Contact:   Rick Peterson, Manager of News Services, 414/832-6590  
	   Melissa Horbinski, Public Events Manager, 414/832-6589
	      
For Immediate Release					March 24, 1997

Acclaimed Chinese Pianist Presents Recital, Lecture at Lawrence University


APPLETON, WIS.  Pianist Fou Tsšong, hailed by Time magazine as ŗthe greatest
Chinese musician alive today,˛ will present an all Schubert recital Monday,
March 31 at 8 p.m. in the Lawrence University Memorial Chapel. 
 
In addition to his recital, Fou will conduct a master class Tuesday, April 1 at 
7:30 p.m. in Harper Hall.  He also will discuss his extraordinary life and
career in a Main Hall Forum entitled, ŗAn Evening with a Chinese Dissident,˛
Wednesday, April 2 at 4:15 p.m. in Main Hall Room 109.  

Tickets for Foušs recital, at $10 for adults, $8 for high school students and
free for seniors and children 12 years and under, are available through the
Lawrence Box Office, 832-6749.  Foušs master class and Main Hall Forum address
are both free and open to the public.

Widely considered the first Chinese musician to establish himself in the West,
Fou began playing the piano at the age of 10.  He developed his taste for
Western music by listening to recordings of classical music played by his
father, a renowned scholar and philosopher.  Foušs studies, however, were put
on hold by the Chinese civil war, when he went five years without touching a
keyboard.  Completing his studies under the Italian pianist Mario Paci, Fou
made his professional debut in 1951 with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, which
was founded by Paci. 

Fou left China in the early 1950s to continue his studies in Europe, primarily
in Romania and Poland, earning acclaim at international festivals, including
third prize in the 1955 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. That
performance earned him a scholarship to the Warsaw Conservatory, where he
studied under Zbigniew Drzewiecki.  During his four years in Poland, Fou
performed more than 200 concerts throughout Eastern Europe.

With his musical star on the rise in Europe, and Chairman Mao initiating his
Cultural Revolution back home, Fou stunned the Chinese Communist regime, and
made international headlines in the process, by defecting in 1957 while
performing in London, which he has called his home ever since.  For many years
after, Fou was considered a non-person in China and he was expunged from
Chinese cultural history.  His family was so hounded by the Chinese authorities
after his defection that his mother and father killed themselves in a suicide
pact in 1966.

In 1979, Fou quietly returned to his homeland for a memorial service for his
father.  The following year he realized a 20-year-old dream when he was given
permission to perform for a Chinese audience.  In 1981, he was invited back for
a second series of concerts that sold out weeks in advance.  

Firmly established as one of the worldšs great contemporary pianists, Fou is
one of the most sought-after artists on the international music scene,
performing regularly with leading orchestras throughout Europe, Australia and
Japan.

After the anti-rightist campaign began in 1957, Fou decided not to return to
China -- where he and his fatheršs lives were in danger -- and instead pursue a
career in the West.  He managed to escape Poland, with the help of the Polish
government and other friends, settling in London, England, wherešs hešs lived
since 1957.  

His emergence as a major force on the Chinese musical scene came at a time when
the new Communist regime was trying to cleanse its image as a supporter of the
arts.   Fou has since returned to China to perform in concert, but the shadow
of Chinašs stormy history will always remain with him. In Poland, he won third
prize in the Chopin Competition in Warsaw and went on to attend the Warsaw
Conservatory of Music where he studied with Zbigniew Drzewiecki.

His personal and artistic struggle is, in many ways, a paradigm of the problems
Chinese intellectuals have endured under Communist rule.