Bion Tsang
章雨亭, Cellist
www.biontsang.com
Cellist
Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding
instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery
Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX
International Tchaikovsky Competition. Mr. Tsang earned a Grammy
nomination for his performance on the PBS special A Company of Voices:
Conspirare in Concert (Harmonia Mundi).
Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York,
Moscow and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American,
Pacific, Delaware and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Saint Paul and
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, the Louisville Orchestra and the Taiwan
National Orchestra. In recent seasons, he made solo debuts at Orchestra
Hall in Chicago with Zubin Mehta and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, at
the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and
at the Esplanade in Boston with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He also
gave the U.S. premiere of the Enescu Symphonie Concertante, Op. 8 with
Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall,
the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto for Cello Solo
and Chamber Orchestra at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall, the Boston premiere of
the Korngold Cello Concerto, Op. 37, and the world premiere of a new
concerto written for him by Noam David Elkies.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as
violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, Cho-¬‐Liang Lin, Anne Akiko
Meyers, Kyoko Takezawa and Chee Yun, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-¬‐Yo
Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher. He has been a frequent
guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music
Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Da Camera of Houston,
Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and
performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Cape Cod,
Tucson, Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival,
Bravo! Colorado, Music in the Vineyards and the Laurel Festival of the
Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.
Mr. Tsang’s discography includes the 2010 release from Artek Recordings,
Bion Tsang and Anton Nel: Live in Concert, Brahms Cello Sonatas and Four
Hungarian Dances, featuring original transcriptions of Joseph Joachim’s
violin arrangements of Brahms’ iconic Hungarian melodies. His
discography also includes the Kodaly works for solo cello as well as a
forthcoming set of the complete Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello
recorded on the 1713 “ Bass of Spain” Stradivarius. In an unusual twist,
he performed the Kodaly Op. 8 Solo Sonata in a production of There,
After... and the Bach Solo Suites in Plaza X, both by the Hong Kong City
Contemporary Dance Company. He has performed all six Bach Suites in one
sitting first in Austin and later in Seattle at Nordstrom Recital Hall
at Benaroya Hall. In addition, Mr. Tsang has toured the complete
Beethoven works for cello and piano with pianist Anton Nel in, among
other venues, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston,
with the latter performance recorded by WGBH and commercially released
on the Artek label.
A versatile collaborator, Mr. Tsang was featured on the soundtrack to
Recapturing Cuba, a PBS documentary by Trinity Films, winning two Gold
Medals —Director’s Choice and Artistic Excellence—at the Park City Film
Music Festival, coincident to the Sundance Film Festival. He was also a
featured guest artist on the KLRU-¬‐TV and PBS television production, A
Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert, filmed in Dell Hall at the
Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, and aired nationally on
PBS stations during their March 2009 pledge drives.
Mr. Tsang made his professional debut at age eleven in two concerts with
Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. That same year he returned to
perform two more concerts with Mehta and the Philharmonic. One of these
performances was broadcast worldwide on the CBS Festival of Lively Arts
television series. While still in his teens, he became the youngest
cellist ever to receive a Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize and the
youngest recipient ever of an Artists International Award. He was also
chosen as a Finalist of the NFAA’s Arts Recognition and Talent Search
and subsequently as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At age nineteen,
Tsang became the youngest cellist to win a prize in the VIII
International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on America
Online as CultureFinder’s “Star Find of the Week,” on the Internet Cello
Society as “Artist of the Month,” and most recently in print in the book
21st-¬‐Century Cellists.
Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at
age six and cello at age seven. The following year, he entered The
Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from
Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale
University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal
cello teachers have included Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-¬‐Renart, William
Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.
Mr. Tsang resides in Austin, TX where he is on the faculty of the Sarah
and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin.
He was the recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Award after just his
first year of service and soon after was named "Instrumentalist of the
Year" by the Austin Critics Table. He has also served as visiting
professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. In his spare time, Bion
helps his family run the Paul J. Tsang Foundation, a nonprofit
organization named in honor of Bion's father and formed to help
facilitate educational or career opportunities for promising students
and professionals in the arts and sciences. He also enjoys coaching NFL
Flag and i9 Sports flag football and, especially, trying to keep up with
his three children: Bailey (11), Henry (8) and Maia (5).
(August 2013) |
Thank you for
your generous contribution to
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
|
中華表演藝術基金會
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
Lincoln, Massachusetts |
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