Cheng-Chow Trio

The Cheng-Chow Trio is composed of Angela Cheng, Alvin Chow and Alan Chow. The ensemble is a family affair — identical twin brothers Alan and Alvin, with Alvin’s wife, Angela Cheng. All three pianists are acclaimed performers in their own right, but they provide a unique concert experience when they combine forces. All three have been judges for the HHIPC. Consistently praised for her brilliant technique, tonal beauty, and superb musicianship, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng is one of her country’s national treasures. During the 2019/2020 season, Ms. Cheng served as an Artistic Partner of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra where she will perform three concertos throughout the season. Other highlights of the season include return engagements with the symphonies of Vancouver, Victoria, and Nova Scotia. In the U.S., Ms. Cheng performed with the symphonies of Fort Worth, Oklahoma City, Richmond and Canton, as well as the IRIS Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Cheng has given concerts in Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the 92nd Street Y in New York. She has also performed in the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg and the Sydney Opera House. She has appeared at the Verbier, Edinburgh, Miyazaki, St. Petersburg/Stars of the White Nights, and Enescu/Romania Festivals. An avid recitalist, Ms. Cheng appears regularly on recital series throughout the United States and Canada and has collaborated with numerous chamber ensembles including the Takács, Colorado, and Vogler quartets. Festival appearances have included Banff, Bravo! Vail, Chautauqua, Colorado, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla’s SummerFest, Ravinia, Vancouver, the Festival International de Lanaudière in Quebec, Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Cartegena International Music Festival in Colombia and the SchleswigHolstein festival in Germany.

Alvin Chow has appeared throughout North America and in Asia as orchestral soloist and recitalist. He has also performed extensively in duo-piano recitals with his wife, Angela Cheng, and his twin brother, Alan. He graduated summa cum laude and Co-Valedictorian (with his brother) at the University of Maryland, where he was a student of Nelita True. Mr. Chow received the Victor Herbert Prize in Piano upon graduation from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki, and held the Joseph Battista Memorial Scholarship at Indiana University as a student of Menahem Pressler.

Alvin has been presented as recitalist in such cities as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Wuhan, Vienna, Montreal, New York, and Los Angeles, and has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, and the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, among others. He has been Convention Artist for the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy and numerous state MTNA conferences.

He has presented numerous master classes throughout the United States and abroad, including the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Colburn School in Los Angeles, the Eastman School of Music and Indiana University, among many others. He has been invited to perform and teach at numerous summer festivals, including the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria and the Lake Como Piano Festival in Italy. Alvin Chow currently serves as Director of the Division of Keyboard Studies at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2017. Alan Chow has performed to critical acclaim in major venues such as New York’s Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall and Chicago’s Symphony Center and Ravinia; and with orchestras in the United States and Asia, including concerto performances with the National, Pan Asian, Utah, Oakland, Kansas City, and Omaha Symphonies and the Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tulsa Philharmonics. Mr. Chow won First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Silver Medal and Audience Favorite Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. Other awards include First Prizes in the UCLA and Palm Beach Invitational International piano competitions. As a chamber musician, Alan has collaborated with the American, Pacifica, and Miami and Escher String Quartets and been a guest artist at numerous festivals. In addition, he appears in recital in the Cheng-Chow Trio with pianists Angela Cheng and his twin brother Alvin Chow. Mr. Chow regularly tours Asia with performances in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, India and China. He has given master classes throughout North America, Asia, and in Europe at conservatories, universities, and summer festivals, and is active as a juror for many piano competitions. He has served as guest professor at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, honored visiting professor at the Shenyang Conservatory, and Visiting Associate Professor at Oberlin Conservatory. His former and current students have been winners in many national and international piano competitions. A Steinway Artist, Alan Chow has served on the artist faculty of Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and is currently Professor of Piano at the Eastman School of Music.

The music chosen for this program had its origin in the inspiration of two works by Aaron Copland, El Salón México (1936) and music from the ballet Billy the Kid (1938). Both of these pieces were composed during a period in which Copland was attempting to reach mass audiences, particularly the many Americans still suffering from the debilitating effects of the Great Depression. By infusing his works with a sense of hope and patriotism and at the same time incorporating folk tunes into many of them, he helped define in musical terms the myriad aspects of what it means to be an American. The other works on this program from the US and South America fall into the same genre of music for the larger inclusive audience, whether it is through dance (Copland’s Billy the Kid, the Gazebo Dances of John Corigliano, the tangos of Astor Piazzolla), opera (Porgy and Bess, George and Ira Gershwin), Broadway (West Side Story, Leonard Bernstein) and Hollywood movies (Wizard of Oz, Harold Arlen). Each was written to be enjoyed by a wide audience, and it is our pleasure to present this musical gift to all who are present.

Cheng - Chow Trio Music From The American Stage

Friday, June 4 at 7:30 pm First Presbyterian Church

Copland (American)

El Salón México (1936) Copland (American) Billy the Kid (1938) Gershwin/Grainger (American) Fantasy on Porgy and Bess (1951) INTERMISSION Arlen/Hirtz (American) Wizard of Oz Fantasy Corigliano (American) Excerpts from Gazebo Dances (1972) Piazolla (Argentina) Oblivion (1982), Libertangó (1974) Guastavino (Argentina) Romance No. 1 Bernstein/Duarte (American) “America” (West Side Story)