Project Brahms
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Project Brahms
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| Project Brahms: The Two Piano Concertos in Concert featuring: MR. EDWARD LAN & MR. SEAN CHEN
SAME PROGRAM AT BOTH CONCERTS
Tickets: If you would like to reserve tickets, please call 805.376.2485 or click here to send a reservation request by email. Tickets will be on sale in the lobby of each venue one (1) hour prior to each event. $20 general / $10 senior & student
SoloistsConejo Concerto Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Thomas Osborn
Concerto No. 1
Edward began piano studies when he was six with Jill Hu and also studied piano with Edward Francis for ten years. Throughout his years of musical studies, he has received many awards. As a gold medal winner in the Twentieth-Century Music Festival, he has performed at the Civic Arts Plaza in the Scherr Forum. He was a winner in the California Association of Professional Music Teachers Romantic Festival, which encompassed the Los Angeles area. Edward has been a winner of numerous Southern California Bach Festivals Branch and Regional levels and has performed at the Showcase recitals. He also has auditioned for the Léni Fé Bland Foundation at the Santa Barbara Music Academy of the West and has received scholarships for several years now. Edward performed the Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens with the New West Symphony as a Discovery Artist, and Beethoven’s Concerto No. 1 as the Young Pianist Winner with the Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra. In 2003, he performed Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with the CWOTO Orchestra, and in 2004, he performed Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto with CWOTO. He has won first place in the Southwestern Youth Music Festival in the Open Category and has also won in the Chopin Category. Edward’s trio was also an award winner in the chamber music competition at SYMF. Edward has passed the Certificate of Merit Panel level, which is the highest level. For two years, he participated in the Honors Piano Seminar Class at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. In his senior year of high school, he was the concertmaster of the Conejo Valley Youth Orchestra conducted by Bill Benson. Edward studied violin with Teresa DiTullio for nine years. At school, Edward participated in the UCLA Philharmonia Orchestra as a violinist in his first year of college. He is also active in Grace on Campus, an on-campus Christian fellowship, as well as his church, EvFree in Newbury Park.
Concerto No. 2
When he was twelve, he played the Chopin E-minor Piano Concerto with the Conejo Concerto Orchestra (CCO). At thirteen, he was chosen as a New West Symphony Discovery Artist and was featured as a soloist playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G. At fourteen, he played the Rachmaninoff Concerto No. 3 with the Ventura College Orchestra and then gave an encore performance with the CCO. In 2002, he was the first prize winner of the University of the Pacific’s California High School Piano Competition (as a freshman). At fifteen, he was the runner-up in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Bronislaw Kaper Competition at Disney Hall. Later in the year, he performed the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 with the CCO. In the spring of the same year, he won the Grand Prize in the Glendale Solo Piano Competition for high school pianists. Recently, he was awarded his fourth scholarship from the United States Chopin Foundation, and was the youngest contestant to be accepted into the National Chopin Competition held in Miami. At sixteen, he advanced to the quarterfinals. He was also accepted as a contestant in the International Chopin Competition, which was held in Warsaw, Poland, and was the youngest competitor of the sixteen candidates representing the USA. He was a contestant in both the solo and concerto categories of the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and advanced to the finals in each division, winning special recognition in the concerto division. He was one of thirty-two pianists, ages 14–18, who were invited to participate in the Gina Bachauer International Young Artist Piano Competition in Salt Lake City, June 2005. In the spring of 2006, he was invited to collaborate with the New West Symphony in two performances of Carnival of the Animals at the Ventura Arts Festival. In April of 2005, he performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in the finals of the LA Music Center’s Spotlight Awards, where he won the top prize in Classical Instrumental Music, which included a cash scholarship and full tuition for the summer of study at the Aspen Music School & Festival, where he worked with Ann Schein of Peabody and Herbert Stessin of Juilliard. He has been a member of the High School Honors Piano Performance Seminar at the Colburn School of the Performing Arts in Los Angeles ever since he was invited to join four years ago. In November, he played a solo recital at The Chopin Project, a new academic/performance series sponsored by the MTAC and CWOTO, Inc., which was held before a sold-out audience at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. He was part of the “Rising Stars” recital at the 2005 Ventura Music Festival, and he was invited back to play a solo recital at the Ventura City Hall, in the finale gala performance of “Arts Explosion!” He won the Kawai prize as the finest piano talent in the Peninsula International Young Artists Festival, and was the grand prize winner in the California Alliance for Arts Education’s “Emerging Artist Award.” Sean was also one of twenty named national Presidential Scholars in the Arts, and he was invited to Washington D.C., where he met the President and also performed at the Kennedy Center. He was a laureate in the California International Young Artists Competition in San Diego earlier this summer, and he won the state MTAC Concerto Competition and was presented as a Young Artist Guild Member at the state convention. Sean has played in master classes and privately for Arnaldo Cohen of London’s Royal Academy of Music and Indiana University, Jon Kimura Parker of the Shepherd School of Music-Rice University, John Perry, Nancy Bricard, Norman Kreiger & Daniel Pollack of USC, Alan Chow, Robert Shannon & Monique Duphil of Oberlin, Jerome Lowenthal of the Juilliard School, Gary Graffman of the Curtis Institute of Music, Marvin Blinkenstaff of Princeton, Francoise Regnat of CSUN, and international performing artists Roberto Prosseda, Stephen Prutsman, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Andras Schiff and Emanuel Ax. His principal teacher since he was eight years old has been Edward Francis. In addition to piano, Sean is a violinist in the Conejo Youth Orchestra, and has been a member of several prize winning chamber music groups, including two first prize winning trios in the highly competitive VOCE (Voice, Orchestra & Chamber Ensemble) program of the Music Teachers’ Assn. of California. His trios have played in two state conventions, one in San Diego and the other in Sacramento. He enjoys composing, playing the guitar, improvising at the piano and basketball. |
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Mr. Edward Lan,
19, born in Taiwan, moved here at the age of three. He recently completed
his second year at the University of California, Los Angeles, as a piano
performance major, studying with Walter Ponce, keyboard area chair, and is
also completing pre-med prerequisites.
Mr. Sean Chen,
17, is a recent graduate of Oak Park High School, where he is was a high honors
student. He has been playing the piano since he was five years old. He was
first featured as a concerto soloist with the New West Symphony when he was
eight years old playing the Beethoven Concerto No. 2. At age ten, he played a
Mozart Concerto with the Conejo Youth Orchestra as winner of their Young Pianist
Award. He gave his first full solo piano recital at the age of eleven. He has
continued to give annual solo recitals since.