中華表演藝術基金會 Chinese Performing Arts Foundation

讓靈魂回家 is about a documentary film by Taiwan award winning anthropologist and filmmaker Hu Tai-Li 胡台麗 on the Ami 阿美族 "Returning Souls 讓靈魂回家", true stories about how Amis youth rebuilt their ancient temple and bring back home the wondering souls of their ancestors with the help of prayers and witches. Shih-Hui Chen 陳士惠 composed the music scores for the film based on authentic elements of Ami tribal songs. This film won the 2012 Jean Rouch International Ethnographic Film Festival.
Both the film director Hu and composer Chen will be at the Jordan Hall concert introducing this film briefly before Lynn Chang’s performance. more

Reviews: Boston Musical Intelligencer World Journal (世界日報)

photo: Lisa Wong


photos: Joyce Chiu

Lynn Chang 張萬鈞, Violinist

A top prizewinner of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa Italy, violinist Lynn Chang has enjoyed an active and versatile international career as soloist, chamber musician, and educator for over twenty years.

A native of Boston, Mr. Chang began his violin study at the age of seven with Sarah Scriven and Alfred Krips of the Boston Symphony. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Ivan Galamian, then went on to receive his Bachelor’s Degree from Harvard . He currently serves as faculty member at MIT, Boston University, the Boston Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory of Music.

For the past 25 years Mr. Chang has been a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, which can be heard throughout the season in Jordan Hall and Sanders Theatre. During the summers, he performs regularly at the Musicorda Music Festival, the Gerhart Music Festival and the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts Summer Music Camp at the Walnut Hill School in Natick. He has also appeared at the Wolf Trap, Great Woods, Marlboro, and Tanglewood Music Festivals, and as soloist with orchestras in Miami, Salt Lake City, Oakland, Seattle, Honolulu, Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong.

In 1995 the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and their conductor, David Commanday commissioned the late Ivan Tcherepnin to compose a concerto for Mr. Chang and Yo-Yo Ma. The work received the distinguished Grawemeyer Award, and Mr. Chang traveled to Moscow to record it with cellist Alexander Rudin in 1997.

Lynn Chang can also be heard in CD performances with the Boston Chamber Music Society; with Yo-Yo Ma on the Sony “Made in America" CD; with Dawn Upshaw on her Grammy Award winning CD; “The Girl with the Orange Lips;" and on New World Records performing works by William Grant Still.

Last spring Mr. Chang was honored with the first Distinguished Leadership Award from the Institute for Asian American Studies of the University of Massachusetts Boston for his achievements as educator and musician.

Mr. Chang is married to Lisa Wong, a pediatrician. They make their home in Newton, Massachusetts with their two children, Jennifer and Christopher who also play the violin.

The Ying Quartet www.ying4.com

The Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today's world. Now in its second decade as a quartet, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications in its tours across the United States and abroad. Their performances regularly take place in many of the world's most important concert halls, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. At the same time, the Quartet's belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has also drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House. In fact, the Ying Quartet's constant quest to explore the creative possibilities of the string quartet has led it to an unusually diverse array of musical projects and interests.

The Ying Quartet's recordings reflect many of the group's wide-ranging musical interests and have generated consistent, enthusiastic acclaim. Their 2007 Telarc release of the three Tchaikovsky Quartets and the Souvenir de Florence (with James Dunham and Paul Katz) was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Chamber Music Performance category. In addition, their much-heralded collaboration with the Turtle Island Quartet, "Four + 4," explored the common ground between the classic string quartet tradition and jazz and other American vernacular styles, and won a Grammy Award in 2005. Their most recent release with the Billy Childs Chamber Jazz Ensemble, Autumn in Moving Pictures (ArtistShare) was nominated for a Grammy in 2010. In addition, the Ying Quartet’s Dim Sum (Telarc) features music by Chinese-American composers that merges the Western string quartet with the aural world of traditional Chinese music. The Quartet has also documented its noteworthy LifeMusic commissioning project in its recorded work. Released by Quartz, "The Ying Quartet play LifeMusic" was named Editor's Choice by Gramophone magazine and is the first in a continuing series. The Ying Quartet is now pleased to be in a relationship with Sono Luminus with this release of Arensky’s Quartets and Quintet and a release last year of the third record in their LifeMusic commissions.

In addition to appearing in conventional concert situations, the Ying Quartet is also known for its diverse and unusual performance projects. For several years the Quartet presented a series called "No Boundaries" at Symphony Space in New York City that sought to re-imagine the concert experience. Collaborations with actors, dancers, electronics, a host of non-classical musicians, a magician and even a Chinese noodle chef gave new and thoughtful context to a wide variety of both traditional and contemporary string quartet music. They have also worked with composer Tod Machover and the MIT Media lab in the use of Hyperscore, an innovative musical composition software. Other musical partners range from pianists Menahem Pressler and Gilbert Kalish and cellist Paul Katz to folk musician Mike Seeger, jazz pianist Billy Childs, and the Turtle Island Quartet.

The Ying Quartet's ongoing LifeMusic commissioning project, created in response to their commitment to expanding the rich string quartet repertoire, has already achieved an impressive history. Supported by the Institute for American Music, the Quartet commissions both established and emerging composers to create music that reflects contemporary American life. Augusta Read Thomas, Michael Torke, Chen Yi, Kevin Puts, Paquito D'Rivera, Paul Moravec, Lowell Liebermann, Bernard Rands, Pierre Jalbert, Sebastian Currier, and Carter Pann are only some of the renowned composers and musicians who have written for LifeMusic.

During the summers, the Ying Quartet's activity is primarily centered at music festivals. They regularly perform and teach at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and also served as ensemble-in-residence at the Aspen Music Festival. Other festival appearances have been at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, San Miguel de Allende, Kneisel Hall, Norfolk, Skaneateles, Amelia Island, Interlochen, and many others.

As quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music, the Ying Quartet maintains full time faculty positions in the String and Chamber Music Departments. One cornerstone of chamber music activity at Eastman is the noted Music for All program, in which all students have the opportunity to perform in community settings beyond the concert hall. From 2001-2008, the Ying Quartet has also been the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University. The Ying Quartet first came to professional prominence in the early 1990s during their years as resident quartet of Jesup, Iowa, a farm town of 2000 people. Playing before audiences of six to six hundred in homes, schools, churches, and banks, the Quartet had its first opportunities to enable music and creative endeavor to become an integral part of community life. The Quartet considers its time in Jesup the foundation of its present musical life and goals. The residency, supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, was widely chronicled in the national media. Toward the end of the residency, the quartet and several of the townspeople were invited to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress on behalf of the NEA.

1992
Graduated from the Eastman School of Music and began a two-year residency in Jesup, Iowa, under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Top prizewinner in the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

1993
Winner of the Naumburg Chamber Music Award.

1997
Appointed Faculty Quartet-in-Residence at the Eastman School of Music.

2003
Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for appearing on "Golijov:Yiddishbuk" (EMI)

2005
Winner of a Grammy Award for Best Classical Crossover Album for "4+Four" (Telarc) with the Turtle Island String Quartet.

2007
Grammy nomination for Best Chamber Music Performance for "Tchaikovsky: Three String Quartets and the Souvenir de Florence" (Telarc).

2010
Ayano Ninomiya joins the Ying Quartet as first violin.
Grammy nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album for "Autumn: In Moving Pictures Jazz-Chamber Music Vol. 2"(ArtistShare), a collaboration with Billy Childs and the Chamber Jazz Ensemble.
(Complete timeline to come…)

Violin - Ayano Ninomiya

Beginning with the 2010-2011 season, violinist Ayano Ninomiya joins the Ying Quartet as first violinist and Associate Professor of Violin and of Chamber Music at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. She is a top prizewinner in the 2003 Naumburg Competition, the 2006 Tibor Varga Competition, and winner of the S&R Washington and Lili Boulanger Memorial awards, and has built a significant career of recital, concerto, music festival, and chamber music appearances. In addition, she brings her own passionate vision for imaginative programming, collaborative work, and audience engagement initiatives.

This season's Ying Quartet performances bring Ms.Ninomiya on tours across the U.S. from Tennessee to Virginia to California, and also to Beijing, China, as well as recording an Arensky album for Sono Luminus and performing at the Bowdoin Festival in Maine. Solo engagements include a performance of Bartok's Concerto no. 2 with the Civic Symphony of Boston, recitals in Tokyo, Japan, at the National Gallery of Art, and at Lincoln Center, NYC. She also makes return appearances at the Kingston, Lenape, and Moab festivals.

Ms. Ninomiya's second New York recital which took place at Merkin Concert Hall in October 2008 garnered this praise: "Her technique is equal to all challenges, secure, effortless and unobtrusive; her tone is lovely, pure, and variable in color and intensity" (New York Concert Review). Two pieces from this recital were chosen for broadcast on New York’s WQXR Young Artist Showcase. As one of five soloists for the 2009 Young Performers Career Advancement program by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, she performed at their Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall showcase.

Ms. Ninomiya’s 2004 debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall was described as "deeply communicative and engrossing" (The New York Times). Under the auspices of Astral Artists, whose National Auditions she won in 2003, she had the unique opportunity to lead the Haddonfield Symphony Chamber Orchestra in a performance of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, and gave her Philadelphia debut recital as well as a recital at the Washington Conservatory. She also performed on Astral’s Rising Stars series at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, with other Astral colleagues at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and gave a piano trio recital with pianist Claude Frank and cellist Clancy Newman in 2007.

As the recipient of the 2005 Beebe Fellowship, Ms.Ninomiya lived in Budapest, Hungary until 2007, where she studied at the Liszt Academy of Music and researched scores at the Bartok Archives. Ms. Ninomiya’s recording of the complete works for violin by Larry Bell, "The Book of Moonlight," was listed as one of the Top 10 Classical Recordings of 2003 (Philadelphia’s City Paper). In 2007, with other artists from the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, she recorded Paul Moravec’s "Cool Fire" and "Chamber Symphony" for the Naxos label.

In 2007 Ms. Ninomiya created several unique lecture-recital programs for Elderhostel and in 2008 taught eight "Day of Discovery" classes in New York City, upstate New York, and outside of Boston. For these she received stellar written and point evaluations across the board. Stemming from her own experience beginning violin studies in a public school program at the age of seven, she also has a keen interest in giving community and kids programs wherever her professional concerts take her. Over the years, these opportunities have brought her from Bethlehem, New Hampshire to Columbia, Missouri, to Denton, Maryland, including many occasions in the greater Philadelphia area.

Ms. Ninomiya made her debut as soloist on Opening Night of the Boston Pops 1999 season under Keith Lockhart and was praised for her "great sweetness of tone, dazzling bow work, and intensity of expression" (Boston Herald). Subsequent performances have included those with orchestras in Europe (Budapest, Sofia, Martigny), the Boston, Harrisburg, Mobile, Dubuque, Northbrook, Longwood, Civic Symphony of Boston, Jackson (MI), and Southwest Florida symphonies, and the Highland Park Strings.

As the 2002 Japan Airlines (JAL) Classic Special New Artist, Ms. Ninomiya gave a five-city recital tour of Japan, including a debut recital at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Her recital debut at Boston’s Jordan Hall on the BankBoston Emerging Artist Series in 1997 was described as "technically dazzling, intensely musical, questing in spirit and passionate in expression" (Boston Herald). She has been featured since then on the Rising Stars series at the Ravinia Festival, at the Gardner Museum in Boston, on the Sanibel BigArts Series in Florida, and on the Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago.

Ms. Ninomiya joined Musicians from Marlboro for their 2005 tour of France and 2004 U.S. tour. She has been invited to perform with the Young Artists from the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival, for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, on New York City’s WQXR, at the Metropolitan Art Museum, Bargemusic, and spent several seasons at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Caramoor, Bridgehampton, and Olympic festivals. Ms. Ninomiya was a founding member of the Amaryllis String Quartet, which won the Fischoff Competition (Junior Division), performed with Yo-Yo Ma and Pamela Frank, and performed professionally at the Boulder, Strings in the Mountains, and Rockport festivals, among others. She is also an active member of the conductorless string ensemble, ECCO.

Ms. Ninomiya graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a joint degree in Music and French in 2001, where she was also awarded the David McCord Prize and won the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition. She holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School where she studied with Robert Mann. Her teachers and coaches include Miriam Fried, Michele Auclair, Hyo Kang, Robert Levin, Eszter Perenyi, and Andras Keller. Currently residing in New York City, she has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at the East Harlem Justice Center and a volunteer teacher assistant at the Lighthouse Music School in NYC.

Violin - Janet Ying

Janet Ying is a founding member of the Ying Quartet, whose fascinating career path began in 1992 in Jesup, a small town in northeast Iowa. Among the first groups to be awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to live and perform in a rural area, Ms. Ying explored connections between concert music and everyday life, performing throughout the community in places like schools, workplaces, social clubs, churches and banks. In the process of doing so, she forged a vision for making music an integral part of community. At the same time, Ms. Ying was recognized for musical excellence with the Naumburg Chamber Music Award in 1993, and since then has performed extensively across the United States and abroad. Since the Jesup residency, she has continued her quest for creative music-making, creating a series called "No Boundaries" at Symphony Space in New York, combining string quartet music with poetry, dance, popular music, magic, and even a Chinese noodle-making demonstration, as well as collaborating with diverse musicians such as Menahem Pressler, Jon Manasse, jazz pianist Billy Childs, the Turtle Island Quartet, Mike Seeger, and Matt Flinner. Along with the Quartet, she actively commissions new works in an ongoing project called LifeMusic, asking American composers to communicate an aspect of contemporary American life, and has premiered intriguing works from Kevin Puts, Chen Yi, Sebastian Currier, Michael Torke, Bernard Rands, Paul Moravec, Paquito D’Rivera, and Augusta Read Thomas, among others. Ms. Ying can be heard on these recordings: Three Tchaikovsky Quartets and the Souvenir de Florence, its series of three LifeMusic albums featuring American commissions, 4 + Four, a Grammy award winning collaboration with the Turtle Island String Quartet, and Dim Sum, a collection of shorter works melding Eastern and Western sounds. Principal violin studies have been with Yuko Nasu, Sonja Foster, Almita and Roland Vamos, Donald Weilerstein, and William Preucil. Currently, Ms. Ying is an Associate Professor of Chamber Music at the Eastman School of Music, and in addition pursues taiji, Crossfit and an interest in gastronomy.

Viola - Phillip Ying

Phillip Ying, as violist of the Ying Quartet, has performed across the United States, Europe and Asia. He is a recipient of the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music, has won a Grammy for a collaborative recording with the Turtle Island String Quartet, and has been nominated three additional times, most recently for a collaborative album with pianist, Billy Childs. He maintains a vital interest in new music with recent and planned premieres of works by Chen Yi, Augusta Read Thomas, Kevin Puts, Ned Rorem, Jennifer Higdon, Sebastian Currier, Paquito D’Rivera, Lowell Liebermann, Paul Moravec, and Kenji Bunch and is currently engaged in a multi-year commissioning project with the Institute for American Music. Mr. Ying also pursues creative projects across musical styles with other artists such as Garth Fagan and Tod Machover. During the summers, he has performed at the Colorado College, Bowdoin, Aspen, Marlboro, Tanglewood, Caramoor, Norfolk, Music in the Vineyards and Skaneateles Music Festivals. He has recorded on the Sono Luminus, Telarc, Albany, Elektra, and EMI labels. Mr. Ying is an Associate Professor Chamber Music and Viola at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. From 2001-‐2008, he was named with the Ying Quartet Blodgett Ensemble in Residence at Harvard University. Additionally, he served a six year term as President of Chamber Music America, a national service organization for chamber music ensembles, presenters and artist managers, and has been published by Chamber Music magazine. He is a frequent speaker, panelist, and outside evaluator on subjects such as arts-in-education, advocacy through performance, and chamber music residencies. Mr. Ying received his education at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music, and has studied principally with Martha Katz, Walter Trampler, and Roland Vamos.

Cello - David Ying

Cellist David Ying is well known to concert audiences as the cellist of the Grammy Award winning Ying Quartet. With the Quartet he has performed worldwide in celebrated music venues from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House. The quartet is also known for its enterprising view of concert performance, which has led to visits to the White House as well as correctional facilities, and to business schools as well as hospitals. In its collaborations, the quartet has performed with chamber music greats Menachem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, and Paul Katz, as well as explored new musical territory with folk musician Mike Seeger, the Turtle Island Quartet, and even actors, dancers, chefs and magicians. With the Quartet, David has created a wide range of recordings that have received consistent acclaim, as well as a Grammy Award and four Grammy nominations. Their recorded work ranges from traditional-‐ Tchaikovsky’s three string quartets and his Souvenir de Florence-‐ to contemporary-‐ three albums of their LifeMusic commissions. It also includes unique collaborations with the Turtle Island Quartet, pianist Billy Childs, and Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. In October 2011, the quartet released the two string quartets and piano quintet of Anton Arensky (Sono Luminus). David first pursued chamber music avidly as a teenaged student at the Eastman School of Music with his piano trio, which was awarded first prize at the Coleman Chamber Music Competition. Later he would also win the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, this time with the Ying Quartet. David is also highly regarded as an individual artist, having been awarded prizes in the Naumburg Cello Competition and in the Washington International Competition. As a solo cellist, he often performs with his wife, pianist Elinor Freer. Together they are also artistic directors of the Skaneateles Festival. Their imaginative view of music has helped to earn the festival a devoted following and national recognition, including a special ASCAP award for adventurous programming. A graduate of both the Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School, David owes a debt of gratitude to his many fine teachers, who include Leonard Rose, Channing Robbins, Paul Katz, Steven Doane, Robert Sylvester, and Nell Novak. David presently serves on the cello and chamber music faculty at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester NY, where he and Elinor reside with their two children.

2013.03.09

Carol Ou 歐逸青, Cellist

A versatile artist, cellist Carol Ou is known for her “fiery, marvelous” and “meltingly melodic outpourings” (Boston Globe) and her “wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique” (The Strad).

A founding member of the Buswell-Ou Duo, Ou often appears in solo, chamber music, and concerto performances with violinist James Buswell. As the cellist of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, she frequently tours all over the U.S., performing an eclectic mix of classical string quartet repertoire with many crossover genres of music. Ou has collaborated with celebrated artists such as Midori, Hillary Hahn, Kim Kashkashian, Timothy Eddy, Pascal Rogé, András Schiff, Raul Juarena, and Jayme Stone at the Marlboro Music Festival, Summerfest La Jolla, Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Austin Chamber Music Center, Nevada Chamber Music Festival, and other noted music festivals.

At ease with the diverse music styles of the last five centuries, Ou regularly programs traditional European masterworks with more eclectic works in concert. She has recorded three of the most beloved cello concerti by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar, and premiered several new compositions written for her. She gave the first performance of Hsiao Tyzen's Cello Concerto in Taipei and collaborated with Hsiao on the premiere of a number of solo and chamber music works throughout the U.S. and Singapore. American composers such as Richard Toensing and the late Daniel Pinkham have also dedicated works to her. Other unusual works that she has performed include Tan Dun's Ghost Opera for string quartet and pipa, Peter Sculthorpe's string quartet with didjeridu, and Reza Vali’s Calligraphy No. 4 for string quartet and Persian santoor.

In the 2012–2013 season, in her new role as Carpe Diem String Quartet’s cellist, Ou has collaborated with the Latin Grammy winner and master of the bandoneon Raul Juarena in Piazzolla’s 4 Seasons of Buenos Aires. With banjo sensation Jayme Stone, she has performed repertoire as far ranging as Bach’s Art of the Fugue, West African praise songs, Bulgarian dances, and bluegrass fiddling music.

Since 2007, Ou has also been chamber music director of the Heifetz International Summer Music Institute in Wolfeboro, N.H. and Staunton, Va. In addition to her regular teaching duties, Carol Ou has traveled extensively to give cello and chamber music masterclasses in Germany, Spain, Luxembourg, Argentina, Ukraine, Australia, Taiwan, Canada, and throughout the U.S.

Ou's solo recordings are all issued by the Chi-Mei Foundation in Taiwan. Her chamber music recordings of the 20th-century repertoire can be found on the Naxos and CRI labels. Her recording of Walter Piston's Chamber Music, issued by Naxos, won the 2001 Chamber Music America Best Chamber Music CD award.

B.A., magna cum laude, Yale University. M.M., M.M.A., D.M.A., Yale School of Music. Studies with Ronald Leonard, Janos Starker, Aldo Parisot. Recordings on Chi-Mei (Taiwan), Naxos, and CRI. Former faculty of Yale, MIT, Harvard University, Gordon College (director of strings, chamber music, and orchestral studies). Carol Ou is currently on the faculty of both the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and Gordon College in Wenham, MA where she is the director of chamber music and orchestral studies.

Related links:
Carpe Diem String Quartet

Jennifer Chang , violist

Violist Jennifer Chang began studying violin with Aideen Zeitlin, continued with James Buswell and Marylou Speaker Churchill, and, after a transformative summer playing viola in chamber ensembles, began studying viola in earnest with Roger Tapping. She recently completed her Master’s degree at Juilliard, studying with Misha Amory and Heidi Castleman. Spending her high school summers at Greenwood Music Camp, Jenn established a passion for chamber music that she continued to develop at the Musicorda, Kneisel Hall, and Moritzburg summer festivals and the Saint Lawrence and Juilliard quartet seminars.

Jenn graduated from Harvard College with a degree in social studies. As a member of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, she served as principal second violin for several years, then as principal viola. She also directed the instrumental program of the community service organization MIHNUET, which plays biweekly concerts at various hospitals and nursing homes in the greater Boston area.

Throughout college, Jenn combined musical and academic pursuits, culminating in her senior thesis about the Venezuelan social program El Sistema. Jenn was invited to present her thesis at symposiums organized by the New England Conservatory and Community MusicWorks, and her work was featured in the League of American Orchestras publication.

Hailed as “expert” by the New York Times for her 2011 performance at the Museum of Modern Art Summergarden series, Jenn is a strong proponent of new music. She currently performs in chamber ensembles in New York, Boston, and San Francisco, but spends the majority of her time working for Google in New York.

Ya-Fei Chuang 莊雅斐, Pianist

Acclaimed by critics in the United States and abroad for performances of stunning virtuosity, refinement and communicative power, pianist Ya-Fei Chuang has appeared at international festivals include the Beethoven Festival in Warsaw with Christoph Eschenbach, Taipei International Music Festival, the European Music Festival (Stuttgart), , the Bach Festival in Leipzig, Schleswig-Holstein, , Ravinia, Sarasota, Gilmore, Tanglewood, the Celebrity Series in Boston, and the Oregon Bach Festival. She has appeared with the Spectrum Concerts in Berlin, at the Fromm Foundation concerts at Harvard, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Cambridge (USA), and at venues such as the Cologne and Berlin Philharmonic Halls, the Schauspielhaus Berlin, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, and Jordan and Symphony Halls in Boston. Ms. Chuang has performed as duo partner with Kim Kashkashian, Robert Levin, Steven Isserlis, and James Buswell. The Ruhr Piano Festival (Germany) has released two CDs of her performances there—her May 2007 solo recital, which was also distributed as a premium by the music magazine ‘Fono Forum’; and live performances of the Mendelssohn G-minor piano concerto and concerto for two pianos in A-flat. Her recent engagements include concerts and recordings in the Berlin Philharmonic Hall, with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Malaysian Philharmonic, appearances at the National Concert Hall Taipei, performances in England, Germany, Austria, South America and throughout the US. She has recorded solo, concerto and chamber music works for Naxos, Harmonia Mundi, ECM, New York Philomusica Records, and the Ruhr Piano Festival. Her recording of Hindemith’s chamber music works with Spectrum Berlin was awarded the special prize by the International Record Review 2009.

Ya-Fei Chuang’s mastery of the most challenging solo and chamber repertoire is complemented by her commitment to contemporary music. She has given the world premieres of works by John Harbison, Stanley Walden and Thomas Oboe Lee. Ya-Fei Chuang is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory and at the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division and SCE. She gives master classes throughout the US, Europe and Asia, including at the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, at Tanglewood, and annually at the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum, Salzburg.

Prizewinner in the Cologne International Piano Competition at age 18, Ya-Fei Chuang first performed on television in her native Taiwan at the age of eight and gave her first public recital at age nine. She won first prize at the nationally televised ‘Genius vs. Genius’ Competition at age ten and first prize at the National Competition (Taiwan) at age eleven. The following year she received unprecedented fellowships and scholarships from several prestigious foundations in Germany and Taiwan that enabled her to pursue pre-college, undergraduate, and masters-level studies at the Freiburg Conservatory (Musik-hochschule) with Rosa Sabater and Robert Levin, completing the six-year course of study in four. During this time she was awarded numerous prizes, including the Basel-Colmar-Freiburg Arts Prize and the Mendelssohn Prize in Freiburg. She subsequently concluded her German studies with Pavel Gililov, receiving a concert diploma (final degree) at the Cologne Conservatory, and earned a graduate diploma at the New England Conservatory in Boston, USA, with Russell Sherman.

Amanda Wang , violinist and violist

Amanda Wang, a violinist and violist, began her musical studies with Christina Scroggins and Shirley Givens at the Peabody Preparatory School in Baltimore. She is a graduate of the Arts for Talented Youth Program at Peabody, a pre-professional training program for promising young musicians and dancers. Ms. Wang is equally interested in music, science, and technology, having studied Electrical Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology ('03) while continuing violin studies under Lynn Chang as an Emerson Music Fellow. She received her Master's Degree in violin performance at the Boston Conservatory in 2007 and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at Boston University with her teachers Lynn Chang and Bayla Keyes. Ms. Wang received first prize in the 2008 New England International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition and has performed as guest artist at the Killington Music Festival and the Rockport Music Festival. Amanda is an active musician in the Boston, New York, and DC areas, and has performed at the Carnegie Weill Hall, NEC Jordan Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, and Kennedy Center. In addition to music, Ms. Wang enjoys computer games and working on her RV conversion van.