40th Anniversary Gala Concert
HONG KONG CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY
gratefully acknowledges Ms. Benita Yu for kindly hosting our
40th Anniversary Gala Concert featuring CAROL YU & FRIENDS
Date and time:
Wednesday 4 November, 2015
(Concert at 7:15pm / Dinner at 9pm)
Location:
Victoria Suite, THE HONG KONG CLUB
Admission:
Concert only: $320
Concert and Dinner: $690
Programme:
Schubert: Drei Klavierstucke (3 Pieces for Piano Solo, D.946)
Schubert: Piano Trio in B flat major (D. 898)
About the musicians:
Carol Yu (Steinway Artist)
Steinway Artist and Steinway Spirio Recording Artist Carol Yu is acclaimed by the Times UK for her ‘excellent, positive work at the piano’ and praised by Viktor Merzhanov, Piano Professor at Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory as ‘an artist whose playing is notable for its good taste and sense of style’. Her engaging performances have been capturing audiences worldwide. Carol has concertised internationally in London (Southbank Centre and Barbican Centre), Austria, Germany, Russia, Czech Republic, Japan, China and SE Asia, and has been featured in prestigious festivals including London Park Lane Group Series, London Messiaen Festival, International Chopin Festival in Austria and International Piano Festival in Kuala Lumpur.
Carol has collaborated with City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Malaysia National Symphony Orchestra, and with renowned conductors Li Xin-cao and Yip Wing-sie. As a chamber musician, she has performed with distinguished musicians including violinists Jing Wang, James Cuddeford, Jeremy Williams and Jue Yao, cellists Richard Bamping and Artem Konstantinov amongst others. Her numerous recordings received critical acclaim internationally, including her solo album of Chopin and Beethoven piano works released by URM Audio (UK), recording for Moscow Radio, as well as a DVD series by Brio Music.
Inheriting an impressive tradition from her piano mentors, Carol is lauded as “5th Generation Chopin Lineage” and “5th Generation Liszt Lineage”. She studied piano with renowned masters Viktor Merzhanov, Irina Zaritskaya, Andrzej Esterhazy (pupil of the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus) and Hamish Milne, and chamber music with acclaimed instrumentalists Anne-Sophie Mutter, Lynn Harrell and the Amadeus Quartet.
Jing Wang (Concertmaster, HK Philharmonic Orchestra)
Jing Wang, Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, is one of the most versatile and dynamic violinists of his generation. Since making his solo recital debut in Marseilles, France, at the age of six, Wang has won numerous awards in top international competitions, including first prize at the 2007 Irving M. Klein International Strings Competition. In 2003, he was awarded the “Young Soloist of the Year” by Les Radios Francophones Publiques, a broadcast network spanning France, Canada, Switzerland, and Belgium.
Wang has appeared as a soloist with major orchestras across Europe and North America, including the Czech Radio Philharmonic, the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de Lorraine, l’Orchestre de Picardie, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Montreal, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and the China Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also played with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Zubin Mehta. Wang has collaborated with renowned conductors including Jaap van Zweden, Lorin Maazel, Christoph Eschenbach, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Paavo Järvi, James DePreist, and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.
Wang’s chamber music performances and solo recitals at major venues, including the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Lincoln Center, have received critical acclaim. His performances are frequently broadcast on CBC Radio-Canada. Wang is also one of the founding members of Ensemble75, a chamber music series based in Dallas, Texas. He has also been invited to perform for former President of the United States, George W. Bush on multiple occasions.
Wang has served as Guest Concertmaster for several major orchestras, including the Houston Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
From 2010 to 2013, Wang was the Concertmaster of the Dallas Opera. He was appointed Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra by Maestro Jaap van Zweden in 2013. He plays a fine c. 1760 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, generously loaned to him by The Postscript Collection through the HK Phil String Instruments Circle.
Wang’s chair is sponsored by Sun Hung Kai & Co. Foundation.
Artem Konstantinov (Principal Cellist, City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong)
Born in Russia to a family of musicians, Artem continues and carries on the long and proud tradition of the Russian cello school.
He was educated at the Moscow State Conservatory followed by doctoral degree at the Guildhall School Of Music and Drama in Lodnon.
He was privileged to be taught by famous cellists- Mstislav Rostropovich, Natalya Shakhovskaya, Stefan Popov and Alexander Rudin.
His playing is distinguished by a full of rich and strong sound, subtle phrasing, filigree and virtuoso technique.
Among his many public performances, pride of place are taken by his 2001 premiering of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen followed, in 2003, by the premiering in China of Prokofiev’s Symphony-Concerto for cello & orchestra, in the same cities.
In 2006, with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a part of the World Shostakovich Festival, the first in Asia and China, he premiered the Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2 in this part of the world.
Several composers around the world have dedicated compositions to Artem
Artem records for the HUGO recording label.