event photos: Chung Cheng event photos: Xiaopei Xu and Chi Wei Lo

Ayano Ninomiya, violin

Praised by The New York Times as "deeply communicative and engrossing," violinist Ayano Ninomiya is committed to creating invigorating live performance experiences from concert stages to private homes and public schools. The Boston Globe wrote that, "A note from her was never just a note...Whatever project she takes on next, it is sure to be worth a listen."

Equally at home as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Ayano has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to recent performances at Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Merkin Hall, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 with the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Recent performances include solos with A Far Cry and the Jacksonville Symphony, as well as recitals at the Music Mountain Festival, the Sembrich Opera Museum, and the Moab Festival. She will also perform with Beaux Arts Series (FL), Chamber Music International (TX), Boston Chamber Music Series, and Chameleon Ensemble (MA), as well as at the Cooperstown, Orford (Canada), Bowdoin, Morningside Music, Interlochen Arts, and Anchorage chamber music festivals.

She has won numerous awards, including the Naumburg International Violin Competition, the Tibor Varga International Competition, Astral Artists National Auditions, and the Young Performer’s Career Advancement Award (APAP). As a recording artist, Ayano has released a variety of albums including a solo album of works for violin by Larry Bell and more recently, three albums as the first violinist of the Ying Quartet: an album of the complete quartets by Robert Schumann, an album of the complete quartets by Anton Arensky, and a third album, “American Anthem” (Sono Luminus), featuring works by Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson.

In 2012 Ayano was invited to give a TEDx talk at the University of Tokyo. More recently, she has given numerous lecture demonstrations for organizations and festivals on topics ranging from Aikido principles as they pertain to playing the violin to sustaining a varied career. Other past projects include a benefit performance for victims of the 2009 Haiti earthquake, a fundraiser in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake with sumo wrestler Konishiki, and the creation of her own Elderhostel “Day of Adventure” programs in NYC that gave an insider's view of making music. As a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship, Ayano conducted research of scores at the Bartók Archives in Budapest, Hungary, working with musicologist László Somfai.

During the summers, she has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Kingston, Skaneateles, Caramoor, Bowdoin, and Moab music festivals, as well as at Prussia Cove's International Musicians Seminar, the Canberra International Festival (Australia), and the Adams Festival (New Zealand), among others. She has been invited to tour France and the west and east coasts of the U.S. and France with "Musicians from Marlboro" (Marlboro Festival) and "Musicians from the Steans Institute" (Ravinia Festival). She is also a founding member of the exciting conductorless string orchestra, ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), which is composed of soloists and leaders of quartets and orchestras from around the United States. Because of her own experience beginning the violin in a public school program in Boston at the age of seven, Ayano has given numerous programs for children across the U.S. from Bethlehem, New Hampshire to Columbia, Missouri, to Denton, Maryland, including many in the greater Philadelphia area.

Ayano, whose principal teachers and mentors include Miriam Fried, Robert Mann, Eszter Perenyi, Michele Auclair, and Robert Levin, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University. She graduated with her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School and then went on to study at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. From 2010-2015, Ayano was first violinist of the renowned Ying Quartet and Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. In the fall of 2015 she joined the violin faculty of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at the East Harlem Justice Center and volunteer at the Lighthouse Music School (NYC). In her spare time, she loves to paint and practice Aikido.

Pei-Shan Lee 李蓓珊, piano

"Exquisite balance… finesse and beauty." - The STRAD
"A consummate collaborative pianist." - Washington Post
"Lee supported in tones both feurig und innig..." - Boston Musical Intelligencer
"To end an eclectic evening, violinist Ayano Ninomiya and pianist Pei-Shan Lee plunged into the lush world of Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata, in which Ninomiya’s long bow strokes contrasted with Lee’s glittering counterpoint. Apart from the magnificent finale, I was moved by the middle movement – sensuous, tender and luminous." - The STRAD

Pianist PEI-SHAN LEE’s active concert career has taken her to The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, and tours of France, Germany, Belgium, and Israel. Her many summer festival appearances include The Mostly Mozart Festival, Caramoor Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Chautauqua Institute, Music Academy of the West, Heifetz International Music Institute, the International Piano Festival in Spain, the International Piano Festival at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, ProQuartet in France, the Great Wall International Music Academy in China, and the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan.

A member of the Collaborative Piano and Chamber Music faculty at the New England Conservatory, Ms. Lee recently created a new MM in Collaborative Piano at the California State University Northridge. She will also head the Collaborative Piano Fellowships at the Bowdoin International Music Festival starting in the summer of 2015.

Since coming to the United States from Taiwan, Ms. Lee has collaborated with some of America’s most important musicians: violinists Donald Weilerstein, Ani Kavafian, Jacques Israelievitch, Joseph Silverstein, Ryu Goto, and Stefan Jackiw; violists Kim Kashkashian, Dimitri Murrath, Edward Gazouleas, and Che-Yen Chen; cellists Paul Katz, Robert DeMaine, Andres Diaz, and Pieter Wispelwey; flutist Jeanne Baxtresser; and pianist James Tocco. Her chamber music partners have included the Jupiter, the Harlem, and the Formosa String Quartets, members of the Bavarian Radio, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Diego Symphony Orchestras and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In her hometown of Boston, Ms. Lee has performed at NEC, MIT, Boston Ballet, and in recitals with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She also works with BSO’s guest conductors and soloists, and was the Boston pianist seen in rehearsal with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in her documentary “The Portrait”. Her live performances can also be heard on WQXR, WGBH, and WRCJ. In 2006, she was appointed pianist for Itzhak Perlman’s violin studio at the Perlman Music Program and has since joined its faculty in the Sarasota Winter Residency. She also served on the faculty of the Chautauqua School of Music, as staff pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the famed Meadowmount School for Strings. Ms. Lee’s artistry and comprehensive knowledge of the chamber music and collaborative literature have made her a highly sought after partner for many up-and-coming young artists, especially string and woodwind players.

Ms. Lee came to the U.S. for piano study after winning the Youth Division of Taiwan’s National Piano Competition. The Cleveland Institute awarded her the Rosa Lobe Memorial Award in recognition of the highest level of artistic achievement in Collaborative Piano. Her doctoral thesis “The Collaborative Pianist: Balancing Roles in Partnership”, has become an important resource for schools wishing to begin/develop a Collaborative Piano program, and is available at ProQuest. Frequently invited to China and Taiwan for master classes and residencies, her dissertation is currently in the process of being translated by the Chinese.

Degrees: DMA, New England Conservatory; Artist Diploma, Cleveland Institute of Music; MM, The Juilliard School; BM, Manhattan School of Music

鋼琴家李蓓珊近年來活躍於國際舞台上, 現任美國新英格蘭音樂學院之鋼琴合奏及室內樂教授。她曾在甘乃迪中心, 紐約林肯中心的 Avery Fisher 和 Alice Tully 音樂廳, 卡內基大廳的 Weill 演奏廳, 波士頓的 Jordan 音樂廳, 克利夫蘭的 Severance 音樂廳, 台灣的國家音樂廳演奏, 以及法國, 德國, 比利時, 以色列巡演。李蓓珊曾應邀參加林肯中心的 Mostly Mozart 音樂節, Caramoor 音樂節, Great Lakes 室內樂音樂節, 海菲茨國際夏令音樂節, Chautauqua音樂節, Music Academy of the West 音樂節, 北京長城國際音樂夏令營, 西班牙國際鋼琴音樂節, 莫斯科柴可夫斯基音樂學院國際鋼琴音樂節, 以及法國 Pro Quartet 等著名音樂節.

出生於台灣台北, 李蓓珊曾多次獲得音樂學院頒發的優異榮譽。在台灣省鋼琴大賽青少年組得獎后, 她赴美進修鋼琴獨奏與合奏藝術, 曾與多位著名演奏家和室內樂團體合作, 如: 小提琴家 Donald Weilerstein, Ani Kavafian, Jacques Israelievitch, Joseph Silverstein, Ryu Goto (五嶋龍), Stefan Jackiw; 中提琴家 Kim Kashkashian, Dimitri Murrath; 大提琴家 Paul Katz, Andres Diàz; 鋼琴家 James Tocco, 及 Jupiter 和 Harlem 弦樂四重奏。她亦曾與波士頓交響樂團, 紐約愛樂, 芝加哥交響樂團, 辛辛那提交響樂團, 底特律交響樂團, 洛杉磯愛樂, 多倫多交響樂團, 巴伐利亞廣播交響樂團等團員, 以及伊麗莎白女皇, 梅紐因, 慕尼黑, Primrose, 和 Tibor Varga 等國際大賽的首獎選手合作演出.

李蓓珊博士除了在新英格蘭音樂學院 New England Conservatory 鋼琴合奏及室內樂系任教外, 最近還受聘於加州大學北嶺分校 California State University Northridge, 並著手計劃為該校設計創辦鋼琴合奏研究所, 於 2013 年開始招生, 這將會是加州 CSU 各大分校中之第一個鋼琴合奏研究所。她近期與小提琴家 Grzegorz Kotow 合錄的史特勞斯、齊瑪諾夫斯基的小提琴與鋼琴奏鳴曲將由雅砌音樂公司發行。她的現場錄音也經常播放於美國紐約和波士頓的古典音樂電台.

現定居於美國波士頓和洛杉磯, 李蓓珊定期在麻省理工學院, 波士頓芭蕾舞團表演, 以及同波士頓交響樂團團員舉辦演奏會, 並經常與波士頓交響樂團客席指揮和獨奏家合作, 曾參與德國著名小提琴家安索菲穆特之紀錄片 “The Portrait” 在波士頓的攝製。在任教於新英格蘭音樂學院之前, 著名小提琴家帕爾曼聘請李蓓珊為其音樂營之鋼琴合奏老師, 現仍續任於 Perlman Music Program。她亦曾任教於 Chautauqua 音樂夏令營, 及擔任克利夫蘭音樂學院和 Meadowmount 弦樂音樂營之專任合奏老師.

在美深造期間, 李蓓珊成為茱莉亞音樂學院和 Music Academy of the West 錄取年紀最輕的鋼琴合奏學生, 曾在多個知名藝術家的教研室工作, 如: 小提琴家 Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, Midori Goto, Miriam Fried; 中提琴家 Karen Tuttle, Kim Kashkashian; 大提琴家 Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Joel Krosnick, Richard Aaron; 長笛家 Julius Baker, Jeanne Baxtresser, Paula Robinson。在新英格蘭音樂學院攻讀博士期間, 她組建了柏拉圖鋼琴三重奏 Plato Trio, 被選為該校之榮譽重奏組。其與器樂合奏深厚之藝術造詣及演奏經驗, 使她成為許多新進年輕獨奏家邀約合作的對象.

李蓓珊曾就讀於曼哈頓音樂學院, 茱莉亞音樂學院, 克利夫蘭音樂學院, 新英格蘭音樂學院, 並獲得諸多榮譽, 其中克利夫蘭音樂學院頒發的 Rosa Lobe 紀念獎被視為鋼琴合奏的最高藝術成就。其新英格蘭音樂學院的博士論文 “The Collaborative Pianist: Balancing Roles in Partnership” 深刻探索了音樂學院建立鋼琴合奏系 Collaborative Piano Program 之相關要題, 現正被廣泛閱讀, 收錄於美國 ProQuest, 近期內亦將出版中文譯本。

 

NOTES ON THE PROGRAM
By Dr. Jannie Burdeti