The Keyboard in the 21st Century
an international conference for composers
4 - 5 April 2019
AST916, Au Shue Hung Building, Ho Sin Hang Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University
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The Department of Music at Hong Kong Baptist University is pleased to announce The Keyboard in the 21st Century, an international conference for composers to be held 4-5 April 2019. Featuring performances by outstanding Hong Kong pianists and guest performers, the conference will showcase the breadth of creative voices working with a range of new and historic keyboard instruments. In addition to performances and roundtable discussions by participating composers, we are pleased to feature lectures and performances of music by George Tsontakis, Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Music at HKBU and Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at Bard College Conservatory of Music, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Featured Guest Composer and Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music.
Call for Scores
We welcome submissions by composers of any age from around the world, which conform to the following guidelines:
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Each composer may submit only 1 score.
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The maximum duration of the work is 10 minutes.
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The work must have been written in the year 2000 or later.
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The work may have already been performed or may be premiered during the conference.
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The work may be scored for a single performer or multiple performers on a solo keyboard or multiple keyboards chosen from the following list:
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piano (2)
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French double-manual harpsichord by Andrew Garlick (London, 1992), after Goujon (Paris, 1749), 2 x 8’, 1 x 4, FF to f”’
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Italian Harpsichord by Carey Beebe, Sydney, 1995, after Grimaldi (Italy, ca. 1700), 2 x 8´, GG-d''', A415/A440
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Unfretted clavichord by Karin Richter, Lewes 2009, after Hubert, 1771, FF to g”’
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Fortepiano by Chris Maene, Ruiselede, 2010, after Anton Walter (Vienna, 1795), FF to g”
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Taylor & Boody Organ, Op. 69, Staunton, Virginia, USA, 2014. Five stops: 8’ Gedackt, 4’ Rohrflöte, 2 2/3’ Nasat (c’), 2’Principal, 8’ Regal, C-d’”, A440
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Synthesizer
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Works with electronics will be considered. (7.1 channel playback system and audio interfaces available on request.)
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Please note that with the exception of one piano, the other instruments may not be “prepared.” Any preparation must be approved in advance.
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Composers are welcome and encouraged to perform their own work.
For any questions, please e-mail: mus-event@hkbu.edu.hk
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The deadline for submission is 15 January 2019. The results will be announced by 1 February 2019. All composers whose works are selected for performance must register for and attend the conference. No housing or travel support will be provided.
To submit a score, please
Dr. George Tsontakis
Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor
Department of Music
Hong Kong Baptist University
Distinguished Composer-in-Residence
Bard College Conservatory of Music
Featured Composers
George Tsontakis has been the recipient of two of the richest prizes awarded in all of classical music; the International Grawemeyer Award, in 2005, for his Second Violin Concerto and the 2007 Ives Living, from the American Academy. He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and in Rome, with Franco Donatoni. Born in Astoria, NY into Cretan heritage, he has become a recognized figure in the Greece. His music is increasingly performed abroad, with performances in Europe and Asia every season. Most of his music has been commercially recorded by Hyperion, Koch, INNOVA and NAXOS, including fifteen works for orchestra, over five hours of orchestral music, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition.
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He served as Composer-in-Residence with the Aspen Music Festival for 40 years, where he was founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, with the Oxford (England) Philomusica, with the Albany Symphony for six years and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for the 2009-10 season, among others. He is Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Bard College Conservatory.
His most recent commissions and premieres (2016-18) include chamber works for Maverick Concerts, London's Mobius Ensemble and large-scale pieces for the Boston Symphony and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra, a Requiem for the Albany Symphony as well as a violin concerto for Gary Levinson and the Dallas Symphony. NAXOS released three concertos with the Albany Symphony, last year and was heralded as one of NPR's “Top Ten Classical Recordings of 2017” and will release the Boston Symphony recording of his “Sonnets” in 2019. He lives in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
Dr. Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Featured Guest Composer
Professor of Composition
Eastman School of Music
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez was born in Mexico City in 1964 and now lives in the New York tundra, where he is a Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music. He studied with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey and Henri Dutilleux at Yale, Princeton and Tanglewood, respectively. He has received many of the standard awards in the field (e.g. Barlow Prize, Guggenheim, Fulbright, Koussevitzky, Fromm, American Academy of Arts and Letters.) He likes machines with hiccups and spiders with missing legs, looks at Paul Klee's Notebooks everyday, and tries to use the same set of ears to listen to Bach, Radiohead, or Ligeti.
Dr. Matthew Schreibeis
Assistant Professor
Department of Music
Hong Kong Baptist University
​Conference Organizer
Matthew Schreibeis is an American composer based in Hong Kong. His compositions combine highly-syncopated counterpoint with rhythmically-charged lyricism and span acoustic, electronic, and film music. Recent projects include collaborations with video artists and a series of works for traditional Korean instruments. His forthcoming Albany Records portrait CD, Sandburg Songs, featuring soprano Tony Arnold, will be released in 2019. Honors include the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Copland House Residency Award, Camargo Foundation Fellowship, Aspen Festival Fellowship, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He is Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Participating Composers
Magor Bucz (1994*) belongs to the youngest generation of Hungarian composers. He has studied composition as a student of János Vajda and Gyula Fekete at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music since 2014. In 2018, he received the Neszlényi Award of the Liszt Academy for the most outstanding composition of the year. In 2017, he won the 2nd prize at the composition competition of the Liszt Academy. In 2014, he won the 1st prize at the Cro Patria international choral composition competition. He received the ’Young Talent of 2012’ award from the National Talent Support Council of Hungary.
Magor Bucz
Lee Cheng (b.1986) is an interdisciplinary artist-teacher and researcher, currently working as a Lecturer II of the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at The Education University of Hong Kong. His research and artistic interest interdisciplinarize music, multi-media, technology, and education. His works have been featured as part of, amongst others, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), World Stage Design, and Mana Contemporary Chicago; his research articles have been published by top-ranked journals including Technology, Pedagogy and Education, Journal of Knowledge Management, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, and Research Studies in Music Education.
Lee Cheng
Bruce Crossman has studied composition with Ross Edwards and David Blake and holds a Doctor of Creative Arts degree from Wollongong University. Crossman was a Composition Fellow at the Pacific Music Festival, Sapporo and his music has featured at festivals throughout the Pacific Rim. These festivals include the Tongyeong International Music Festival, Asian Music Festival in Tokyo, and the ISCM World New Music Days. The Korean Symphony, Kanagawa Philharmonic and Queensland Philharmonic orchestras have performed his work. Crossman is an Associate Professor in Music at Western Sydney University and a Key Researcher, at the Australia-China Institute for Arts and Culture.
Bruce Crossman
American composer Evan Fein was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1984 and currently resides in New York City, where he serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School Pre-College and Evening Divisions. His music has been commissioned by organizations including Musica Sacra, Opéra de Poche, The Albany Symphony, The Juilliard School, and The New York Choreographic Institute. He was awarded the Palmer Dixon Prize for Outstanding Composition, is the recipient of honors from the ASCAP Foundation, Boston Metro Opera, and the American Scandinavian Society, and additionally serves as Chair of the Music Committee for the Board of Trustees of the Oratorio Society of New York. Additionally, Fein has served as Composer-in-Residence (Artiste Associé) for the Paris-based chamber opera troupe Opéra de Poche since 2012.
Evan Fein holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts and a Master of Music from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. In addition, he pursued auxiliary studies at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUBiS) and L’École Normale de Musique de Paris (EAMA). His primary teachers included Robert Beaser, Samuel Adler, Michel Merlet, and Margaret Brouwer.
Evan Fein
A composer, cellist and conductor, Heidi Jacob’s music has been described by BBC Magazine as “compositions ….of complex mesmerizing beauty,” and by the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a musical adventurer,” A professor of music at Haverford College, Ms. Jacob’s compositions have been performed at the Kimmel Center, Philadelphia, Festival Osmose, Beligium, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, by Earplay, Argento Ensemble, Momenta String Quartet, Opus One: Berks Chamber Choir, Hildegard Chamber Players, First Editions Chamber Orchestra and I Solisti Veneti, conducted by Claudio Scimone. Her music can be heard on Parma Records, (Beneath Winter Light, Intersections) and L’Ensemble’s CD Poetry into Song.
Heidi Jacob
Joungbum Lee is a Chicago-based composer of chamber, electronic, film and orchestral music. Poetry, Visual art, the nature and Eastern/Western philosophy are all elements that influence Lee's works.
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He also received awards and recognitions such as 1st & audience prize for Sorodha Société Royale d’Harmonie composition competition 2019 (Belgium), prize winner of 23rd IBLA Grand Prize, 1st prize in Rochester Chamber Music composition competition 2009.
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Recent project includes writing for chamber orchestra with multimedia in Avanti's Summer Sounds Festival 2019 (Finland). Joungbum is currently pursuing PhD degree in University of Chicago.
Joungbum Lee
Wendy Wan-Ki Lee is an Associate Professor of Music Composition at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She received her Ph.D. in Composition and Theory from the University of Michigan. Wendy is the recipient of composition commissions and honors from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Aspen Music Festival, Banff School of Arts, Chicago Ensemble, Contemporary Record Society, Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Hong Kong Composers’ Guild, Orford Arts Centre, Renée B. Fisher Composer Award, and many others. Recently, her double bass solo (Black Lacquer) was the prescribed piece for the First Maggini Double Bass Competition in Zhongshan, China.
Wendy Lee
Serin Oh (b.1988) would describe her music as focusing on the characteristics of each instrument by concentrating on the potential and distinguished sound colors. She also broadens her music from such influences as literature, painting, nature and scientific phenomenon. Oh’s music has been performed at many concerts, including Eastman Composers’ Sinfonietta, Midwest Composers Symposium, Composition in Asia Symposium and Festival, and International Computer Music Conference. Currently, Serin Oh is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Composition degree at the College-Conservatory of Music in University of Cincinnati.
Serin Oh
Originally from Spain, where she studied flute, piano and composition, she received her master degree in Music Theory and Composition at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She also holds a master in Neuropsychology and Education. Because of her interest in organology as related to composition, she studied organ construction with Federico Acitores and lutherie with Yianacou Hadji.
Besides composing, she researches on Autism, Perception, Children Music and Rabbinic Theology. Last year activities included her interactive video/installation at the Biennale of Art of Larnaca, Cyprus; presenting her music at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, and the performance of solo piano music by Henry Cowell.
Laura Puras
The music of Reynold Tharp (b. 1973) has been described as “tone painting at its most adroit” evoked with “a prismatic palette” (Financial Times) and “gorgeous…a sensuous evocation of colors and atmospheres….” (San Francisco Classical Voice). His music has been performed by ensembles including the New Juilliard Ensemble, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, New Jersey Symphony Chamber Players, Earplay (San Francisco), Dinosaur Annex (Boston), Ensemble Dal Niente, Minnesota Orchestra, Ensemble Diffraction (Paris), and the Nieuw Ensemble (Amsterdam). He holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory and the University of California, Berkeley, and is currently associate professor of composition at the University of Illinois.
Reynold Tharp
Composer and pianist Austin Simonds (b.1996) has been praised for his use of thought-provoking themes connected to literature, philosophy, the macabre, and the human psyche. Much of his work deals with lyricism, texture manipulation, and often contains a narrative or programmatic element. Award-winning composer Claudia Howard Queen described his work as "passionate, beautiful, and memorable." He is currently writing works for the Ensemble Dal Niente, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, Mansfield Community Orchestra, as well as the Moldova Symphony Orchestra for 2019/2020 premieres respectively.
His compositional studies have included lessons under Ermir Bejo, Kirsten Broberg, Andrew May, as well as Sungji Hong. He holds both a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition and Music Theory from the University of North Texas. Simonds currently studies under Augusta Read Thomas at the University of Chicago where he is pursuing an MA.
Austin Simonds
Composer and pianist David Witmer (b. 1976) has performed throughout the North East and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. His compositions have been featured in Livewire: Celebrating Music from the 21st Century, REDSHIFT PLAYS 3NW: East Coast Tour, the TSMSS Artist Performance Series, and the Prix d’ Été Winners Concert. He collaborated with the Walters Art Museum, composing music for the Gustav Courbet exhibit in Baltimore, MD, and with Karla Cott, for her short animation, Albertine’s Mole. His orchestral work oscha, was included in the album Masterworks of the New Era - Volume Ten, with Robert Ian Winston conducting the Kiev Philharmonic.
David Witmer
Faculty Composers
A composer of music of “high drama” and “intense emotion” (BBC), “at once, ingenious, hypnotic, brave, and beautiful” (Festival Internazionale A.F. Lavagnino), Eugene Birman (b. 1987) has written for symphony orchestras (London Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra), choirs (BBC Singers, Latvian Radio Choir, Eric Ericsons Kammarkör), and leading ensembles and soloists (Maxim Vengerov, Maurizio Ben Omar, etc.) across four continents in venues ranging from London’s Southbank Centre to Carnegie Hall to above the Arctic Circle. His highly public career, with appearances on CNN, BBC World TV, Radio France, Deutsche Welle, and others, is characterized by a fearless focus on socially relevant large-scale compositions covering the financial crisis, Russian border treaties, and more. Commissioners and partners for Birman’s work extend beyond the concert hall to major international bodies such as the European Union, the Austrian Foreign Ministry, and the Hong Kong SAR, as well as through prominent fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation (2018) and the US Department of State’s Fulbright Program (2010-11). Most recently, he was awarded the 2017 Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, leading to a season-long residency at the Southbank Centre and world premiere with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall, and appointed the sole Artist-in-Residence of the 2018 Helsinki Festival, Finland’s biggest yearly cultural event. A D.Phil recipient from the University of Oxford, he also holds degrees from Columbia University, the Juilliard School, and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana. For more: http://www.eugenebirman.com.
Eugene Birman
Christopher Coleman (b. 1958, Atlanta, GA) composer, conductor, trombonist, has taught for 30 years at the Hong Kong Baptist University Music Department.
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Coleman's music ranges from large-scale multimedia/improvisation pieces to works for orchestra, symphonic band, chamber ensemble, instrumental solo, fixed media, and voice. His music is published by Vanderbilt Music, Maecenas Music, and Theodore Presser. His CD Multiple Worlds is available from Ablaze Records.
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A trans-media artist, Christopher Coleman also works in painting, sculpture and computer graphics. He is a founding member of People’s Liberation Improv, Hong Kong’s leading comedy improv group, and has performed throughout Southeast Asia.
Christopher Coleman
Dr. Maria Kallionpää is an internationally active composer and pianist, currently working as an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, and as a composer in residence of the Mixed Reality Laboratory of the University of Nottingham. 2016-2018 she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Aalborg, her artistic research focusing on gamification as a composition technique. Furthermore, as a winner of the Fabbrica Young Artist Development Program of Opera di Roma, Kallionpää was commissioned an opera that was premiered at Teatro Nazionale Rome in 2017. In collaboration with her colleague Markku Klami, Kallionpää composed the first full length puppet opera produced in the Nordic Countries (premiered in 2018). She was a laureate of Académie de France à Rome in 2016. Kallionpää got her PhD in composition at the university of Oxford in 2015.
Maria Kallionpää
Acclaimed by Fanfare Magazine as “Masterful…a modernized Rachmaninoff” Christopher J. Keyes (b. 1963) began his career as a pianist, making his "double-debut" in Carnegie Hall as both soloist and guest composer with the New York Youth Symphony. He continued his education at the Eastman School of Music, receiving numerous awards. He is currently a Professor of Music at HKBU, where he directs the Laboratory for Immersive Arts and Technology (LIATe). His works have been performed and broadcast in over 30 cities worldwide, and his performances released on Centaur (CRC 2377) Capstone (CPS-8739) Ravello (RR7803) and Navona(NV6166) labels.
Christopher Keyes
Camilo Méndez is a composer of acoustic concert music. He conceives his works as compositional cycles; series of pieces orbiting around the same musical ideas, but written for different instrumental combinations. He completed a Doctorate and a Master’s in advanced composition at the Royal College of Music in London. He has also studied privately with Rebecca Saunders and Pierluigi Billone. In 2017, Mendez was the Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University.
His music has been performed by ensembles and soloists who specialize in contemporary concert music and has been featured in such international festivals as Festival Internacional Cervantino, the International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, June in Buffalo, Klasik Keyifler, the Mallorca Saxophone Festival, and Next Generation Donaueschingen. In 2009, he was awarded the Colombian national prize in composition for his work Tropical Textures VI. He has held residencies at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and Willapa Bay AiR.
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Dr. Camilo Mendez joined the Department of Music at HKBU as Assistant Professor in 2018.
Camilo Méndez
Matthew Schreibeis is an American composer based in Hong Kong. His compositions combine highly-syncopated counterpoint with rhythmically-charged lyricism and span acoustic, electronic, and film music. Recent projects include collaborations with video artists and a series of works for traditional Korean instruments. His forthcoming Albany Records portrait CD, Sandburg Songs, featuring soprano Tony Arnold, will be released in 2019. Honors include the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Copland House Residency Award, Camargo Foundation Fellowship, Aspen Festival Fellowship, and residencies at MacDowell and Yaddo. He is Assistant Professor at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Matthew Schreibeis
Award winning composer Austin Yip’s works have been performed worldwide. Recently collaborations and awards include “Eurydice”, an hour-long videodance collaboration with Centre de Vidéo Danse de Bourgogne, France; “Metamorphosis”, winner of the CASH Golden Sail Award in 2017, commissioned and performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; and “Road Business”, a marimba concerto for Jack Van Geem, former Principal Percussionist of the San Francisco Symphony. His works are published by Donemus (Netherlands). He is currently a lecturer at the Hong Kong Baptist University. See more at austinyip.com.
Austin Yip
Kawai Chan has performed as a soloist and a chamber musician in Italy, Austria, and throughout the United States. She has performed with the Orchestra della Foundazione Salina in Arona, Italy and was invited to give a solo recital by the Associazione Culturale Ensemble XXI in Milan. Kawai was awarded first prize in both the Mary Hayes North competition at Ithaca College and the Empire State Piano competition in New York. In addition to playing standard repertoire, Kawai has often collaborated with composers to promote and premier new music.
Graduated from Michigan State University with a doctoral degree in piano performance and a Master’s degree in Theory Pedagogy, Kawai also holds a Master's degree from Peabody Conservatory and a Bachelor degree from Ithaca College, both in piano performance.
​Kawai Chan
Piano and Harpsicord
Born in Hong Kong, Dr. Kitty Cheung is currently the first violinist of Romer String Quartet and a member of Contrast Trio (Ensemble-in-Residence of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2014-15 & 2017-18 respectively), and violin faculty at the Hong Kong Baptist University. She was the Associate Concertmaster of the Hong Kong Sinfonietta from 2011 to 2017. She has performed in London Symphony Orchestra and Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, and led ensembles which had made recordings for Decca, Loft Records, New World Records and Bridge Record, of which the latter was nominated for a Latin Grammy. She has given solo recitals in Germany, Vienna, UK, USA, Thailand, Hong Kong and Shanghai, and made solo appearances with orchestras including the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Hong Kong City Chamber Orchestra. She recorded broadcast performances for BBC Radio 3 and Radio Television Hong Kong. She gave masterclasses in various festivals and universities in USA, Thailand, Hong Kong and Malaysia. She received a doctoral degree from the Eastman School of Music in USA, where she was appointed the Teaching Assistant of Professor Charles Castleman, invited to perform as a soloist with the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, and won prizes in excellence in teaching, excellence in chamber music and the Lecture Recital Prize. She also holds two master degrees from the Guildhall of Music and Drama in UK.
Kitty Cheung
Violin
Korean-American Pianist Yoonie Han is the first-prize winner of the Washington International Piano Competition, World Piano Competition, Fulbright Concerto Competition, Kosciuszko Chopin Competition, Music Teachers’ National Association Competition, Juilliard’s Gina Bachauer, Chopin, Frederich Nordmann, and Mozart Concerto Competition. She has garnered top prizes at the Helsinki Maj Lind International Piano Competition, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize, Concorso Pianistico Ettore Pozzoli Internaziole, and Valencia International Piano Competition. Following her grand prize in the Korea National Music Competition, the Korean Ministry of Culture named her its “Most Promising Young Artist.” She has performed with the Berliner Symphoniker, Buffalo Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Banff Festival Orchestra, I Pomeriggi Musicali di Milan, Juilliard Symphony, and Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey.
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Dr. Han received her Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, her Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, and her Doctorate at SUNY Stony Brook. Yoonie Han is an Assistant Professor of Piano at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Yoonie Han
Piano
Performers
Born in 1987, Min Hwan Kim began his musical studies at the age of six in South Korea. After immigrating to the United States in 1999, Min Hwan received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the Eastman School of Music under the pupilage of Natalya Antonova. During his graduate studies, he was awarded the Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
Since he has made his orchestral debut with Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra in 2004, he has performed also with Eastman Philharmonia and Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, among others. Additionally, Min Hwan has won prizes at several competitions, including Sorantin International Competition, International Isabel Scionti Piano Solo Competition and Kingsville International Concerto Competition, Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, and Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition.
Min Hwan currently works as the accompanist for the National Chorus of Korea in Seoul, Korea.
Min Hwan Kim
Piano
Lauryn Kurniawan is from Indonesia. She has been learning the piano since she was 5 years old under the tutelage of Mr Hendro at Cantata Music School. At the age of 8, Lauryn started studying under the tutelage of Ms Elim Simeon at Gloriamus Music School. On top of local exams, she also took the ABRSM exams and received the High Scorer award for her Grade 7 exam, Lauryn also received a distinction for her grade 8 exam. She has joined several competitions such as the Boston piano competition, the Steinway piano competition in Jakarta, and has received a full scholarship award, she is currently studying music at Hong Kong Baptist University under the direction of Dr. Yoonie Han. She aspires to be a Movie Music Scorer and a collaborative pianist.
Lauryn Kurniawan
Piano
French / Luxembourg cellist Laurent Perrin studied with Georges Mallach in Luxembourg, Lluis Claret in Barcelona and Raphael Wallfisch in London where he won the Dorothy Adams String Quartet Competition. He was a laureate at the European International Youth Competition for Cello in Bulgaria in 1989. He has worked closely with Daniil Shaffran, pianist György SebÅ‘k as well as the Takacs, Borodin and Amadeus Quartet.
Laurent Perrin is Assistant Principal Cello with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and teaches at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. He is a member of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble and the RTHK String Quartet. He is also an active chamber-music player and has performed in China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Macau, Canada and around USA and Europe. He has recorded several programmes for RTHK Radio 4.
Laurent Perrin
Cello
Young Steinway Artist Kiu Tung Poon appeared as recitalist and collaborative pianist on concert stages in the US, Europe, and Asia, and in festivals including Tanglewood and Aspen in the US, Wiener Konzerthaus in Austria, Great Wall in Beijing, and Le French May in Hong Kong. As an advocate of new music, she was privileged to work with today’s foremost American composers including George Tsontakis and Dan Welcher and her recent interest in Chinese-Western syncretism in music resulted in numerous recitals on contemporary Chinese composers in the US, Asia, and Europe. Her world première of Mark Morris/Samuel Barber’s Excursions with Mark Morris Dance Group in the Tanglewood Music Festival received enthusiastic review by critics writing for The New York Times and Boston Phoenix. Graduated from the Indiana University Bloomington and the University of Texas at Austin with a DMA in Piano Performance, she currently teaches at her alma mater, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, as a lecturer in Performance and serve as the performance stream coordinator in the Music Department.
Kiu Tung Poon
Piano
Born in Sichuan, raised in Hong Kong, Christiane studied in France and USA, her teachers included estemeed pianists :Barry Snyder, Natalya Antonova, Arthur Greene, Edward Parmentier, Françoise Thinat, Bernard Fauchet, and France Clidat.
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As jury of various piano competition, also as a frequent performer, Christiane has given numerous solo recitals at the Auditorium Maurice Ravel, Musée Debussy, Chateau de Lourmarin, Theater Alexander Thumas, Centre Culturel Arabe Syrien de Paris, Series L’heure Musicale au Marais, Series Concert foundation Enfant D’Asie, Series Rencontres musicale d'Ussel d'Allier, Hong Kong City Hall Theatre, Chinese University of Hong Kong. She has also collaborated with various orchestras performing western and Chinese concertos.
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Her music achievements including prizewinner of Kawai International Piano Competition, Hong Kong Open International Piano Competition, Concours Internatoinal “Foundation Laurent Vibert” pour piano avec Orcheste, Prix de perfectionnement, Prix de Virtuoso and Diplôme Superieur D’Execution at CNR de Ruiel Malmaison, Conservatoire Claude Debussy and L ’Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris.
Christiane San
Piano
Amy Sze holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music. Winner of the Eastman Concerto Competition and Finalist of the MTNA Steinway Competition, Sze has performed as a soloist with many orchestras including Texas Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Eastman Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. She is particularly active in chamber music and keen on promoting new music. She appears frequently on RTHK Radio 4 in recitals and has been featured in such festivals as Le French May and ISCM World Music Days. Amy Sze is currently on the faculty of HKAPA and Baptist University of Hong Kong.
Amy Sze
Piano
Cherry Tsang has given recitals and performed chamber music throughout Europe, Asia and America, where she made her Carnegie Hall début in 2009. She has collaborated with various orchestras, including Eastman Symphony Orchestra, The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) Symphony Orchestra and Hong Kong Ars Nova Orchestra, working with conductors such as Neil Varon, Alan Cumberland and Christoph Campestrini, among others. Recent performance includes the solo recital of “Our Music Talent” series organized by Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
A dedicated chamber musician, Tsang recently performed at the Hong Kong Citibank Plaza Series, Wooster Chamber Music Festival and Sanibel Music Festival in the USA, and at venues such as Kneisel Hall, New York University, Symphony Space and the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. She has also worked with many international artists including James Thompson, Giuliano Sommerhalder, Florent Héau and Piotr Milewski. She recently made a recording with James Thompson, featuring arrangements of arias from Bach’s cantatas on the ITG label.
Tsang received her Doctorate in Piano Performance from Eastman School of Music in 2011, where she studied with Barry Snyder, for whom she was teaching assistant from 2008 to 2011. She is currently an adjunct lecturer for Piano Performance at Hong Kong Baptist University, and coaches chamber music and collaborative piano to undergraduates and master’s students at HKAPA.
Cherry Tsang
Piano
American violist and teacher Felix Ungar has performed as soloist and chamber musician at concert halls around the world. Recent recital engagements at Lee Hysan Hall, Musica Del Cuore Series, and Guangzhou Arts Centre have featured Bach and Telemann on baroque viola, Brahms and Hindemith sonatas, and works by Berio, Bunch, Tower, Ligeti, and Kurtág. Ungar has given masterclasses and lectures at the Shanghai Conservatory, Guangdong Viola Society, Jakarta Music Foundation, American Viola Society Festival at Oberlin, Taipei National University of the Arts, Cleveland Institute of Music, and on behalf of the U.S. Department of State. He has performed at music festivals including IMS Prussia Cove, Prades, Recontres Musicales at Menuhin Academie, Altensteig, Cervantino, Niagara, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West at Santa Barbara, Bowdoin, Sion, Orford, Bad-Leonfelden, and Banff, among others. Ungar holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. In conjunction with his undergraduate studies, Ungar also received a double-minor in East Asian Studies (Chinese History focus) and Mandarin from Case Western Reserve University.
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Ungar’s principal teachers were Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey, Carol Rodland, Donald McInnes, Chen Ruei-Hsien, and took additional studies with Ruth Killius, Kim Kashkashian, Thomas Riebl. A winner of many prizes and scholarships, Ungar spent one year in Taiwan commissioning and premiering nine works for viola and studying viola pedagogy as a Fulbright Scholar. Ungar teaches in the Senior and Junior programmes at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, and is an Artist-Teacher and Lecturer at HKBU.
Felix Ungar
Viola
Born in Hong Kong, Stephen Wong was trained at the Royal College of Music in London, the United Kingdom and received a Master of Music at the McGill University in Montreal. Wong was awarded the Jardine Matheson and McGill music faculty scholarships. Between 1995-1999, he taught piano, chamber music and was a vocal coach at McGill music faculty. He appeared as soloist with the McGill Symphony Orchestra, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal and worked as a repetiteur for L’Opera de Montreal. Wong also performed in the Rome Chamber Music Festival in Italy, and in Asia including the Mainland, Macao and Taiwan.
He is a much sought-after pianist for both solo and ensemble concerts. He has also been invited regularly to record for Radio 4, RTHK.
Stephen Wong
Piano
Linda has been dedicated to solo and chamber music recitals. She has worked with a number of organizations, including Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, the Hong Kong Bach Choir and Zuni Icosahedron. She has set foot on mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Australia and the United Kingdom. As a member of Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. Linda is proactive in promoting classical and modern music education. She is currently teaching at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Linda Yim
Piano
Schedule
4 April 2019
Thursday
1:30 pm
Keynote Address:
George Tsontakis
Dr. Kennedy Wong Distinguished Visiting Professor, Hong Kong Baptist University
Distinguished Composer-in-Residence, Bard College Conservatory
Thursday
3:30pm
Concert 1:
The Global Keyboard I
Music of Heidi Jacob, Austin Simonds, Wendy Lee, Serin Oh, Joungbum Lee, Lee Cheng
Thursday
4:45pm
Concert 2:
The Global Keyboard II
Music of Laura Puras, Bruce Crossman, Magor Bucz, Evan Fein, David Witmer, Reynold Tharp
Thursday
8:00 pm
Concert 3:
Music of George Tsontakis
5 April 2019
Friday
10:30 am
Composition Lecture and Concert 4:
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Featured Guest Compose
Professor of Composition, Eastman School of Music
Friday
2:00 pm
Roundtable Discussion: Composers in Conversation
Discussants
George Tsontakis
Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez
Matthew Schreibeis
Moderator
Johnny Poon
Friday
4:00 pm
Concert 5:
Music of HKBU Faculty Composers
Eugene Birman, Christopher Coleman, Mara Kallionpää, Christopher Keyes, Camilo Méndez,
Matthew Schreibeis, and Austin Yip