Faculty & Guest Artist Recital
Presented as part of Scott Yoo's Residency at the Butler School of Music
Program
Johannes Brahms
Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8
Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87
Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 101
Scott Yoo, violin
Bion Tsang, cello
John Novacek, piano
Scott Yoo
After beginning his musical studies at age three, violinist Scott Yoo performed Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with the Boston Symphony at age twelve. He received first prize in the 1988 Josef Gingold International Violin Competition, the 1989 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and the 1994 Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 1993, Mr. Yoo founded the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, conducting the ensemble in its series at Jordan Hall in Boston, and more than ninety performances on tour.
Scott Yoo has collaborated with eminent artists Sarah Chang, Edgar Meyer, Benita Valente, and Dawn Upshaw. He is currently Music Director and Principal Conductor of Festival Mozaic, and Artistic Director of the Medellín Festicámara, a chamber music program for underprivileged young musicians.
As a guest-conductor, Mr. Yoo has led the Colorado, Dallas, Indianapolis, New World, San Francisco and Utah Symphonies. He conducted the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in their Elliott Carter Festival, and at Carnegie Hall with pianist Brad Mehldau. Abroad, he has conducted the City of London Sinfonia, the Britten Sinfonia, the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Odense Symphony, the Seoul Philharmonic, and the Yomiuri Nippon Orchestra.
He has recorded for Sony Classical, Naxos, and New World, and is currently recording the complete Mozart Piano Concertos for Bridge Records.
Bion Tsang
Cellist Bion Tsang is an Avery Fisher Career Grant winner and the Bronze Medalist in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Moscow and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National and American Symphony Orchestras, and the Saint Paul and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Fort Worth Chamber Music Society, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Vail, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.
Bion Tsang entered The Juilliard School at the age of seven and received his BA degree from Harvard University and his MMA degree from Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal cello teachers included Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.
Mr. Tsang resides in Austin, TX where he holds the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Chair in Cello and is Head of the Strings Division at the UT Butler School of Music.
John Novacek
Pianist John Novacek regularly tours the Americas, Europe, and Asia as solo recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist; in the latter capacity he has presented over 30 different concerti with dozens of orchestras. Venues include Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Zankel Hall, Weill Hall, 92nd Street Y, Hollywood Bowl, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Royce Hall, Theatre des Champs-Elysees, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Barbican Hall, and most of the major concert halls of Japan. In addition, he has appeared at Lucerne Festival, Mostly Mozart Festival (Lincoln Center), Wolf Trap, SummerFest La Jolla, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Stavanger (Norway) International Chamber Music Festival, Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), and Ravinia. Novacek took top prizes at the Leschetizky, Etude Music Club, Carmel Music Society, Mannes Concerto, and Joanna Hodges International Piano Competitions. He has played on radio broadcasts worldwide, often heard on syndicated programs such as NPR’s Performance Today, First Hearing, St. Paul Sunday, and CBC’s Westcoast Performance, and he’s been a featured performer on many television shows, including The Tonight Show and Entertainment Tonight.
A much sought-after collaborative artist, Novacek has played with Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Emmanuel Pahud, Truls Mork, Julius Baker, and Leila Josefowicz. He’s given numerous world premieres and worked closely with composers John Adams, George Rochberg, John Williams, John Harbison, Sebastian Currier, and John Zorn. He studied piano with Peter Serkin, Bruce Sutherland, and Jakob Gimpel, chamber music with Jamie Laredo and Felix Galimir, also occasionally coaching with Gary Graffman and Isaac Stern. Novacek’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Pacific Symphony, Concertante, Millennium, the Harrington String Quartet, and the Three Tenors. Novacek has recorded over 30 CDs encompassing solo and chamber music by most major composers from Bach to Bartok, and many contemporary and original scores.
He records for Philips, Nonesuch, Arabesque, Warner Classics, Koch International, Universal Classics, Ambassador, Pony Canyon, Four Winds, Arkay, Virtuoso, and EMI Classics; CD titles include Road Movies (2004 Grammy nomination for Novacek: “Best Chamber Music Performance”), Great Mozart Piano Works, Spanish Rhapsody, Novarags (original ragtime compositions), Classic Romance, Hungarian Sketches, Intersection, Romances et Meditations, and with Josefowicz, Americana, For the End of Time, and Recital.