Ayano Ninomiya and Pei-Shan Lee

Ayano Ninomiya, violin
Pei-Shan Lee, piano

Program

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827): 21 min
Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major for Piano and Violin, Op. 12, No. 3
Allegro con spirito
Adagio con molta espressione
Rondo: Allegro molto

Franz Schubert (1797-1828): 25 min
Fantasy in C Major for Violin and Piano, Op. posth. 159, D 934
Andante molto
Allegretto
Tema e Variazioni - Andantino-Adagio
Tempo I
Allegro vivace
Allegretto
Presto

Intermission

Richard Strauss (1864-1949): 28 min
Sonata in E-flat Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 18
Allegro, ma non troppo
Improvisation: Andante cantabile
Finale: Andante - Allegro

Program Notes

Ayano Ninomiya, violin

Praised by The New York Times as "deeply communicative and engrossing," violinist Ayano Ninomiya is committed to creating invigorating live performance experiences from concert stages to private homes and public schools. The Boston Globe wrote that, "A note from her was never just a note...Whatever project she takes on next, it is sure to be worth a listen."

Equally at home as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Ayano has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to recent performances at Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Merkin Hall, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 with the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Recent performances include solos with A Far Cry and the Jacksonville Symphony, as well as recitals at the Music Mountain Festival, the Sembrich Opera Museum, and the Moab Festival. She will also perform with Beaux Arts Series (FL), Chamber Music International (TX), Boston Chamber Music Series, and Chameleon Ensemble (MA), as well as at the Cooperstown, Orford (Canada), Bowdoin, Morningside Music, Interlochen Arts, and Anchorage chamber music festivals.

She has won numerous awards, including the Naumburg International Violin Competition, the Tibor Varga International Competition, Astral Artists National Auditions, and the Young Performer’s Career Advancement Award (APAP). As a recording artist, Ayano has released a variety of albums including a solo album of works for violin by Larry Bell and more recently, three albums as the first violinist of the Ying Quartet: an album of the complete quartets by Robert Schumann, an album of the complete quartets by Anton Arensky, and a third album, “American Anthem” (Sono Luminus), featuring works by Randall Thompson, Samuel Barber, and Howard Hanson.

In 2012 Ayano was invited to give a TEDx talk at the University of Tokyo. More recently, she has given numerous lecture demonstrations for organizations and festivals on topics ranging from Aikido principles as they pertain to playing the violin to sustaining a varied career. Other past projects include a benefit performance for victims of the 2009 Haiti earthquake, a fundraiser in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake with sumo wrestler Konishiki, and the creation of her own Elderhostel “Day of Adventure” programs in NYC that gave an insider's view of making music. As a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship, Ayano conducted research of scores at the Bartók Archives in Budapest, Hungary, working with musicologist László Somfai.

During the summers, she has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Kingston, Skaneateles, Caramoor, Bowdoin, and Moab music festivals, as well as at Prussia Cove's International Musicians Seminar, the Canberra International Festival (Australia), and the Adams Festival (New Zealand), among others. She has been invited to tour France and the west and east coasts of the U.S. and France with "Musicians from Marlboro" (Marlboro Festival) and "Musicians from the Steans Institute" (Ravinia Festival). She is also a founding member of the exciting conductorless string orchestra, ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), which is composed of soloists and leaders of quartets and orchestras from around the United States. Because of her own experience beginning the violin in a public school program in Boston at the age of seven, Ayano has given numerous programs for children across the U.S. from Bethlehem, New Hampshire to Columbia, Missouri, to Denton, Maryland, including many in the greater Philadelphia area.

Ayano, whose principal teachers and mentors include Miriam Fried, Robert Mann, Eszter Perenyi, Michele Auclair, and Robert Levin, graduated magna *** laude from Harvard University. She graduated with her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School and then went on to study at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. From 2010-2015, Ayano was first violinist of the renowned Ying Quartet and Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. In the fall of 2015 she joined the violin faculty of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at the East Harlem Justice Center and volunteer at the Lighthouse Music School (NYC). In her spare time, she loves to paint and practice Aikido.

Pei-Shan Lee, piano

Pianist PEI-SHAN LEE’s active concert career has taken her to The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, and tours of France, Germany, Belgium, and Israel. Her many summer festival appearances include The Mostly Mozart Festival, Caramoor Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Chautauqua Institute, Music Academy of the West, Heifetz International Music Institute, the International Piano Festival in Spain, the International Piano Festival at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, ProQuartet in France, the Great Wall International Music Academy in China, and the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan.

A member of the Collaborative Piano and Chamber Music faculty at the New England Conservatory, Ms. Lee recently created a new MM in Collaborative Piano at the California State University Northridge. She will also head the Collaborative Piano Fellowships at the Bowdoin International Music Festival starting in the summer of 2015.

Since coming to the United States from Taiwan, Ms. Lee has collaborated with some of America’s most important musicians: violinists Donald Weilerstein, Ani Kavafian, Jacques Israelievitch, Joseph Silverstein, Ryu Goto, and Stefan Jackiw; violists Kim Kashkashian, Dimitri Murrath, Edward Gazouleas, and Che-Yen Chen; cellists Paul Katz, Robert DeMaine, Andres Diaz, and Pieter Wispelwey; flutist Jeanne Baxtresser; and pianist James Tocco. Her chamber music partners have included the Jupiter, the Harlem, and the Formosa String Quartets, members of the Bavarian Radio, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, San Diego Symphony Orchestras and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In her hometown of Boston, Ms. Lee has performed at NEC, MIT, Boston Ballet, and in recitals with members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. She also works with BSO’s guest conductors and soloists, and was the Boston pianist seen in rehearsal with violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in her documentary “The Portrait”. Her live performances can also be heard on WQXR, WGBH, and WRCJ. In 2006, she was appointed pianist for Itzhak Perlman’s violin studio at the Perlman Music Program and has since joined its faculty in the Sarasota Winter Residency. She also served on the faculty of the Chautauqua School of Music, as staff pianist at the Cleveland Institute of Music and the famed Meadowmount School for Strings. Ms. Lee’s artistry and comprehensive knowledge of the chamber music and collaborative literature have made her a highly sought after partner for many up-and-coming young artists, especially string and woodwind players.

Ms. Lee came to the U.S. for piano study after winning the Youth Division of Taiwan’s National Piano Competition. The Cleveland Institute awarded her the Rosa Lobe Memorial Award in recognition of the highest level of artistic achievement in Collaborative Piano. Her doctoral thesis “The Collaborative Pianist: Balancing Roles in Partnership”, has become an important resource for schools wishing to begin/develop a Collaborative Piano program, and is available at ProQuest. Frequently invited to China and Taiwan for master classes and residencies, her dissertation is currently in the process of being translated by the Chinese.

Degrees: DMA, New England Conservatory; Artist Diploma, Cleveland Institute of Music; MM, The Juilliard School; BM, Manhattan School of Music

Tickets:
$60: VIP Reserved Seats
$40: Open seating at non-VIP section
$20: Student open seating at non-VIP section
Children under 6 not admitted.