Pei-Chun Tsai & Friends
Week of September 14, 2024
Taiwanese violinist Pei-Chun Tsai received her Doctorate in Musical Arts from City University of New York with the publication of her dissertation on the violin writing of Richard Strauss. She also holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in violin performance from The Juilliard School.
Founding director of the Campanile Music Festival at San Diego State University, Pei-Chun curates innovative residencies of visiting artists from across the country for her students. A member of the San Diego Symphony since 2006 and violin lecturer at San Diego State University, she performs regularly with the SDSU chamber orchestra.
She released an album of solo violin entitled Chaconne in 2021 featuring the works by Tomaso Vitali, J.S. Bach and Joseph Waters. Pei-Chun performs on 2020 violin by Boston-based luthier Charline Dequincy and 2022 bow by Abe Liebhaber in San Diego.
Hailed as “… a deity of elegance” by the New Brunswick Beacon, Dr. Tina Chong is an international award-winning pianist and teaching artist. She currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at San Diego State University. Tina’s recital career has brought her to such venues as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and Sala Chopin in Mexico City.
She has been featured in La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, the Portland International Summer Festival, and the WFMT Series of Chicago. Under the management of Jeunesses Musicales of Canada, Tina has gone on extensive concert tours throughout Canada. She is the prizewinner of several international competitions, including the Montreal International Musical Competition and the Jacques Klein Piano Competition in Brazil.
Tina is a passionate advocate of alternatively-sized keyboards and is responsible for the acquisition of two narrow piano keyboards at SDSU, the first of its kind in a university on the west coast. She is also an active clinician throughout North America, giving frequent guest lectures, masterclasses, and adjudications. Tina holds degrees from Indiana University and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
Violinist Max Zorin enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. Acclaimed by Strad Magazine for his “extremely compelling” interpretations and praised by Strings Magazine as “simply magnificent,” he brings authenticity, color, and conscientiousness to his performances while maintaining a sense of play and joy.
As an advocate for new music both within and beyond the classical realm, Zorin has premiered numerous works and collaborated with genre-defying artists, from jazz legend Didier Lockwood to rock guitarist Rik Emmett. He has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia, and shared the stage with distinguished musicians such as Maxim Vengerov, Itamar Golan, Henry Demarquette, Philippe Muller, and the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet.
Zorin serves on the faculty at Penn State University and is the artistic director of Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, a summer music festival that blends masterclasses, concerts, theater, and wine-tasting.
Born in Israel into a family of professional musicians, Zorin grew up in France and began studying the violin at the age of five with his father, an illustrious violinist from Odessa (Ukraine). He holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Yale University, and Stony Brook University.