Violinist Cho-Liang Lin performs in free virtual ‘Front Row: National’ starting Nov. 15
“Remarkably sweet-toned” violinist Cho-Liang Lin is the featured soloist in the next on-demand episode of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Front Row: National.”
The virtual event begins at noon Monday, Nov. 15, and will be available to stream until noon Friday, Nov. 19. The event is free, but registration is required. Visit https://cpa.psu.edu/events/cmslc-cho-liang-lin for more information and to register.
The program features Lukas Foss’ “Composer’s Holiday” from “Three American Pieces” for Violin and Piano, featuring pianist Jon “Jackie” Kimura Parker; Antonín Dvořák’s Larghetto from Sonatina in G Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100 (featuring Parker); and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Sextet for Two Violins, Two Violas and Two Cellos, Op. 70, “Souvenir de Florence” (featuring Erin Keefe, violinist; Paul Neubauer and Hsin-Yun Huang, violists; and Dmitri Atapine and Colin Carr, cellists).
The chamber society’s high-definition concert video includes an introduction by organization Co-artistic Directors David Finckel and Wu Han. They also interview Lin during the intermission.
The program is part of the Center for the Performing Arts “Up Close and Virtual” 2021 season. A grant from the University Park Student Fee Board helps make the program free of charge.
Lin is the first Taiwanese violinist to find international fame. He is artistic director of the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and he founded the Taipei Musical Academy and Festival in 2019. In 2000, Lin was named instrumentalist of the year by Musical America, which called his playing “sweet-toned and persuasive.” He has performed with classical ensembles worldwide and appeared at Eisenhower Auditorium in 1987. He plays a 1715 “Titian” Stradivarius.
Longtime friends Lin and Parker “brought talent and imagination” to a 2019 concert, wrote a reviewer in The Strad. They were roommates at The Juilliard School and colleagues at Rice University. In 2020, they released an album of violin sonatas by Paul Schoenfield, John Harbison and Steven Stucky. In this Chamber Music Society performance stream, the two musicians perform together again, after recently collaborative touring.
“I admire his playing and artistry greatly,” Lin said of Parker. “If it were not for the pandemic, I would have toured Australia with Jackie for weeks.”
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s “Front Row: National” virtual concert collection features beautifully shot, full-length HD performance videos from the society’s archive.
Finckel and Han previously performed at the Center for the Performing Arts as a duo in 2005, and with violinist Philip Setzer in 2017 and 2018 for the Beethoven Piano Trios. Finckel also performed at Penn State—in 1990, 2002 and 2009—when he was a member of Emerson String Quartet.
Foxdale Village, Elinor C. Lewis, Pieter W. and Lida Ouwehand, and Lam and Lina Hood provide support for the virtual presentation.
For more information about forthcoming Fall 2021 events, visit cpa.psu.edu/allevents.
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