The Nassau Music Society continues its 2011-2012 Season with two evenings of piano & cello featuring Wei-Yi Yang and Ole Akahoshi from Yale University. These concerts are under the patronage of His Excellency Sir Arthur Foulkes, Governor General of The Bahamas and are sponsored by Société Générale Private Banking, Pictet, Royal Star Assurance and Colina Insurance Limited.
Internationally acclaimed pianist Wei-Yi Yang enjoys a flourishing concert career, appearing before audiences in North and Central Americas, Asia, Europe, and Australia, in solo recitals, chamber music concerts and with symphony orchestras. Most recently, Mr. Yang was praised by the New York Times as the soloist in a “sensational” performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie at Carnegie Hall.
Winner of the Gold Medal and Grand Prize in the San Antonio International Piano Competition, Mr. Yang has performed in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation, the Kennedy Center, the Kumho Art Hall (Seoul, South Korea), the Royal Scottish Academy of Music, the Great Hall (Leeds, England), Taiwan National Concert Hall, the Royal Dublin Society, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, among numerous others around the world.
An avid chamber musician, Mr. Yang has performed with members of the Cleveland, Philadelphia, and Minnesota Orchestras; the New York Philharmonic; the Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Singapore, and London Symphonies; Orpheus and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras; and Orquestra do Estado de Sao Paulo, just to name a few. Born in Taiwan of Chinese and Japanese heritage, Mr. Yang was educated first in the United Kingdom, and then at the Manhattan School of Music under the tutelage of Arkady Aronov.
Mr. Yang has worked with such artists as Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Vera Gornostaeva, Byron Janis, Murray Perahia, and the late Hans Graf. Under the guidance of Boris Berman, Mr. Yang was awarded a doctorate in musical arts by Yale University in 2004. In demand as a guest teacher and lecturer, he has recently presented master classes and performances in Hong Kong, Taipei, Shanghai, and Daejeon, Korea, and in such institutions as Princeton, University of Missouri, Syracuse University, and Ithaca College.
Mr. Yang’s performances are heard and seen around the world via international television, radio, and web broadcasting media. He can be heard on the Renegade Classics, Albany Records, and Holland-America Music Society labels.
Mr. Yang has appeared at festivals in Novi Sad (Serbia), Monterrey (Mexico), Kotor (Montenegro), PianoFest (Long Island), Norfolk (Connecticut), Napa Valley, and La Jolla (California). Mr. Yang has recently collaborated with such artists as Frederica von Stade, Richard Stoltzman, David Shifrin, and the Pacifica, Cassatt, and Tokyo String Quartets.
Wei-Yi Yang joined the faculty at Yale University in 2005.Recently hailed by the Los Angeles Times, German cellist Ole Akahoshi began studying cello at the age of four in Berlin. At the age of eleven he was the youngest pupil ever to be accepted by the late Pierre Fournier, with whom he studied for four years.
In 1989 he moved to the United States to further his studies at The Juilliard School where he completed a Bachelor of Music Degree. He earned an Artist Diploma Degree from Indiana University, where he studied with Janos Starker, and Masters of Music Degree from Yale School of Music studying with Aldo Parisot. Recently with violinist Edna Mitchell, he premiered works by composers Iannis Xenakis and Shulamit Ran under the direction of Sir Yehudi Menuhin.
Akahoshi is principal cellist of the Sejong Soloists in New York, as well as member of Seiji Ozawa’s Saito Kinen Orchestra since 1998 and the Opera Nomori Tokyo. He has served as faculty at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Camp Encore/Coda, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Festival des Artes de Itu Brazil, and at the Great Mountains Music Festival in Korea, where he gives classes every summer.
He has also judged numerous competitions including the Juilliard Concerto Competition, the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Competition, and the William Waite Concerto Competition. Currently, Mr. Akahoshi is on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music and has been on the faculty of the Yale School of Music since 1997.
Mr. Akahoshi has collaborated with many outstanding musicians including Leon Fleisher, David Shifrin, Ani Kavafian, Garrick Ohlsson, and the Tokyo String Quartet. He has concertized on four continents in recitals and has been soloist with symphony orchestras such as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Symphonisches Orchester Berlin, and the Czechoslovakian Radio Orchestra.
As top prize-winner of numerous competitions including the Concertino Praga and Jugend Musiziert, Mr. Akahoshi’s performances have been featured on CNN, NPR, Sender-Freies-Berlin, RIAS-Berlin, Hessischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Korean Broadcasting Station, and WQXR. He is also recipient of the fellowship award from Charlotte White’s Salon de Virtuosi.
Mr. Akahoshi has performed in Carnegie Hall, Avery-Fisher-Hall, Kennedy Center in Washington, the Aspen Music Festival, Suntory Hall and Tsuda Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, Wigmore Hall in London, and Berliner Philharmonie. His other recital appearances have included venues in Israel, Italy, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Chile, and Korea. He has made recordings for the Albany, New World Records, Composers Recording Inc., Calliope, Bridge, and Naxos Label.
Reserve tickets now: www.nassaumusicsociety.org/reservations . Box Offices: A.D. Hanna & Co., Deveaux Street; Custom Computers, Cable Beach Shopping Centre; Logos Bookstore Harbour Bay Shopping Centre; and Moir & Co., Lyford Cay Shopping Centre.
Tickets: Members: $25; Non-Members: $35; Students with valid id: $10. Tickets cost an extra $5 if purchased at the door. Proceeds toward the Nassau Music Society’s scholarship fund.
