Program
- Enrique Granados: 8 Valses poeticos
- Johannes Brahms: 6 Klavierstücke, Op.118 No.1, 2, 3
- Claude Debussy: Estampes
- Gounod-Liszt: Valse de "Faust"
- "Endless Love" Jazz version
- Ray Charles: Georgia On My Mind
Performers bio
HEWEN MA, pianist
Artist Diploma, Rice University, Shepherd School of Music
Master of Music, New England Conservatory
Bachelor of Music, Shanghai Conservatory of Music
Hewen Ma, born in the stylish, artistic city of Dalian, China, is an elegant, versatile and highly accomplished pianist. Hewen entertains and connects with audiences through the exhilarating intensity of her virtuosic technique.
As an international soloist, renown for passionate performances, her appearances include major music festivals in China, Canada, and North America, including the Aspen Music Festival (Wu Han-David Finckel Chamber Music Program), Banff Music Festival, Music Bridge, Summer New Paltz and the China International Piano Festival. Her touching, fervent performances have graced the stages of Harris Hall (Aspen) Jordan Hall (Boston), Stude Concert Hall (Houston), Shanghai Grand Theater, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra theater, and the Shanghai Heluting Music Theater.
Hewen Ma is the winner of the Piano Honor Competition of New England Conservatory of Music; winner of The First China Youth Piano Competition, YAMAHA Scholarship Concerto Competition. In 2015, Ms. Ma was a semifinalist of the prestigious Ima Hogg Competition (Houston, TX).
Ms Ma’s bright success as an educator and performer enables her to contribute valuable appraisals as a competition judge. In 2015, she served as a worthy and supportive judge at the KEMAN Youth International Piano Competition.
In addition to pursuing a career on the concert stage, Hewen Ma engages with a broad range of audiences through a variety of music outreach programs. At a charity recital she gave in 2011, in Dalian, China, Hewen took the opportunity to donate pianos to an elementary school. In addition, Ms. Ma was an active participant in The Community Performances and Partnerships Program of New England Conservatory. The highlight of Hewen Ma’s outreach appearances was a 2015 project named “Four of a Kind”, supported by Richer Fund. Hewen Ma also collaborated with Canadian photographers to benefit a Chinese Orphan Fund in Shanghai.
Charity and outreach performances have played a major part in Hewen Ma’s musical career since college. She believes music is not a luxury; it is a way of life that everyone deserves to experience. Hewen is always looking for ways to contribute to society through her musical career.
Una Lau, blind pianist
Una started her classical voice training at the age of nineteen. She studied with a German voice instructor, Madam Boeing, in Kansas City, Missouri. She performed with university choirs and at school recitals.
In recent years, she studied with Dr. M.C. Warwick and wrote two musicals: Silana and Milton’s Ice Cream Cone. The development of her unique style of music composition is the result of a lifetime of musical influence. Growing up in the Chinese culture and later educated in the U.S.,with western music, she was always surrounded by different forms of music. She sings art songs in Italian and opera songs in Chinese. She was a singer in a jazz band and she performs in different venues, so she was exposed to a wide range of music. She also performed in a musical: “The Wonderland”. Recently, she was the instructor for a vocal workshop in the Brazos Bend State Park. She was one of the music panelists at “Insight Expo” 2015.
Una has been a volunteer pianist at the Methodist Hospital, St. Luke’sHospital, Westwood Rehab Center and Sheltering Arms Senior Center.
Una’s first foray into learning an instrument came at the age of fourteen when she started learning the acoustic guitar. She returned to music and started to play the piano in 2006, and later percussion instruments and the violin followed. Her last effort with instrument was theEr-Hu, a traditional Chinese instrument.
Una’s musical journey did not begin in china, however. Born in Hong Kong, it was here that she developed her musical tastes and interests, and it wasn’t long after she came to the U.S. that she began her classical voice training, all of which have had a profound influence on the direction her musical journey has taken.