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Conscious Listening™
Hsing-ay Hsu and Friends
Welcome! Classical Music Explorations is a playful, personal, multidimensional guided listening series using Conscious Listening™ skills to make connections with music, others, and ourselves. This series provides multiple points of engagement with live performance to focus listening through the lens of piano chamber music. After we sharpen our listening skills together, we can transfer and apply them to anything in life.
Interactive Music Appreciation:
Explore live performances with Conscious Listening™, a set of listening skills with a 4-step method developed by Steinway Artist Hsing-ay Hsu to deepen mindfulness, musical experiences, and creative associations.
Artistic Vision:
Amid the noise of daily life, listening is a vital skill that fosters deeper communication and connection. But how can we truly attune ourselves to the music around us, and how might these skills transform our everyday interactions? Join us for an extraordinary journey of aural discovery through Conscious Listening™.
Format:
Group warm-up exercise: Start by tuning into your listening potential.
World-class live performance: Steinway Concert B.
Interactive deep dive: Explore, compare, contrast melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, and how they combine to create emotional expression.
Listen to a phrase multiple times to hear more details.
Breakout discussions: Share perspectives in small groups to enrich your understanding.
Q&A
New Skills Checklist - Surveys show that audiences rediscover mindfulness, learn about musical models, and create personal meaning in this unique experience.
Musical Growth: Gain insight into musical elements and styles.
Emotional Intelligence: Enhance your capacity to listen with mindfulness and empathy.
Critical Thinking: Develop tools for asking questions, exploring nuance, and diving deeper.
Lifelong Learning: Cultivate curiosity and connect with a vibrant learning community.
About Hsing-ay
Hsing-ay Hsu, Steinway Artist, is focused on the art of listening. Since her stage debut at age 4, Steinway Artist Hsing-ay Hsu (“Sing-I Shoo”) has been performing at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center NYC, and in Europe & Asia. International prizewinner, concert producer, teacher/educator, studio owner, adjudicator, she hosts a YouTube channel and Café webinars to help music- lovers process life through music. Born in Beijing, Ms. Hsu trained at Juilliard, and Yale University. A former faculty member at the University of Colorado, she teaches at her Nutmeg Studio, at Kaufman Center, Rocky Ridge in CO, and Chautauqua Institution adult programs, and is Artist-in-Residence at Klavierhaus NYC. Bio at hsingayhsu.com.
Integrating over 30 years experience as an award-winning performer, 15 years as university faculty, Hsu partners with organizations such as the Aspen Music Festival, Kaufman Center NYC and the Yale-China Institute.
Explorations Series: March 31, 2026, 7pm ET
movements from Mozart K.564 and Ravel Piano Trios
Explorations Series: June 14, 2026, 1pm ET
Guest pianist Yiheng Yang, Juilliard faculty
Multiple Points of Engagement
Classical Music Explorations Series. EVENTS
Articles on How Classical Music Improves Listening
The Unexpected Benefits of Classical Music, Psychology Today
Conscious Listening Café Zoom Workshops
YouTube Video Series
YouTube
Debussy: with Anna Elashvili
Debussy: with Anna Elashvili
Poulenc: with Marie Engle
Poulenc: with Marie Engle
Kellogg: with Masumi Rostad
Kellogg: with Masumi Rostad
A Texture Improv
A Texture Improv
Gallery
Collaborative Artists - Current and Past
And...
Marie Engle, Mezzo-soprano
James Wu, Sound Engineer / Videographer
Students from my Nutmeg Studio, Chamber Music Center NYC, MIT, & Mannes School of Music
In Memory, Joseph Patrych , Recording Producer
Travel Info
Hotel nearby: WestHouse
Airport: La Guardia Airport is 30min away - est. $60 taxi including tip to midtown Manhattan
Many Thanks to Kaufman Center, Klavierhaus, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and the support of viewers like you! NYAdventure Club, Chamber Music Center of NY, Associated Chamber Music Players, and to my sponsors and supporters!
Write Me! Content is inspired by what I hear from people like you! hello@hsingayhsu.com.
"An explosion of energy..." The New York Times
"Power, authority, and self-assurance..." The Washington Post
"Her performance was masterly in its strength and authority and was sustained by exquisite lyricism." The Baltimore Sun
Testimonials
"I really, really appreciate hearing her thoughts about what the composer was doing in terms of the rhythm, melody, key, dynamics, tempo. It helps me personally to go much deeper. Breathing with the music has been transformative - I think about it all the time now." Loretta Cummings, Café member
"How naturally Hsing-ay's acute ear leads to unique insights into what the music is saying, with integrity and imagination..." Larry Graham, Queen Elisabeth Int'l Piano Competition Winner
"The sound and scale of the piano and performance, at that close of a proximity, was a phenomenal introduction to the piece." Adrian Delmont, adult pianist
Past Classical Music Explorations Events
SAT Nov 8, 2025, 2-3:15pm
Sincerity and Drama: Mozart and Prokofiev Duos
with guest violinist Anna Elashvili
In Collaboration with NY Adventure Club
SAT April 26, 2025, 2-3:15pm
Brahms Trio Op.8- members of the Terra String Quartet
SAT Mar 22, 2025, 2-3:15pm
Chopin Ballade No.4 with guest Paul Mills
SAT Feb 22, 2025, 2-3:15pm
Debussy Sonata for Violin and Piano with guest Anna Elashvili
In Collaboration with Klavierhaus NYC
Mar 23 Kellogg's Galatea with Masumi Rostad and Sujatri Reisinger
with live performers, the composer, & the piano rebuilder
Conscious Listening Café Series:
How does a new piece of music evolve from the composer, to the performers, through their instruments, to the audience's ears?
Mar 22 Collab Showcase: Chamber Music with a Splash of Dance and Theater
How will you weave connections between distinct soundscapes with three different artistic disciplines? Come experience the buoyancy of Mozart's historical Piano Trio K.564, juxtaposed with modern day explorations of space and time, featuring a star-studded roster collaborating at the intimate Klavierhaus. Also performing a New York premiere for viola and piano, dance and piano improv, and a brand new theater scene built on Charles Ives beloved "Alcotts". Steinway Artist Hsing-ay Hsu's Conscious Listening™ approach frames her unique events with remarkable listening ideas to connect music, people, and life.
Feb 25 "3 Points of View" Recital Program Guest Poet Calleja Smiley Welsh
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