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

Bion Tsang 章雨亭, Cellist

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).

Nai-Yuan Hu 胡乃元, violinist

Since winning the 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 London, Paris, Brussels, Munich, and other cities in Europe, North and South Americas and Asia. In praise of his playing, BBC Music Magazine wrote, "Taiwanese violinist Nai-Yuan Hu is an awesomely capable performer whose technical facility, musical intelligence and unfaltering verve place him among the higher echelons of today’s string virtuosi."

Mr. Hu’s solo engagements include appearances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London, Toronto Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Netherland and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras, Belgian National Orchestra, Liège Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille in France, Haifa Symphony, Austro-Hungarian Haydn Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Taiwan’s NSO & NTSO, China and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras and others. He has collaborated with such conductors as George Cleve, Adam Fischer, Leon Fleisher, Gunther Herbig, Jahja Ling, Shao-Chia Lu, Gerard Schwarz, Maxim Shostakovich, and Hubert Soudant, among others.

Mr. Hu has given recitals in such venues as Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Purcell Room in London, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and Jordan Hall in Boston where he premiered Bright Sheng’s "The Stream Flows" in 1990. In summer seasons, he has appeared either as a guest soloist or chamber music artist in such festivals as Mostly Mozart, Marlboro, OK Mozart, Seattle, and Newport. In 1999, he collaborated with Fou Ts’ong, Martha Argerich and Misha Maisky in the Beijing Music Festival. Mr. Hu is the Music Director of Taiwan Connection, a music festival he founded in his native homeland in 2004. A conductorless chamber orchestra consisting of young talented Taiwanese musicians was incorporated to the Festival in 2007.

Mr. Hu’s recording of Goldmark’s Concerto and Bruch’s Concerto No. 2 with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony (for the label Delos) garnered "Critics’ Choice" from Gramophone as well as praises from many publications including BBC Music Magazine, The Times of London, and The Washington Post. His solo violin album "Unaccompanied…" for EMI label received two Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan for best classical album and best instrumentalist. In 2003, he released "Vienna Revisted" which comprises many of the beloved violin pieces from a bygone era.

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 and Josef Gingold.

Scott Lee, viola

Scott Lee has established himself as one of the most exciting and unique violists. His exceptional musicality and virtuositic playing distinguish him as one of this generation's quintessential artists. New York Times described his playing as “flawless technical resources combines them with an assured sense of musicianship, a remarkable and auspicious talent.” Also, hailed as “the superstar of his generation” by the String Magazine.

Winner of the 1996 Concert Artists Guild Competition, he became the youngest winner in the Competition’s 50 year history. Mr. Lee has been a top prize winner in the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, the William Primrose Viola Competition, and the Corpus Christi (TX) Young Artists Competition. Scott Lee has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including, the Kansas City Symphony, San Diego Symphony and L.A Chamber Orchestra. Other orchestral performances include the Longmont Philharmonic, and the International Sejong Soloists. In recital, he has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Scott Lee has been a featured soloist at the International Hindemith Viola Festival and at the 22nd and 24th International Viola Congresses.

Scott Lee is also an extremely active chamber musician. Recent highlights of Mr. Lee’s chamber music concert schedule include performances at the El Paso Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, OK Mozart Festival, Newport Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Ravinia Festival, Savannah Music Festival, New York City’s Bargemusic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Musicians from Marlboro, Merkin Concert Hall, and Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Gardner Museum in Boston and the Metropolitan Museum, the Marlboro Festival and in numerous chamber music venues across the United States. He has also collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Orion, and Miami String Quartets, and performed with members of the Beaux Arts and Mannes Piano Trios. His chamber music partners have included such renowned artists as Cho-Liang Lin, Nai-Yuan Hu, Gil Shaham, Hilary Hahn, Ralph Kirshbaum, David Soyer, Peter Wiley, and Gary Hoffman.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Mr. Lee began his music studies on the violin at age eight studying with Chia-Rong Lin. He took up the viola at age thirteen, and came to the United States the next year to study at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California, where his viola teacher was Donald McInnes and his violin teacher was Alice Schoenfield. He has studied with Michael Tree at the Curtis Institute of Music and at The Juilliard School where he studied with Paul Neubauer.

He is now Professor of Viola at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and a faculty member at the Idyllwild Chamber Music Festival and Workshop in California. Besides performing and teaching, Scott is also an obsessed golfer, he is always looking for a game, carrying his clubs. (2012)

Meng-Chieh Liu, 劉孟捷 piano

A recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, Meng-Chieh Liu first made headlines in 1993 as a 21-year-old student at The Curtis Institute of Music when he substituted at last minute's notice for André Watts 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. Already an accomplished artist at the time, Mr. Liu had made his New York orchestral debut two years earlier.

Following Mr. Liu's triumph in Philadelphia, an appearance with the Philadelphia Orchestra was immediately scheduled, but it was not to be. The stellar beginning of his 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 full health and is now once again performing on the concert stage. Since then, he has performed throughout the world as a soloist in recitals and with orchestras under conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Gustavo Dudamel and Alan Gilbert. In 2002, Liu received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Philadelphia Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award. A sought-after musician and strong advocate of chamber music, Liu performs in music festivals across the globe and has worked with international musicians Shmuel Ashkenasi, David Soyer, Bernard Greenhouse, James Buswell, Wendy Warner as well as the Borromeo and St. Lawrence Quartets. Liu also collaborates with artists in varied disciplines, such as Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project, among other dance companies. His concerts have been 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 thirteen was accepted by The Curtis Institute of Music to study with Jorge Bolet, Claude Frank, and Eleanor Sokoloff, and received first prizes in the Stravinsky, Asia Pacific and Mieczyslaw Munz piano competitions. Since 1993, Liu served on the piano and chamber music faculties at The Curtis Institute of Music where he coordinated the piano chamber music program from 1999-2009, and in 2006, he joined the faculty at Roosevelt University. Liu also joined Chicago Chamber Musicians in the fall of 2009, and now serves as Artistic Director of the ensemble, where performances have already been acclaimed for his "faultless, discreetly balanced pianism" (Chicago Classical Review).

(2013)

新聞稿（Oct.31, 2013）

由中華表演藝術基金會主辦, 十月二十六日在紐英倫音樂學院喬登廳Jordan Hall, 由小提琴胡乃元, 中提琴李捷琦, 大提琴章雨亭, 及鋼琴劉孟捷共同演出的音樂會, 在觀眾熱烈掌聲及樂評家高度的肯定下落幕了。如同陸惠風教授所題如詩的音樂主題”流光靜影”, 當晚音樂家的演奏如流水般激起五顏六色的光影, 透過水面滲透入更深的水底, 現出強有力且恆久的映象。

波士顿音樂情報雜誌( The Boston Musical Intelligencer)樂評家對於當晚的演出有高度讚賞及很詳細的描述: “開場由小提琴胡乃元及中提琴李捷琦演奏莫扎特G大調小提琴與中提琴雙重奏。貴族般的胡乃元及狂放的李捷琦合作無間, 淋漓盡致的表現出了兩位所彈奏樂器的個性”...“接著由大提琴章雨亭及及鋼琴劉孟捷演奏孟德爾頌的D大調大提琴與鋼琴奏鳴曲第2號作品58。透過豐富的肢體語言, 章雨亭展現出他豐富情感, 達至精美無以倫比的境界 ….呼應著大提琴的撥奏, 劉孟捷彈出多彩多姿, 卻又透明潔淨的音樂, 美麗又狂熱。兩組雙重奏精彩的演出, 觀眾為之動容。中場後, 四位音樂家再次回到舞台, 精湛的演奏出了佛瑞的C小調鋼琴四重奏作品15, 觀眾隨著音符神然飛楊, 為當晚演出達至最亮麗美好的高峰。”

這四位優秀音樂家, 在自己領域裡各有一片天。演出時默契十足讓人以為他們這樣的合作已有數年。但不知, 四位都是中華表演藝術基金會主辦的胡桃山音樂營的教師, 在一次教師音樂會裡表演甚被叫好青睞。同樣曲目, 已在芝加哥及達拉斯巡迴演出。四位個性明顯, 風格各異, 自成一格, 卻合作無間呈現了室內樂最完美的組合。

緊接著, 中華表演藝術基金會將於十一月十五日晚八點在紐英倫音樂學院喬登廳Jordan Hall再舉辦一場人人等待, 慶祝殷承宗在紐約卡內基音樂廳首演三十周年所做的巡迴演出。購票開始, 詳情請看www.ChinesePerformingArts.net。

October 27, 2013
Sonic Light from Chinese Chamber Players
by Michael Johnson

“Light and Shadow” at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall Saturday night was sponsored by the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts, a worthy non-profit organization devoted mainly to boosting young Chinese musicians and artists. The pianist and three string players who appeared in various combinations through the evening were well beyond boosting.

First on the program was the familiar Mozart Duo for Violin and Viola No. 1, K423, notable for its contrapuntal playfulness. The duo is one of two such pieces Mozart dashed off during a visit to Salzburg in 1783 to introduce his new wife Constanza to the paterfamilias. Scholars disagree on the oft-told story of Mozart slipping his two duos secretly to Michael Haydn to help him meet a crucial deadline. As the program cautiously put it, “perhaps true, perhaps not”.

Featuring the lyrical talents of violinist Nai-Yuan Hu and violist Scott Lee, the piece opens with a stirring allegro that allows the two players to intertwine in spiral mode. In the adagio, the viola takes the lead but soon passes it back to the violin. A vigorous rondo allegro rounds out the piece as the players trade voices, merging in unison and parting ways repeatedly. The patrician Hu and the wildly emotive Lee reversed the typical personalities of their respective instrumental types.

Felix Mendelssohn’s Sonata for cello and piano No. 2, opus 58, composed for his cellist brother Paul, allows the piano and cello to perform as equals in this lively pairing so carefully balanced. The startling full-bore opening in allegro assai vivace by Tsang’s powerful cello established themes and moods to follow. Tsang’s playing, reflected in his telegraphing smiles and frowns, was something close to exquisite. But the most interesting movement to this reviewer was the second, which sets off in allegretto scherzando with Liu’s lively piano theme, echoed in pizzicato by the cello. Soon Tsang took over with a second theme backed by Liu’s lush yet transparent playing. The extended molto allegro vivace finale recalls Mendelssohn’s classic “Spinning Song” from the Songs Without Words, as the tempo increases to feverishly.

After tearing through Mozart and Mendelssohn in two pairings, all four players returned to the stage, very much on form, with a superb performance of Gabriel Faure’s Piano Quartet in C Minor, Opus 15, the highlight of the evening.

With storied Meng-Chieh Liu at the piano and his three partners, cellist Bion Tsang, violist Scott Lee and violinist Nai-Yuan Hu, this ad hoc but very simpatico group of established pros played as if they had been touring together for years. In fact they had recently played the same Faure in Chicago and Dallas, and the experience showed.

It is worth noting that this quartet almost never happened. Only with the support of the French National Music Society created by Saint-Saens in 1871 to spotlight young composers did Faure set to work on it.

The foursome launched into the quartet with an allegro molto moderato piano theme soon taken up by the violin, then passed around and developed by tout l’ensemble. The scherzo changes the mood to a delightful, spirited solo piano opening echoed by pizzicato strings. The theme and its echo recur twice as the scherzo races on. A deeply emotional adagio follows, richly melodic, finally giving way to the surprisingly big sound of the allegro molto finale. By the end, a listener to these seasoned players is virtually floating airborne.

Perfection of ensemble is not all that matters, even though we got a successful marriage of four strong personalities whose individuality was not subsumed: Liu was the expansive visionary and colorist, Hu the bel canto singer, Lee the Ethel Merman (“Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better”), and Tsang the dominating swashbuckler.

The poetic title for the evening, “Light and Shadows,” deriving from Chinese characters meaning light that penetrates deeply as through water, leaving a lasting impression, was chosen to reflect the power and durability of the repertoire.

Under the determined direction of Cathy Chan since 1989, the Foundation has supported any art that is Chinese. Last night the Sino-connection was the players’ backgrounds, since the repertoire was entirely European.

Michael Johnson is a former Moscow correspondent who writes on music for the International Herald Tribune, Clavier Companion, and other publications. He divides his time between Bordeaux and Brookline.