Texas Piano Quartet

Texas Piano Quartet

MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2005 7:30 PM
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall

Piano Quartets by Turina, Mendelssohn, Brahms

Tickets: $35, 28
On sale at the Carnegie Hall Box Office,
By calling CarnegieCharge 212-247-7800,
Online at www.carnegiehall.org

The Texas Piano Quartet consists of four extraordinary young faculty members from The University of Texas at Austin: violinist Brian Lewis, violist Roger Myers, cellist Bion Tsang, and pianist Anton Nel. The quartet formed in the spring of 2005 and adopted the name of Texas Piano Quartet at the suggestion of Robert Freeman, Dean of the university's College of Fine Arts. Since Texas symbolizes a state of mind as much as a geographic location, the quartet's name represents the irrepressible spirit, energy, and imagination that defines life-and the arts-in our country's second largest state.

Bion Tsang, winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the International Tchaikovsky Competition, has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Moscow and Hong Kong Philharmonic, the National, American, Pacific, Delaware and Atlanta Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl, Stuttgart Chamber and Taiwan National Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Kyoko Takezawa, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher. He has also been a frequent guest of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Da Camera of Houston and Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles as well as Marlboro, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Bard Festival and Bravo! Colorado. Tsang was the recipient of the 2004 Texas Exes Teaching Award after just one year of service at UT.

Brian Lewis is an exceptionally gifted artist whose acclaimed performances include concerto debuts in both New York's Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, as well as performances with the Berlin (Germany), Louisiana, Kansas City, Syracuse, Wichita, Hartford, Eugene, Greenwich, Spokane, Fort Wayne, Cedar Rapids, Topeka, Saginaw, and American Symphony orchestras. He has given solo recitals in Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Japan, the What Makes it Great? series in Kansas City, and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. He has also performed at the Aspen Music Festival, Sunflower Music Festival, St. Barth's Music Festival, Casals Series, Cape May Music Festival, Evian Music Festival and Cabrillo Festival. He has recorded six CDs, most recently for Delos as soloist with the London Symphony in music by Leonard Bernstein. Mr. Lewis is the David and Mary Winton Green Chair Fellow in String Performance and Pedagogy at The University of Texas at Austin.

Roger Myers has performed critically acclaimed concerts in Austria, Norway, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico as well as the U.S.A. He performs at prestigious summer festivals including the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival in Maine, the International Festival Institute at Round Top, Texas, Idyllwild Arts in California and has played with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and as principal violist with both the Santa Fe Pro Musica and the New West Symphony Orchestra in Los Angeles on tour with Andrea Bocelli. As a chamber musician he performs with such artists as Lynn Harrell, Martin Canin, Steve Doane, Sidney Harth, Yehonatan Berick, Jorja Fleezanis, Martin Lovett, Donald McInnes, Kurt Nikkanen and Tsuoshi Tsutsumi. and was a featured soloist on the William Primrose 100th birthday concert at the XXXII International Viola Congress. He teaches at The University of Texas at Austin where he is an Associate Professor and Head of the String Division.

Anton Nel, winner of the 1987 Naumburg International Piano Competition enjoys a remarkable career that has taken him throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and South Africa. Highlights in the US include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Symphonies of Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, and Detroit, as well as in major coast-to-coast recital venues. Recent highlights overseas include debuts at the Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. A favorite at summer festivals he has performed with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia Festival, at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, as well as at the Aspen and Blossom Festivals, among many others. He has regularly collaborated with some of the world's foremost instrumentalists and singers. He has recorded 15 CDs, and is a professor of piano and chamber music at the University of Texas at Austin, where he heads the division of keyboard studies.