Max Tan, violin
https://www.maxtanviolin.com/

“warmly rhapsodic” – The Boston Globe
“eloquent” — The New York Times
“rhetorical playing that transcends the barlines” — Wieniawski Gazette
“grand, exemplary, and immersed” – The Boston Music Intelligencer

Taiwanese-American violinist Max Tan has been praised as “eloquent” (New York Times) and “warmly rhapsodic” (Boston Globe) for “rhetorical playing that transcends the barlines”(Wieniawski Gazette). Forging a varied career as performer and educator, he has performed internationally on some of the world’s most venerable stages, soloing with the Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, The Juilliard Orchestra amongst others. Recipient of the 2023 Gershen Cohen Violin Award, Dr. Tan made his Carnegie Hall recital debut in April 2024. This summer sees the release of Dr. Tan’s debut CD on Centaur Records featuring unpublished manuscripts by the Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, and an essay on these manuscripts in a new book celebrating Juilliard’s archival treasures.

An ardent advocate for the music of our time, Dr. Tan is committed to arts diplomacy, education, and community engagement. As founder and artistic director of Soundbox Ventures, he curates Listen Hear Salon Concerts and co-directs the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program. He has guest-taught seminars on performance practice at Juilliard, the Tianjin Juilliard School, and the Central Conservatory of Music (Beijing). An alumnus of Harvard and Juilliard, Dr. Tan is assistant faculty of violin and chamber music at Juilliard’s Pre-College Division and concertmaster of Opera Philadelphia. Dr. Tan’s important mentors include Albert Markov, Lynn Chang, Catherine Cho, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman.

Forging a varied career as performer and educator, he has performed internationally on some of the world’s most venerable stages, soloing with the Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, The Juilliard Orchestra, amongst others. His performances have been broadcasted on WQXR (New York), WFMT (Chicago), WSMR (Sarasota), Musiq3 (Belgium), Polish Radio and Radio Poznan (Poland).

Recipient of the 2023 Gershen Cohen Violin Award, Mr. Tan makes his Carnegie Hall recital debut with pianist Marisa Gupta on April 3, 2024. Notable festival appearances include La Jolla Summerfest, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, YellowBarn, Chelsea Music Festival, and Prussia Cove. He has given the premieres of works by important living composers in North America and Asia, including Sur la corde raide by French composer Jean-Frederic Neuberger, Phylogenie by Japanese composer Misato Mochizuki, Night Scenery by Chinese composer Sang Tong, and chamber works by Catalan composer Marc Migó. His writings about music have appeared in The Juilliard Journal in New York and L’education musicale in France. Mr. Tan’s current dissertation research centers on the provenance of unpublished arrangements of Chausson’s Poème and other notable works for violin, piano, and organ by Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, the first recordings of which will be released in the coming months. His performances of these newly uncovered works have taken place in New York and Sarasota, Florida. Recently, he gave a lecture-performance on Ysaÿe's arrangement of Chausson's Poème at the Tianjin Juilliard School’s library opening, and also taught seminars on performance practice to students at Tianjin Juilliard and the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

A Harvard alumnus and current doctoral candidate at Juilliard, Mr. Tan is founder and artistic director of Soundbox Ventures, which just launched the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program as well as the Listen Hear Salon Concerts series. He is concertmaster of Opera Philadelphia and assistant faculty of violin at Juilliard’s Pre-College, in addition to maintaining his private studio. His mentors at Juilliard include Catherine Cho, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman.


Zhu Wang, pianoA
https://yca.org/artist/wang-zhu/

“Technical mastery and a deep sense of lyricism.” - The Durango Herald

Praised as “especially impressive” and “a thoughtful, sensitive performer” who “balanced lyrical warmth and crisp clarity” (Tommasini - The New York Times), pianist Zhu Wang was awarded First Prize in the 2020 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. He is also the first prize winner of the 2nd Zhuhai International Mozart Competition for Young Musicians, 4th Manhattan International Music Competition, Hilton Head Young Artist Piano Competition, the Juilliard Gina Bachauer International Scholarship Piano Competition, and the Juilliard Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. In 2019, Zhu was one of three finalists in the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, and he has been a featured soloist on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase and WFMT’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts.

Celebrated for his “technical mastery and deep sense of lyricism,” (The Durango Herald), Zhu has appeared in recital at Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars Series, Southampton Rising Stars, Music at Dumbarton Oaks, The Morgan Library & Museum, Hayden’s Ferry Chamber Music Series, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Salon de Virtuosi, and Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, which made The New York Times’ “Best of Classical Music 2021” list.

An avid chamber musician he has appeared with Chamber Music Detroit, Vancouver Recital Society, La Jolla Music Society, Stanford Live, Hamilton College, Howland Chamber Music Series, Chesapeake Music, Clarion Concerts, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Music@Menlo, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Since his orchestral debut at age 14 with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, where he performed Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21, recent and upcoming include the Columbus Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Fort Collins Symphony, Memphis Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and Aiken Symphony, as well as a performance this season at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony, with conductors such as Rossen Milanov, Paolo Bortolameolli, Robert Moody, and Wes Kinney.

Zhu has performed all over the world in China, Korean, Italy, Poland, Japan, at prestigious venues including the Kammermusiksaal of Berliner Philharmonie, Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall and as soloist with Salzburg Chamber Soloists, Zermatt Music Festival Orchestra, Brunensis Virtuosi Orchestra, and the Xiamen Philharmonic. This season he will perform with Randall Goosby at Queen Elizabeth Hall in South Bank.

Zhu has been honored to study with and perform for many influential pianists, including Gary Graffman, Arie Vardi, Fou Ts’ong, Stephen Hough, Murray Perahia, Jerome Lowenthal, Robert Levin, Matti Raekallio, and Jeremy Denk. He is also the recipient of special prizes for the best Waltz, Preludes, and Mazurka in the 5th International Chopin Young Artist Piano Competition and the 16th Asian Chopin International Piano Competition in Japan.

A native of Hunan, China, Zhu started learning piano at the age of five. He is a graduate of the Music Middle School affiliated to the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Zhe Tang and Fou Ts'ong. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, and is currently pursuing his Masters from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald. He gratefully acknowledges the support of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.