Date/Time: 12th January 2014 from 4:00 – 7:00pm
A Light Supper with Wine is provided at the conclusion of the concert when you can meet the Musicians
Donations: $45 Reserved, $35 General, $20 Students – purchase on the website: http://www.classicalencounters.org/
Background:Steven Vanhauwaert, pianist, was hailed by the Los Angeles Times for his ‘impressive clarity, sense of structure and monster technique’, and has garnered a wide array of accolades, amongst which the Maurice Lefranc award, the Rotary Prize, the Galiot Prize and the USC Concerto Competition. In October 2004 he won the Grand Prize at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, which enabled him to tour through the US and Hungary.
To date, Steven has appeared in major venues with orchestras such as the Pacific Symphony, t
he Flemish Symphony, the Oak Ridge Symphony, the USC Symphony, the Bryan Symphony, Collegium Instrumentale, the Concord Jazz Ensemble, the Auburn Symphony, the Eastern Sierra Chamber Orchestra, the Peninsula Symphony, and Prima la Musica, amongst others. He performs frequently throughout Europe, Asia and the US, as a recitalist and in chamber music ensembles. He has been invited to perform in major concert venues such as the Concertgebouw in Brugge, Segerstrom Hall in Costa Mesa, Bovard Auditorium in Los Angeles, the Singel in Antwerp, the Great Hall of the Brussels Conservatory, the Great Hall of the Budapest Liszt Conservatory, as well as numerous other prestigious venues in Bulgaria, Hungary, China, the US, the Netherlands, France, Canada, the UK, Austria, and Spain. His China solo debut tour in June 2010, culminating with a debut at the ren
owned National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, was received with great critical acclaim.
He was immediately offered a solo tour for the next season with performances in the prestigious Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, amongst others.
Steven has been a frequent guest in festivals such as: the Jacaranda Music Festival, the Festival of Flanders, the Eastern Sierra Music Festival, Musik Zentral, the Malibu Coast Music Festival, the Sundays-at-two series, the Salastina Festival, le Salon de Musiques, the Sundays Live Series, the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, and Euterpe, among many others.
An avid champion of lesser known repertoire, Steven has given the West Coast premiere of Messiaen’s Fantaisie for violin and piano at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, and he frequently champions compositions by Walter Arlen, Emilio Colon, Viktor Ullman, Leon Kirchner, Jeroen D’hoe, Nico Abondolo, Chen Yi, Tan Dun, Maria Newman, Gernot Wolfgang, Tobias Picker, and Karel Goeyvaerts, to name a few.
In 2010, his first album with works by Schumann, Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, and Debussy, was well received in the press. His performances have been broadcast live on networks such as K-MZT, K-CSN, K-USC, K-PFK, W-HKB, W-UOT, K-UAT, W-FMT, RTBF, WTV, PBS, and KLARA.
Steven Vanhauwaert conducted his piano studies in Brussels at the Royal Conservatory under the auspices of Boyan Vodenitcharov. He continued his musical development in Los Angeles with professors Kevin Fitz-Gerald, James Bonn, and John Perry at the USC Thornton School of Music. He is frequently invited to give guest lecture recitals and masterclasses in universities throughout the world.
Cécilia Tsan – cellist: “Uncompromising musical character and a towering technique… In the breadth of her virtuosity and the charisma of her musical personality, Tsan made this work her own.†(Daniel Cariaga/Los Angeles Times, about her performance of the Haydn D Major Concerto).
Born in France, Cécilia began playing the cello with the same teacher as her childhood friend Yo-Yo Ma. After majoring in Philosophy and Chinese, she was accepted at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris under André Navarra, and was awarded the 1st Prize for Cello summa cum laude and the 1st Prize for Chamber Music. She is a prizewinner at the Barcelona International Competition, the Florence International Competition and the winner of the Debussy Prize at the Paris International Competition.
She toured throughout the world not only as a soloist, but also as a chamber musician with Rudolf Firkusny, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Michel Dalberto, Jean Hubeau, Bruno Rigutto, Pascal Rogé, Pierre Amoyal, Augustin Dumay, Martin Chalifour, Hatto Beyerle, Gérard Caussé, Bruno Pasquier, Paul Neubauer, Heiichiro Ohyama. She regularly performs on the radio and for television and films. Since she moved to Los Angeles, she has been recording hundreds of movie soundtracks with many composers such as John Williams, James Newton-Howard, James Horner, Randy Newman, Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, David Newman, Jerry Goldsmith, Alan Silvestri, Alexandre Desplats, John Debney to name a few. She recorded a CD (Eleven pieces for Cello and Piano) under the Cybelia label and two CDs of chamber music by Weber and Ropartz under the Timpani label, both with pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer.
She currently serves as Principal Cellist with the Long Beach Symphony Orchestra, and occasionally the Pasadena Symphony, a position she previously held with New West Symphony. Recent performances include the Tchaikovsky Roccoco Variations, the Elgar, Lalo and Saint-Saëns Cello Concertos, as well as various chamber music concerts. Several composers, including jazz-pianist Clare Fischer (Suite for Cello and String Orchestra) and Music Director Enrique Diemecke have written solo pieces for her. As a founding member of the Pantoum Trio, she also recorded “Jazz and Cocktails”, a piano trio written by Gernot Wolfgang. The CD was released in July 2006 to critical acclaim.
Her recent performances include the Suite from Memoirs of a Geisha by John Williams, Dvorak Cello Concerto as well as Brahms Double Concerto with violinist Tereza Stanislav. At one of her many chamber music appearances, she performed the world premiere Eric Tanguy’s piano trio, especially written for her and published by Salabert: the world premiere was recorded and broadcast by Radio-France in Paris.
In November 2014, she will give the West Coast Premiere of Eric Tanguy’s 2nd Cello Concerto premiered by Mstislav Rostropovitch and Seiji Ozawa. Cécilia has also served as Principal Cello for the Academy Awards, the Emmys, American Idols, Dancing with the Stars and America’s Got Talent.
