CICA Summer Music Festival
And School
Home of world class music performance and education
August 3 Saturday 7:30 pm
CICA 2013 Summer Music Festival-Symphony concert 7
Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich Serenade for strings in C major, Op. 48
Elgar, Edward Cello concerto Op. 85
Cello solo: Sara Sant' Ambrogio
Intermission
CICA international Concerto Competition winner awards
Concerto Competition Winner Performance
Schumann, Robert Symphony No. 4
Conductor: Maestro Thomas Chun-yu Chen
Sara Sant' Ambrogio
Grammy Award-winning cellist Sara Sant’Ambrogio first leapt to international attention when she was a winner at the Eighth International Tchaikovsky Violoncello Competition in Moscow, Russia. As a result of her medal, Carnegie Hall invited Ms. Sant’Ambrogio to perform a recital that was filmed by CBS News as part of a nationally televised profile about her. The New York Times described her New York debut as, sheer pleasure.
In addition to the Tchaikovsky Medal, Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has won numerous international competitions, including The Whitaker, The Dealey, Artists International, Palm Beach awards as well as a Grammy Award for her performance of Bernstein’s “Arias and Barcarolles.” Sant’Ambrogio has been profiled in Strings, Glamour, Gramophone, Vogue, Strad, Elle, In Fashion, Bon Appetit, Detour, Travel and Leisure, Fanfare and Swing magazines, as well as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, on CBS, ABC, PBS, Fox, USA and CNN networks.
Ms. Sant’Ambrogio has appeared as a soloist with such orchestras as Atlanta, the Beijing Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Budapest, Chicago, Dallas, Moscow State Philharmonic, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Osaka Century Orchestra (Japan), St. Louis, San Francisco and Seattle; she has performed throughout the world at major music centers and festivals including Aspen, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, the Konzert Huset in Stockholm, Marlboro, Mostly Mozart, Musikverein in Vienna, Ravinia, Orchard and Suntory Halls in Tokyo and Great Mountain Festival in Korea.
Ms. Sant’Ambrogio started cello studies with her father John Sant’Ambrogio, principal cellist of the St. Louis Symphony, and at the age of 16 was invited on full scholarship to study with David Soyer at the Curtis Institute of Music. Three years later world renowned cellist Leonard Rose invited Ms. Sant’Ambrogio to study at The Juilliard School; within weeks of arriving, she won the all-Juilliard Schumann Cello Concerto Competition, resulting in the first of many performances at Lincoln Center.
Ms. Sant’Ambrogio is a founding member of the Eroica Trio. The Trio won the prestigious 1991 Naumburg Award, resulting in an acclaimed Lincoln Center debut and has since extensively toured the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, and New Zealand. In 1997 the Trio opened the “Distinctive Debuts” series at Carnegie Hall, and that year represented Carnegie Hall as the official chamber music ensemble in concerts worldwide. While touring the globe, Eroica has released eight celebrated recordings for Angel EMI Classics Records, garnering multiple Grammy nominations.
Sara Joined CICA Summer Music Festival as cello faculty and distinguished artist since 2012 and will serve as faculty and CICA 5th international concerto competition judge in 2013.
Dr. Thomas Chun-yu Chen
Maestro Thomas Chun-yu Chen is an internationally renowned conductor, violinist, composer, and string instruments maker and designer. A native of Taiwan, Mr. Chen has served as a member of the presidential string quartet, resident composer, and orchestra conductor for the ministry of Defense Symphony Orchestra in Taiwan. Maestro Chen is the founder and the director of CICA international Music Festival and School. Each year over 35 International world-renowned classical performance artists perform under the directions of Maestro Chen, alongside the Core-Art International Chamber Orchestra and the CICA Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. As orchestra conductor and violinist, Maestro Chen directs and performs three to four seasons of concerts each year. He has performed and collaborated with many top symphonic performers in the world, including Sara Sant’ Ambrogio, Alexander Gilman, Tao Fan, Lech Antonio Uszynski, Gregory Maytan, Erika Nickrenz, Julia Bushkova, Arsentiy Kharitonov, Shih-peng Chang, Susie Park, Arthur Hart, Alla Aranovskaya, Boris Vayner, Leonid Shukayev, Evgeny Zvonnikov, Dominika Zamara, Nanette Chen, Tony Baker, the Eroica Trio, the St. Petersburg String Quartet, and many other performing artists.
Chen has a BFA degree in performance from Fu-Jen Catholic University, MM degrees in performance, a Suzuki Violin Pedagogy degree from Southern Illinois University and a MA degree in Music Education from Lindenwood University. He did postgraduate doctorate study for the DM program at Florida State University and the DMA program at the University of Memphis. A decorated violin-maker and stringed instrument designer, Maestro Chen has received First Prize in String Quartet making and Tone Prizes in Violin and Viola from the VMAAI International Violin-making Competition. Maestro Chen, who has led research on violin making methodology for decades, is known for his development of a unique “crystallized” violin varnishing methodology that achieves extraordinary clarity, brightness, and tone. Maestro Chen serves as a competition judge for the “Eureka Springs Violin Makers Conference” held in Eureka Springs, Arkansas and “Dallas International Antonio Stradivari Violin Makers Conference” held in Dallas, Texas which feature over 200 string instrument exhibitions.
Maestro Chen has recently concluded a successful 2012 season of CICA Summer Music Festival consisting of 7 symphonic concerts, 12 extraordinary artists’ concert series’, 18 chamber music concerts and numerous other solo recitals performed by such leading musicians as the Eroica Trio, the St. Petersburg Quartet, Alexander Gilman, and Lech Uzsynski.
Maestro Chen’s upcoming performances include conducting 7 symphony concerts and many violin performances in the 2013 CICA summer music festival in Dallas, Texas from July 15 to August 4th 2013, leading and conducting the Core Art Chamber Orchestra, directing the Taiwan International Music Festival 2014 in Taipei Taiwan, and directing the Taipei 2014 International Jazz Festival.