33rd Annual Classical Piano Fest last performed at the Bach on November 23, 2014.
Mack McCray of the SF Conservatory joins Ning Zhou and Chenchen Zhang -- two "absolutely brilliant pianists" originally from Shanghai for three individual 35 minute sets on the 9 ft Steinway. Among other pieces, they will be playing Chopin's Second Sonata, a Fantasy on the Strauss Blue Danube Waltz, and the Brahms Paganini Variations.
Award-winning and international performer, Mack McCray has been on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1971. He is also Artistic Director of the Zephyr International Chamber Music Festival in Courmayeur, Italy. Among his many credit, McCray was concert accompanist for the Metropolitan Opera soprano Teresa Stratas. His recording of John Adams' piano work Phrygian Gates (New Albion Records) was placed on the Best Recordings of the Year (1981) lists of both the New York Times and High-Fidelity-Musical America. He has performed with such conductors as Michael Tilson Thomas, Edo de Waart, Josef Krips, Leon Fleisher, Arthur Fiedler and John Adams.
McCray video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yg6YYLdyZY
About the Performers . . .
Ning Zhou won first prize in the Jiangxi first teenage Piano Competition at age eleven, and entered the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory of music at age seventeen. During studies there, he performed with Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra and took second prize in the 2010 Gulangyu national piano competition. Additional awards have come in the Shenzhen International Piano Concerto Competition (Final Prize, 2014), Southern Highlands International Piano Competition (Best Chopin Prize, 2011), the San Marino International Piano Competition and the Paderewsi Piano Competition. Mr. Zhou was also a participant in the 13th quadrennial Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and has performed in Italy and Germany. Mr. Zhou is a 2009 graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and has recently begun Master of Music degree studies under the tutelage of Professor Mack McCray at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Music Author and biographer Olin Chism submitted that Ning Zhou have been "a highly musical person, a master not only of technique but of interpretation."
2009 Cliburn video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-2JCDWntmI
Chenchen Zhang graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music majoring in piano performance. She was born in Yantai, Shandong in 1989 and began studying piano at the age of five. In 1997,she won the second prize in Shandong Teenager Piano Competition, and in the following year she was the first person at Shandong, who qualified as a finalist in ‘Xing hai’, China's teenager piano competition, which is one of the highest-level competitions in China. In 2000,she gained admission to Music Middle School affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music with the highest scores, studying with Professor Shao Dan. During this time she was selected as the youngest student in the Shanghai Perlman master summer classes in 2002, by praise from many professors. She also won the first prize of the 65th Steinway teenager piano competition (East China area). She has received the scholarship several times, and has also been selected with great honors for the student union president in high school. In 2006, she held two solo concerts in Shanghai Baoshan District Place, and in the next year, she took part in several chamber music concerts in Shanghai Symphony’s Hall. Now she studies with Professor Mack McCray in San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
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