Gloria Chien
In a welcome return to Lee University’s Presidential Concert Series, Gloria Chien and Ning An will perform on Tuesday, Feb. 21, at 7:30 p.m. in Pangle Hall.
“It has been too long since we heard Ning and Gloria playing as we first heard them, which was in this series as a piano duo,” said Lee President and series host Paul Conn. “Since then, we’ve heard each of them in many settings, collaborating with many musicians, and they are always fantastic. But we are especially eager to hear this special performance, just the two of them. We hope you’ll join us next Tuesday for this special night.”
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 of Music, and a Bachelor’s of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. 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.
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 10 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 at the Hunter,” a chamber music series in Chattanooga, now beginning its eighth season in partnership with Lee University and the Hunter Museum of American Art.
Mr. An, artist-in-residence in Lee’s School of Music, is hailed by the New York Concert Review as a musician who “combines a flawless technique and mastery of the instrument with an expressive power that is fueled by profound and insightful understanding.”
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 and Paul Neubauer.
Mr. An received an Artist’s Diploma, a Master of Arts, and a Bachelor’s of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
Tickets for the concert are $15 for adults and $5 for children and seniors. They can be purchased at the Lee University Box Office in the Dixon Center, or by contacting 614-8343, Monday-Friday, 3-6 p.m.
For more information about the Presidential Concert Series, visit http://www.leeuniversity.edu/pcs or call the School of Music at 614-8240.
Ning An