Cellist Sophie Shao has been described as a musician with a superior sense of style, great finesse and emotion. On Thursday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m., Shao will perform in Memorial Chapel with Pei-Yao Wang, Daniel Phillips, Arnaud Sussmann and Eric Nowlin.
This group of Marlboro virtuosi and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center will present Ravel’s sonata for Violin and Cello (1922) and piano quintets by Schumann and Elgar.
Winner of a top prize in the 2001 Rostropovich Competition and a laureate of the 2002 XII Tchaikovsky Competition, Shao has wowed audiences since she was a child. At 11, she made her first appearance with the Houston Symphony. At 19, she received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale University, she is on the faculty at the Bard Conservatory of Music and Vassar College. A native of Houston, she recently collaborated with film composer Howard Shore on his score for “The Betrayal,” resulting in a concerto commission for the 2011-2012 season.
Pianist Pei-Yao Wang returns for her eighth Series appearance. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Wang was the youngest pianist, at 8, to receive the overall first prize in the Taiwan National Piano Competition. She has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. She holds a Master of Music degree from Yale and is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artists Program.
Violinist Daniel Phillips is an established chamber musician, solo artist and teacher. He is a founding member of the Orion String Quartet, which tours internationally and has residences at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at the Mannes College of Music. A winner of the prestigious Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1976, Phillips has performed as a soloist with many of the country's leading symphonies. He teaches at the Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College.
Fellow violinist Arnaud Sussmann, winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2009, has impressed critics and audiences from New York to St. Petersburg. A laureate of the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, the Andrea Postacchini Competition in Italy and the Vatelot/Rampal Competition in Paris, Sussmann was chosen by Itzhak Perlman to be a Starling Fellow. Sussmann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from The Julliard School.
Eric Nowlin is a decorated violist, winning second prize in the 2006 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and first place in both the 2003 Irving M. Klein International String and the 2001 Julliard Viola Concerto competitions. A graduate of The Julliard School, Nowlin is an associate principal violist with the Toronto Symphony.
Concert tickets are free to the Union College community. For tickets and information, call 388-6080 or visit http://www.union.edu/ConcertSeries.