Festival Artists
- January 3, 2015
- Posted by: admin
- Category: Uncategorized
Cello
In her international career spanning nearly four decades, cellist Myung-Wha Chung has established herself as a consummate artist of extraordinary musicality.
Ms. Chung has repeatedly appeared as soloist with leading orchestras and in recitals in Europe, North and South America, Asia and her native Korea.
She has been a featured performer in many festivals including Lucerne, Maggio Musicale of Florence, Spoleto, and Dijon. She has performed at the White House and the United Nations and appeared on nationally televised programs in the United States, Europe and Korea.
In addition to her concert performances, Ms. Chung teaches at the Korean National Institute of Arts in Seoul and serves as Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF in Korea and also a special envoy for the City of Seoul.
Violin
Born in 1987 in Seoul, Zia Hyunsu Shin won the Grand Prize in the Honam Arts Violin Competition at the age of nine, and since then has successfully participated in a number of international competitions. She has won national and international awards including the Second Prize in the Junior session of the 2002 Menuhin International Violin Competition, the First Prize at the Washington Johansen International Competition in 2003, as well as the Second Prize and the Audience Prize at the Hannover International Violin Competition 2006. In 2007 she was awarded as “New Artist of the Year” by the Music Association of Korea. In addition to the First Prize of the renowned Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris in November 2008, Shin also won the Third Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium in 2012.
Shin made her debut with Jeonju Municipal Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten and has performed with Russian National Symphony, Seoul Municipal Symphony and the America National Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. Highlights of the 2008/09 season included a tour in Asia and her performance in Bolshoi Hall of Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow.
Zia Shin has appeared as a soloist with the Washington National Orchestra under the baton of Ivan Fischer, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra with Conductor Michiyoshi Inoue, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Kyoto Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the KBS Symphony Orchestra. In April 2010, she was invited to the Beppu Argerich Music Festival in Japan and performed a Duo Recital with pianist Dong-Hyek Lim. Proudly representing Korean musicians, Zia Shin participated in the Asian Games Concert: Music for Sports & Harmony, organized by UNESCO to celebrate the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. In 2012, she performed with Maestro Daniel Harding in Japan and Maestro Gilbert Varga in Mexico. Shin continues to appear as a recitalist and ensemble musician in international music festivals including the Copenhagen Music Festival and the Great Mountains International Music Festival.
Shin continues her study with Professor Nam Yun Kim under the Professional Program at Korean National University of Arts. She is currently playing on The Antonio Stradivarius, Cremona, “ex-strauss,” 1708; kindly on loan from The Samsung Foundation of Culture of Korea and The Stradivari SocietyR of Chicago, Illinois.
Piano
Audiences throughout the world revere Ilya Itin’s unique artistry. Ilya is known for his extraordinary range, power, quality of sound and command of the piano. Since capturing the Gold Medal, BBC Audience Award, and Contemporary Music Prize at the 1996 Leeds International Piano Competition, Ilya Itin has performed throughout the world bringing his powerful musical imagination and mastery to wide ranging repertoire.
Ilya Itin has performed with many of the world’s great conductors, including Sir Simon Rattle, Neemi Jarvi, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Yakov Kreizberg, Vassily Sinaisky, Valery Polyansky, and Mikhail Pletnev performing as soloist with orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Tokyo Symphony, the National Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the China National Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of India; the Mexico City Philharmonic; and the Rochester Philharmonic.
Born in Yekaterinburg, Russia, his piano studies began at the Sverdlovsk School for the Gifted with Natalia Litvinova. He went on to graduate from the Moscow Conservatory with the highest honors in 1990 working with legendary teacher Lev Naumov. Mr. Itin won his first major piano competition while at the Conservatory, taking second place in the 1990 Russian National Rachmaninov Competition. Soon after, he won top honors in the William Kapell Competition, followed by First Prize, and the Special Chopin Prize at the Casadesus Competition (Cleveland Competition), and the Best Performance of a Work of Mozart, Best Prokofiev Performance, and Third Prize at the Gina Bachauer Competition.
Known for her historical achievement as a Korean pianist at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in 2011, Pianist Yeol Eum Son’s graceful interpretations, crystalline touch, and versatile, thrilling performances have caught the attention of audiences worldwide.
Ms. Son first drew international attention when she appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Lorin Maazel on its 2004 tour of Asia and in 2008. Ms. Son solidified her reputation in 2009, when she claimed both the silver medal and the Steven De Groote Memorial Award for the Best Performance of Chamber Music in the Thirteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. This was followed two years later by a second-prize win at the XIV Tchaikovsky International Music Competition in Moscow, where she also received awards for the Best Chamber Concerto Performance and Best Performance of the Commissioned Work composed by Rodion Shchedrin.
A favorite among international orchestras, Ms. Son has appeared with the Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, among others. Ms. Son is also invited frequently to participate in international music festivals, including Beethoven Easter Festival, Rheingau Festival, Baltic Sea Festival, Ljubljana Festival, Portland Piano International and Bad-Kissingen Summer Music Festival.
Highlights of her 2014–15 season include appearances with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev at the Rotterdam Gergiev Festival, and with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern under the baton of Karel Mark Chichon at the Besancon Festival followed by Asia tour. She will also appear with the Tonkünstler-Orchesters Niederösterreich under Dmitri Kitajenko as well as the NDR Sinfonieorchester under Thomas Hengelbrock and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra under Junichi Hirokami. In addition, she performs in Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Tel Aviv, Bad-Kissingen and throughout Korea.
Yeol Eum Son currently studies with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany, where she now makes her home. She holds a degree from the Korean National University of Arts, under the guidance of Dae Jin Kim. She has also previously studied with Cheng-Zong Yin, one of China’s most prominent pianists. She also is an honorary ambassador both of the Seoul Arts Center and of her home city of Wonju, Korea. In addition to her busy performance schedule, she writes a monthly column for the Joong-Ang Ilbo, one of Korea’s most widely read newspaper.
A cappella
Yat Po Singers is the first professional a cappella choral theatre company in Hong Kong focusing on developing original theatrical works. It was founded by the solid team of three Co-Artistic Directors !X composer Ng Cheuk Yin, choral director Patrick Chiu and stage director/designer Yuri Ng !X and Executive Director (Honorary), Kathleen Ng.
The Company’s artistic mission is to promote a cappella art in Hong Kong, especially among young people, through original work by local artists that demonstrates the innovative interaction of music and theatre. Young singers and school teachers who participate in the company’s productions and activities are nurtured through intensive rehearsals, workshops, and public performances.
In 2012 and again in 2014, Yat Po Singers received the Springboard Grants under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme by the Home Affairs Bureau of the Government of HKSAR. The company aims at enhancing the arts in Hong Kong at large, in particular in audience building and arts education for professional performers and teachers.
Jazz Trio
Trio Elf is one of the most internationally acclaimed German jazz groups. It’s the only band from Germany that recently received a whole page in the American Downbeat, the most famous Jazz magazine in the world.
Trio Elf has truly re-invented the classic jazz piano trio in recent years by using grooves and sounds of contemporary club styles as a kickoff for improvisation. Their warm acoustic sound is augmented by the creative use of electronics. Trio Elf’s musical ease stems from melodies of an almost hymnic quality, dazzling rhythms und surprising dynamic shifts arising from a collective breathing of three equal voices.
Conductor
Leung Kin Fung was the awardee of the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons” in Hong Kong in 2002. Leung was the first Hong Kong musician to win the first prize at the “1992 Young Artist Competition” in New York while studying there on full scholarship at the Juilliard School as the winner of the “Irving Ruckens Award”. He also had previously won a significant award for his virtuosity on the viola, the second prize at “The 19th William Primrose International Viola Competition” in 1991.
Leung enjoys a world-class reputation, as demonstrated by his frequent worldwide performances, as well as regular concerto performances with orchestras. Leung has represented Hong Kong in many international music events. In 1999, he was selected by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in the USA to present a recital at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., as well as to perform the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto there with the Sino-America Music Foundation Symphony Orchestra. Leung has been invited each year beginning with the 2000 season to represent Hong Kong in the Super World Orchestra held in Tokyo, which is comprised of concertmasters and principals from the world’s leading orchestras. Leung was invited as the guest concertmaster for the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, and the Macau Symphony Orchestra in Macau, 2006.
In May 2005, Leung founded Hong Kong Pure Strings (HKPS), a string ensemble of top string musicians from all over the world where Leung served as the Artistic Director. In 2011, Leung serves as the Artistic Director of the Macao Virtuosi.