Early life Han was born in
Columbus, Ohio, on June 17, 1957. His parents were Chinese immigrants who had met while enrolled in a doctorate program at
Ohio State University, where they later taught. Although he learned to speak his parents' native
Shanghainese at home, Han told an interviewer for the
China Daily in 2012 that he felt unsure about how "authentically Chinese" he was. Han did not initially demonstrate interest in music; his parents did not come from families with musical backgrounds. He was enrolled in piano classes around 1962 as a means to focus his attention in school, where teachers had complained about his disruptive behavior. According to the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Han's piano lessons originated from rivalry with his sister to earn their mother's approval. He was soon found to be precociously talented. Between the ages of 5 and 11, Han studied piano with Rolland Saltz. In a 1988 interview, Saltz said Han, whose talent was immediately discernible, was one of his best students: "When I began teaching Derek, the first thing he said was, 'Mr. Saltz, I'm going to be a concert pianist when I grow up'". At the age of 10, Han made his public debut in a
Columbus Symphony Orchestra concert as soloist in the
Piano Concerto No. 2 by
Ludwig van Beethoven. After studying piano with Saltz, Han earned a full scholarship to continue his studies at the
Juilliard School. His teachers there included
Guido Agosti,
Gina Bachauer,
Ilona Kabos,
Lili Kraus, and
Nadia Reisenberg. Han graduated in 1975. When Han told his parents that he intended to become a professional musician, they reacted with displeasure. "In China, the eldest son became a musician only if he were extremely lazy or extremely stupid", he later said. "I think they were afraid I was going to live on the sidewalk and wing it".
Maturity In 1975, Han competed in the Atlanta Young Artists Competition, where he placed among the semi-finalists. The following year, he participated in the
American Music Scholarship Association Piano Competition held in
Cincinnati; he shared third place. Han was among the contestants in the 1977
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. That same year, he won the first prize at the Athens International Piano Competition and began his professional career. Throughout the late 1970s and into the 1980s, Han regularly performed in North America and Europe. Among his notable appearances were those at the
Marlboro Festival, where he had been invited by
Rudolf Serkin, as well as recitals at
Alice Tully Hall and
Carnegie Hall. For a period of three years he toured together with the violinist
Leonid Kogan. He also played with the
Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by
Yehudi Menuhin. In the course of his performing career, Han played for various dignitaries, including
Nelson Mandela,
Carlos Menem, and three
presidents of the United States. In 1986, Han was among the founding members of La Musica di Asolo, later renamed to
La Musica, an annual music festival in
Sarasota, Florida. It was based on a festival in
Asolo, Italy, where Han had previously lived. He was the festival's associate artistic director, a position he held for life. He also held advisory roles with the
Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra (1988–1990) and
Moscow Symphony Orchestra (1990–1992), and was artistic director of the Chamber Music Festival in
Trieste. Han's discography expanded significantly in the 1990s and early 2000s. Among his recordings were complete cycles of the concertos by Beethoven,
Franz Joseph Haydn, and
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He also recorded music by
Johannes Brahms,
Sergei Rachmaninoff,
Dmitri Shostakovich, and
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
Later years Through his first wife, Han inherited . Having gained what he called "a barrel of cash", he had to learn
financial management. He later became one of the founding partners of a private bank in Switzerland. In 2003, he also joined Lowell Capital, an English brokerage firm. He became chairman in 2005, whereupon he renamed the firm to Blue Oak Capital, then later North Square Blue Oak. Han redirected the firm's focus to China, where he maintained an office in
Dongsi Subdistrict, Beijing. "There are other musician colleagues who have important aspects to their non-musical life but this happens to be a sort of high-energy activity", he told an interviewer. "In some ways, however, having this intense exposure to the more practical financial world gives me a deeper appreciation of music and a real solace from it also".
Death In early 2021, Han traveled to Italy to meet with the violinist
Bruno Giuranna, artistic director of La Musica. Upon his return to the United States, Han complained to friends that he had contracted "a hideous cold". He visited one of his sons in California, then returned home to Sarasota. Although Han reported improvements in symptoms and had twice tested negative for
COVID-19, he died from its related complications in Sarasota on April 8, 2021. ==Reception==