CHAMBER MUSIC INTERNATIONAL OPENS WITH U.S. PREMIER BY JOYCE YANG

CHAMBER MUSIC INTERNATIONAL OPENS WITH U.S. PREMIER
Joyce Yang performs US Premier of Piano Sonata (2018) by Elizabeth Younan

Chamber Music International will present the US premier of Piano Sonata (2018) in recital by Cliburn medalist Joyce Yang on September 8 at St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church, 1220 W. Belt Line Road, Richardson, Texas.

Ms. Yang describes the sonata by 24-year-old Australian composer Elizabeth Younan as a “dangerous work, in which each movement is one of darkness turning into light, with atonality searching for tonality but finding polytonality.”   Learning and playing the work  “tested her every pianistic skill.”

Elizabeth Younan has garnered numerous accolades for her music, including the Jean Bogan Youth Prize for Piano Composition, the Ignaz Friedman Memorial Prize, and the 102.5 Young Composer Award.  Her woodwind quintet, Shoreditch Grind, received its international premiere in the inaugural BBC Proms Australia Chamber Music concert series, performed by Musica Viva’s FutureMakers Arcadia Winds, who also performed it in Musica Viva’s Melbourne Coffee Concert series and 2017 Festival. Elizabeth’s solo for drum set-up and unspecified voice, Electors of Middlemarch, was premiered by Claire Edwardes at the Sydney Opera House in June as part of Ensemble Offspring’s Concert “Beginnings to New Ends.”

Since capturing the silver medal at Fort Wortth’s  2005 Van Cliburn Piano Competition Joyce Yang has built an international career as a recitalist, chamber musician, and orchestral collaborator.  Her interpretations of both standard and contemporary repertoire are recognized for their unique artistic vision and mastery of the instrument.  The September 8 concert at St. Barnabas Presbyterian Church in Richardson marks the kick-off of the US portion of her world recital tour of Ms. Younan’s sonata.

The program also includes the rarely performed Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 “From the Street,” composed to commemorate the death of an ordinary labourer. Janacek impulsively attempted to destroy the work and in 1924 recovered a copy from the pianist who originally premiered it.  Three preludes by Rachmaninoff, Liszt’s “Spanish Rhapsody”, and Liszt’s demanding Piano Sonata in B Minor complete this recital of truly international scope.

Chamber Music International was founded in 1986 to present concerts of chamber music at the highest level of performance by internationally-recognized artists to a broad spectrum of audiences in North Texas.

For more information about this concert or Chamber Music International’s 2018-2019 season please call Jessica Ho at 972 395 7267 or email at admin@chambermusicinternational.org.