WINNERS Debut Concert
Monday, June 4, 2018 at 8 PM
Berlin Philharmonie Hall
Winner of 2017 NYCA Worldwide Debut Audition
Sirena Huang, violin
with Vyacheslav Gryaznov, piano
PROGRAM
Brahms: Sonatensatz: Scherzo in C minor
Ysaÿe: Sonata No. 5 in G Major
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor
INTERMISSION
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D Major
Shangqian Li: Entranced by Mountain Scenery
Saint-Saëns: Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso
About Sirena Huang
Praised by The Baltimore Sun for her “impeccable technique…deeply expressive phrasing…and poetic weight," Sirena Huang is one of her generation’s most celebrated violinists. She brings not only technical brilliance and powerful artistry to the stage, but also a profound sense of connection to her audience.
Sirena has been the recipient of numerous accolades and awards. Most recently, in February of 2017, Sirena was awarded First Prize at the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition and in March, she was awarded the winner of the New York Concert Artist. In 2009, she won First Prize Gold Medalist of the 6th International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. She won First Prize and the Audience Award at the Cooper International Competition in 2011. That same year, she was also named the first Artist-in-Residence of Hartford Symphony Orchestra. In 2013, she was awarded the Hannloser Prize for Violin at the Verbier Music Festival in Switzerland. She is also a top prize winner at Singapore International Violin Competition as well as the Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition.
Sirena made her solo debut with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra in 2004 at the age of nine, and has performed in seventeen countries across three continents. She has been featured as a soloist with more than fifty prestigious ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Russian Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Staatskapelle Weimar in Germany. She has appeared as a guest artist at the Verbier Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Sarasota Arts Series, Albuquerque Chamber Music Festival, “The Great Music for a Great City” series in New York City, and many others.
Motivated by a deep wish to inspire peace and harmony with her music, Sirena has performed before world leaders, thinkers and humanitarians, including President Obama and Elie Wiesel. At age eleven, she gave a TED talk that garnered more than 2.5 million views. In 2006, she received the honor of playing for His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan and thirty Nobel Prize Laureates at the World Peace Conference held in Petra. In 2007, under the invitation of former Czech Republic President Havel, she played in the Opening Ceremony of the “Forum 2000 World Conference” in Prague. In 2008, she was invited to perform during the ceremony in which the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity presented its Humanitarian Award to President Sarkozy of France.
In addition to her TED Talk in 2006, Huang has been featured on numerous radio and television broadcasts, including WQXR’s McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase and NPR’s “From the Top" as well as several interviews with WNPR, CNBC, WTNH, WTIC, WB20 and Beethoven Radio.
About Vyacheslav Gryaznov
Vyacheslav Gryaznov (born 1982) studied at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory with Manana Kandelaki. He went on to study under professor Yuri Slesarev at the Moscow Conservatory, and in 2006, he graduated with honors; in 2009, he also completed his postgraduate studies there. Gryaznov began teaching at the Moscow Conservatory as assistant to professor Slesarev in 2008. In the 2008/2009 season, Gryaznov became a soloist of the Moscow Philharmonic Society.
Gryaznov received prizes and scholarships from the foundations of Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Mstislav Rostropovich (the Neuhaus Grant) and Yamaha Scholarship. He has participated in numerous international festivals, including Dialogue of Cultures in Vilnius; Art Masters in Switzerland; Russian Music in the Baltics in Kaliningrad and Vilnius; Musical Kremlin in Moscow and Bryansk; Festival de Musique de Wissembourg in France, and others.
The first Russian president awarded a prize to Gryaznov, who has won numerous awards in prestigious international competitions in Moscow, Italy, Ukraine, Denmark, Georgia and Japan, including six first and Grand prizes. The pianist has performed in the USA, Italy, Denmark, France, the UK, Croatia, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Georgia, Armenia, Poland, the Baltic states, Africa, many cities in Japan, and throughout Russia. His NHK video recordings are shown on Japanese TV on a regular basis. In Russia, the pianist's recordings are often played on Orpheus radio.
The musician's repertoire is extensive and diverse - from Domenico Scarlatti's sonatas to compositions by contemporary authors - and is growing to include masterpieces of operatic, symphonic and chamber music in the form of the pianist’s own transcriptions. Through Deka-BC, he has published three collections of his concert arrangements and transcriptions for the piano. Since 2014, Gryaznov’s transcriptions have been published by Schott Music publishers.