Foundation for Chinese
Performing Arts
Summer FREE Concert @ NEC 2023
夏日系列音樂會
at New England Conservatory,
Boston, Massachusetts Aug
10 to 26, 2023
All concerts Admission Free, suggested donation $10 at door
Age 6 and under not admitted
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY
(1840-1893)
Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23 (Second Edition, 1879)
I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso
20'
II. Andantino simplice
6.5'
III. Allegro con fuoco
7.5'
Soloist: 傅聰國際協奏曲比賽
2023 concerto competition winner
Che Li
李澈
~Intermission~
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF
(1873-1943) Symphony No. 3 in A minor,
Op. 44
(1935-1936) I.
Lento – Allegro moderato – Allegro
14'
II. Adagio ma non troppo – Allegro vivace
13'
III. Allegro – Allegro vivace – Allegro (Tempo primo) –
Allegretto – Allegro vivace
13'
To the
grand finale of 2023 Summer Free Concerts @ NEC on
8/26 at Jordan Hall, Chi Wei Lo of the Boston
Musical Intelligencer commend on this stunning
display of strength, momentum and wondrous beauty,
and we quote: “Under the baton of Channing Yu,
the Mercury Orchestra brimmed over with magic and
vitality. Right from the introduction of the
concerto, one sensed the majestic, yet charming
granduer in Li’s pianism. Li’s gave an immaculate
and pristine take of the first theme; the second and
third themes sounded sentimental and ever flowing.
In polyphony, Li brought out the varying voices with
tasteful clarity, seemingly intertwined and separate
all at once. Under Yu, Mercury Orchestra showed
itself to be illustrious, supportive, communicative,
respectful, and loving. With rapture, the crowd
called Li back four times.”
Admission Free, suggested donation $10 at door.
Age 6 and under not admitted.
中華表演藝術基金會
Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts
Lincoln, Massachusetts
photos: Chung Cheng event photos: Xiaopei Xu and Chi Wei Lo
Che
Li, male, was born in Zhejiang, China in April 2001. He
recently graduated from New England Conservatory of Music
with his bachelor’s degree of music in Piano Performance. He
began to learn piano from his mother at the age of four. In
2013, he was admitted to Shanghai Conservatory of Music and
studied with Professor Yunlin Yang. In 2019, he was admitted
to the New England Conservatory and studied with Professor
Haesun Paik.
He has made many achievements in China and abroad, some of
which are as following: In 2015, he won the third place in
the professional youth group of the fourth German Omeil Cup
Qingdao International Piano Open.
In 2016, he won the second prize of the professional youth
group of the 16th Xinghai Cup National Children's Piano
Competition (the first prize is vacant). In February 2017,
he won the first place in the professional youth group of
the second National Youth Piano Open of the affiliated
middle school cup of Shanghai Conservatory of music. In May
2018, he won the second place in the professional youth
group of the 63rd German Gaotian Competition in China. In
July 2018, he won the third place in the concerto
professional group competition of the eighth Shenzhen Piano
Open competition Che Li has held solo and Concerto concerts
in Shanghai, Wenzhou, Hefei, California, and other places.
These include: In November 2016, he performed "Grieg Piano
Concerto in a minor" with Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra at
He Luting Concert Hall of Shanghai Conservatory of music; In
April 2017, he successfully held a solo concert in the
Conservatory of music of Wenzhou
University. On November 7, 2018, a solo concert was held in
concert hall attached to Shanghai Conservatory of Music. On
July 29, 2019, he cooperated with the Santa Monica Symphony
Orchestra in "Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor" at the
Colburn Conservatory of Music in the United States. On
September 19, 2020, the "New Star Shines in the Yangtze
River Delta" -- the concert of Zhong Hang and Che Li Chinese
young pianists studying in the United States, was held in
Hefei Grand Theater.
Che Li has participated in the exchange and study of
International Piano Master Classes for many times and
received the guidance and instruction of many
internationally renowned piano educators.
Mercury Orchestra MERCURY ORCHESTRA
WINS 2010 AMERICAN PRIZE COMPETITION
www.mercuryorchestra.org (CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—June 18, 2010) The Mercury Orchestra has been selected
as the national winner of the 2010 American Prize in Orchestral
Performance, community orchestra division, in a competition including
orchestras from 26 states and the District of Columbia.
The American Prize is a series of new non-profit national competitions
designed to recognize and reward the very best in the performing arts in
the United States. Founded in 2009, the American Prize rewards the best
recorded performances of music by individuals and ensembles in the
United States at the professional, community/amateur,
college/university, church and school levels.
The 97-member Mercury Orchestra, directed by the young American
conductor Channing Yu, brings together some of the most talented amateur
musicians in the Cambridge/Boston area to perform some of the most
challenging works in the symphonic repertoire. Now in its third season,
the orchestra will perform two highly colorful and evocative
works—Stravinsky’s Petrushka (1911) and Berlioz’s Symphonie
fantastique—on July 17 in Sanders Theatre at Harvard University in
Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In their evaluations, the competition judges praised the orchestra’s
"excellent interpretations" and made special mention of the orchestra’s
"thrilling rendition of the Rondo-Finale from the Mahler Symphony No.
5," taken from a live recording of the orchestra’s performance in July
2009. "What an incredible honor for the Mercury Orchestra," says Maestro
Yu, who is also a finalist in the 2010 American Prize for Conducting
competition. "The musicians in our orchestra are some of the most
dedicated, serious, and expressive artists I have ever worked with, and
it is a thrill to make music together."
The Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra of West Windsor, N.J., took second
prize, and the Auburn University/Community Orchestra of Auburn, Ala.,
won third prize. The judges’ decision was announced on June 18, 2010, on
the American Prize website, where the three orchestras were
congratulated "for their outstanding achievement, ranked among the
finest community orchestras in the country."
Justin Albstein, Mercury Orchestra’s general manager, says, "it’s
wonderful that our orchestra has received this recognition in only its
second year. The musicians deserve tremendous credit for taking on some
of the most challenging pieces in the repertoire and succeeding
brilliantly."
Adds Brian Van Sickle, principal flutist: "This is really an honor to
receive such recognition. What I love most about playing in this
orchestra is how sensitively all of the players work together and listen
to one another. It’s a thrill to be a part of it all."
Channing Yu
music director and conductor American
orchestra and opera conductor Channing Yu is Music Director of the
Mercury Orchestra in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Music Director of Bay
Colony Brass in Watertown, Massachusetts. He is national winner of the
2010 American Prize in Orchestral Conducting in the community orchestra
division.
He has also served as Artistic Director and Conductor of the Lowell
House Opera, the oldest opera company in New England, where he conducted
over thirty fully staged performances with orchestra, including
Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier,
Puccini’s Turandot, Verdi’s Otello, and Puccini’s Tosca. For his musical
direction of Tosca, he was awarded second prize in the 2011 American
Prize in Opera Conducting national competition.
His 2013–14 invitational engagements include conducting the Fall River
Symphony Orchestra (Fall River, MA) and Berlin Sinfonietta (Berlin,
Germany), and adjudicating for the James Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute
Competition, the Brookline Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and
the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts Concerto Competition.
Of the Lowell House Opera’s performance of Otello, The Harvard Crimson
wrote, "The production’s hero was the orchestra, under the keen
direction of Channing Yu. Yu was able to channel all the energy of the
80-member ensemble into moments that spanned the entire emotional
spectrum—from sheer joy to complete misery. The sound produced by the
orchestra was stylish, heartfelt, and on the whole, refined." The Boston
Musical Intelligencer noted, "The real star of the performance was the
orchestra, led with great skill by Channing Yu."
He served as guest conductor at the University of North Carolina,
Charlotte, in its 2008 production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s baroque
opera Les arts florissants. He guest conducted the Westmoreland Symphony
Orchestra in 2008 and 2009. He was invited as one of fourteen conductors
worldwide to work with conductors Neeme Järvi, Leonid Grin, and Paavo
Järvi in master classes at the 2009 Leigo Lakes Music Days Festival in
Estonia. In 2010, he worked with George Pehlivanian and L’Ensemble
Orchestral de València in Spain. In 2013 he worked with Johannes
Schlaefli and conducted the Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria.
He began formal study of conducting at Harvard University with James
Yannatos; there he served as assistant conductor of the
Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and conductor of the Toscanini Chamber
Orchestra. Since then, he has worked with a number of conductor teachers
in the master class setting, including Kenneth Kiesler, Diane Wittry,
Charles Peltz, and Frank Battisti.
Channing Yu grew up in Pennsylvania. Originally trained as a pianist, he
was a divisional grand prize winner of the American Music Scholarship
Association International Piano Competition, and he has appeared as
piano soloist with numerous orchestras including the Pittsburgh Symphony
Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic
Orchestra, and Orchèstra Nova. He has been praised by The Boston Globe
for his "imaginative piano work." He performs with the chamber ensemble
sul ponticello, in Cambridge, MA. As a violinist, he has served as
concertmaster of the Brahms Society Orchestra and as violinist in the
Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. He was a founding member of the string
quartet Quartetto Periodico. As a lyric baritone, he has performed with
the Boston Opera Collaborative, in the Richard Crittenden Opera Workshop
in Boston, and in the Neil Semer Vocal Institute in Coesfeld and Aub,
Germany. He also sings with the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the Grammy
award-winning chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston
Pops. He is a member of the faculty of the Powers Music School in
Belmont, Massachusetts. Channing Yu lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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