My Favorite Things Program Book

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MY FAVORITE THINGS AN ALL-PIANO LOVEFEST OF BELOVED BROADWAY SONGS HOSTED BY SHIELDS-COLLINS BRAY SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2019 I 2:00 PM MODERN ART MUSEUM OF FORT WORTH PERFORMANCE SPONSORED BY

The Board of Directors of the Cliburn salutes with gratitude the generosity of

BARBARA & RALPH COX UMB BANK

for supporting this performance of

MY FAVORITE THINGS

PA G E

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CLIBURN AT THE MODERN Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Saturday, March 23, 2019 I 2:00 pm

MY FAVORITE THINGS

HOSTED BY SHIELDS-COLLINS BRAY

Stephen Sondheim Arr. Fred Hersch

“No One is Alone” from Into the Woods Shields-Collins Bray

Stephen Sondheim Arr. Eric Rockwell

“You Could Drive a Person Crazy” from Company Nathan Ryland

Stephen Sondheim Arr. Ricky Ian Gordon

“Every Day a Little Death” from A Little Night Music Jeff Lankov

Richard Rodgers Arr. Stephen Hough

“My Favorite Things” from The Sound of Music Jonathan Tsay

Richard Rodgers Arr. Stephen Hough

“The Carousel Waltz” from Carousel Evan Mitchell

George Gershwin Arr. Earl Wild

“Embraceable You” from Girl Crazy “Fascinating Rhythm” from Lady Be Good “The Man I Love” Alex McDonald

Steinway & Sons is the official piano of the Cliburn. This concert is being recorded.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES SHIELDS-COLLINS BRAY host & pianist

Shields-Collins “Buddy” Bray has been artistic consultant for the Cliburn since 2003. Maintaining his longstanding commitment to new music, he serves as host and pianist for Cliburn at the Modern, bringing such living American composers as William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jake Heggie, Kevin Puts, Ned Rorem, and Ben Moore to Fort Worth. With music educator John Feierabend, Mr. Bray created the Cliburn in the Classroom curriculum for second, third, and fourthgraders, and he continues to be deeply involved as writer, narrator, host, and sometimes-pianist at these uniquely interactive programs.

Mr. Bray has been principal keyboardist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1986, and has hosted the orchestra’s pre-concert discussion series Symphonic Insights since 1993. He has performed many times as soloist with orchestra, most recently in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, a work with which he has had a long association. He has also appeared as soloist with the Dallas and Jacksonville Symphony Orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, and in Miguel Harth-Bedoya’s “The Passion of the Tango” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

Mr. Bray was born in Mississippi and grew up in northeastern Louisiana. He studied there with Donald Cornell, and later with Steven De Groote at Arizona State University and TCU.

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ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

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JEFF LANKOV piano

Pianist Jeff Lankov has been hailed for his “alternately ferocious and sensitive” ( The New York Times), “muscular and moving” (Dallas Morning News ) “performances of brilliance and dedication… there seems to be nothing that eludes his grasp.”

(New York Concert Review ).

As a soloist and sought-after collaborative artist, Lankov has performed in the world’s major concert venues, and is a specialist in the works of living composers and the American minimalist movement. He has recorded compositions by Adams, Finnissy, Gershwin, Lauridsen, Messiaen, Piazzolla, Runestad, and Rodríguez. His repertoire includes works by composers as diverse as Blind Tom, Henry Cowell, George Crumb, Morton Feldman, Anthony Heinrich, Frederic Rzewski, and Jacob TV, along with music for toy piano and prepared piano, and his own solo-piano transcriptions of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and The Firebird.

In the popular genre, Lankov has performed on Broadway and at Radio City Music Hall. His multimedia performance pieces combine music with theatrical elements, visual art, and computer-generated sounds and images, often in unusual juxtapositions that explore the synthesis of popular and classical forms. Dr. Lankov is Associate Professor of Music at Tarrant County College and received a Ph.D. in Piano Performance from New York University.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

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ALEX McDONALD piano

Since his orchestral debut at age 11, pianist Alex McDonald has soloed with Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de Mexico, Louisiana Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and the Utah Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has performed across the United States as well as in Israel, Mexico, Canada, Japan, and South Korea; additionally, he has been a featured performer on PBS, WRR (Dallas/Fort Worth), NPR, and WQXR (New York City). Awards include second prizes at the 2007 New Orleans International Piano Competition and 2001 Gina Bachauer International Young Artist Piano Competition, and the 2008 Harvey Fellowship by the Mustard Seed Foundation. In 2013, he was a participant in the Fourteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.

Dr. McDonald is currently the festival director for Basically Beethoven, a thriving summer concert series in downtown Dallas’ Arts District. He has taught at Texas Woman’s University, Richland College, and The Juilliard School, where he also was a Teaching Fellow for both the literature and materials and piano minor departments. Additionally, his private piano students have been admitted to Juilliard and Eastman, and have performed at Carnegie’s Weill Hall and on WRR. His recent program “Music for Animals” was hailed by Theater Jones as one of its “Concerts of the Year” for 2016. The Texas Music Teacher’s Association recently awarded him the 2017 Outstanding Achievement Award in teaching.

Dr. McDonald received his pre-college training under Lois Nielson, his bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory with Academic Honors and Distinction in Performance under Russell Sherman, and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Juilliard under Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin. His doctoral document, a source study on manuscripts and editions for Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor, has been cited in the most recent edition of the sonata by Alfred Publishers, edited

by Nancy Bricard.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

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EVAN MITCHELL piano

Lauded for his “impassioned and vigorous” playing (Pianomania ), pianist Evan Mitchell has established himself as a bold and versatile artist. He has played concerti with the symphony orchestras of Dallas, Fort Worth, and Victoria, among others, and performed chamber music with members of the orchestras of Cleveland, Rio de Janeiro (OSB), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Recent highlights include debuts for the prestigious Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts (Chicago), at Merkin Concert Hall (NYC), and at several major venues in Shanghai.

Mr. Mitchell’s new recording of world premieres with bassist Szymon Marciniak is earning rave reviews; most recently, Bass World called their performances “intoxicating,” deeming this “a seminal recording.” He is also featured on the 2012 release Piano de Pampa y Jungla: A Collection of Latin American Piano Music.

Among other honors, Mr. Mitchell has captured first prize in the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition and fifth prize at the 2012 World Piano Competition. Since June 2014, Mr. Mitchell has been featured on the TCA Texas Touring Roster, and over the past seven years, he has given more than 250 performances for Cliburn in the Classroom, the signature educational outreach program of the Cliburn. He teaches privately and at Tarrant County College and serves as a chamber music coach for the Fort Worth Youth Orchestra.

Mr. Mitchell holds degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Texas Christian University, where his principal teachers included John Owings, Arnaldo Cohen, and José Feghali.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

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NATHAN RYLAND piano

Pianist Nathan Ryland, a native of Richardson, Texas, has been a winner in competitions coast to coast, from the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition to the Brevard Music Center Piano Competition in North Carolina. Some of his other accomplishments include being selected as the first place winner of the MidTexas Symphony Young Artist Competition, earning a performance with orchestra, and participating as a finalist in the first Texas State International Piano Competition. During his time at the University of North Texas, he was selected as the piano winner of the 2014—2015 UNT Concerto Competition, performing with the UNT Symphony Orchestra. He was selected as a winner of the Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition in the summer of 2014, playing his debut with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. Mr. Ryland also won the state and regional levels of the MTNA performance contest, competing as a finalist at the 2013 National Conference. He has participated in summer study with Elisabeth Pridonoff and Norman Krieger at the Brevard Music Center Institute, consecutively winning second and first prizes in the BMC Piano Competition, in addition to spending a summer at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He has participated in masterclasses with internationally acclaimed artists such as Boris Slutsky, Anton Nel, and Haochen Zhang. Mr. Ryland also performs for the Cliburn in the Classroom educational programs, helping to introduce young children to classical piano repertoire.

Mr. Ryland is currently pursuing graduate studies at the University of North Texas with Dr. Pamela Mia Paul. He has also studied under Norman Krieger at the Indiana University Jacobs School of music. In addition to classical piano, he also enjoys playing jazz, audio engineering, and composing.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

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JONATHAN TSAY piano

Soloist, collaborative pianist, chamber musician, producer, and arts administrator Jonathan Tsay maintains an artistic career as diverse as his interests. A recent multi-city tour of Taiwan included solo recital stops at the National Recital Hall in Taipei, Kaohsiung Music Hall, and the Pingtung Arts Center. Other recent solo engagements include performances for the Cliburn, Music at Southminster in Ottawa, Blanco Performing Arts, and Fine Arts Chamber Players.

A sought after collaborator, Dr. Tsay has also performed alongside some of the world’s premier musicians, including violinist Chee-Yun, David Cooper (principal horn, Berlin Philharmonic), Jing Wang (concertmaster, Hong Kong Philharmonic), dramatic soprano Alessandra Marc, violinist Chloé Trevor (“musical ambassador to Generation Z”), the Cézanne Quartet, and Nathan Olson (concertmaster, Dallas Symphony Orchestra). Dr. Tsay performs regularly as principal keyboardist of the Dallas Chamber Symphony and Las Colinas Symphony, and serves as artistic director of Ensemble75, a chamber music series based out of Dallas, Texas.

Dr. Tsay’s recordings can be found in Brahms – A Listener’s Guide: Unlocking the Masters Series, as well as on Chloé Trevor’s debut album Immortal and Danse Macabre. A solo CD featuring the works of Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Debussy, Liszt, and Muczynski was released worldwide in 2009, and and his collaborative album Harmonic Allusions was named one of the “Top 5” albums of 2017 by TheaterJones.

Increasingly popular as a masterclass teacher, Dr. Tsay has given masterclasses throughout Taiwan and Texas. He has served on the screening jury for the Dallas International Piano Competition as well as adjudicator for numerous competitions including the Texas Music Teacher’s Association Solo Competition and Austin Youth Music Ambassadors.

Dr. Tsay started his piano studies with Carolyn Savko at the age of 5. Under the tutelage of Dr. Carol Leone, he earned a Bachelor of Music with Honors at SMU’s Meadows School of the Arts. Dr. Tsay entered l’Université de Montréal as a Master of Music student of Marc Durand, and received his doctorate through an accelerated program. His musical background also includes composition studies with Simon Sargon and David Karp, and conducting with Jack Delaney and Paul Phillips.

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