The Arianna String Quartet
Janet Sung
Ning An
Ning and Friends has been a perennial favorite in the Presidential Concert Series since Mr. An’s arrival at Lee University in 2004. Ning’s guests this year are violinist Janet Sung and the Arianna String Quartet. Ms. Sung returns for her second visit to the series, and the Arianna String Quartet appears for the first time. The concert will be in Squires Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 31, and will feature Haydn’s String Quartet No. 23 in F minor, Strauss’ Violin Sonata in E-flat major, and Chausson’s Concerto for violin, piano and string quartet.
Review for the performers:
The Arianna String Quartet has appeared throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia, with frequent visits to Brazil and South Africa. They have collaborated with many of the world’s finest musicians, including members of the Vermeer, Tokyo, Cleveland and Juilliard Quartets. Their live performances have been heard on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” and “Live from Music Mountain,” which broadcasts to 125 stations in the United States and to 35 countries. They have recorded for Albany Records and Urtext Digital Classics, and have a long-term contract with Centaur Records.
The Arianna String Quartet has been full-time faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis since 2000. They are also Ensemble-in-Residence at the Touhill Performing Arts Center in St. Louis, where they present their own series of concerts.
Ms. Sung has been guest soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Aspen Chamber Symphony, among others. Abroad, she has been heard with South Korea’s Pusan Philharmonic Orchestra, Germany’s Stelzen Festival Orchestra and Russia’s Omsk Philharmonic Orchestra and National Symphonic Orchestra of Bashkortostan. Her solo performances have frequently been aired on radio and television, nationally and internationally, including multiple broadcasts of her performance of Korngold’s Violin Concerto on NPR’s “Performance Today.”
Highly sought after as an artist-teacher, Ms. Sung has conducted masterclasses throughout the country, including the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, Harvard University and The Juilliard School. She has also served as faculty at The Juilliard School (initially as the Starling/DeLay Institute Fellow), State University of New York at Fredonia School of Music, Hot Springs Music Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival and the Mark O'Connor Fiddle Camp. Ms. Sung began as a full-time faculty member at DePaul University School of Music in fall 2010.
Ning An, pianist, is an assistant professor of music in Lee’s School of Music. Mr. An’s top prizes from the Queen Elizabeth, Cleveland, and William Kapell Piano competitions led to performances across the globe, from Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and Milan’s Salle Verdi to Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. He has performed with some of the world’s great ensembles, including the Ysaÿe, Daedalus, and Takács quartets, as well as with renowned instrumentalists Paul Neubauer, Andres Diaz, and Soovin Kim.
Tickets will be available at the Lee University Box Office in the Dixon Center, or contact 614-8343, one week prior to the concert, from 3-6 p.m.
For more information about the Presidential Concert Series, please visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/pcs or call the School of Music at 614-8240.