SPECIAL CONCERT
-
Consistently praised for her brilliant technique, tonal beauty and superb musicianship, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng is one of her country’s national treasures. She has appeared as soloist with more than 100 orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, St. Louis, Houston, San Diego, Indianapolis, Syracuse, Utah and Colorado. An avid recitalist, Ms. Cheng has performed solo and chamber recitals throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, including New York City (Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y), Wigmore Hall in London, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg and the Sydney Opera House, as well as in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Montreal, Toronto, Taiwan, Italy and Australia. In 2012 she made her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony.
Ms. Cheng has collaborated with numerous chamber ensembles including the Takács, Colorado, and Vogler quartets. Festival appearances have included Verbier, Edinburgh, Miyazaki, St. Petersburg/Stars of the White Nights, Enescu/Romania, Banff, Bravo! Vail, Chautauqua, Colorado, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla’s SummerFest, Ravinia, Vancouver, the Festival International de Lanaudière in Quebec, Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Cartegena International Music Festival in Colombia and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany.
Ms. Cheng has been invited to give masterclasses throughout North America and in Asia, including the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Taichung University in Taiwan, Indiana University, University of Michigan and the University of Texas. She has also served on the jury of many competitions, including the Seoul International Piano Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, Esther Honens International Piano Competition, Montreal International Piano Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, New Orleans International Piano Competition, Young Concert Artists Competition, and the American Pianists Association Competition. In 2022, she served on the Selection Jury of the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and was a webcast co-host for the live competition.
Ms. Cheng’s many honors include a Gold Medal at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition, the distinction of being the first Canadian to win the prestigious Montreal International Piano Competition, additional first prizes at the William Kapell International Piano Competition and D’Angelo Young Artist Competition, the Medal of Excellence from the Salzburg Mozarteum for her outstanding interpretations of Mozart, and a Career Development Grant from the Canada Council. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and cited for her life as a “concert pianist and ambassador for classical music.”
A native of Hong Kong, Ms. Cheng studied extensively with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University and with Sascha Gorodnitzki at the Juilliard School. She is currently on the artist faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she is the Robert W. Wheeler Professor of Piano, and the recipient of the 2011-12 Excellence in Teaching Award.
-
Alvin Chow has appeared throughout North America and Asia as orchestral soloist and recitalist. In addition, he has performed extensively in duo-piano recitals with his wife, Angela Cheng, and his twin brother, Alan. A native of Miami, Florida, he graduated summa cum laude and Co-Valedictorian (with his brother) at the University of Maryland, where he was a student of Nelita True. Mr. Chow received the Victor Herbert Prize in Piano upon graduation from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki, and held the Joseph Battista Memorial Scholarship at Indiana University as a student of Menahem Pressler.
Mr. Chow has won top prizes in numerous competitions such as the National Symphony Young Soloists Competition, Civic Orchestra of Chicago Young Soloists Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, and the New York Piano Teachers Congress International Piano Competition. He has been presented as recitalist in such cities as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Vienna, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, and has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Pan-Asia Symphony in Hong Kong, Shanghai Philharmonic, and Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, among others. He has also been Convention Artist for the state MTNA conferences in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee. With Angela Cheng, he performed as Conference Artist for the 2019 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and in 2023 they presented the Advanced Piano Master Class at the National Conference of MTNA. In 2011, a CD of music for four and six hands, recorded with Angela Cheng and Alan Chow, was released by Arioso Classics. It features music by Brahms, Dvorák, Ravel, Milhaud, Corigliano, and Copland.
Mr. Chow has presented numerous master classes and lectures at music institutions throughout the United States and abroad, including the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Taichung University in Taiwan, Colburn School in Los Angeles, Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, and Indiana University. He has taught and performed at numerous summer festivals, including the Shanghai Piano Festival, Banff Piano Master Classes, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, North Coast Piano Festival, Southeastern Piano Festival, New Orleans International Piano Festival, Adamant Music School, Lake Como Summer Piano School in Italy, and the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria.
Mr. Chow has been a member of numerous competition juries, most recently serving on the jury of the 2026 Gina Bachauer International Junior and Young Artists Competitions, Chair of the Jury at the 2023 Hilton Head International Junior Piano Competition and on the Screening Jury of the 2023 Van Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition. Others include the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Iowa International Piano Competition, the Jacksonville International Piano Competition, MTNA Student Competitions, the International Piano e-Competition, and the Cooper International Piano Competition at Oberlin.
Mr. Chow was the first Fulbright Visiting Artist in Piano at the University of Arkansas, and also taught at the University of Colorado. Mr. Chow has been a member of the artist faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since 1999, where he currently serves as Chair of the Piano Department. Mr. Chow was named the Ruth Strickland Gardner Professor of Music from 2011-14, and also received Oberlin’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016.
-
Bernadene Blaha's “brilliant command of the piano”, whether featured as recitalist, concerto soloist or chamber musician, has been heralded in performances throughout North America, Europe, Australia, Asia and Mexico. Piano and Keyboard magazine has reviewed her as, “a pianist of integrity, with lovely sonorities and total clarity of line.” Highlights of this season include return engagements at the Piatigorsky Cello Festival, Newport Music Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, Worcester Chamber Music Society as well as performances in Canada, France and Italy.
Originally from Canada, Ms. Blaha first came to international attention as a prizewinner in the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition; the Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, Grand Rapids, Michigan; the Masterplayers International Competition, Lugano, Switzerland; and the 11th Annual International Piano Competition, New York City. This latter award resulted in two highly acclaimed recital appearances, at Carnegie Recital Hall and the Lincoln Center Library. Soon afterward, Ms. Blaha was featured in the opening orchestra concert and a solo recital at the XXIX International Chopin Festival in Marianske Lazne, Czechoslovakia, followed by performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and Disney Hall in Los Angeles.Ms. Blaha is a founding member of the piano trio Latitude 41, formed in 2009 with violinist Livia Sohn and cellist Luigi Piovano. Their debut CD of Schubert's monumental "Trio in E flat Major" and "Notturno" was released in 2011 on the Eloquentia label to rave reviews. The group followed this success with a recording of the Saint-Saëns Trios and has a forthcoming CD featuring the Brahms Trios. Ms. Blaha’s discography also includes recordings for the CBC, Centaur and Analekta labels.
Also in demand as a teacher, adjudicator and clinician, Ms. Blaha has received the National Arts Foundation’s Outstanding Teacher Recognition Award. She has been invited to serve on the jury of the Gina Bachauer International Artist Piano Competition, Virginia Waring International Competition and the 2015 International E-Competition.
Currently residing in Los Angeles, Ms. Blaha has been a member of the Keyboard Faculty at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California since 1993 where she is a Professor.
-
Steven Spooner has been hailed as “the real deal, a pianist of apparently limitless raw technique that’s almost note perfect-He might be the best faculty pianist I’ve heard” (American Record Guide), with performances that evidence “Richter’s peerless focus, Gilels’s gold-plated sound, Cliburn’s urbane aesthetics, and Horowitz’s outgoing personality.” The Washington Post marveled at his “dazzling, blurry-handed sweeps of the entire piano.” In 2025, he was featured on Living the Creative Life, the most-watched classical music show, hosted by Zsolt Bognar, discussing his extraordinary life in music and monumental body of recordings. Professor of Piano at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University and newly appointed to the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival and School, Spooner has trained winners of multiple prizes at major international competitions at every level. Previously teaching at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, he serves as Artistic Director of the Chicago International Competition and Festival and is increasingly in demand for his masterclasses at leading conservatories worldwide. He has served on the faculty of many of the most prestigious summer festivals and regularly sits on juries of international competitions. A prizewinner at all seven international piano competitions he entered, Spooner took First Prize and the Niekamp Career Grant as most outstanding pianist in French music at the Paris Conservatory and top prizes at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In 2008, he was awarded the Ivory Classics Foundation Prize that enabled him to study with the legendary virtuoso Earl Wild. At the International Liszt Competition, Russian piano legend and Moscow Conservatory Professor Victor Merzhanov praised his “deep understanding of the contents of Liszt's works, organic and instinctive feeling of form and outstanding virtuosity,” noting that “his pianistic art must attract more attention from concert organizers around the world.” Spooner has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, the Great Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, Salle Cortot in Paris, Muziekcentrum Vredenburg in Utrecht, Shanghai Concert Hall, and the Esplanade Concert Hall in Singapore. His orchestral engagements include performances and recordings with the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin, Danubia Symphony Orchestra, Guangxi Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Symphony Orchestra, Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra, NAVO, and numerous other ensembles across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with distinguished artists including The Borromeo String Quartet, pianist Sergei Babayan, and Silk Road Ensemble bassist, Daxun Zhang. In recent seasons, he has daringly reinvented the solo recital by allowing audiences to vote on the spot for one of several prepared programs. He has undertaken a series of seventeen solo recitals comparable to Anton Rubinstein’s historic recitals of 1885, embracing much of the standard piano literature from Baroque to composers of the twenty-first century.
Spooner has released more than forty-five recordings on Naxos, Steinway Spirio, A Life of Music, EMR Classics, and other labels. Recognized as a leading authority on Liszt, his monumental ten-volume Aspects of Liszt explores every facet of that composer’s output, while his Dedications project comprises sixteen albums honoring his Russian pianistic heroes through performances of repertoire associated with legendary figures from Horowitz to Richter. His performances include his own compositions and virtuoso transcriptions, including his Concert Etude for Vladimir Horowitz (on music by Queen). Critics have praised his “gloriously shaded” interpretations and performances “of terrific power,” with his accounts of Brahms’s Fantasies Op. 116 and Grieg’s Lyric Pieces singled out as “simply to die for.”
Born in Louisiana, Steven Spooner began piano studies at age nine and made his public debut at fourteen. He studied at the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in the former Soviet Union, Moscow Conservatory, and Indiana University. His teachers and coaches have included Nodar Gabunia, Karen Shaw, Edmund Battersby, Leonard Hokanson, Tatiana Nikolayeva, and Earl Wild. Steven Spooner is a Steinway Artist.