FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 29
Guest Artist Recital
Fenia Chang, piano
Internationally acclaimed pianist currently on the faculty of Texas A&M University, Commerce.
Program: Mozart - Piano Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 281; Granados - El Pelele; Granados - Valses Poéticos; Scriabin - Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53; Ravel - Jeux d’Eau; Liszt - Concert Waltz on Two Themes from “Lucia and Parisina”; and Liszt - Mephisto Waltz No. 1.
8:00 p.m., Duncan Recital Hall

The Washington Post critics have praised FENIA CHANG as “truly one of the greatest pianists of her generation”. “Her impeccable techniques and music taste---superb tone and sensitive touch delivered under her full command of styles---rarely seen on today’s concert stage”, so says the New York Times. Pianist Fenia Chang has enchanted audiences from all over the United States with her beautiful sound in a wide range of repertoire. Ms. Chang’s new recording of Nicolai Medtner’s “Piano Sonatas and Fairy Tales” will be released by Centaur Record in 2007. Ms. Chang’s recent concert engagement will take her to different cities in America, China, and Scotland in 2006 and 2007.

Born in Taiwan, Ms. Chang made her solo debut at age 11, after wining the first Japan Kawai Piano Competition. The performance was broadcasted on national television in Taiwan. She has performed extensively at different venues including Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully at Lincoln Center, Carnegie’s Weil Recital Hall, the Museum of Modern Arts in New York, Washington Arts Club Concert Series, the Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC, the Strathmore Hall, Fairfax Auditorium, the Ellipse Arts Center, Friday Morning Music Club Artist Series in Maryland and Virginia, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Concert Hall in Beijing and Shanghai, China. She has appeared as soloists with numerous orchestras including the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Chamber Orchestra, Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra, the Albuquerque Symphony, New World Symphony, and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed in concert in Paris, Milan, Dublin, and Hong Kong.

Since the mid-1980s, Ms. Chang has maintained a busy concert career in both solo and collaborative performances in Asia, France, Italy, and the United States. Ms. Chang is also the recipient of many competition awards, including the top prizes at the Elizabeth Davis International Piano Competition, Thomas Richner International competition, Concert Artists Internationals, Young Artist International Piano Competition, and the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition of the United States, as well as the Composer’s Prize from Olivier Messiaen’s International Piano Competition in Paris, France. Her performances have been broadcasted by the National Public Radio, WQXR (New York), WNYC (New York), WNCN (New York), WGTS (Washington DC), and WRR (Dallas), as well as throughout Taiwan and France.

In January 2005, Ms. Chang became the first local pianist to be invited to perform at the Greenville Entertainment Series in Texas. She has also appeared as a collaborative pianist at the National Music Teachers Conference in Texas and Nebraska Music Teachers Convention Concert, Academy of the West in California, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, French Piano Institute at Ecole Normale de Paris in France, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, as well as the her Duo-Piano concert tour with Pianist Nathan Buckner, International Chamber Music Festival in Keelung, the Taipei Chamber Music Society’s tour to China, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan. The “Art & Entertainment” magazine in Nebraska praised her as an “out of this world pianist”.

Ms. Chang’s active recital schedules have included performances at numerous universities, including solo recitals at Baylor University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Woman’s University, University of Nebraska, University of Rhode Island. She is also a regular adjudicator at piano competitions, with recent duties at Plano Spring Piano Festival in 2003, North Texas Youth Music Competition in 2004. In addition to her busy concert schedule, she is very much devoted to music education. She was also on the faculty of Washington Bible College in Maryland, National Taiwan University of Arts, Taipei City Teachers’ College, Soo-Chow University, Tung-Hai University in Taiwan. Her students have won top prizes at several renowned piano competitions in different parts of the world.

Dr. Chang is currently the Assistant Professor of Piano at Texas A&M University – Commerce. She also serves as the Vice President of the Hunt County Music Teachers Association and is an active member of Music Teachers National Association, Dallas Music Teachers Association and the American Liszt Society. She is also the founder and executive director of the Asian American Performing Arts Association founded in 2006. Her future performances will include appearances with the Asian American Performing Arts Association, at Dallas Baptist University, at Richland College in TX, Chamber Music Concert at University of Northern Florida, solo recitals in Illinois as well as in Shanghai, China, and Euro Music Festival in Leipzig, Germany. Ms. Chang holds the Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees from the Juilliard School, and Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland. Her teachers include pianists Abbey Simon, Russell Sherman, Jerome Lowenthal, Thomas Schumacher and Santiago Rodriguez. Fenia Chang’s bio has been listed on the Marguis “Who’s Who in America” since 2003.