Consecutive Days in March Feature Alec Chien in Solo Performance and in Concert with Alexander String Quartet

Feb. 16, 2015 – Concerts on consecutive days in March will give the community two opportunities to hear Alec Chien perform in his final concerts at Allegheny College before his retirement from teaching at the college. Both concerts are free.

Chien will appear as guest artist with the Alexander String Quartet at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, March 6 in Ford Chapel. The program includes the Schumann and Brahms Piano Quintets. In addition, the Allegheny Chamber Choir, conducted by James Niblock, will join the quartet for Beethoven’s “Elegischer Gesang” and Eric Whitacre’s “Five Hebrew Love Songs.”

On Saturday, March 7, Chien will perform an all-Chopin program at 3 p.m. in Shafer Auditorium, the conclusion of a seven-concert series that Chien began in 2011 focusing on the major works of Franz Schubert and Frederic Chopin.

Chien is artist-in-residence and professor of music at Allegheny College. He joined the college’s music faculty in 1980 after earning his doctorate at Juilliard.

Grand Prize Winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition and prize winner of the Sydney International Piano Competition, the Paloma O’Shea International Piano Competition and the Affiliate Artists Xerox Piano Program, he has performed in solo and chamber recitals and as soloist with orchestras on four continents, in concerts in Australia, Austria, China, Greece, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Poland, Spain and Taiwan.

Among the major symphony orchestras that have featured him as soloist are the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony, American Symphony and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

In 1988 Chien was one of 25 Steinway artists to perform at the gala concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City to celebrate the piano company’s 135th anniversary as well as its 500,000th piano. That commemorative piano has been brought to Allegheny twice for his solo recitals.

Members of the Alexander String Quartet are violinists Zakarias Grafilo and Frederick Lifsitz, violist Paul Yarbrough and cellist Sandy Wilson.

asq_4_295The ASQ has performed in major music capitals on five continents, securing its standing among the world’s premier ensembles over three decades. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart and Shostakovich, the quartet has also established itself as an important advocate of new music through over 25 commissions and numerous premiere performances.

During its annual residency at Allegheny, the quartet will visit classes across the academic disciplines, including classes not only in music but also in psychology, communication arts, English, biology and philosophy.

The Alexander String Quartet was formed in New York City in 1981 and the following year became the first string quartet to win the Concert Artists Guild Competition. In 1985, the quartet captured international attention as the first American quartet to win the London International String Quartet Competition, receiving both the jury’s highest award and the Audience Prize.