Concert program for the San Francisco International Piano Festival 2020

Friday, August 28, 2020 at 8 pm

Download a copy of the program here.

San Francisco International Piano Festival
Beethoven 250

Stephen Harrison, cello & Gwendolyn Mok, piano
Eunseo Oh, violin & Sarah Yuan, piano
Allegra Chapman, piano

PROGRAM

All works by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)

Sonata for Piano and Cello in G minor, Op. 5, no. 2
            Adagio sostenuto e espressivo—Allegro molto più tosto presto
            Rondo. Allegro

Stephen Harrison, cello & Gwendolyn Mok, piano

Sonata for Piano and Violin in G major, Op. 30, No. 3
            Allegro assai
            Tempo di minuetto, ma molto moderato e grazioso
            Allegro vivace

Eunseo Oh, violin & Sarah Yuan, piano

Intermission

Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major, Op. 109
            Vivace ma non troppo—Adagio espressivo
            Prestissimo
            Gesangvoll, mit innigster Empfindung. Andante molto cantabile ed espressivo

Allegra Chapman, piano

The Performers

Stephen Harrison has been on the Stanford University faculty since 1983. A graduate of Oberlin College and Boston University, he has been solo cellist of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players since 1985. Stephen has been on the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival, the Orfeo and Schlern International Music Festivals (Italy) and the Rocky Ridge Music Center. He is currently principal cellist at the Mendocino Music Festival, and performs and teaches at the SoCal Chamber Music Workshop and the Telluride Chamber Music Festival.

 

Born in New York City, Gwendolyn Mok has appeared in many of the world’s leading concert halls, including the Barbican, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Davies Symphony Hall, and the Hong Kong Performing Arts Center. She is frequently invited to play and record with major international orchestras, such as the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the Beijing Philharmonic Orchestra and the Residency Orchestra of the Hague.

Ms. Mok is a recording artist for Nonesuch/Elektra, Musical Heritage Society, Musician Showcase Recordings, Cala Records, and EMI. Her highly acclaimed debut CD with the Philharmonia of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major on the Cala label was nominated for an Alternative Edison award. A second Cala recording of Saint-Saëns’s Africa—Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra with the London Philharmonic has been equally applauded. Three solo CDs, Ravel Revealed (Ravel’s piano works), Brahms: Late Piano Works, and Legacy, The Spirit of Beethoven were recorded on historic pianos for the Musicians Showcase Recording label. All three CDs received outstanding reviews and are broadcast frequently around the world. Recently two new CDs have been released: Poldowski Art Songs with soprano Angelique Zuluaga and pianist Gwendolyn Mok on the Delos label and EKTA Trilogy, featuring Mok as soloist on EKTA II, a concerto written for her by composer Brent Heisinger.

As a chamber musician, Ms. Mok appears regularly in the San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Series, as well as in the San Jose Chamber Society and the Sacramento Chamber Society series. She collaborates often with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. A popular soloist with the Symphony Silicon Valley, Ms. Mok co-produced and appeared in four sold-out performances of The Gershwin Radio Hour. In 2016 Ms. Mok was named President’s Scholar by San Jose State University, the highest honor given to an outstanding faculty member for their scholarship and research. Mok was also presented with the Artistic Acheievement Award by the College of Humanities & the Arts in 2008.

Ms. Mok began her studies at the Juilliard School of Music, completed her undergraduate work at Yale University, and earned her Masters and Doctorate at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at San Jose State University and maintains a busy performing and recording schedule.

 

Violinist Eunseo Oh, 15, is a sophomore at Lynbrook High School. She has been playing the violin since she was eight years old. She was a first-place winner at Pacific Musical Society’s 2018 Competition and a grand prizewinner of the 2016 Korean Times Annual Youth Music Competition. She has participated in many performances and concerts, including annual Junior Bach Festivals since 2016. Eunseo has performed in master classes for acclaimed artists such as Simon James, Danielle Belen, and William van der Sloot. She is a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and studies with Zhao Wei at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

 

Sarah Yuan, age 15, lives in Moraga and is a freshman at Miramonte High School. She began piano studies at age seven and is currently a student of Sharon Mann. Since 2015, Sarah has won awards in the East Bay Piano Competition, San Francisco Chopin Competition, Pacific Musical Society Competition, MTAC Piano Solo Competition, and the Kaufman International Piano Competition. She received first prize in Etude Club’s Young Artist Competition, Sturm-Page Piano Scholarship Competition, and Galante Prize Competition. Sarah has participated in Crowden’s Chamber Music Workshop and Piano Texas’ PrepFest at Fort Worth, and currently plays with the Young Chamber Musicians’ program. She has performed in masterclasses for artists such as Tamas Ungar, Eric Zivian, and the Gryphon Trio. As a member of her school’s Public Forum debate team, Sarah has competed at multiple tournaments around the Bay Area.

 

Described as “brilliant” by the San Francisco Classical Voice, San Francisco-based pianist and presenter Allegra Chapman is dedicated to connecting deeply with audiences. Allegra has performed as soloist and chamber musician at prestigious venues throughout the United States, Europe, and China, including Alice Tully Hall, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series, the Bard Music Festival, the Liszt Ferenc Memorial Museum in Budapest, San Francisco Jazz Center, and Xi’an Concert Hall in Xi’an, China. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and KALW San Francisco.

Allegra is founding artistic codirector and executive director of Bard Music West, a branch of the Bard Music Festival based in San Francisco that explores the worlds of composers from the past one hundred years.

Allegra recently joined the award-winning Delphi Trio as their new pianist and is a member of Chordless, a voice and piano duo with soprano Sara LeMesh. Upcoming solo engagements include a concerto with the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra and performances at Old First Concerts and the Bard Music Festival. She also performs regularly with leading Bay Area ensembles including Earplay, Eco Ensemble, Ensemble Illume, Left Coast Ensemble, and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. She has collaborated with members of International Contemporary Ensemble and the Eusebius, Orion, and Telegraph String Quartets. In 2012, Allegra’s unusual collaboration with Yamaha Disklavier and The Juilliard School’s Center for Innovation in the Arts was the subject of a feature article and video in the Wall Street Journal.

As an educator, Allegra has coached chamber music ensembles at many institutions, including San Francisco State University and Xi’an Conservatory of Music. Her student ensembles have received top prizes in regional and national competitions. Allegra is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Pre-College division.

Allegra received her MM from The Juilliard School and graduated in the inaugural class of the Bard Conservatory of Music’s double-degree program with degrees in history and piano performance. Allegra owes much to her many wonderful teachers who include Joseph Bloom, Jeremy Denk, Seymour Lipkin, Sharon Mann, Julian Martin, John McCarthy, and Peter Serkin.