Soirée a Deux Violins

Week of September 24, 2022

Pei-Chun Tsai, from Tainan, Taiwan, is the two-time first-prize winner of the Taiwan National Violin Competition. She has performed in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Pei-Chun has participated in many music festivals in the United States and Europe. After receiving Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in violin performance from The Juilliard School, she completed her Doctorate in Musical Arts from the City University of New York. Pei-Chun is the founder and director of the Campanile Music Festival at San Diego State University where she curates innovative residencies of visiting artists from across the country. Recent guests include the Formosa Quartet and Brooklyn Rider. Pei-Chun has been a member of the San Diego Symphony since 2006. As a violin lecturer at San Diego State University, Pei-Chun performs with the San Diego State University Chamber orchestra regularly. She has recently released her solo violin album “Chaconnes” which you can find on Apple Music or Spotify. 

 

Violinist Jeff Thayer holds the Deborah Pate and John Forrest Concertmaster Chair of the San Diego Symphony. Mr. Thayer is also one of the founding members of the chamber music ensemble, Camera Lucida, which performs throughout the year in the Conrad Prebys Music Center on the UC San Diego campus. After fourteen summers at the Music Academy of the West where he served as concertmaster and violin faculty member, Mr. Thayer has been involved in teaching at other festivals including The National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall,  the National Orchestral Institute, and Interlochen Arts Camp. Other festivals include The Grand Teton Music Festival, Ernen Muskidorf, the Tibor Varga Festival, Amelia Island, Mainly Mozart, La Jolla Summerfest, The Pierre Monteux Institute, and the Astoria Music Festival. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. His teachers include William Preucil, Donald Weilerstein, Zvi Zeitlin, and Dorothy DeLay. A native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Mr. Thayer began violin lessons with his mother at the age of three. He has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Jupiter Symphony, the North Carolina Symphony, the Canton Symphony Orchestra, the Pierre Monteux School Festival Orchestra, the Spartanburg Philharmonic, the Cleveland Institute of Music Symphony Orchestra, The Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra, the Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, the Nittany Valley Symphony Orchestra and the Conservatory Orchestra of Cordoba, Spain, among others.