Lee Presidential Concert Series To Begin Its 24th Season

Lee University’s 24th Presidential Concert Series promises a variety of top performers, including pianists, violinists, cellists, and more. These performances will begin with pianist Gloria Chien and cellist Andrés Díaz on Monday, Oct. 5. 

Dr. Chien, who has been a member of the Lee music faculty since 2004, began playing piano at the age of five in her native Taiwan.  She has been called “a coat-of-many-colors pianist,” and holds a doctor of musical arts, a master’s, and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She is a Steinway Artist and currently serves as an artist-in-residence at Lee. 

A prize winner of the World Piano Competition, Harvard Musical Association Award, and the San Antonio International Piano Competition, Dr. Chien has presented solo recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Harvard Musical Association, Sanibel Musical Festival, Caramoor Musical Festival, Salle Cortot in Paris, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She has been praised by “The Strad” for “super performances…accompanied with great character.” 

Dr. Chien was appointed the director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a chamber music festival and institute in the San Francisco Bay Area, and has participated there for six years. She has been a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2012, and now frequently plays at Alice Tully Hall in New York as well as other venues around the country with CMS on Tour.  Dr. Chien is the founding director of “String Theory,” a chamber music series in Chattanooga sponsored jointly by Lee and the Hunter Museum of American Art. 

Since winning first prize in the 1986 Naumburg International Cello Competition, Mr. Díaz has exhilarated critics and audiences with his intense and charismatic performances. He has earned exceptional reviews for his “strongly personal interpretative vision” (The New York Times) and his “bold and imaginative playing” (The Boston Globe). He has been awarded several grants, including the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant as well as a generous grant from the Susan W. Rose Fund. 

Mr. Díaz’s numerous orchestral appearances include return engagements with the Atlanta Symphony, the American Symphony at Carnegie Hall, the Boston Pops and the National Symphony Orchestra, among others. In 2001, he performed the world premiere of Gunther Schuller’s “Concerto for Cello and Orchestra” at the Brevard Music Center. 

Mr. Díaz’s most recent recordings feature Martinu, Lutoslawski, Rachmaninoff and six Bach Suites. He is currently an active member of the Díaz String Trio with violinist Andres Cardenes and violist Roberto Díaz. 

The Lee University Symphony Orchestra takes the stage with Jim Witter to present the music of Simon and Garfunkel on Tuesday, Nov. 10. The Lee Symphony is conducted by Robert Bernhardt, who led the Chattanooga Symphony for 19 years and is a popular guest conductor for orchestras around the country.  This is Mr. Witter’s second appearance at Lee, after he and the Lee Symphony Orchestra thrilled a large Conn Center crowd with the music of Elton John and Billy Joel in 2014. 

Mr. Witter’s music and songwriting have been recognized on both sides of the border, earning him multiple awards and nominations from the Canadian Country Music Association, the Juno Awards, and the Dove Awards.  Mr. Witter has had 10 “top ten” radio hits in Canada and seven hit videos on CMT. 

Accordion Virtuosi will take the stage on Tuesday, Nov. 17. Founded in 1943 during the Leningrad siege, Accordion Virtuosi of Russia has been led by three generations of Smirnovs: first by its founder Pavel Smirnov, and now by his sons Yuri and Vladimir, as well as his grandson Yaroslav. 

Since it began, Accordion Virtuosi of Russia has performed at some of the most prestigious venues in the world including the Gewandhaus, Verona’s Arena, Olympia Hall in Paris, and the Great Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg. It has toured in 20 countries including the United States. Accordion Virtuosi was also invited to be a part of the cultural program for the Olympic Games in 1972, 1976, and 1980. 

The Presidential Concert Series will welcome St. Louis Brass to the stage on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016.

St. Louis Brass was originally formed in 1964 by members of the St. Louis Symphony to play children's concerts around the St. Louis area. The group performs three 10-day concert tours throughout the United States each year in addition to recording and international touring. Since its first concerts in 1986, St. Louis Brass (originally Summit brass) has hosted an annual institute for brass players, performed dozens of concert tours in the United States and Europe, and has recorded 10 albums. 

“Ning and Friends” will close out the season on Tuesday, April 5, 2016, featuring the Enso String Quartet and Lee’s own Ning An on piano. 

The Enso String Quartet is composed of violinist Maureen Nelson, violinist Ken Hamao, violist Melissa Reardon, and cellist Richard Belcher. The Quartet has won a number of competitions including the Concert Artists Guild, Banff International String Quartet Competition, and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. It has released three albums, one of which was nominated for a Grammy award. Classical Voice names the group “one of the eminent string quartets of our era.” 

Pianist An is an artist-in-residence in Lee’s School of Music.  Mr. An’s top prizes from the Queen Elizabeth, Cleveland, and William Kapell Piano competitions have 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 such as Díaz, Paul Neubauer, and Soovin Kim.  

Tickets will be available at the Lee University Box Office in the Dixon Center, or by contacting 614-8343, one week prior to each concert, between 3-6 p.m. 

For more information about the Presidential Concert Series, please visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu  or call the School of Music at 614-8240.