Anthony Newman
Described by Wynton Marsalis as "The High Priest of Bach", and by Time Magazine as "The High Priest of the Harpsichord," Newman continues his 50 year career as America's leading organist, harpsichordist and Bach specialist.
His prodigious recording output includes more than 170 CDs on such labels as CBS, SONY, Deutsche Grammaphon, and Vox Masterworks. In 1989, Stereo Review voted his original instrument recording of Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto as "Record of the Year". His collaboration with Wynton Marsalis on Sony's "In Gabriel's Garden" was the best selling classical CD in 1997.
As keyboardist, he has performed more than sixty times at Lincoln Center in New York, and has collaborated with many of the greats of music: Kathleen Battle, Itzhak Perlman, Eugenia Zukerman, John Nelson, Jean-Pierre Rampal, James Levine, Lorin Mazel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Seji Osawa, and Leonard Bernstein.
As conductor, he has worked with the greats of chamber music orchestras: St. Paul Chamber, LA Chamber, Budapest Chamber, Scottish Chamber, and the 92nd St. Y Chamber Orchestras. Larger symphonic groups include: Seattle (over 40 appearances), Los Angeles, San Diego, Calgary, Denver, and New York Philharmonic Orchestras.
No less prodigious a composer, his works have been heard in Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow, Warsaw, New York, and London. His output includes 4 symphonies, 4 concerti, 3 large choral works, 2 operas: Nicole, and Massacre (in collaboration with Charles Flowers), 3 CDs of piano music, and a large assortment of chamber, organ and guitar works. Complete works are published by Ellis Press. Newman has received 30 consecutive composer's awards from ASCAP.
Newman is music director of "Bach Works," New York's all Bach association, and Bedford Chamber Concerts; is on the Visiting Committee for the Department of Musical Instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; and on the board of the Musical Quarterly Magazine. As a person committed to outreach, he was a volunteer for Stamford Hospital, a member of Hospice International from 1995 to 2004. Newman is music director of St. Matthews Episcopal Church in Bedford NY.
Newman is a Yamaha Artist, and a proud alumnus of Young Concert Artists.
Yun-Chin Zhou - Piano
A native of Shenyang, China, pianist Yun-Chin Zhou, whose given name means pure melody, has been hailed as a “dashing virtuoso … complete with dazzling fingerwork and shapely phrasing” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). His 2014-2015 season includes recital appearances and educational outreach at Saint Vincent College, the Center for Arts in Natick, the Lied Center of Kansas, the Port Washington Library, the Jewish Community Alliance, the Evergreen Museum and Library, the Bedford Chamber Concert Series, and the Harriman-Jewell Series. Winner of the 2013 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Zhou gives debut recitals in New York and Washington, D.C. on the Young Concert Artists Series.
At the YCA Auditions, Mr. Zhou was awarded seven performance prizes, including the Sunday Musicale Series Prize (which came with a $1000 cash award) and the Vancouver Recital Society Prize, as well as the John Browning Memorial Prize, Ruth Laredo Memorial Award, and the Slomovic Prize, which provides support for his debut in Washington, D.C.
Last season, Mr. Zhou joined YCA clarinetist Narek Arutyunian in an evening of Armenian chamber music at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Mr. Zhou won First Prize in the 2013 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at Juilliard, which brought him a full scholarship and an appearance on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase with Robert Sherman. He won top prizes in the 2007 China International Piano Competition, the 2006 Gulangyu Piano Competition in Xiamen, the Busoni Piano Competition in Italy, and the Cleveland Piano Competition. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout China, including the China National Symphony Orchestra in Beijing.
Mr. Zhou began his piano studies at the age of seven. From the age of 19, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music with Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald, with whom he continues his studies at the Juilliard School.