Formosan Violin and Piano Duo Recital @ WSU (Ogden: Feb 13)

Formosan Violin & Piano Duo at WSU

Who: Weber State University Department of Performing Arts

What: Formosan Violin and Piano Duo Recital

When: Monday, 13 February 2012• 7:30 pm

Where: Allred Theater, Val A. Browning Center for the Performing Arts

Weber State University Department of Performing Arts presents the Formosan Violin and Piano Duo in recital Monday, February 13 at 7:30 pm in the Allred Theater, Val A. Browning Center for the Performing Arts.  This is a free concert. Children eight years and older are welcome to attend. The program will include:

Hopak.  by Modest Musorgsky (1839-1881) arr. by S. Rachmaninoff

La Capriceuse by Edward Elgar (1857-1934)

Fiddler on the Roof by John Williams (b. 1932)

Por Una Cabeza by John Williams (b. 1932)

La Campanella  by Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840) arr. by Fritz Kreisler

Violin Sonata No. 1 Op. 78 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

as well as Chinese traditional music arranged by Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962)

Shi-Hwa Wang, violin

Professor of Violin at Weber State University, Shi-Hwa Wang has been concertmaster of several professional orchestras including the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan, the Ballet West and Utah Chamber Orchestra in Salt Lake City, and the Classical Music Festival Orchestra in Eisenstadt, Austria. Dr. Wang is the founding member of the Formosan Violin-Piano Duo, the Wasatch Piano Trio, and the Kismarton String Quartet. He is active as a performer, clinician, adjudicator, and master class teacher, both nationally and internationally. His violin students have constantly been price winners in the state, regional, and national level. 

He has served as a faculty member and taught violin at the University of Michigan’s American String Workshop, the International String Workshop, the Banff International Youth Orchestra Festival in Canada, the Eastman School of Music’s Summer Music Program, and the University of Illinois Summer Youth Music.  In 2009 he taught at the Haydn Konservatorium in Austria and performed concerts in Eisenstadt, Austria and Crocow, Poland. He has done adjudication and master classes in the Kiwanis Festival in Canada many times and performances brought him to Vienna, Graze, Eisenstadt (Austria), Stavanger (Norway), Hungary, Shanghai, Beijing, Guanzho, Shi’an (China), Singapore, Taiwan, and widely in the US.

He is a past president of the Utah Chapter of American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and the Educator of the Year recipient for 2003-2004. He was in the planning committee of the first stand-along ASTA with NSOA National Conference in 2003.

Yu-Jane Yang, piano

Dr. Yu-Jane Yang is the Piano Area Head and Professor in Piano/Piano Pedagogy and Director of the Piano Preparatory Program at Weber State University in Utah. She was the State President of Utah Music Teachers Association 2002-2004. She holds a BA degree from National Taiwan Normal University and two Masters degrees from University of Illinois. She received her Ph.D. degree with the highest honor from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1994. She served as the faculty collaborative pianist for the American String Workshop at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) from 1992 to 1996, and for the Classical Music Festival in Austria in 1995 and 1999. In addition to performing with numerous instrumentalists and vocalists, Yu-Jane is the pianist of the Wasatch Piano Trio and Formosan Violin-Piano Duo, and has performed extensively in concert tours to Asia, Europe, Canada, and the United States.

In demand as a clinician and master class teacher both nationally and internationally, Dr. Yang has given piano workshops and master classes in the U.S., Taiwan, Singapore, and China. She appears frequently as an adjudicator for piano competitions, including the Idaho Music Teachers Association State Piano Performance Competitions, the Utah Music Teachers Association State Piano Performance Competitions, the Nevada Music Teachers Association State Piano Performance Competitions, and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition preliminary auditions held in Salt Lake City in 1997, and 2006. She has written many articles on various topics of piano teaching published in leading journals of Piano Pedagogy in the U.S. Her piano students have been top prizewinners in the collegiate and pre-college divisions in the state level UMTA piano competitions and concerto competitions in Utah, the Utah State Fair, as well as the first place winners in the International Festival for Creative Pianists Competition, and the Coeur d’Alene Symphony’s Young Artist Competition. In the 2010 MTNA National Piano Competition her student was placed first in the collegiate category, making her the first Asian American teacher of the winner in the history of this category. Her students are continuing to their graduate studies, with full scholarship, at such universities as Cleveland Institute of Music, Texas Christian University, University of Houston, and Bowling Green University.

Recognized as a leading educator in the field of Piano Pedagogy in the U.S., Dr. Yang was one of the three national winners of the distinguished D. H. Baldwin Fellowship for Teaching Excellence in Piano in 1991, and was selected and listed on “Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers” in 1996, 2002 , 2005, and 2007. Furthermore, Dr. Yang has been invited to give presentations in many prestigious conferences and conventions in the U.S., including National Conference of Piano Pedagogy, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, World Piano Pedagogy Conference, National Group Piano and Piano Pedagogy Forum, and Music Teachers National Association.  In 2008, Dr. Yang was awarded the Music Teachers National Association “Benjamin Whitten Collegiate Chapter Advisor of the Year” at the MTNA National Conference in Denver, Colorado. Most recently, Dr. Yang is selected as the Endowed Scholar/Artist 2010-2012 of the Telitha E. Linquist College of Arts & Humanities at Weber State University.