Dmitri Shostakovich:
Three Violin Duets
Präludium
Gavotte
Walzer
Cho-Liang Lin & Nai-Yuan
Hu, violins
Helen Huang, piano
Deh-Ho Lai: Elegy for Viola and Piano (1996)
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Meng-Chieh Liu, piano
Gordon Chin: Phantasy (1995)
Cho-Liang Lin, violin
Meng-Chieh Liu, piano
Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Cello
Allegro
Très vif
Lent
Vif, avec entrain
Keng-Yuan Tseng, violin
Sophie Shao, cello
-Intermission-
César Franck: Piano Quintet in F Minor
Molto moderato quasi lento-Allegro
Lento, con molto sentimento
Allegro ma non troppo, ma con fuoco
Meng-Chieh Liu, piano
Nai-Yuan Hu, violin
Keng-Yuan Tseng, violin
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Sophie Shao, cello
These two concerts are made possible through
the generous support of the Council for Cultural Affairs,
Executive Yuan, Taiwan, R.O.C.
Program Notes
Hsu Tsang-Houei: Five
Preludes for Solo Violin, Op. 16 (1965-1966)
For Hsu Tsang-Houei (1929-2001) and many Taiwanese composers,
the road taken by Bartók and Kodály in researching
Hungarian folk music provided an ideal model for finding the
true voice of Taiwanese music. Like their Hungarian predecessors,
Hsu and his colleague Shi Wei-Liang led groups of ethnomusicologists
who traversed the island of Taiwan to record and identify
music of the aboriginal tribes and of different groups of
ethnic Chinese who had settled there at various times in history.
This arduous task later bore fruit when Hsu composed his Five
Preludes for Solo Violin, Op. 16 (1965-1966). For Hsu, who
had studied violin in his younger days, the set of sonatas
and partitas for unaccompanied violin by Bach was another
source of inspiration. The first prelude Solemn, intended
to evoke the ambience of the Confucian ritual ceremony, was
suggested by the opening Adagio of Bach’s C Major Sonata
for Solo Violin, while the perpetual motion of the last prelude
Dynamic was prompted by the Presto movement of Bach’s
G Minor Sonata. Solitary, a plaintive song about loneliness,
contrasting starkly with the earthy and festive Vulgar, the
latter quoting a popular Fukienese song “Got any wine
bottles to sell?” The jewel of the entire suite is the
fourth prelude Reminiscent. It is based on the song “Reminiscing…”
by the folk singer Chen Da who was discovered by Hsu on one
of his trips to research music in southern Taiwan. Chen Da
was probably the last of his kind, as Taiwanese folk singers
in recent times have turned to the style of modern pop music.
Reminiscent opens with fragments of Chen’s melody. These
fragments are interrupted fragments of another kind, inspired
by the melancholy music of the blind masseurs who used to
wander the streets of Taiwan. As the prelude ambles onward
in an improvisatory fashion, it builds up an obsessive intensity
before giving way to the full melody of Chen Da’s song.
(Nai-Yuan Hu)
Shih-Hui Chen: Twice Removed (2002)
Although the basic material of this piece was derived from
Once Removed,
music I composed for a documentary film on the culture and
history of modern China
(Julie Mallozzi), the music of Twice Removed is abstract and
is a focused study of continuity and character transformation.
This piece is dedicated to
Min-Ho Yeh. (Shih-Hui Chen)
Deh-Ho Lai: Elegy for Viola and Piano
(1996)
Gordon Chin: Phantasy (1995)
Phantasy is structured as a simple three-part form. It opens
with an unaccompanied rhythmic motif introduced by the violin,
and this motif reappears throughout entire work. The rhythmic
motif plays a dominant role in the piece: it is constantly
being transformed, from lowly accompaniment figures to climatic
chordal punctuations.
The second part, which achieves a sweeter, song-like quality,
is heard shortly after the agitated opening. The texture of
the second part is mostly light and transparent. The melodic
line is often stretched into wide leaps of intervals which
sometimes get articulated by glissandos that seem to produce
the feeling that the theme can be both | “intimate”
and “distant.” As the cantabile lines yield gradually
to drama, a vigorous confrontation between the piano and violin
continues until the opening rhythmic motif becomes dominant
again.
The last part of the piece parallels the first part, but is
played with greater strength and agitation. The music runs
straight into the final trenchant climax when the violin line
screams and the piano strikes the rhythmic motif with thunderous
forte. With that, the fantasy comes to an abrupt and dramatic
end. (Gordon Chin)
Meet the Composers
Shih-Hui Chen
As a recipient of the American Academy in
Rome Prize (1999), a Guggenheim
Fellowship (2000), and a Barlow Commission (2001), Shih-Hui
Chen has received
significant recognition as an emerging composer in recent
years. Born in Taipei,
Taiwan, Shih-Hui Chen came to the United States in 1982. Since
receiving her
doctoral degree in music composition from Boston University,
there have been
many performances including those by the Cleveland Chamber
Symphony, Seattle
Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland
Symphony
Orchestra, Empyrean Ensemble and Arditti String Quartet. Also
frequently appearing
in programs abroad, her music has been featured in China,
Taiwan, Korea, Japan,
Germany, Italy and Amsterdam. As a recipient of fellowships,
Ms. Chen has
been awarded grants from the Fromm Foundation, the National
Endowment for the
Arts, Meet the Composer Foundation, the Tanglewood Music Center,
the
Massachusetts Cultural Council, ASCAP, the Mary Ingraham Bunting
Institute of Harvard University, and the Bellagio Rockefeller
Foundation.
Recent performances include her Violin Sonata
at the Weill Recital Hall,Tu at
Merkin Hall, i by Boston Musica Viva, FuII by Network for
New Music in
Philadelphia and the Uzbekistan Contemporary Music Festival,
Twice Removed (Boston,
Vancouver, San Diego and Little Rock), Moments (Shanghai,
China), Jian by the
Boston Modern Orchestra Project, 66 Times by Voices of Change
in Dallas, Shui
by the Fischer Duo's at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, and
a concert in Rome
dedicated to Ms. Chen's work by the Freon Ensemble.
Shih-Hui Chen was the Composer in Residence
at the Boston University
Tanglewood Institute (2000, 2001) and is Assistant Professor
of Composition at the
Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. She is a proud
mother of her 18 month
old daughter Lia.
Gordon Chin
Gordon Chin, born 1957 in Taiwan, is one of
the most active composers in his native country. His extensive
catalog of compositions includes four symphonies, a cantata,
3 violin concertos, piano concerto, numerous choral works,
chamber works, five percussion quartets, and works for solo
instruments. Chin is a recipient of the DMA degree from Eastman
School of Music.
Chin’s works have been performed world
wide by ensembles such as Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Asia
Pacific Orchestra in Los Angeles, National Taiwan Symphony
Orchestra, The Timisuala Symphony of Romania, Euodia Symphony
Orchestra and Chorus of Tokyo, Ensemble 2e2m of France, Amadinda
Percussion Group of Hungary, and International Sejong Soloists,
among others.
Timothy Mangan of the Los Angeles Times describes
Gordon Chin as “a confident master of the Western modernistic
large orchestral idiom." A review from the Dallas Morning
News by John Ardoin praises Mr. Chin’s Phantasy for
violin and piano as “a strong, assured piece of writing
that flirted with atonality but had no trouble in communicating
its ideas to an audience with skill and poise." Valerie
Scher, the music critic from the San Diego Tribute, after
hearing Formosa Seasons, described Chin as “clearly
an impressive talent with a rising reputation”, and
wrote that the work is “combined edgy vitality with
confident handling of string sonorities”
Gordon Chin currently serves as the music
director of both YinQi Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and
YinQi Chamber ensemble in Taipei, and is a faculty member
of Taiwan National Normal University, when he teaches composition,
and directs a New Music Ensemble.
Hsu Tsang-Houei
Hsu Tsang-Houei was born in 1929 in Chang-hua,
Taiwan. In his teens he went to Japan to study the violin.
In 1949 he entered the Music Department of the National Taiwan
Normal University studying composition under Xiao Erhua and
violin under Dai Cuilun. Upon graduation and after fulfilling
his military service he went on to study violin and musicology
at the Ecole Cesar Franck and the Sorbonne in Paris with Jolivet
and Messiaen among his teachers.
Hsu has composed more than a hundred pieces during the past
30 years, including solo songs, solo instrumental music for
both Western and Chinese instruments, chamber music, symphonies,
opera and Chinese ballet music. He founded the Chinese Composers'
Forum (1961), Chinese Society for Contemporary Music (1969),
and co-founded the Asian Composers League (1973). Hsu has
contributed greatly to the creation of modern music derived
from Chinese tradition in Taiwan.
In his study of ethnomusicology, Hsu has been engaged continuously
for more than 30 years in field work all over Taiwan. He surveyed,
collected and wrote about the folk music existing in Taiwan.
He founded the Chinese Folk Music Research Center (1967) and
Chinese Folk Arts Foundation (1975), and dedicated himself
to the preservation of the tradition of Chinese folk music.
Hsu taught composition, theory, and musicology in National
Taiwan Normal University, National Taiwan Academy of the Arts,
National Institute of the Arts, Soochow University and Chinese
Culture University. He was chairman of the Department of Music
and director of Graduate Institute of Music at National Taiwan
Normal University, and chairman of the Chinese Society of
Ethnomusicology.
His music, which ranges from operas to solo songs and from
piano concertos to solo sonatas for piano, although first
misunderstood and rejected in Taiwan as too avant-gardist,
is really oriented toward the classics of modernism.
He passed away in 2001.
Lai Deh-Ho
Lai Deh-Ho, born in Changhua
in 1943, graduated from the Music Department of National Taiwan
Academy of Arts in 1969, a student of Hsu Tsang-Houei, Shi
Wei-liang and Hsiao Er-hua. After earning his degree at Taiwan
Academy of Arts, he attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria,
in 1978 to study composition with G.Wimberger. Since 1981
he has been teaching at his alma mater, the Taiwan Academy
of Arts. He received the Wo Shan-lien's Liberal Arts Award
in 1984 and the National Arts Award in 1987.
He makes use of serialist techniques in his Shuhuai yizhang
(A Statement of Sensation or From Apathy to Chaos) for woodwind
quintet (1985), applies minimalist practices in Zuopin 1980
(Opus 1980) for thirteen instruments and, in Zhongmiao (All
wonders) of 1974, presents a modernist soundplay for Chinese
instruments.
Meet the Artists (Alphabetical order)
Pi-Chin Chien, cello
In 2002, for the label "Musikszene Swcheiz",
Pi-Chin Chien made the World Premiere Recording of Paul Juon's
Cello Concerto with Tomasz Bugaj conducting the Crakow Philharmonic.
In 2001 she recorded the world premiere recording of the cello
concerto by the Swiss composer Fabian Müller with the
Philharmonia Orchestra London conducted by David Zinman. The
cello concerto is dedicated to her. In addition to her solo
career, Pi-Chin Chien loves to play chamber music. She has
played in the European Fine Arts Trio since 1999. And tours
extensively with this ensemble, which already belongs among
the world's best despite being founded relatively recently.
In 2001, the ensemble issued a CD of the piano trios of Chopin
and Debussy, which was awarded the Fryderyk-Prize by Polish
music critics. The ensemble also performed concerts in various
European cultural centers, and embarked on a tour of Asia.
In Spring 2000, Ms. Chien toured Taiwan, performing Schelomo
by Ernest Bloch, accompanied by the National Taiwan Symphony
Orchestra.
1999 she gave a recital of 20th century music
at the International Contemporary Music Festival in Taipei.
At the invitation of Taiwan's president, she gave a highly
publicized performance at the Presidential Palace Concerts
in 1998. She was accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra;
television and radio broadcast the performance live. From
1996 to 1998 she was a member of the Zurich String Trio and
performed with this ensemble in Asia, Middle and South America
and Europe.
Pi-Chin Chien was born in Taiwan. Her solo
career began at the age of 13 when she appeared with the Taipei
Symphony Orchestra. Five years later she began her studies
in Europe and earned a soloist's diploma with the highest
honors. Her teachers included Markus Stocker, Claude Starck,
Marek Jerie und Stanislav Apolin. She has participated in
master classes given by Pierre Fournier, Mistlav Rostropowitsch,
Yo-Yo Ma, Daniel Shafran, Zara Nelsova und Arto Noras.
Tom Chiu, violin
Violinist Tom Chiu has received wide acclaim
for his performances as a soloist, chamber artist, and experimental
improvisor. Particularly noted for his endeavors in new music,
Mr. Chiu has worked closely with distinguished composers such
as Milton Babbitt, Virko Baley, Dean Drummond, Oliver Lake,
Charles Wuorinen, and Zhou Long, among others, as well as
free jazz icon Ornette Coleman, with whom he appeared at the
2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival in New York. He also seeks
out collaborative projects with experimental artists whose
work he admires, such as balloon virtuoso Judy Dunaway, avant
choreographer Eun-Me Ahn, sound designer and synthesist Virgil
Moorefield, and ambient-drone guitarist David First. One very
special interdisciplinary project of recent years is Red Beads,
a collaboration with composer Ushio Torikai, puppeteer Basil
Twist, and theatrical mastermind Lee Breuer of Mabou Mines.
His discography includes recordings for the BMG, Cambria,
Cold Blue Music, Koch, Mode, Sombient, and Tzadik labels,
and his original works as a composer-improvisor have been
performed in numerous countries around the world, including
Mongolia and Uzbekistan. With the FLUX Quartet, of which he
is founder and first violinist, Mr. Chiu has appeared at international
festivals in Melbourne and Oslo, as well as American festivals
such as Ojai, Summergarden, and Lincoln Center's A Great Day
in New York. Currently, FLUX is resident ensemble in When
Morty Met John, a three-year series at Carnegie Hall featuring
the music of John Cage, Morton Feldman, and composers from
the New York School. Holding degrees in music and chemistry
from Yale, as well as a doctorate in music from Juilliard
under the tutelage of Cho-Liang Lin, Mr. Chiu occasionally
reminisces about his childhood appearance with Tom Hanks in
the feature film, The Man With One Red Shoe.
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Hsin-Yun Huang has been firmly established
since 1993 as one of the leading violists of her generation.
In that same year, she won the top prize in the ARD International
Music Competition in Munich and the highly prestigious Bunkamura
Orchard Hall Award, which included a scholarship grant, and
concerto and recital appearances in Japan. Ms. Huang was also
the youngest-ever gold medalist in the 1988 Lionel Tertis
International Competition on the Isle of Man. As a result
of these and other successes, she has been telecast in concerto
appearances with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra in Munich, the
Zagreb Soloists in Paris and the Tokyo Philharmonic in Tokyo;
other significant appearances include live broadcast performances
with the Berlin Radio Symphony, the Russian State Philharmonic
and the National Symphony of Taiwan.
A native of Taiwan, Ms. Huang currently resides
in New York, and is an active soloist and chamber musician
in the U.S., the Far East and Europe. She is in constant demand
in her native Taiwan, appearing annually with the National
Symphony of Taiwan. Ms. Huang also recently appeared in a
nationally televised solo recital for President Chen Shui-Bian.
She has participated in various prominent chamber music festivals,
including the Spoleto Festival; Chamber Music Northwest, the
Marlboro Music Festival; Prussia Cove, England; the El Paso
Chamber Music Festival; the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival,
Festival de Divonne in France; the Newport Festival and many
others. She has collaborated with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma,
Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Joseph Suk, Menahem Pressler, Joseph
Silverstein, Gary Hoffman and Michael Tree.
Ms. Huang was a member of the Borromeo String
Quartet from 1994-2000. With the Quartet, she participated
in such festivals as the Spoleto Festival in Italy; the Bravo!
Festival in Vail, Colorado; the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival;
the Prague Spring Festival; the Orlando Music Festival in
the Netherlands; the Stavanger Festival in Norway and Chamber
Music Northwest in Portland; and in such prominent venues
as New York’s Alice Tully Hall, London’s Wigmore
Hall, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Japan’s Casals Hall,
and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1998 the Borromeo String
Quartet was awarded the prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award
and was chosen by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
to be members of “CMS Two” in recognition of the
Quartet’s place in the next generation of world-class
chamber musicians. As part of CMS Two, Ms. Huang and the Borromeo
Quartet were featured in a “Live from Lincoln Center”
telecast.
Hsin-Yun Huang came to England at the age
of fourteen to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School with David
Takeno. She continued her studies at the Curtis Institute
in Philadelphia with Michael Tree, where she earned her Bachelor
of Music degree, and at the Juilliard School with Samuel Rhodes,
where she earned her Master of Music. She currently serves
on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Mannes College
of Music in New York.
Helen Huang, piano
At age 20 Helen Huang can already look back
on an impressive list of engagements with such orchestras
as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland
Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra,
National Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
and the Israel Chamber Orchestra.
Born in Japan of Chinese parents in October
1982, she moved to the United States with her family in 1985
and began piano lessons two years later. Within a year she
had won her first competition, and several other victories
soon followed. In May 1995 she became one of the youngest
recipients of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Ms. Huang has developed a close association with Kurt Masur
and the New York Philharmonic, with whom she has appeared
each season since her subscription debut in 1995. She joined
that orchestra on its 1998 Asian tour for several concerts
in Japan and again during the summer of 1999, touring in North
America. In April 2001 she gave four concerts with the Philharmonic
at Avery Fisher Hall. Ms. Huang made her Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra debut in February 1998 with guest conductor Pinchas
Zukerman, and returned for concerts with Jesús López-Cobos
in May and September of 1999.
Highlights of recent seasons have included performances with
the Israel Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, KBS Symphony
in Seoul, and at the Taipei International Chamber Music Festival
in Taiwan. Other notable engagements include performances
with the Berlin Philharmonic, with the Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchestra under Kurt Masur, and concerts in Vienna and the
United States with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra.
Helen Huang's recordings are available on
the Teldec label. She made her debut recording, of Beethoven's
Piano Concerto No. 1 and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, in
live concerts with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic,
and later worked with them to record the Mendelssohn Piano
Concerto No. 1 and the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21. She has
also recorded a recital album, For Children, featuring works
of Debussy and Schumann. Ms. Huang made her national television
debut in a concert with the Boston Pops Orchestra for PBS's
Evening at Pops and was featured in an A&E broadcast from
the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico.
Ms. Huang's first public appearances were
with several orchestras in the Philadelphia area. Just after
her eighth birthday, she made her debut with the Philadelphia
Orchestra after winning its student concerto competition.
Similarly, she won the New York Philharmonic's Young Performers
Auditions and performed with the orchestra, under Music Director
Kurt Masur, in December 1992.
Helen Huang is a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky
at The Juilliard School. She earlier attended the preparatory
division of Manhattan School of Music, winning its concerto
competition in 1992. In 1994 she was selected by the New York
Philharmonic to receive Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award
for promising young artists.
Nai-Yuan Hu, violin
Since winning First Prize in the prestigious
Queen Elisabeth International Competition in 1985, violinist
Nai-Yuan Hu has appeared on many of the world’s stages,
including the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Avery Fisher Hall
in New York and major venues in Europe, North and South Americas
and Asia.
Mr. Hu’s solo engagements include appearances
with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Toronto Symphony,
Seattle Symphony, Netherland and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras,
Liège Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille in
France, Haifa Symphony, Austro-Hungarian Haydn Chamber Orchestra,
Tokyo Philharmonic and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, the National
Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Hong Kong Philharmonic and others.
With the Belgian National Orchestra, he toured throughout
Germany in such cities as Munich, Hannover and Dortmund. He
has collaborated with such conductors as George Cleve, Adam
Fischer, Leon Fleisher, Gunther Herbig, Jahja Ling, Gerard
Schwarz, and Maxim Shostakovich, among others.
In summer seasons, Mr. Hu has appeared either
as a guest soloist or chamber music artist in such festivals
as Mostly Mozart, Marlboro, Grand Teton, Waterloo, Seattle,
and Newport. A chamber music enthusiast, he has collaborated
with such musicians as Fou Ts’ong, Martha Argerich,
and Misha Maisky in the 1999 Beijing Music Festival, Yo-Yo
Ma, Emanuel Ax, and others in the 2000 Taipei International
Music Festival (the latter directed by violinist Cho-Liang
Lin). He also has participated in the Lincoln Center Chamber
Music Society concerts and Brooklyn’s Bargemusic series.
Mr. Hu’s performances have been broadcast on WQXR (the
radio station of The New York Times), National Public Radio
and PBS in the United States; and Belgian, Dutch and French
radio and television stations as well as National Public Television
in Taiwan.
Released by Delos International, Mr. Hu’s
recording of Goldmark’s Concerto and Bruch’s Concerto
No. 2 with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony garnered
“Critics’ Choice” from Gramophone as well
as praises from many publications including BBC Music Magazine,
The Times of London, and The Washington Post. Besides Delos,
Mr. Hu has made recordings for EMI, Koch, and Sunrise. In
2003, a Viennese album is to be released by EMI.
In 2001, Mr. Hu appeared in a cameo role as
the rooftop violinist serenading Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman
in the Miramax romantic comedy, Kate & Leopold. In that
same year, he collaborated with Lin Hwai-min and his Cloud
Gate Dance Theater, performing Taiwanese composer Hsu Tsang-Houei’s
Five Preludes for Solo Violin in an outdoor presentation that
was attended by over ten thousand people.
Born in Taiwan, Mr. Hu began studying the
violin at age five and was soloist with the National Youth
Orchestra of Taiwan three years later. He came to the United
States in 1972 to continue his studies, first with Broadus
Erle and later with Joseph Silverstein. At Indiana University,
he studied with Josef Gingold and also served as Gingold’s
assistant after graduation. He plays on a Stradivari “ex-Hubay,”
dated 1726.
Cho-liang Lin, violin
Taiwanese-American violinist CHO-LIANG LIN
receives accolades the world over for the elegance of his
playing and the superb musicianship that mark his performances.
Renowned for appearances as a soloist with major orchestras,
he is also frequently heard in recital and in chamber music
and was chosen by Musical America in 2000 as “Instrumentalist
of the Year”.
Mr. Lin’s 2002-2003 season included
engagements with the Dallas Symphony; Montreal Symphony, and
at the Brooklyn Academy of Music performing Water Passion
After St. Matthew, a choral and performance work commemorating
the 250th anniversary of Bach’s death, composed and
conducted by Tan Dun. Among his U.S. engagements were appearances
with orchestras in California, Florida, Indiana, and Utah.
He was heard in a duo-recital at New York’s Alice Tully
Hall on May 5, 2003 with pianist André-Michel Schub.
With the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, he performed
in New York and on tour, highlighted by an appearance at Boston’s
Gardner Museum. Internationally, he performed in Europe and
Asia.
Recently Mr. Lin played with great distinction
as guest artist with the Boston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic,
Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Houston Symphony,
Montreal Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic
and the Vancouver Symphony, among others. Overseas, he performed
with orchestras in France, Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands,
Japan, Singapore, Australia, China and Taiwan.
Cho-Liang Lin founded the Taipei International
Music Festival in 1997, the first large-scale international
music festival in the history of his native country. He led
a second Festival in May 2000 and a third Festival in March
2003. Some of the concerts have been shown on giant television
simulcasts outside the concert hall, to audiences of up to
thirty thousand cheering music lovers.
This summer he leads his third season at the
helm of the La Jolla SummerFest. Last summer included the
world premiere of a work for solo violin composed by Esa-Pekka
Salonen for Mr. Lin. He also made return appearances in Aspen,
Santa Fe, the Naantali Festival in Finland, and the Malaysian
Philarmonic.
An advocate for contemporary composers, Cho-Liang
Lin has premiered works by Tan Dun, Joel Hoffman, Christopher
Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Elie Siegmeister, Bright Sheng,
George Tsontakis and George Walker. In San Diego and Taipei,
he has presented the world premiere of two concertos by the
Taiwanese composer, Gordon Chin.
He has many resplendent recordings released on the Sony Classical
label, some of which have won such awards as Gramophone’s
Record of the Year as well as two Grammy nominations. Recent
albums include a disc of sonatas by Debussy, Poulenc and Ravel
with pianist Paul Crossley and a Schubert chamber music disc.
He has recorded Tan Dun's violin concerto Out of Peking Opera
with the Helsinki Philharmonic led by Muhai Tang for the Ondine
label. For Decca, he has recorded Aaron Jay Kernis’
Concerto for Violin and Guitar with conductor Hugh Wolff and
guitarist Sharon Isbin with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.
Soon to be released is a recording with the Helsinki Philharmonic
for the Ondine label of the Rouse Violin Concerto (Mr. Lin
performed both the world premiere and New York premieres).
Born in Taiwan in 1960, Cho-Liang Lin began
his violin lessons when he was five years old. At the age
of twelve, he went to Sydney to continue his musical studies.
Three years later, inspired by an encounter with Itzhak Perlman,
he arrived in New York in 1975 to audition for Mr. Perlman's
teacher, the late Dorothy DeLay, at the Juilliard School.
Within two years of his enrollment, Mr. Lin won the first
Queen Sofia Violin Competition in Madrid and his concert career
was soon launched. He has been a member of the Juilliard faculty
since 1991 and resides in New York with his wife and daughter.
His violin is the 1734 Guarneri del Gesù The Duke of
Camposelice.
Meng-Chieh Liu, piano
A recipient of the 2002 Avery Fisher Career
Grant, pianist Meng-Chieh Liu first made headlines in 1993
as a 21-year-old student at The Curtis Institute of Music
when he substituted for André Watts on the All-Star
Series at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. The concert
earned high acclaim from critics and audience alike, and was
followed by a number of widely praised performances, including
a recital at the Kennedy Center and a concert on the Philadelphia
All-Star Series; a Philadelphia Orchestra appearance was also
scheduled. Already an accomplished artist at the time, Mr.
Liu had made his New York orchestral debut two years earlier.
The stellar beginning of Meng-Chieh Liu’s
career was abruptly halted by a rare and debilitating illness
that affected his connective tissues. Hospitalized and almost
immobile for a year, doctors believed his chances for survival
were slim and, should he survive, playing the piano would
be “absolutely impossible.” With arduous determination
and relentless physical therapy, Mr. Liu has been restored
to health and now embarks again on his concert career. During
the 2001-2 season his performance schedule included U.S. appearances
in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle and San Diego,
as well as concerts in Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Spain.
A dedicated chamber musician as well as solo
artist, he has collaborated with musicians in North America,
Europe and Asia, in addition to working with artists in other
disciplines, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, who invited Mr.
Liu to work with his White Oak Dance Project. His concerts
have heard over the airwaves around the world, and a biography
on his life was broadcast on Taiwanese National Television.
Born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Meng-Chieh Liu
began his piano studies early and at age 13 was accepted by
The Curtis Institute of Music to study with Jorge Bolet, Claude
Frank, and Eleanor Sokoloff. He has received The 2002 Philadelphia
Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award and first prizes
in the Stravinsky, Asia Pacific Piano and Mieczyslaw Munz
competitions. Mr. Liu has been a member of The Curtis Institute’s
faculty since 1993, the year he graduated.
Sophie Shao, cello
A native of New York City, cellist Sophie
Shao has established herself as a prominent soloist, recitalist,
and chamber musician. Ms. Shao has received a plethora of
prizes and honors, including top prizes at the 2001 Rostropovich
International Violoncello Competition and the XII International
Tchaikovsky Competition in 2002, as well as the prestigious
Avery Fisher Career Grant. She made her official orchestral
debut with the Houston Symphony at age eleven, and has since
performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the
Orchestre de Paris, Russian State Academic Symphony Cappella,
Erie Symphony, Yale Symphony, Abilene Philharmonic, and the
Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has performed
throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia, at
such venues as the 92nd Street Y, Carnegie, Avery Fisher,
Alice Tully, and Merkin Halls in New York, Suntory Hall in
Tokyo, Heinz Hall in Pittsburgh, Ford Centre in Toronto, and
Rice University in Houston. In 1995, Ms. Shao recorded a work
by Andre Previn with the Curtis Orchestra for EMI Classics.
In great demand as a chamber musician, she
has collaborated with members of the Beaux Arts Trio, the
Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, Cleveland String Quartets, and
has performed with such distinguished artists as Gary Graffman,
David Shifrin, Jaime Laredo, Ani Kavafian, Midori, Andre Previn,
Eugene Istomin, Cho-Liang Lin, Paquito D'Rivera, Andras Schiff,
Claude Frank, and Christoph Eschenbach. Ms. Shao’s many
festival appearances include Marlboro, Caramoor, Bridgehampton,
Sarasota, Music from Angel Fire, Saratoga, Bard and Ravinia.
In the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 seasons, Sophie Shao was a
member of Chamber Music Society Two, the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center's program for emerging young artists.
Ms. Shao began studying piano at the age of
five with her mother, a well-known keyboard pedagogue in Taiwan.
At the age of six, she began playing the cello, and later
became a pupil of Shirley Trepel, former principal cellist
of the Houston Symphony. At thirteen, she enrolled at the
prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where
she continued studying cello with David Soyer and chamber
music with Felix Galimir. After graduating from the Curtis
Institute, Sophie continued her cello studies with Aldo Parisot
at Yale University, graduating with a B.A. in religious studies
from Yale College, where she was also awarded the Louis Sudler
Prize for the Creative and Performing Arts. In May of 2001,
Sophie received her M.M. from the Yale School of Music, where
she was enrolled as a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.
Keng-Yuen Tseng, violin
A native of Taiwan, Keng-Yuen Tseng began
studying the violin at the age of five and made his performing
debut at the age of seven. Upon his arrival in the United
States in 1980 Mr. Tseng was awarded a full scholarship at
Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Erick Friedman
and Glenn Dicterow.
Mr. Tseng has won numerous top prizes at national
and international competitions both here and abroad. In 1990,
he received the award for best interpretation of a new composition
at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow, and
three years later he triumphed at the Queen Elisabeth International
Violin Competition in Belgium by winning the Silver Medal.
Among his other prizes are those from the North Carolina Symphony
Artist Competition, New Jersey Symphony Artist Competition,
and the Washington International String Competition.
Mr. Tseng has performed in recital and as
soloist with orchestras throughout the US, Europe, Central
and South America, the Far East, Including the National Orchestra
of Belgium, Noordholan Philharmonic, Koninklijk Philharmonic
Orkest van Vlaanderen, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Simon
Bolivar Orquesta Sinfonica, Tibilisi Symphony Orchestra and
the Taiwan Symphony, among others. He has appeared at such
venues as Washington’s Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection,
Carnegie Hall, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Belgium and Theatre
Des Champs-Elysees in Paris. His 1995 performance in Beijing
was televised throughout China.
A dedicated teacher, Mr. Tseng has taught
at State University of New York (Purchase), New York University
and is currently a faculty member at the Manhattan School
of Music preparatory division and the Peabody Institute of
Music. He travels to his native Taiwan several times each
year to conduct master classes and seminars, and he mentors
a growing list of prize-winning students. In addition, Mr.
Tseng also serves as the Artistic Director of the Evergreen
Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan.
Min-Ho Yeh, clarinet
Min-Ho Yeh received his Bachelor of Music
degree from National Taiwan Normal University in 1992 and
a Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory in
Boston in 1997 with academic honors and distinction in performance.
He won the Taipei Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition
in 1989. Since then he has performed concertos with ensembles
such as the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the Taiwan Symphonic
Wind Ensemble, the National Taiwan Normal University Symphony
Orchestra, Indiana University Orchestra, and Indiana University
Clarinet Choir.
His orchestral playing with the NEC Symphony Orchestra has
been praised in the Boston Globe. In 1997, he was a recipient
of the Stoeckel Fellowship Award of the Norfolk Music Festival.
In 1998, he was invited to join the recent recording (Crystal
label) of the Trio Indiana, a clarinet ensemble formed by
Indiana University faculty. In 2000, he appeared as a chamber
musician at the Festival of Sound in Ontario, Canada; the
concerts were broadcast by CBC Radio. In 2002, he was invited
to perform at Taiwanese American Heritage Week concerts in
Boston, San Diego and Seattle.
Mr. Yeh has played with the “Magic Clarinet”
Clarinet Quartet, the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, the Asian
Youth Orchestra, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata
Orchestra (Indiana), the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and the
Conway Symphony Orchestra among many others. He was an Associate
Instructor of Clarinet at Indiana University between 1997
and 2001. He is currently Instructor of Clarinet at the University
of Central Arkansas, a member of the Sunaura Trio and a candidate
for Doctor of Music degree at Indiana University.
Chun-Chieh Yen, piano
Chun-Chieh Yen’s preeminence as Taiwan’s
foremost young pianist of international caliber came into
sharp focus in 1997, when he won third prize at the third
Tchaikovsky International Music Competition (Youth) in St.
Petersburg, Russia. Since then Chun-Chieh Yen has concertized
both nationally and internationally in Germany, France, Russia,
China, Singapore, Japan, Poland, Romania, and Italy. His performances
of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Russian
National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev; Beethoven’s
Piano Concerto No.3 with the National Symphony Orchestra under
Uri Meyer; Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No.1 in Beijing,
China; Balakirev’s Islamey at the Braunschweiger Kammermusikpodium,
Germany, all received great critical acclaim and his rendition
of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No.2 with the Taipei Sinfonietta
under the baton of Maestro Henry Mazer drew significant public
attention in Taiwan.
Chun-Chieh Yen, who made history as the youngest
pianist to perform at Taipei’s National Concert Hall,
also won first prize in 1999 at the 4th Hamamatsu International
Academy Piano Competition in Japan and diplomas in 2000 at
the 14th International F. Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw,
Poland and 2002 at the 12th International P. I. Tchaikovsky
Competition in Moscow, Russia.
Chun-Chieh Yen, who is presently studying
under Prof. Vladimir Krajnev in Hochschule für Musik
und Theater Hannover, Germany, studied under Prof. Rolf-Peter
Wille in Taiwan, and has received coaching from Lev Naumov,
Vera Gornostayeva, Naum Starkmann, Halina Czerny-Stefanska,
Hiroko Nakamura, Gyorgy Sandor, Joaquin Soriano, Alexander
Jenner, Vladimir Tropp, Andrej Diev, and others in master
classes in Moscow, Japan, Poland, Germany and Taiwan. |
