Celebrating Our Seventh Season!
Presented by the Happy Valley Cultural Center.
Chamber On The Mountain honors the traditional
while celebrating the innovative and the intermingling of nascent talent with venerated masters.
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UPCOMING PERFORMANCE
Hanzhi Wang
Accordionist
Photo by Matt Dine
Sunday, October 4, 2020
3:00 pm /
Logan House
at the Beatrice Wood Center for the Arts
8585 Ojai-Santa Paula Rd. (in Upper Ojai)
Ojai, CA 93023 Detailed map and directions
Meet the Artist!
Reception will follow the performance.
Tickets $25.00
BIOGRAPHY
Hanzhi Wang, Accordionist
Photo by Matt Dine
Musical America Worldwide New Artist of the Month, July 2018
First Prize, 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions
First Prize, 40th Castelfidardo International Accordion Competition (Italy)
Peter P. Marino Debut Prize of YCA
Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists of YCA
Ruth Laredo Award of YCA
Candlelight Concert Society Prize
Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle Prize
Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Prize
Sinfonia Gulf Coast Prize
Tannery Pond Concerts Prize
University of Florida Performing Arts Prize
Usedom Music Festival Prize
Vancouver Recital Society Prize
Washington Performing Arts Prize
COMMUNITIES DIGITAL NEWS (Washington, DC):
"Ms. Wang dazzled all at the full house at the Kennedy Center with her
skills and musicianship. She offered a program of surprisingly daring and eclectic
repertoire, including a wide range of classical repertoire explored so masterfully that
it seems as if these works had actually been written for the accordion in the first place.
It was a genuinely eye-opening evening. Hanzhi Wang is undoubtedly well on her way
to a brilliant career that is certain to be much discussed."
OBERON’S GROVE (New York): "Hanzhi Wang gave a remarkable performance. She displayed staggering virtuosity and
a gift for drawing colors and magical dynamics from her accordion. It was an inspiring mixture of
passion and finesse. Putting a regal polish on every phrase, her sparkling
technique held the audience in a state of breathlessness, as thrilling to watch as to hear."
NEW YORK MUSIC DAILY: "Hanzhi Wang isn’t the first accordionist to specialize in classical music, but she is the first one ever
to earn inclusion on the Young Concert Artists roster. That’s a pretty big deal. Nothing beats the
plaintive lusciousness of Wang’s instrument of choice. She has a magically dynamic new album, and
her Carnegie Hall debut in Zankel Hall is one of THE big accordion events of the year in New York."
Praised for her captivating stage presence and performances that are technically and musically masterful,
the groundbreaking young musician Hanzhi Wang is the only accordionist to ever win a place on the
roster of Young Concert Artists in its 59-year history. She is proving herself to be the perfect ambassador
for her instrument.
Other firsts include being named Musical America "New Artist of the Month," an interview and
performance on the 2,145th episode of New York WQXR’s Young Artists Showcase as the first solo
accordionist on the program, and the Naxos label’s first-ever solo accordion CD, Ms. Wang’s "On the Path
to H.C. Andersen,” which was nominated for the prestigious DR (Danish Radio) P2 Prize in 2019.
First Prize Winner of the 2017 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Ms. Wang’s debut opened
the 2018-19 YCA Series in New York in The Peter Marino Concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and her
Washington, DC debut opened the 40th Anniversary Young Concert Artists Series at the Kennedy Center,
co-presented with Washington Performing Arts. This season, the Young Concert Artists Series will
present her in New York with YCA’s Omer Quartet, in the Summis Auspiciis Concert at The Morgan
Library and Museum.
Ms. Wang was awarded YCA prizes for performances for Candlelight Concert Society in Columbia, MD;
Sinfonia Gulf Coast in Destin, FL; Tri-I Noon Recitals at Rockefeller University in New York City;
Vancouver Recital Society; Tannery Pond Concerts (NY), Usedom (Germany) Festival; Chamber
Orchestra of the Triangle (NC); University of Florida Performing Arts Prize; and Krannert Center at the
University of Illinois in Urbana. In addition, Alan & Judy Kosloff and Mike Lubin & Anne-Marie McDermott
sponsorship her YCA Fellowship, and she holds the Ruth Laredo Prize and Mortimer Levitt Career
Development Award for Women Artists of YCA.
Additional invitations to perform have come from the Oregon Music Festival for a performance as soloist
with orchestra, IRIS Orchestra in Tennessee, Palm Beach Symphony, Buffalo Chamber Music Society,
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center (AL), Leaf Peeper Concerts (MA),
Grand County (CO) Concert Series, the Bravo! Vail and Ibagué (Colombia) Music Festivals, and YCA
alumnus Alexander Fiterstein’s Clarinet Academy in Minneapolis.
Ms. Wang won First Prize in the 40th Castelfidardo International Accordion Competition in Italy. She
inspires the next generation of accordionists with lectures, performances and master classes, at the
Manhattan School of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Tianjin Music Conservatory, Ghent Music
Conservatory (Belgium), and in Norway and Portugal. Composers Martin Lohse, James Black and Sophia
Gubaidulina have written and dedicated works to her.
Ms. Wang earned her Bachelor’s degree at the China Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She
completed her Master’s degree at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen with the renowned
accordion professor Geir Draugsvoll, and now serves as an assistant teacher at the Academy.
Zlatomir Fung Wins 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant!
The Avery Fisher Artist Program announced March 25th that 20-year-old cellist Zlatomir Fung has been awarded
a 2020 Avery Fisher Career Grant of $25,000. The program recognizes talented instrumentalists whom
the Executive Committee determines have great potential for solo careers.
June 2019
Announcing the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition Gold Medalist, Zlatomir Fung
The Cello Jury of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia has awarded
20 year-old Zlatomir Fung the competition’s First Prize and Gold Medal, following his Final Round performance
of Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations and Shostakovich’s Concerto No. 2 with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. Watch Video
Zlatomir Fung performed for Chamber On The Mountain on March 3, 2019 and an all-Brahms program on March 1, 2020.
Congratulations Zlatomir!
Pianist Albert Cano Smit Won First Prize at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions!
Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit won First Prize at the 2019 Young Concert
Artists International Auditions, as well as The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander
Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of
Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ). Other prizes include First
Prizes at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, which presented him in
recital at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
As soloist with orchestra, Mr. Cano Smit has performed with the San Diego Symphony
Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, the Manchester Camerata, the
Nottingham Youth Orchestra, and the American Youth Symphony. In recital, he has
performed at L’Auditori de Barcelona, Herbst Theatre in San Francisco and Fondation
Louis Vuitton in Paris, and on tour in Spain. Mr. Cano Smit currently studies with Robert
McDonald at The Juilliard School. Previous teachers include Ory Shihor, Graham Caskie
and Marta Karbownicka. He has benefited from major artistic advice by YCA alumni
Richard Goode and Jean-Yves Thibaudet, with whom he gave four-hand performances at
Zipper Hall in Los Angeles and Wallis Annenberg Center Hall in Beverly Hills. Mr. Cano
Smit is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy.
Albert Cano Smit performed for Chamber On The Mountain with Flutist, Anthony Trionfo on March 4, 2018.
Albert will be back to perform a solo piano performance on Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 3 pm. Purchase Tickets!
Congratulations Albert!
Heidi Lehwalder, Artistic Director for Chamber On The Mountain,
Receives the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra's (first-ever) 2018 Distinguished Alum Award
Former SYSO musician Heidi Lehwalder is an internationally renowned harpist who has performed and taught around the globe. In recognition of Lehwalder's remarkable career and her ongoing dedication to coaching young musicians, SYSO is thrilled to present her with their first-ever Distinguished Alum Award at The Power of Music Benefit Luncheon, April 22, 2018.
Heidi Lehwalder's career highlights include:
First recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize (now the Avery Fisher Career Grant)
Only harpist to ever tour with the famed Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont
Served as Professor of Harp at the School of Music at the University of Washington
Appeared on Leonard Bernstein's Young People's Concerts on CBS at age 14
Performed as guest artist with more than 65 orchestras including: New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, and, of course, Seattle Symphony where she has appeared 55 times
Met Opera’s New Concertmaster: The Canadian Violinist Nikki Chooi
The Metropolitan Opera announced Thursday that its next concertmaster would be the young Canadian violinist Nikki Chooi,
who performed for Chamber On The Mountain on May 1, 2016. Mr. Chooi, 27, who was offered a one-year contract
beginning next month,
will join the Met’s other concertmaster, David Chan. Read the Article that appeared in the New York Times, July 6, 2016
Congratulations Nikki!
The Real Star of the 2016 Grammys was Ji-Yong Kim, the Pianist from That Android Commercial
Ji, Pianist, performed for Chamber On The Mountain on Sunday, May 17, 2015 and also Sunday, September 23, 2018.. Watch his phenomenal performance in a commercial that aired during the 2016 Grammy Awards Show. WATCH VIDEO
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Ms. Wang was awarded YCA prizes for performances for Candlelight Concert Society in Columbia, MD;
Sinfonia Gulf Coast in Destin, FL; Tri-I Noon Recitals at Rockefeller University in New York City;
Vancouver Recital Society; Tannery Pond Concerts (NY), Usedom (Germany) Festival; Chamber
Orchestra of the Triangle (NC); University of Florida Performing Arts Prize; and Krannert Center at the
University of Illinois in Urbana. In addition, Alan & Judy Kosloff and Mike Lubin & Anne-Marie McDermott
sponsorship her YCA Fellowship, and she holds the Ruth Laredo Prize and Mortimer Levitt Career
Development Award for Women Artists of YCA.
