Guest Artist Recital, Rebecca Hang and Brian Schuldt

GUEST ARTIST RECITAL Rebecca Hang, violin Brian Schuldt, cello

Ann Miller, violin

Igor Veligan, viola

Vicky Wang, cello

Sonia Leong, piano

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

7:30 pm

Recital Hall

Serenade in D major, op. 8 (1797)

Marcia: Allegro

Allegretto alla Polacca

Andante quasi Allegretto

Marcia: Allegro

Piano Trio in E minor, op. 90, “Dumky” (1891)

Lento maestoso—Allegro quasi doppio movimento

Poco adagio—Vivace non troppo

Allegro—Meno mosso

Lento maestoso—Vivace

String Quintet in C major, D. 956, op. 163 (1828)

Allegro ma non troppo

Ann Miller, violin

Igor Veligan, viola

Vicky Wang, cello

Franz Schubert (1797–1828))

Igor Veligan, viola

Sonia Leong, piano

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Rebecca Hang, violin, was born in Germany and began her violin studies at the Peter-CorneliusConservatory in Mainz with Helga Waehdel. From 1987 until 1990 she lived in Israel where she studied with the renowned concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Chaim Taub. She continued her musical education with Atar Arad and Paul Biss at Indiana University (IU), Bloomington, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree “with high distinction” and a Master of Music degree in violin performance.

As a member of the internationally reputable Felici String Quartet, she won first prize in the 1992 Michael Kuttner Competition at IU, the MTNA Competition in Indianapolis, the Russell Award of the 1993 Coleman Competition, and was a prizewinner of the International String Quartet Competition in Osaka, Japan, in the same year. In June 1993 Hang gave her New York solo debut in Lincoln Center’s Juilliard Theater performing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante. As a member of the first violin section of the International “Guido Cantelli” Chamber Orchestra in Milan, Italy, she toured throughout Europe and the United States before accepting the NEA Rural Residency Grant with the Felici Piano Trio in Mammoth Lakes, California, in 1998. Hang dedicates much of her time to Carnegie Mellon University’s Music School, teaching more than 125 violin students in weekly group and individual lessons. Through her pedagogical work she hopes to nurture children's innate musicality and lay the foundations for a lasting love of great music.

Sonia Leong, a founding member of University of the Pacific’s Trio 180, has performed as both a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, and in Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, Switzerland, England, and Romania. She has appeared with the Filarmonica de Stat Dinu Lipatti in Satu Mare (Romania), the St. John and Zion Chamber Orchestras in Stockton, the Banff Festival Orchestra, and the Stockton Symphony. She has also performed live on Radio Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland.

As a member of Trio 180 since 2002, Leong has given concerts and worked with young musicians throughout the Americas. The Trio has commissioned works by many composers, including Chen Yi, Robert Greenberg, Cindy Cox,

Reinaldo Moya, Richard Einhorn, Dorothy Chang, and Andrew Conklin. The Trio’s first album, featuring works by Dvořák, Suk, and Schumann, was released in 2015.

The St. Galler Tagblatt (Switzerland) wrote of Leong’s “richly colorful and tender playing,” saying “she balances intelligence and sensitivity, revealing the depths of each score." The San Francisco Classical Voice described her “sensitive and accomplished touch” and wrote, “Leong ... played the brilliant piano part effortlessly and with a great deal of flair.”

Leong studied at the University of British Columbia, the Peabody Institute, and the Université de Montréal, as well as at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) on a Commonwealth Scholarship, where she received a Concert Recital Diploma. Her principal teachers include Robert Silverman, Julian Martin, Alexander Volkov, and Marc Durand. She has participated in festivals at the Banff Centre; Orford, Quebec; Scotia Festival; Ladevie, France; and Ernen, Switzerland (with György Sebök).

An avid chamber musician, Ann Miller is a member of Trio180, the piano trio-in-residence at University of the Pacific. She is an associate professor of violin at Pacific's Conservatory of Music. She holds Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Juilliard School, and she received her Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Rice University. Her teachers have included Ronald Copes and Kathleen Winkler.

Celebrated violinist Miller has appeared in concert halls throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. At home performing music spanning the Baroque era to the present day, Miller enjoys a varied career as a chamber musician, soloist, and educator. A proponent of new music, Miller made her New York debut as a soloist with the New Juilliard Ensemble in Alice Tully Hall in the North American premiere of David Matthews’s Concerto No.2. Her recent solo appearances include performances of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Zion Chamber Orchestra, the Barber Violin Concerto with the Dinu Lipatti Philharmonic Orchestra in Satu Mare (Romania) and the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Mariposa Symphony in Yosemite National Park. As a recitalist Miller frequently collaborates with pianist Sonia Leong. Their debut album, Perspectives on Light and Shadow: Sonatas by Beaser, Ysaÿe, and Bartók was released in December of 2015.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Brian Schuldt, cello, has performed hundreds of critically acclaimed concerts in the United States, Europe, and South America. His chamber music collaborations include those with renowned artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Edward Auer, Atar Arad, Corey Cerovsek, Hagai Shaham, and Eli Eban. Schuldt was the cellist of the Arcadia String Quartet, which won the grand prize of the 1995 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and the Indiana University Kuttner Quartet Scholarship.

He has appeared as soloist with the Oak Ridge Symphony, Auburn Symphony, Owensboro Symphony, Eastern Sierra Symphony, and the Chamber Orchestra “Cantelli” of Milan, Italy. He has served as guest principal cellist for the Fresno Philharmonic the Owensboro Symphony and “Cantelli.”

Schuldt has been a guest lecturer/instructor at Indiana University, the University of Tennessee, and Tennessee Tech. He studied with Toby Saks at the University of Washington and continued under Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker at Indiana University, where he earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. From 1994 to1996, Schuldt held the appointment of assistant instructor of cello at Indiana University. He is currently executive director of Chamber Music Unbound.

Igor Veligan joined the faculty of University of the Pacific's Conservatory of Music in the fall of 2006. He teaches violin, viola, and chamber music.

Veligan holds a Master of Arts degree in violin performance and chamber music from Odessa State Conservatory. His primary violin teachers include Zoja Istomina and Galina Gritzenko. Veligan has studied chamber music with Oleg Shkarpitnuy and Natalya Buzanova and has had master classes with Zakhar Bron, Liana Isakadze, and Igor Frolov.

As a chamber musician, Veligan performs with the L’Estro Armonico String Quartet, the Arlekin String Quartet, and has been a guest violist with the Argenta Trio. He is also a violist with the Chamber Music Society of Sacramento. As an orchestra performer, he is concertmaster of the San Francisco Choral Society Orchestra, principal viola of the Reno Philharmonic

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES

Orchestra, principal violist of the Lake Tahoe Summer Festival, and a member of the Monterey Symphony. Veligan also recently performed as concertmaster of the Sacramento Philharmonic.

Veligan has taught at the School for the Performing Arts in Ternopil, Ukraine, and also currently teaches at American River College in Sacramento.

An assistant professor of cello at University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, Vicky Wang is the cellist in Trio 180, an ensemble-in-residence at Pacific. She is also the artistic director and cofounder of C’est Bon Chamber Music Academy dedicated to inspiring the love of music in young musicians through chamber music.

Winner of the Young Artist International Competition, Wang made her New York debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 2001. An avid chamber musician, Wang was a member of the award-winning ensemble Aristos String Quartet, which participated in the focus! New Music Festival in New York, Hampden-Sydney Chamber Music Festival in Virginia as well as frequent collaborations with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Her highlights also include collaborations with legendary performers Ray Charles at the Belleayre Music Festival and Liza Minelli at Avery Fisher Hall.

In 2017 Wang returned as the artist-teacher for the piano Sonoma Music Festival at Sonoma State University and joined the faculty of the University of Pacific Conservatory as the cellist of its faculty ensemble, Trio 180. Wang has taught at Mannes College of Music and the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College and now maintains an active private studio in Palo Alto. She is also a founding member of C’est Bon Chamber Music Academy in Los Altos and the San Francisco Cello Quartet.

Since coming to the United States in 1992, Wang studied with Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Idyllwild Arts Academy; earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Juilliard studying with Zara Nelsova, Darrett Adkins, and Joel Krosnick; and participated in numerous international festivals. She received her doctorate from the City University of New York under the guidance of Marcy Rosen.

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