, unique, unstoppable, and unconventional. His visions are as vast as the heavens, yet when the dust settles, a gentle habitat emerges.
Crucially, he's only 12 years old.
Listening to the world premiere of his First Piano Concerto at the Golden Hall today, I was deeply struck by its extraordinary power. Such grandeur, such symphony, such timbre! The First Piano Concerto combines the Shostakovich-like depth with Mahleric broadness. And not lacking are those moments of sweet return to the German and Austrian classics on the piano. A touch of Muqam mode plus the bouncy jazz syncopation add exotic charm to the diversity of the composer’s music ideas. Amidst unpredictable rhythmic shifts and melodic twists and turns, the work's rich layers gradually unfold, brimming with suspense and yet perfectly balanced. The musical arc, punctuated by the soaring wind instruments and suspenseful string sounds, carries the listener on a journey of exciting exploration, up to the cosmos sphere and down to the inner world ... It's hard to say whether one is following Carey's unbridled imagination to the wide world or being led into the recesses of the subconscious.
In any case, the emotional intensity conveyed by "First Piano Concerto" far surpasses the composer's age. What moves me about Carey is clearly not only his music, but his profound wisdom.
Carey Tan's musical vision is a gift from heaven. His understanding of the world, too. His innate inspiration allows him to transcend the dimensions of reality. His understanding of the universe is extraordinary. Chatting with him, I was pleasantly surprised by his passion for physics. I mentioned string theory, and he remarked on his interest; I mentioned Heisenberg, and he immediately pinpointed the "uncertainty principle." I think I'd love to continue the conversation with him, even though I'm five times his age.
Untainted by the confines of academia, Carey Tan roams freely across the musical landscape, unfettered and unaffected. The colours and structures of his works resemble precious jade pieces just mined. The treasure possesses a beauty beyond the ordinary. How to carve it so that it not only retains the true character, but opens a brand new musical direction for the world, is a subject worth exploring.
Congratulations and best wishes to him!
Bio of Professor Helena Chang
Austrian-based cultural scholar, writer, and music critic. She went to the United States in 1992 and relocated to Austria in 1995. Formerly a lecturer in English and American literature at Nanjing University, she is currently a lecturer at the 17th Department of the Vienna City Government. Her works primarily focus on literature, history, music, and art criticism, as well as observations on society, current affairs, and the economy. She has published five books, with nearly one million words of articles appearing in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. Her music reviews have appeared on the official website of the Vienna 21st Century Chamber Orchestra, the China National Centre for the Performing Arts' classical music channel, and Shanghai's "Classic 947."
