San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts

 

Tsang & Freeman

Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on America Online as CultureFinder's "Star Find of the Week," on the Internet Cello Society as "Artist of the Month," and most recently in print in the newly published book 21st Century Cellists.

Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Moscow and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American, Pacific, Delaware and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Taiwan National Orchestra. In recent seasons, he made solo debuts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago with Zubin Mehta and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and at the Esplanade in Boston with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the U.S. premiere of the Enescu Symphonie Concertante, Op. 8 with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Concerto for Cello Solo and Chamber Orchestra at Atlanta's Symphony Hall, the Boston premiere of the Korngold Cello Concerto, Op. 37, and the world premiere of a new concerto written for him by Noam David Elkies.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang is a member of the Wolfram-Yoo-Tsang Trio with pianist William Wolfram and violinist Scott Yoo. He has also collaborated with such artists as violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Kyoko Takezawa, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianists Leon Fleisher and Anton Nel. Mr. Tsang has been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.

Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at age six and cello at age seven. The following year, he entered The Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. Mr. Tsang is on the music faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he was the recipient of the 2004 Texas Exes Teaching Award after just one year of service. This year he is also visiting professor of chamber music at Indiana University in Bloomington.

Dr. Robert Freeman is an accomplished pianist and musicologist who served as the dean of the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin from January, 2000 - August, 2006 and now holds the title of Dean Emeritus. For 24 years from 1972 from 1996 he was director of the prestigious Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. In its most recent rankings, the U.S. News & World Report named the Eastman School of Music the nation's leading music school.

Freeman received an undergraduate degree from Harvard College in 1957 and his master's degree and Ph.D. from Princeton University. Before becoming the director at Eastman, Freeman taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, and was a visiting associate professor at Harvard University. He has play with the Boston Pops and many other orchestras. Prior to coming to Texas he served as president of the New England Conservatory of Music.

Additional funding provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts.