Shriver Hall Concert Series Announces Free Discovery Series Programming for 2021-2022 Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Katy Salomon | Morahan Arts and Media
katy@morahanartsandmedia.com | 863.660.2214

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SHRIVER HALL CONCERT SERIES ANNOUNCES
2021-2022 DISCOVERY SERIES PROGRAMMING

Featuring the Baltimore Debuts of the 2019 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition Winner,
Pianist Tianyuan Lu; Violist Jordan Bak, Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, and Pianist Wynona Wang 
in the World Premiere a New Work by Jessica Meyer; Pianist Eric Lu; 
and the Forthcoming Winner of the 2020 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition

“Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” – The Baltimore Sun

www.shriverconcerts.org

Baltimore, Maryland (September 21, 2021) — Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) — Baltimore’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists — is pleased to announce its 2021-2022 Discovery Series. Created specifically for the community, Discovery Series programs are free performances presented in intimate venues throughout the region that feature talented artists emerging on the national and international music scene in their Baltimore debuts. 

Opening the Discovery Series on Saturday, February 6, 2022 at 3:00pm is the Baltimore debut of pianist Tianyuan Liu, winner of the 2019 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. The event, which was postponed from the 2020-21 season, will be held at Baltimore Museum of Art’s Meyerhoff Auditorium. Program details to be announced at a later date. 

On Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 3:00pm, violist Jordan Bak, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, and pianist Wynona Wang make their Baltimore debuts in an afternoon of music by H. Leslie Adams, Jeffrey Mumford, Brahms, and Arnold Bax, plus the world premiere of Jessica Meyer’s On fire...no, after you, commissioned by BMI. The concert will take place at University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall. On fire...no, after you is composed to a set of three poems by Jennifer Beattie that encapsulate the extreme emotional dynamics experienced when falling for someone. Meyer says, “The viola and a mezzo voice is a favorite pairing of mine ever since first performing the Brahms songs as a violist myself. I have also been singing a lot more lately, so I will be looking forward to using all of the sounds and colors I know can be executed on both ‘instruments’ in order to express Beattie's evocative text.”

Pianist Eric Lu takes the stage for his Baltimore debut on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 3:00pm, performing works by Schumann, Brahms, Bach, and Chopin. The concert will also be held at University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall.

The Discovery Series closes on Saturday, April 26, 2022 at 3:00pm with a performance featuring the winner of the 2020 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition. The 2020 competition was postponed due to the pandemic and will be held in fall 2021. The event will be presented at Baltimore Museum of Art’s Meyerhoff Auditorium, and artist and program details will be announced at a later date. The Yale Gordon Concerto Competition was established at The Peabody Conservatory in 1983 through a gift from the Peggy and Yale Gordon Trust.

Concert Information

Tianyuan Liu, piano
Saturday, February 6, 2022 at 3:00pm
Baltimore Museum of Art’s Meyerhoff Auditorium | 10 Art Museum Dr | Baltimore, MD
Tickets: Free general seating, $10 suggested donation
Link: www.Shriverconcerts.org/Liu 

Program TBA

Tianyuan Liu, piano (Baltimore Debut)

Jordan Bak, viola, Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano, and Wynona Wang, piano
Saturday, February 26, 2022 at 3:00pm
UMBC Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall | 1000 Hilltop Cir | Baltimore, MD
Tickets: Free general seating, $10 suggested donation
Link: www.Shriverconcerts.org/Bak 

H. LESLIE ADAMS: L’extase d’Amour
JEFFREY MUMFORD: Wending
JESSICA MEYER: On fire...no, after you for Mezzo-Soprano, Viola, and Piano [World Premiere]
BRAHMS: Two Songs for Mezzo-Soprano, Viola, and Piano, Op. 91
BAX: Viola Sonata

Jordan Bak, viola (Baltimore Debut)
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano (Baltimore Debut)
Wynona Wang, piano (Baltimore Debut)

Eric Lu, piano
Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 3:00pm
UMBC Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall | 1000 Hilltop Cir | Baltimore, MD
Tickets: Free general seating, $10 suggested donation
Link: www.Shriverconcerts.org/Lu 

SCHUMANN: Arabeske in C Major, Op. 18
SCHUMANN: Waldszenen, Op. 82
BRAHMS: Theme and Variations in D minor, Op. 18b
BACH: Toccata in C minor, BWV 911
CHOPIN: Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58

Eric Lu, piano (Baltimore Debut)

Winner of the 2020 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition
Saturday, April 26, 2022 at 3:00pm
Baltimore Museum of Art’s Meyerhoff Auditorium | 10 Art Museum Dr | Baltimore, MD
Tickets: Free general seating, $10 suggested donation
Link: www.Shriverconcerts.org/YaleGordon 

Artist and program to be announced in early 2022.

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About Tianyuan Liu
Tianyuan Liu was born in Beijing in May 1998 and began to play the piano at the age of five. From 2005 to 2017, he studied with Professor Bao Hui-Qiao. At the age of ten, in 2008, he entered the Central Conservatory of Music’s attached Primary and Middle School. Meanwhile, since 2005, he attended the British School of Beijing for academic studies, where he remained until graduation of Secondary studies in 2015 with an IB Diploma. In 2017, Tianyuan began studies in the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, under the tutelage of Professor Boris Slutsky, whom he studies with to the present day.

Tianyuan made his concerto debut in Kiev, Ukraine playing Haydn’s Piano Concerto in D major with the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra. Since then, Tianyuan had appeared with the Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Xiamen Opera Symphony Orchestra, the Ukrainian State Symphony Orchestra, the Torun City Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, playing concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Saint-Saens, Liszt, and Rachmaninov. As a soloist, Tianyuan held recitals in China, Europe, and the US, appearing on stage in Beijing, Shanghai, Milwaukee, Bydgoszcz, Puigcerda, and other cities in his home country of China.

Tianyuan is the winner of many international piano competitions; being the Second Prize winner of the 2nd Sviatoslav Richter International Piano Competition, the First Prize winner of the Yale Gordon Competition (USA), the First Prize winner and the recipient of the award of a best performance for a work by JS Bach and North American Composer in the PianoArts North American Piano Competition (USA), and the First Prize and Laureate in the Eighth Isidor Bajic Piano Memorial Competition (Serbia). He won the Second Prize in the IXth international Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz (Ukraine), and the Second Prize in the Xth International Volodimir Krainev Competition for Young Pianists (Ukraine). Tianyuan also obtained prizes in many national and festival competitions, such as the Third Prize in the 1st Changjiang National Piano Competition (China), First Prize in the Puigcerda Festival Competition (Spain), Third Prize in the 16th Hamamatsu International Piano Academy Competition (Japan) etc. As a student, he has received guidance from Oxana Yablonskaya, Alexander Korsantia, Arie Vardi, Vladimir Tropp, Richard Goode, and Jerome Lowenthal in masterclasses and music festivals.

Graduating from Peabody Conservatory in 2021, Tianyuan was awarded the Pauline Favine Memorial Award in Piano for his contribution to the musical and educational life at Peabody and the Johns Hopkins University and performed at the graduation ceremony.

About Jordan Bak
Award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak is building an exciting international career as a trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. He is frequently in demand as a concerto soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and educator. The 2021 YCAT Robey Artist and a top laureate of the 2020 Sphinx Competition, Bak is also a Grand Prize winner and Audience Prize recipient of the 2019 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, the recipient of the 2019 Samuel Sanders Tel Aviv Museum Prize and the 2019 John White Special Prize from the Tertis International Viola Competition. In addition, Jordan Bak is a member of the celebrated New York Classical Players and is a featured artist for WQXR’s Artist Propulsion Lab.

Highlights of the 2021-2022 season include recital debuts at Wigmore Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and Baltimore’s Shriver Hall Concert Series, chamber music tours with Musicians from Marlboro and CAG on Tour, and new music commissions from such composers as Tyson Davis, Shawn Okpebholo and James Ra. He has been heard as a recitalist and chamber musician in the United States at such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium, Jordan Hall, and Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, among others, and in Europe at the Verbier Festival, the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, the Centre de Musique Hindemith, and the Helsinki Musiikkitalo.

A proud new music advocate, Bak gave the world premiere of Kaija Saariaho’s Du gick, flög for viola and mezzo-soprano and the viola premiere of Jessica Meyer’s Excessive Use of Force. Bak also gave an acclaimed performance of the Druckman Viola Concerto with The Juilliard Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall in New York. He has additionally championed works by such composers as H. Leslie Adams, Anne Leilehua Lanzilotti, Quinn Mason, Jeffrey Mumford, Caroline Shaw, and Alvin Singleton. jordanbak.com.

About Megan Moore
Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore is quickly making waves as a young artist of versatility and depth. Recognized as an award-winning opera and concert singer, she recently won first prize at both the Young Concert Artist International Auditions and the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition. She has also taken home top honors from the Naumburg Foundation International Vocal Competition in Concert Repertoire, the Gerda Lissner Lieder & Song Competition, and the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. In summer 2021, Megan created the role of Ino in the world premiere of Corigliano & Adamo’s Lord of Cries at Santa Fe Opera. This season, Megan will make her New York debut at Merkin Concert Hall, and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater.

Acclaimed for her Rossini interpretations, "elegant vocal gymnastics," and "rapid-fire coloratura," Megan's signature roles include Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and the title role in La Cenerentola. Megan's signature vocal agility also shines in baroque repertoire. She recently took on the tour-de-force role of Medea in Handel's Teseo for COVID-adapted film projects at Juilliard. In recent seasons she was seen in the trouser role of Arsamene in Haymarket Opera Company's historically-staged production of Serse, as well as in concert performing Purcell and Handel excerpts with the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra.

Equally at home with a long bel canto line, she recently sang the leading role of Costanza in Haydn's L'isola disabitata with Opera Naples under the baton of Ramon Tebar. She has also portrayed Giovanna Seymour in excerpts from Anna Bolena in concert at Santa Fe Opera. For her recent appearance as Doraballa in Così fan tutte at Juilliard, OperaWire praised her “undeniable sex appeal” and “strength as an actress.”

Megan couples her passion for performing art songs and new music with her work in arts advocacy and community engagement. She recently participated in Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio with Renée Fleming in partnership with her frequent collaborator Francesco Barfoed, for which they fully produced a short film in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s demand to meet audiences online. In 2015 she co-founded LYNX, an art song initiative whose mission is to amplify diverse voices through newly commissioned songs, and to link communities through inclusive concerts and educational programming. Since 2017, LYNX’s Amplify Series has commissioned over four hours of new art song with texts by young people with non-verbal autism. For her advocacy and community efforts Megan has earned recognition and awards both in her hometown of Cincinnati and from her alma mater Miami University.

Megan is currently completing her Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School, where she is a student of Elizabeth Bishop. She has also studied with Manny Perez, Edith Wiens, Carol Webber, and Alison Acord, as well as at the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, Eastman School of Music, and Miami University. www.meganmooremezzo.com.

About Wynona Wang
Chinese pianist Wynona Wang was selected as First Prize winner of the 2018 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, which is just the latest in a series of impressive first prize performances, along with the 2017 Wideman International Piano Competition in Louisiana. Wynona was also awarded the 2019 “Charlotte White” Career Grant awarded by the Salon de Virtuosi in New York City. 

An active performer in China, Europe and the United States, Wynona recently earned her Performer’s Diploma under the tutelage of the eminent pianist Alessio Bax at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. While at SMU, she appeared in multiple concerto performances as well as numerous recitals and chamber music concerts, including collaborations with cellist Andres Diaz and with the Escher String Quartet. Her 21-22 season highlights include La Grua Arts Center, Kravis Center, Pinedale Performing Arts, the Whitney Center and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts.

Her recent North American performances include the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra, and the Meadows Symphony Orchestra of SMU in Dallas, and such major festivals as PianoTexas, Morningside Music Bridge in Calgary, Canada, the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York City, and the Chautauqua Institution. Internationally, Wynona has been a featured soloist with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the National Philharmonic Society of Ukraine, and the Romanian Mihail Jora Philharmonic Orchestra in Italy. She has also given numerous solo piano recitals in China—including cities such as Beijing, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Kunming, Ningbo, and Dalian—as well as in Spain (Madrid) and Indonesia (Jakarta).

In addition to her most recent first prize successes, she has also garnered top honors at numerous competitions: the Meadows Concerto Competition at SMU; the Artist Recognition Scholarship Awards Competition at NYC’s International Keyboard Institute & Festival; the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy Competition in Japan; the First Indonesia Pusaka International Piano Competition in Jakarta; IX International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Ukraine; and the Chautauqua Piano Competition. 

Born in Beijing, Wynona Wang began playing piano at age 4, and went on to study at both the Music Elementary and Secondary schools at the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music (CCOM) in Beijing. In fall 2016, she was awarded a full scholarship for her Performer’s Diploma at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and she now lives in New York while pursuing her undergraduate degree at The Juilliard School as a student of Dr. Robert McDonald. wynonapiano.com.

About Eric Lu
Eric Lu won First Prize at The Leeds International Piano Competition in 2018, the first American to win the prestigious prize since Murray Perahia. He made his BBC Proms debut the following summer, and is currently a member of the BBC New Generation Artist scheme. Eric is a recipient of the 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and is an exclusive Warner Classics recording artist.

Forthcoming concerto highlights include debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and Kansas City Symphony.  He will also give recitals at the Rockport Music Festival, Cal Performances Berkeley, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Cologne Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Bath Mozartfest and Chopin and his Europe Festival.

Eric has recently performed with the Seattle Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, The Hallé, Shanghai Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony amongst others. He has worked with conductors Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, Vasily Petrenko, Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, Thomas Dausgaard, Martin Fr?st, Alexander Bloch, and Long Yu. 

He has appeared in recital at Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg,  BOZAR Brussels, Wigmore Hall, Philharmonie Luxembourg, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, 92nd St Y, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris, Seoul Arts Centre, Grand Theatre Shanghai, and Sala São Paulo. Eric went on tour with the Orchestre National de Lille in 2020, and in the prior year, he replaced Martha Argerich in Singapore, and Nelson Freire in São Paulo. 

In 2020, Warner Classics released Eric’s first studio album, featuring the Chopin 24 Preludes, and Schumann’s Geistervariationen. It was met with critical acclaim, including one of BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Instrumental Records of the Year’.  In 2018, Eric’s winning performances of Beethoven and Chopin from The Leeds with The Hallé and Edward Gardner was released by Warner. He has also released a Mozart, Schubert, and Brahms recital on Genuin Classics. 

Born in Massachusetts in 1997, Eric Lu first came to international attention as a prize-winner at the 2015 Chopin International Competition in Warsaw aged just 17. He previously won the 2015 US National Chopin Competition, and was awarded the International German Piano Award in 2017. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, studying with Robert McDonald and Jonathan Biss. He is also a pupil of Dang Thai Son. He is now based in Berlin and Boston. www.ericlupianist.com.

About Shriver Hall Concert Series
For more than 50 years, Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) has been “Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” (The Baltimore Sun) and the area’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with a mission to craft performances and educational programs at the highest level of excellence. A 5-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine’s distinction “Best Classical Music” in its annual “Best of Baltimore” issue, the coveted subscription series features many of the world’s most renowned soloists and ensembles, presented in The Johns Hopkins University’s Shriver Hall. 

Founded in 1966 by Dr. Ernest Bueding, a pharmacologist at The Johns Hopkins University, and a group of similarly dedicated music enthusiasts, SHCS set out to make an important contribution to the vitality of an already vibrant city. When flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal walked onto the stage of Shriver Hall for the first concert, more than 1,100 people witnessed the launch of what is now recognized as a remarkable success story: Shriver Hall Concert Series. In the succeeding years SHCS has presented hundreds of acclaimed and emerging international artists in classical chamber music and recitals and a legacy of important debuts and premieres. In addition, SHCS collaborates with local schools and subsidizes hundreds of student tickets each season. 

The list of artists presented by SHCS is remarkable—Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, Ewa Podlés, Maurizio Pollini, Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Jordi Savall, András Schiff, Rudolf Serkin, Janos Starker, Daniil Trifonov, Lynn Harrell, Emmanuel Ax, Alban Berg Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Kronos Quartet, Cleveland Quartet, and Quartetto Italiano, among many others. SHCS also has a history of championing important musicians early in their careers, including Richard Goode, Hilary Hahn, Hélène Grimaud, Dawn Upshaw, Lang Lang, and the Emerson String Quartet. Commissioned composers include Timo Andres, Sebastian Currier, Jonathan Leshnoff, James Lee III, Hannah Lash, and Nina C. Young.

Designed specifically for the community, SHCS offers the Discovery Series, a series of free concerts presented in venues throughout the region focused on artists emerging on the national and international scene. Artists featured include Narek Hakhnazaryan, Colin Currie, Xavier Foley, and the Dover Quartet. SHCS also offers the annual Spring Lecture Series, a series of free talks focused on annual topics related to the intersection of music and society, and a variety of student programs.

For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org.

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Image Credits (L-R): Tianyuan Liu Courtesy of the Artist, Jordan Bak by Dario Acosta, Megan Moore by Rachael Laurin, Wynona Wang by Yujun Ma, Eric Lu by Ben Ealovega.