Lin Ma pipa

Lin Ma is a Chinese pipa artist residing in New York City. She is among the top ten pipa masters accredited by China Central Television and is frequently featured in China Central Television’s flagship music program Elegant Chinese Music. She has performed in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Spain, Austria, Italy, Germany, France and Italy among others, and has been lauded by audience around the world. The music video of The Misty Rain of Jiangnan, one of her hit recordings, has been viewed over 10 million times across music streaming platforms, such as Youtube, Tencent Video, Sohu Video, and Youku.

Ms. Ma is the first Chinese folk instrumentalist who has been invited to perform at the Capital Hill in Washington D.C. and hold a pipa recital at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City. As an active music envoy that bridges cultures, she has collaborated with United Nations Peace Concert and Renwen Society of China Institute in New York City to promote Chinese music and culture.

Lin Ma has been the top prize winner of the prestigious competitions for the Chinese folk musical instruments, including Chinese Golden Bell Awards for Music, Wenhua Art Prize, International Competition for Chinese Traditional Musical Instruments. She is a member of the Chinese Musicians Association and earned her master’s degree from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing under the tutelage of Chinese pipa master Guanghua Li.

Zhen Chen composer/piano

Hailed as “brilliant” by Fanfare Magazine, multi-award winning pianist-composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber music artist at prominent music venues in USA and China, such as Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall of Lincoln Center, Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center, and China National Centre for Performing Arts.

Mr. Chen has worked with prominent violinists Maxim Vengerov, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmira Darvarova and outstanding artists of the New York Philharmonic, such as principal oboist Liang Wang and hornist Howard Wall in concert and recording engagements. His debut recording FAURÉ, SCHUMANN, BARTÓK Sonatas for Violin and Piano in collaboration with acclaimed violinist Shuai Shi has received plaudits from listeners and critics of Fanfare, American Record Guide, Audiophile Audition and ClassicalNet. Fanfare described the recording as “inexpressibly beautiful” and a “perfect balance” with “sheer beauty of tone, fluent and fluid playing, and emotional refinement.”

Mr. Chen also wears another hat as a performer-composer who bridges Eastern and Western sensibility and musicality. His recent cross-culture and cross-genre composition works were crystalized in the CD recording ERGO: New Music for Piano and Chinese Folk Instruments. The album is praised for its “expressive, evocative, and colorful” melodies. (Sonograma Magazine) He became a Global Music Awards Silver Medal winner in 2017 for the composition in ERGO and his contribution to world music.

Mr. Chen received a bachelor’s degree in piano performance from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a master’s degree in piano performance under Dr. Arkady Aronov at Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he also earned a master’s degree in collaborative piano and chamber music.

PERFORMERS

Cho-Liang Lin violin

Violinist Cho-Liang Lin is lauded the world over for the eloquence of his playing and for the superb musicianship that marks his performances. In a concert career spanning the globe for more than thirty years, he is equally at home with orchestra, in recital, playing chamber music, and in a teaching studio.

Mr. Lin’s concert engagements reflect his wide-ranging musical activities. Performing on several continents, he appears as soloist with orchestras of Detroit, Toronto, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, San Diego and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; in Europe with the Bergen Philharmonic, Stockholm Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and the English Chamber Orchestra; and in Asia with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, Malaysia Philharmonic, and Bangkok Symphony. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Lin appears at the Beijing Music Festival, as well as his perennial appearances performing at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

As Music Director of La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest since 2001, Mr. Lin has helped develop a festival that once focused primarily on chamber music into a multidiscipline festival featuring dance, jazz and a burgeoning new music program commissioning composers as diverse as Chick Corea, Stewart Copeland, Leon Kirchner, Christopher Rouse, Wayne Shorter, Kaija Saariaho and Gunther Schuller. In Asia, Mr. Lin serves as Artistic Director of Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and he was recently appointed Artistic Director of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra’s Youth Music Summer Camp where he also conducts performances and serves as a member of the string faculty.

David Geber cello

Cellist David Geber, is the Director of Chamber Music at Manhattan School of Music. He has been the recipient of numerous cello and chamber music awards, including the Walter W. Naumburg Award and the Coleman Chamber Music Prize. Mr. Geber has appeared as soloist at Tanglewood and Aspen, as well as with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Montreal Symphony. A strong supporter of new music, he has premiered numerous works for cello as well as varied chamber music combinations. As a founding member of the American String Quartet, he concertized with that ensemble for twenty-eight years, giving up to 100 annual concerts and performing regularly in most major musical centers of the world.

A member of the Manhattan School of Music College faculty since 1984 and of the Precollege faculty since 2004, he also maintains summer teaching and performing affiliations with Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara and the Tanglewood Music Center and is a faculty member with DeTao Masters Academy in China. He has recorded for Albany Records, Capstone Records, CRI, Musical Heritage Society, New World Records, Nonesuch Records, and RCA. He is on the Board of Directors of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation and the American Friends of Kronberg Academy.

Liang Wang oboE

Liang Wang joined the New York Philharmonic in September 2006 as Principal Oboe, The Alice Tully Chair. Previously, he was principal oboe of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (2005–06), Santa Fe Opera (2004–05), and San Francisco Ballet Orchestra; associate principal oboe of the San Francisco Symphony; and guest principal oboe of the Chicago and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras. He has performed as concerto soloist with the New York Philharmonic 23 times, including his debut performing Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, led by Xian Zhang, in Hong Kong during the Orchestra’s 2008 tour of Asia. In addition, he has been heard as a featured player in works ranging from J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 to Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Varèse’s Octandre.

An active chamber musician, he has appeared with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for ten seasons, Angel Fire Music Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, with which he premiered Sean Shepherd’s Oboe Quartet. He has given master classes at the Cincinnati Conservatory, The Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Manhattan School of Music, The Curtis Institute of Music, Seoul University, New York University, and the Beijing, Shanghai, Hanoi, and Singapore conservatories. He is currently on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and New York University, and is an honorary professor at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music and the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Howard Wall horn

Howard Wall joined the horn section of the New York Philharmonic in 1994, after having been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra for almost 20 years and a former member of the Phoenix and Denver Symphony Orchestras. He also performs and records with the All-Star Orchestra. Mr. Wall has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic in Schumann’s Konzertstück for Four Horns in New York as well as on Philharmonic tours in Europe and South America.

An avid chamber musician, he appears regularly at the New York Chamber Music Festival and performs with the Delphinium Trio, the Amram Ensemble, and in a duo with his wife, violinist Elmira Darvarova, a former concertmaster of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He can be heard on the CD Take 9, featuring the New York Philharmonic horn section and the American Horn Quartet, as well as on Principal Horn Philip Myers’s New York Legends CD. Howard Wall recorded Poulenc’s Elégie for Horn and Piano with world-renowned French pianist Pascal Rogé. Mr. Wall has also recorded David Amram’s Blues and Variations for Monk for Solo Horn, and gave its European Premiere in Paris. Howard Wall’s most recent CD is “Phillip Ramey: Music for French Horn.”

Shenghua Hu violin

Shenghua Hu is the Principal Second Violin of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Mr. Hu has been a prizewinner in numerous international violin competitions such as the Paganini Violin Competition and the Pablo Sarasate International Violin Competition. He has performed with orchestras throughout the world, including the Cincinnati Philharmonic, the Starling Chamber Orchestra, Shanghai Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, and Beijing Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared at world-renowned concert halls, such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Forbidden City Concert Hall, and San Pedro Auditorium. His performances can be heard on CDs as part of the Distinguished Artist Series produced by the New York Classical Music Society.

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