News Release
November 2005
Bethlehem, Pa., November 2, 2005— The Piano Masters at Moravian series
will continue with performances by Juan Jose Chuquisengo and Jung Lin on Thursday, November
10 at 7:30 p.m. in Peter Hall.
Munich-based Chuquisengo will be performing seven pieces for the Moravian
concert, including two works each by Bach and Chopin as well as works by Foulds, Handel,
and Beethoven. His rendition of Bach’s “2 Chorals” appears on his latest
CD, "Transcendent Journey" on Sony Classical -- named by BBC Magazine as the "record
of the month" of August.
Lin will perform Chopin, Paderewski, Brahms, and Godowsky’s arrangements
of Chopin, Saint-Saëns, and Strauss at the Moravian Concert. Her particular specialties
are Chopin’s Etude Op. 25 No. 9 “Butterfly” and Etude Op. 10 No. 5 “Black
Key” and the Chopin-Godowsky study “Badinage,” a combination of “Butterfly
and “Black Key.” Renditions of these pieces may be heard at her website,
www.junglin.com.
Chuquisengo grew up in a Peruvian neighborhood where music rarely is played.
By chance, his father bought a piano when the artist was eight years old, and he spent
a year teaching himself folk tunes and improvisations before coming under the tutelage
of Elena Ichikawa at the National Conservatory inLima. Despite his parents’ objections,
Chuquisengo decided to become a professional musician and went to the Hochschule für
Musik und Theater inMunich. He studied in the master class of Professor Klaus Schilde,
graduating at 20 years of age. He met his mentor, Sergiu Celibidache, in the mid-1980s
and devoted himself to the phenomenology of music.
Chuquisengo then spent seven years in near-seclusion, perfecting his playing
through constant practice and master classes given by Murray Perahia, Maurizio Pollini,
Jorge Bolet, Menachem Pressler, and others. It was during this time that he built his
repertoire to include pieces from the baroque period through to the present day. In the
mid-1990s, he returned to the concert scene, receiving a Fellowship for Artists from
the Kennedy Center of the Performing Arts in 1996. Since that time, Chuquisengo has traveled
throughout the United States, Europe, and Latin America for orchestra performances and
solo recitals. He has released four CDs – two under a German label, and the other
two under BMG/Sony Classical.
Lin has been an acclaimed pianist from her childhood. By age 12, she was
conducting her own orchestral works. She was featured also on “90 Minutes,” Taiwan’s
major news program. “The Black Wedding,” Lin’s symphonic poem, was
premiered by the Juilliard Symphony orchestra when she was 16 years old. As a Juilliard
student, Lin studied under the renowned American composer David Diamond. She is most
celebrated for her renditions of Chopin, having performed in many prestigious concert
halls in the United States and in China during the 150th anniversary year of Chopin’s
death.
Lin is well-studied in the works of Nicolai Medtner, featured at most concerts.
During the last concert season, Lin played for three capacity crowds at the New York
Botanical Gardens under the invitation of WQXR. She performed as guest artist in Tchaikovsky’s
First Piano Concerto in Scranton and with the Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic
in Wilkes-Barre, and debuted at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall with a solo recital.
She will return to LincolnCenter for another solo recital this December
Piano Masters at Moravian is a production of the Luce Group in association
with The Lehigh Valley Piano Society that is dedicated to the presentation and preservation
of the music of the acoustic piano. Series underwriters include John Zeiner and Sons, “4
Generations of piano sales and service in LehighValley;” Schimmel Pianos, and Mary
Ellen Schuman of Prudential Paul Ford Realtors in Easton.
Admission for this performance is $35. For tickets or additional information,
please visit www.pianoculture.com or call 610-515-1025. Peter Hall is located on the
Moravian College Priscilla Payne Hurd Campus, near the corner of Main and Church Streets
in Bethlehem.
