Yuan-Pu Chiao
Graduated with a doctor degree in musicology from King’s College London, Yuan-Pu Chiao is recognized as a noted classical music critic and a senior columnist. He has published several books in Taiwan and mainland China, including The Colors of Black and White: Interviews of World Pianists and Music of Skill: Classical Music Enjoying an Entry.
 
Chiao’s book, Music of Skill: Classical Music Enjoying an Entry, has been selected as a recommended art book in the 2015 Beijing News Book Award. The Beijing News praises that “Yuan-Pu Chiao is special in the world of classical music. He shows a talent for being a great pianist. But compared to being a pianist, Chiao prefers to be a listener to transform feelings into words. Thus, The Colors of Black and White: Interviews of World Pianists, a series of exhaustive interviews about outstanding pianists in the world finally came out. It is Chiao’s deep understanding of music that endows his words with attractiveness, readability and preciseness. And his book, Music of Skill: Classical Music Enjoying an Entry, has offered a chance for the public to understand classical music in an easier way.” 
 
Music of Skill: Classical Music Enjoying an Entry has incorporated various inquiries that Chiao has encountered during these years. Based on the questions like “Can someone unfamiliar with musical instruments understand classical music? Or is it likely for a person who cannot follow a score to appreciate a concert?”, Chiao develops his own ideas and gradually brings out the history and etiquette of classical music. People of all walks of life can learn a lot from this book. It also represents a firm belief in Chiao’s mind that we should seriously impart classical music, especially its cultural connotations to the next generation.


Trio Prisma
Established in April 2013, Trio Prisma comprises Runyin Zhang (violin), Wenbin Geng (cello) and Wanchen Zhu (piano). It is under the guidance of professional chamber teacher Yinjia Yu from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Within half a year after its establishment, Trio Prisma won the second place of Chamber Music Professional Adult Group in the “Schoenfeld International String Competition”, “the Most Promising Award”, and the Gold Award in the 9th China “Golden Bell Award” Piano and String Ensemble Competition as well.
 
The performance of Trio Prisma is exquisite and expressive, meticulous and rigorous. It contains fresh elements from young people’s interpretation of music and possesses a strong artistic appeal. Trio Prisma is committed to the development of the core idea of popularizing European and American classic chamber music in China, and promoting Chinese chamber music overseas. In the year of 2016, Trio Prisma was officially appointed as the piano trio of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

 
Guest Violin: Ming Liu
Ming Liu, born in 1995 in Shenyang, Liaoning, is a young violinist in China. As a senior student in Shanghai Conservatory of Music, she took the position as the concertmaster of the college’s Youth Symphony Orchestra before. In 2016, she won the sixth place in the first Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition and became the only Chinese to enter the finals. On December 31, 2016, she was invited as the soloist to cooperate with Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Jaap van Zweden in the 2017 New Year Concert. In October 2017, she participated in the 20th Beijing International Music Festival as the soloist with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and won the “Young Musician Award” specially arranged for her by the Music Festival.
 
Programme:
 
Gluck: Mélodie de Gluck (Sgambati arr.)
Piano: Wanchen Zhu
 
Handel - Halvorsen: Passacaglia
Violin: Ming Liu   Cello: Wenbin Geng
 
Intermission
 
Gounod: Ave Maria
Cello: Wenbin Geng
 
Dvorak: Humoresque
Violin: Ming Liu
 
Brahms: Piano Trio in B Major, Op.8
       First movement: B Major, Sonata
       Violin: Ming Liu  Cello: Wenbin Geng  Piano: Wanchen Zhu
 
(Please check programme updates at the concert.)