Centre Symphony Orchestra
Marc Kissóczy, Guest Conductor
Hsing-Chwen Hsin, Piano
Ming-Feng Hsin, Violin
Suggested donation $20. Online box office opens six weeks before the concert.
Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 6, Opus 68, F Major (Pastorale)
Felix Mendelssohn Concerto for Piano and Violin in D Minor
Hsing-Chwen Hsin, Piano
Ming-Feng Hsin, Violin
Hsing-Chwen Giselle Hsin enjoys an international career as piano soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, and teacher. Recipient of the Chappell Gold Medal from London's Royal College of Music, the Mozart Bicentenary Piano Competition of Asia, and New York's Chopin Piano Competition, Dr. Hsin has performed in London's Wigmore Hall, South Bank’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room; New York's 92nd Street Y, and Merkin Hall; California's Lobero and Arlington Theatres (Santa Barbara); Hong Kong's Cultural Center and City Hall; Guangzhou's Xinghai Concert Hall and Hunan's Cultural Center (China); and Taipei’s National Concert Hall and Novel Hall.
Dr. Hsin is piano professor at the Institute of Music at the National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan and has adjudicated, lectured and given master classes throughout the world, including at Portugal’s Coimbra World Piano Meeting, England’s Royal Northern College of Music and the Yehudi Menuhin School, Singapore’s Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Germany’s SRIMF, and Israel’s Tel Aviv International Piano Competition.
An avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with such internationally renowned prize winners as violinist Cho-Liang Lin (Queen Sofia), Qian Zhou (Jacques Thibaud) and Nai-Yuan Hu (Queen Elizabeth). She has also partnered with violinists James Buswell and Christophe Boulier; violist Hsin-Yun Huang; cellists Gary Hoffman, Antonio Lysy, Pi-Chin Chien, and pianists Gilbert Kalish and Pi-Hsien Chen. In 2005 Dr. Hsin founded the ChiaoTa Chamber Ensemble, representing NCTU’s Institute of Music and dedicated to the promotion of classic and contemporary chamber music repertoire in Taiwan.
Fifteeen-year-old violinist Ming-Feng Hsin was hailed by The Scotsman as “destined to be one of the giants of the next generation” after he was awarded First Prize at the Glasgow International Violin Competition. Over the decades he has enjoyed a rich journey as a child prodigy, soloist, chamber musician, orchestral musician, teacher, and conductor. Having experienced a major setback from a career-ending accident at the cusp of a very promising solo career, he later triumphed over such upheaval which brought him the grounding to become a revered artist and an insightful mentor for the next generation.
Ming-Feng Hsin began his musical journey as a national hero in Taiwan. At the age of 13 he was discovered by his mentor Lord Menuhin, with whom he performed throughout Great Britain and the U.S., including a 1975 concert in Washington D.C. for President Ford and Queen Elizabeth during America's bicentennial celebrations. While living in the U.K. he performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra, always to rave reviews, and after moving to the U.S. to study with Ivan Galamian and Jascha Brodsky, he won top prizes in several competitions including the Montreal International Violin Competition. When his career was sidelined by an injury that took years to heal, he pursued conducting and graduated from the conducting class of Otto Werner Mueller at The Juilliard School. In the 1990’s Ming served as Music Director of the South Shore Symphony of Long Island, while also conducting orchestras throughout the US and Taiwan. As his finger healed gradually, he often led these orchestras as soloist and conductor.
In 1994 Ming won a first violin position at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, where he enjoyed a 24-year tenure. Even with the rigorous schedule at the Met, Ming continued to conduct, including a full opera productions of Aida and The Flying Dutchman with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, and collaborations with the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, Curtis Orchestra, and many of the top orchestras and conservatories in Taiwan. In 2018 Ming retired from the Met to spend more time with his children, and to devote his energies to playing, conducting and teaching.
Internationally recognized as a conductor of extraordinary versatility, musicality and discernment, Marc Kissóczy has led performances of symphonic music, contemporary ensembles, opera, operetta, and symphonic Pops to equal acclaim. Career highlights include his roles as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra (1996-2002) and as Music Director and Conductor of the renowned Camerata Zurich (2002-2009).
Mr. Kissóczy has enjoyed great success on the concert stage. He has conducted the Zurich Tonhalle and Zurcher Kammerorchester, the Basel and Berne Symphony Orchestras, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, Orchester des Saarlaendischen Rundfunks, Slowenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Tampere Philharmonic, Orquestra Municipal do Sao Paulo, Taipei Sinfonietta, Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris and many other orchestras in France, Germany, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Finland, Brazil, Taiwan and other countries.
Marc Kissóczy is at home in a variety of musical settings, including the traditional and prestigious New Years Concerts with the Aargau Symphony Orchestra, as well as operas, operettas, Pops and Children’s Concerts, film soundtracks and contemporary music. He currently serves on the faculty of the Musikhochschule (Music Academy) at the University of the Arts in Zurich and as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Camerata Zurich.
Born in Canada to Hungarian-Swiss parents, Kissóczy studied Violin and Conducting at the Music Academies of Zurich, Basel and Berne (Switzerland) and graduated with highest honors. Following the completion of his conducting studies at the Pierre Monteux School, he was awarded a number of national and international prizes, among them at the prestigious ‘Ernest Ansermet’ Competition in Geneva (1994) where he was a standing member and also president of the jury in the following years. He pursued further studies at Tanglewood and with conductors Sergiu Celibidache and Pierre Boulez.
In 1999 the government of Vietnam awarded Marc Kissóczy the highest medal of culture in recognition of his merits in restoring the musical life of that country and his extensive work with the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra.