Ah, the end of summer and we have to come indoors again, but it won’t be difficult with some great entertainment coming your way from the 2012/13 season of Quadra’s Cultural Committee.
The first concert will see vibrant youth and exceptional musicality in the form of piano four-hands with the talented Fung-Chiu Duo.
These two soloists, Janelle Fung and Philip Chiu, have become one of Canada’s première piano duos to challenge the traditional boundaries of their genre. Hear their lively performance on Sunday, Oct. 14 at 2:30 p.m. at the Quadra Community Centre.
Formed in 2007, under the auspices of Jeunesses Musicales Canada, the Fung-Chiu Duo has toured the country to many Canadian cities and given gala performances at such venues as the Casino de Montréal and the Orford Arts Centre. “They fairly romped through the program, showing considerable flair for the virtuosic side of piano playing…many moments in their playing, especially in the Debussy and the Ravel, showed the poetic side of their musicality,” Stephen Pedersen of the Chronicle Herald.
Janelle Fung began her piano studies at the age of four in Vancouver. She received degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Julliard School of New York and her doctorate from Université de Montréal. At age 14, Fung made her professional debut with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and has concertized throughout Canada, the U.S., Europe, South Korea, Japan and Argentina.
Philip Chiu was born in Hong Kong and raised in Canada. He received his Piano Performance Diploma from the Glenn Gould School in Montréal. Winning the Glenn Gould School Concert Competition, Chiu went on to solo throughout Canada, playing his orchestral debut in 2005 with Maestra Tania Miller of the Victoria Symphony. One of Canada’s most sought-after collaborative pianists, he has performed with such artists as Stefan Dohr, principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, Larry Combs and Craig Morris (clarinet and trumpet) of the Chicago Symphony.
The Fung-Chiu Duo has committed themselves to expanding the repertoire for piano four-hands by writing original transcriptions of such pieces as Stravinsky’s Firebird, Bernstein’s Westside Story, and Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique. Fung describes their writing process as: “...sitting down at the piano with the orchestral score, plunking our hands down and seeing what works.” According to the extremely communicative Chiu, “Working together on four-hand piano is the most fun, almost a stress relief from solo piano work.”
Tickets at the door are $20. Students accompanied by an adult are admitted free. For more information, please call 250-285-2580 or visit www.fungchiuduo.com