Swiss Music Night 2022

 

«Sounding Confluence» 

A varied program to celebrate the friendship between Taiwan and Switzerland

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After a program change (s. left note) the Swiss Music Night 2022 features a program with the focus on great musical moments reflecting the element water in music and enables on the same time a wonderful encounter of internationally celebrated Swiss and Taiwanese musicians. The first half is dedicated to a very special project of awarded Swiss composer Fabian Müller reflecting his love to Taiwan which became like a second home for him. Inspired by a Taiwanese tea master he tried to transcend the complex character of some exquisite teas into music. 

The result was a very successful album with these compositions for two cellos. The Swiss Music Night concerts 2022 will begin with this special music performed by his wife, the internationally acclaimed Taiwanese-Swiss cellist Pi-Chin Chien 簡碧青 and highly respected Taiwanese cellist and professor at TNUA Chu-Chuan Liu 劉姝嫥.

 

The second half of the evening with acclaimed Taiwanese pianist Chun-Chieh Yen 嚴俊傑 is dedicated to a Swiss-related program spanning a wide spectrum, from romantic music to Swiss contemporary music.

Matching the theme of the evening it starts with Chopins «Barcarole» followed by Maurice Ravels (it is rather unknown that Ravels father was Swiss) famous works «Jeux d‘eau» and «Ondine».

After a brilliant new work by Swiss composer Gion Antoni Derungs, the fulminant finale will be Rachmaninoff's 2nd sonata. Rachmaninoff had a very warm relationship to Switzerland and to the lake of Lucerne. He has built On the shore of the lake a house in the Bauhaus style where he lived and worked in the summer for seven years. 

 

The Swiss Music Night 2022 offers a surprising evening with its encounter of known works by beloved composers and the discovery of enriching music of our time.

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Swiss Music Night 2022 – The Artists

 

Pi-Chin Chien 簡碧青 - cello (Switzerland-Taiwan)

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Pi-Chin Chien is a sought-after, internationally active soloist and chamber musician. She has performed in major concert venues around the world, including New York's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Berlin Philharmonic and Tonhalle Zurich. She appears as a soloist on recordings with the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman, Ruben Gazarian and Wen-Pin Chien. 

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In 2015 Pi-Chin Chien enjoyed enormous success with her album "Taiwan Rhapsody", accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London and released by Sony Classical. Pi-Chin Chien has performed and recorded world premieres of a number of violoncello concertos and chamber music works, including several compositions dedicated to her.

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In the 90ties Pi-Chin Chien contributed significantly to the rediscovery of the late romantic Swiss composer Paul Juon with numerous concerts of his chamber music and first recordings of his cello concerto "Mysterien", the Triple Concerto "Episodes Concertantes" and his cello sonata.

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She performed at the Kaiser-Otto Medal award ceremony in honor of the late former German President Richard von Weizsäcker, and twice (1998 and 2016) at the renowned concert series at Taiwan’s Presidential Office on invitation of the President of Taiwan. 

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Pi-Chin Chien is the artistic director of the "Swiss Music Night" concert series in Taiwan and of the "Confluence" Music Festival in Zurich. www.pichin.net

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Chu Chuan Liu 劉姝嫥  - cello (Taiwan)

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Chu Chuan Liu is one of the last pupils of the great Austrian cellist Senta Benesh at the Hochschule fur Musik und Darstellende Kunst Wien (Vienna), and received her artist diploma from Konservatorium d. Stadt Wien with highest honor(Auszeichnung). During the time in Europe she has also performed in master classes for several renowned cellists: Michel Strauss (Paris), Heidi Litchauer (Salzburg), Christopher Henkel (Freiburg) among others, and for a short period of time, studied Viola da Gamba with Jose Vasquez and participated in chamber music seminars lead by the Wiener Schubert Trio.

In 1993 LIU went on to study with Stephen Kates at the Peabody Institute on a scholarship. As member of the Peabody Camerata , she then returned to Europe to perform under the baton of Maestro Rostropovich at the festival of Evian, France in 1994.

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She was awarded ”Young Musician of the Year” by the cultural minister as she went back to Taiwan in 1995, and started giving concerts both as solo and chamber cellist. Once a very enthusiastic performer for contemporary music, she has appeared with CCOT (Contemporary Chamber Orchestra Taipei) in music festivals in New York, Boston, Vancouver, Shanghai, and gave world premieres for solo works by Asian and European composers alike.

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Chu-Chuan Liu is cellist of the Po-Ya Piano trio and has been invited to collaborate with chamber music society of Minnesota and cellist Alexander Rudin, violinist Chao-Liang Lin, pianist Ching-Yung Hu at their chamber concerts in Taiwan. Currently associate professor at the Taipei National University of the Arts – a forefront institution of its kind in Asia, LIU is also founder and artistic director of CCliu’s Cello Ensemble.

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Chun-Chieh Yen 嚴俊傑, piano (Taiwan)

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Pianist Chun-Chieh Yen has concertized in Europe, Asia, and America, embracing a wide range of repertoire. Making history at age 13 as the youngest pianist to perform in recital at Taipei’s National Concert Hall, his annual concert tours in Taiwan have brought widespread critical acclaim. His rendition of Balakirev’s “Islamey” at the Braunschweiger Kammermusikpodium Germany at age 14 drew significant public attention and received rave reviews.

 

Concerto performances take Mr. Yen to orchestras including the Russian National Orchestra, Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. He has enjoyed collaborations with many conductors, including Mikhail Pletnev, Shao-Chia Lü or Günther Herbig. Mr. Yen has given concerts in leading venues including Paris's Salle Cortot, the Grand Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, and Alice Tully Hall in New York. In recent seasons, he has been a regular participant in international music festivals including the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Braunschweiger Kammermusikpodium, and Piano Festival Ferruccio Busoni.

 

Mr. Yen began his piano studies in Taiwan with Prof. Rolf-Peter Wille. After winning Third Prize at the International Youth Tchaikovsky Competition in St. Petersburg in 1997, Mr. Yen furthered his education at the Hochschule für Music und Theater Hannover in Germany. He was then given a full scholarship to study with world-renowned pedagogue John Perry at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles. He has won numerous prizes, including First Prize at the 4th Hamamatsu International Academy Piano Competition in Japan (1999), and Third Prize at the 4th Prokofiev International Competition in St. Petersburg (2004). He also received the "Prix de L'Ordre du Merite" in Luzern, where he was praised by Maestro Alexis Weissenberg. Mr. Yen is currently full time Assistant Professor at the National Taiwan Normal University; his students have won top prizes at international competitions.

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Fabian Müller, composition (Switzerland)

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Fabian Müller's (* 1964) works have been performed by some of the great musicians of our time including David Zinman, Andris Nelson, Sir Roger Norrington, Christopher Hogwood and Steven Isserlis and in venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Berliner Philharmonie, the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, the Tonhalle Zurich, the KKL Lucerne, and at the St. Petersburg Philharmonia.

 

Numerous CD recordings with, among others, the Philharmonia Orchestra (under David Zinman), the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra or the Petersen Quartet Berlin (for ARS Produktion, col legno, Capriccio, Sony Classical, etc.) show his versatile oeuvre. Following his cello studies at the Zurich Conservatory with Claude Starck, Fabian Müller studied composition in Zurich and the USA, where in 1996 he won the Jacob Druckman Award for Orchestral Composition.

 

In 2006, he received a cultural award from the Canton of Zurich and, in 2012, the Zollikon Art Prize for his work to date. In 2016 he was one of the nominees of the Swiss Music Prize of the Federal Office of Culture.

 

In addition to his work as a composer, he is interested in folk music. For ten years (1991-2002), he worked on the publication of the Hanny Christen Collection, a ten-volume folk music anthology with over 10,000 tunes from the 19th century. www.swisscomposer.ch

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Musical concept and artistic direction „Swiss Music Night“

Pi-Chin Chien & Fabian Müller