A Gift to the Community Concert Series

Young Concert Artists International Auditions have a record of finding the coming generation of concert performers that rivals the world’s most prestigious competitions Over the years, they have helped launch some of the foremost artists in the classical music world. Previous winners include Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Goode, the Tokyo String Quartet, Emanuel Ax and Dawn Upshaw.Our three Gift to the Community artists this season are all recent winners of Young Concert Artists’ coveted First Prize.
Experience the coming generation of concert performers when the BCMS presents three free recitals. Our Gift to the Community artists are all recent winners of Young Concert Artists International Auditions coveted First Prize.

Young Concert Artists website

" a brilliantly polished, profoundly gifted young pianist"

The Washington Post

Jean-Frederick Neuberger , piano

Mr. Neuburger has already performed extensively as soloist with orchestra. Recently, he made two important orchestral debuts: the first in Shanghai with the Shanghai Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and the second in Tokyo with the New York Philharmonic in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, under the direction of Lorin Maazel. In May 2007 he appeared with Yoel Levi and the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 for the re-opening of Paris’s Salle Pleyel. During the summer of 2007, he performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major with the Orchestre National de Lyon on tour in Japan, and during the 2007-2008 season appears with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège. He has also made solo appearances with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Danish National Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

During the 2007-2008 season, Mr. Neuburger gave his debut recital at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and was featured for a second time in the Young Concert Artists Series in New York and Washington, D.C., appearing with the Amedeo Modigliani Quartet. He has also given recitals at prestigious festivals including Auvers sur Oise, Radio-France-Montpellier, the Roque d’Anthéron Piano Festival, Chopin Festival at Duznicki and les Folles Journées de Nantes, among many others. He has also given recitals at the Auditorium du Louvre, Auditorium du Musée d’Orsay, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, the Chopin Festival in Duznicki, Poland, and the Chopin-Gesellschaft in Darmstadt, Germany.

Mr. Neuburger won the 2006 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, where he was also awarded the John Browning Memorial Prize and the Rhoda Walker Teagle Prize, which in December 2006 sponsored his New York debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and his debut recital in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center, both of which were enthusiastically received. Mr. Neuburger had previously won First Prize in the 2005 Young Concert Artists European Auditions in Paris.

Mr. Neuburger’s impressive list of awards includes First Prize at the 2002 Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists; Second Prize and the Beethoven Prize at the 2004 International José Iturbi Competition in Valencia, Spain; Third Grand Prix, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France Prize, the Audience Favorite Prize and the Sacem Prize at the 2004 Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris; and Second Prize at the 2005 London International Piano Competition.

Born in 1986, Jean-Frédéric Neuburger began studying piano with Claude Maillols at the Académie Maurice Ravel at the age of nine, and also developed an interest in the organ and composition, which he studied with Emile Naoumoff and Jean-François Zygel. He entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2000, where he received highest honors in piano, accompaniment, and chamber music in the classes of Jean-François Heisser, Jean Koerner, Itamar Golan, Christian Ivaldi and Marie-Françoise Bucquet. Mr. Neuburger currently works with Reiko Hozu and Vladimir Krainev.

Mr. Neuburger recently released a CD of music by Czerny and Liszt on the Mirare label. He also has two CDs available on the DiscAuvers label: the complete Chopin Etudes, released in 2003 and another recording of Chopin works released in 2006.

*pronounced Nu-bour-jhay

Program:

Toccata in E minor, BWV 914 ..................................................... Johann Sebastian Bach

Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20 ................................... Frédéric Chopin
Nocturne In E major, Op.62, No.2
Polonaise in A flat major, Op. 53 ("Hérolque")

La Valse ..................................................................... Maurice Ravel (1857-1937)

Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op.5 ..................................... Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)

" A brilliant artist-a rare find. The audience stood in admiration.
We will be hearing much more from him!"

Jose Franch-Clarinet

Born in Moncofa, Spain into a family of clarinetists and Zarzuela singers, clarinetist JOSE FRANCH-BALLESTER* has been called “that rare find, an artist whose brilliant mastery of his instrument is matched by sound and secure gifts as a musician,” by The News-Gazette (Champaign-Urbana), and The New York Sun proclaimed, “Young Concert Artists has a winner!”

In April 2006, Mr. Franch-Ballester will perform the Copland Clarinet Concerto in YCA’s annual Irene Diamond Concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall with Keith Lockhart conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. During the 2005-2006 season, he will perform with the Westmoreland Symphony, the Haddonfield (NJ) Symphony, Music for Youth (CT), the Washington Center for the Performing Arts, and Southwest Missouri State University.

Mr. Franch-Ballester has given recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the La Jolla Music Society (CA), the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts (FL), and Monmouth College (NJ). As a chamber musician, he has performed Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with Arnold Steinhardt, violinist of the Guarneri String Quartet, and appeared at the Music from Angel Fire (NM) Festival, the Usedomer Musikfestival in Germany and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. He also performed in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s song cycle Winter Roses with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade in 2004.

In Spain, he performed with the Musica de Vall de Uxo Orchestra and won First Prize in the Competition of the Cultural Council of Valencia for three consecutive years (2001-2003), First Prize in the 2001 “Allegro” Clarinet Competition, and First Prize in the “Francisco Hernandez Guirado” Interpretive Soloists Competition.

Mr. Franch-Ballester won First Prize in the 2004 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He was also awarded the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Prize, which sponsored his Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center, and the Claire Tow Prize, which sponsored his New York debut at the 92nd Street Y, as well as the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, the Princeton University Concerts Prize, the La Jolla Music Society Prize, and the Fredericksburg (MD) Festival of the Arts Prize. He is also on the roster of Astral Artistic Services in Philadelphia, having won first prize at their 2004 National Auditions.

Mr. Franch-Ballester began clarinet lessons at the age of nine with Venancio Rius Marti. He gave his first recital in Valencia at the age of sixteen, and graduated from the Joaquin Rodrigo Music Conservatory in Valencia in 2000. He came to the U.S. to study at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied clarinet with Donald Montanaro and Ricardo Morales and chamber music with Pamela Frank and earned a Bachelor of Music degree in 2005. With the Symphony Orchestra of The Curtis Institute, he has played under the batons of Sir Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman, and Hans Vonk.

When he is not playing his clarinet, Mr. Franch-Ballester has a passion for archaeology and is an avid photographer.

Program:

To be Announced

“If the bass is finally to produce a headliner, the instrument can have no better champion”

The Washington Post

DaXun Zhang, double-bassist

In April 2007, Mr. Zhang won an Avery Fisher Career Grant, only the second double bassist in the history of this prestigious award. This summer he was invited by cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han to participate in the chamber music festival Music@Menlo in California and performs Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet at the Indiana University Summer Chamber Music Series. During the 2007-2008 season he continues his residency with Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two, and performs with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project in a series of concerts and cultural exchanges in China. He performs as soloist with the University of Northern Colorado Symphony and gives recitals at Indiana University, Rodef Shalom Congregation (PA), and McCain Performances (KS). During the summer of 2008, he tours Korea with the chamber ensemble DITTO, including a concert at the Seoul Arts Center.

Mr. Zhang has performed extensively with the Silk Road Project, including concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, at Carnegie Hall, and in Japan and California. With Mr. Ma he recorded the soundtrack to a 10-part documentary series on the Silk Road, which aired in Japan on NHK Television. The CD was released as “Silk Road Journeys: Beyond the Horizon” on Sony Classical. He has also joined with fellow Silk Road musician and pipa player Yang Wei and pianist Tomoko Kashiwagi to form the innovative chamber ensemble Qi Lin.

As concerto soloist, Mr. Zhang has appeared with orchestras including Orange County’s Pacific Symphony, the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle and the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra. He has given recitals at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, the University of Georgia, Missouri State University, and at the Chinese Embassy in the Embassy Series in Washington, DC. He has also performed chamber music at the La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati, the Strings in the Mountains Music Festival and the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival.

DaXun Zhang is the first double bass player to win the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and start a career under the auspices of Young Concert Artists. He made his New York debut sponsored by the Claire Tow Prize and his Washington, DC debut as a co-presentation with Washington Performing Arts Society. He also won the La Jolla Music Society Prize, the Orchestra New England Soloist Prize, and The Fergus Prize. In April 2006, Mr. Zhang performed Bizet’s Carmen Fantasy in at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall with Keith Lockhart conducting the Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

DaXun Zhang comes from a family of bassists in Harbin, China. He has been playing the instrument since the age of nine, and studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing beginning at the age of eleven. He continued his studies in the U.S. at the Interlochen Arts Academy and received his Bachelor of Music at the Indiana University School of Music, where he worked with Lawrence Hurst. He has served on the faculty of Northwestern University and was recently appointed Assistant Professor of Double Bass at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mr. Zhang was the first double bassist ever to win First Prize in the 2003 WAMSO (Women's Auxiliary of the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra) competition, leading to a performance with the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vanska, conducting. In 2001, Mr. Zhang was the youngest artist ever to win the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. He has also received the Grand Prize of the American String Teachers Association National Solo Competition.

Program:

To be announced