Fundraising Recital for The Frederick Collection of Historical Pianos
Saturday Evening, August 1, 2009 at 7:30
Ashburnham Community Church (Massachusetts, USA)
Admission $25., children & students, $5.
pianists: Siyue Wang, Yueting Lang, and Yuan Sheng
Polonaise No. 1 Franz Liszt
Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28 Frédéric Chopin
Ballade No. 1 in g, Op. 23 Frédéric Chopin Impromptu No. 1 in Ab, Op. 29
Berceuse, Op. 57
Mazurka in c#, Op. 30, No. 4
Tarantella, Op. 43
Andante spianato and Grand Polonaise, Op. 22
Erard piano, Paris, 1840
from The Frederick Collection
This concert is a fundraiser for The Historical Piano Study Center, centered around The Frederick Collection of Historical Grand Pianos in Ashburnham, Massachusetts.
The Collection, the most comprehensive resource of its kind in the United States, includes twenty-four grand pianos by important builders from around 1790 to 1928, mainly in Vienna, Paris, Leipzig and London, with three from the United States. Each instrument, in excellent playing condition, demonstrates characteristics of tone and touch known to the great composers of its time and place, and reveals aspects of the standard repertoire unavailable from the modern piano.
Located in the former public library building of the Town of Ashburnham, the Piano Collection is open to visitors year-around for individual and group tours, master classes, seminars and lecture-recitals. For more details, please visit the website, www.FrederickCollection.org
, or phone 978-827-6232.
No advance reservations. The church is handicapped-accessible.
Yuan Sheng has gained international recognition as a concert pianist through his extensive performances in Canada, China, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Morocco, Philippines, Poland, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland and United States. Harris Goldsmith of New York Concert Review proclaims that “ Mr. Sheng … is an artist of the highest quality……" (New York Concert Review, Summer 2004). The author of Reflections from the Keyboard David Dubal states that: “…Just listen to him, you will be charmed and touched!” In the March 2009 issue of the International Piano Magazine, Yuan Sheng was considered “The nation (China)’s premier interpreter of Bach.”
Yuan Sheng has performed as soloist with the Tenerife Symphony and the Gran Canaria Philharmonic in Spain, the Oradea State Philharmonic of Romania, the Central Philharmonic and the China Philharmonic in China, and the National Orchestra of Cuba. He has collaborated with conductors such as Sixten Ehrling, Delun Li, and David Gilbert. As a chamber musician, he has participated in the Seoul Spring Festival for Chamber Music, and has performed in duo-recitals with violinists Aaron Rosand, Arnold Steinhardt and Rachel Barton Pine. He has been seen and heard on WQXR, NPR stations in the US, CCTV and Beijing Music Radio in China, as well as national TV and radio stations in Cuba, France, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Poland, and Spain. He is a laureate of Marsala, Erice, Jaen, Beijing and Havana international piano competitions.
Mr. Sheng's articles have been published by leading music magazines in China. His recent series of sixteen articles, “Together We Love Bach”, have been published by the Piano Artistry. As a recipient of the National Young College Teachers’ Fund from Huoyindong Educational Foundation, Mr. Sheng will compile and write a method book of teaching Bach’s keyboard music as well as record four CDs of keyboard music of Bach in the coming years. His upcoming events will include a 5-recital-series of All-Bach-Program at the Beijing Forbidden City Concert Hall from July 2009 to July 2010.
Mr. Sheng has given lectures and master classes in the U. S., Canada, China, Croatia, Germany, South Korea and the Philippines. He is currently on the Piano faculty of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.
Born to a family of musicians in Beijing, Yuan Sheng began his music studies with his mother at age five, continuing them later at the Central Conservatory with Professors Qifang Li, Huili Li, and Guangren Zhou. From 1991 to 1997 Yuan Sheng was a scholarship student of Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he completed his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. His interest in the music of Bach inspired him to study intensively with Rosalyn Tureck.
Mr. Sheng will be in NYC from July 19 to 27, for the International Keyboard Institute and Festival at Mannes College, teaching and performing a recital. After teaching at Tanglewood from July 29 to Aug. 8, he will go to France to teach and perform in the MusicAlp Festival in Courchevel in the Alps.
Siyue Wang is a Sophomore student of Yuan Sheng at the High School of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She has participated in the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York, Terra Magica Music Festival in Croatia, and OpusFest in the Philippines. She is studying at Tanglewood this summer.
Yueting Lang just graduated from the Central Conservatory of Music where she was a student of Yuan Sheng. She has participated in the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York, and OpusFest in the Philippines.