Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violinist
Ines Irawati, pianist
Tanya Tomkins, cellist
Friday, October 28, 2022
7:30 PM
This trio of accomplished soloists and chamber musicians (violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, cellist Tanya Tomkins, and pianist Ines Irawati) have become fast friends and collaborators, bringing their vast individual experiences together for the past few years. The Hidden Valley Virtuosi will open our season with a dramatic and varied program featuring piano trios by Edvard Grieg and Felix Mendelssohn.
Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu
Praised by the Seattle Times as “Simply marvelous” and Taiwan’s Liberty Times for “astonishingly capturing the spirit of the music,” violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu enjoys a versatile career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Cindy has collaborated in concerts with renowned artists such as Yefim Bronfman, James Ehnes, Lynn Harrell, Leila Josefowicz, Cho-Liang Lin, Midori, Thomas Quasthoff, Yuja Wang, and members of the Alban Berg, Emerson, Guarneri, Miró, and Tokyo string quartets at prominent venues such as the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and festivals such as Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla Summerfest, Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. She has also collaborated as a guest violist with the Dover, Orion, and Shanghai quartets.
Cindy is a recipient of many awards including the Milka Violin Artist Prize from the Curtis Institute of Music, and third prize at the International Violin Competition of David Oistrakh.
She has taught at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California, and curated programs for the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles as the Artistic Partner. She is currently the Music Director of New Asia Chamber Music Society, the Director of Chamber Music at the Hidden Valley Music Seminars, and the creator of Sunkiss’d Mozart. Cindy plays on a 2021 Samuel Zygmuntowicz violin and a 2015 Stanley Kiernoziak viola.
Ines Irawati
Indonesian-born pianist, Ines Irawati is in demand as a solo recitalist, a collaborative pianist, and a vocal coach. Her recent engagements include performances for TEDxSan Diego at Copley Symphony Hall, the Art of Élan, Musikamar chamber concerts, concerts in Centro Cultural Tijuana, and performances all over Southern California.
Ms. Irawati has served as the musical and artistic director of San Diego Opera Young Artist Training Program, where she directed the company’s outreach concert series, Opera Exposed!, and its production of Little Red Riding Hood, a children’s opera by Seymour Barab. She was the vocal coach and collaborative piano faculty at Point Loma Nazarene University as well as for the prestigious Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. With singers Josh Arky and Alex Rodrick, Ms. Irawati is involved in La Cena è Pronta, a project which explores the nourishing ways of food and music enrich our lives through intimate vocal performances.
She is a founding member of the acclaimed Aviara Trio, a piano trio described as the “highest level of instrumental perfection, intensity, passion, and expression.” She has collaborated with many other esteemed chamber musicians such as violinist Cindy Wu, cellist Sophie Webber, double-bassist Jeremy Kurtz-Harris, Strings of the West, and the Hyperion String Quartet. She founded MusiKamar, a music series which brings exquisite chamber music performances into smaller and intimate spaces.
Ms. Irawati studied at Cleveland Institute of Music with Olga Radoslavjevich, and at Yale University where she studied with Claude Frank, Peter Frankl and Kikuei Ikeda of the Tokyo String Quartet. She lives in San Diego with her husband, two children and a yorkie named Larry.
Tanya Tomkins
Artistic Director and Co-Founder of the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, cellist Tanya Tomkins is equally at home on Baroque and modern instruments. She spent 14 years in the Netherlands where she performed with many chamber ensembles throughout Europe. She has performed on many chamber music series to critical acclaim, including the Frick Collection, “Great Performances” at Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, San Francisco Performances, and the Concertgebouw Kleine Zaal.
She is renowned for her interpretation of the Bach Cello Suites, having recorded all of them for the Avie label and performed them many times at venues such as New York’s Le Poisson Rouge, Seattle Early Music Guild, Vancouver Early Music Society, and The Library of Congress. For the past 20 years Tanya has been one of the principal cellists in San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Portland Baroque Orchestra, and has appeared with both numerous times as soloist.
On modern cello, she is a long-time participant at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Music in the Vineyards in Napa, and a member of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and she is currently a member of the Bay Area-based Delphi Piano Trio. As an educator, Tanya has given master classes at Yale, Juilliard, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and together with Eric Zivian, runs the Apprenticeship Program at the Valley of the Moon Music Festival.
Program:
Edvard Grieg
Andante con moto in C minor for piano trio, EG 116
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky
Selections from The Seasons for Piano Trio Op. 37b (arr. by Alexander Goedicke)
March—Song of the Lark
November—In the Troika
August—Harvest
September—The Hunt
William Grant Still
“Mother and Child” from Suite for violin and piano
—Intermission—
Felix Mendelssohn
Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66
All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert lecture presented by Nuvi Mehta at 6:45 p.m. (generously underwritten by Gordon Brodfuehrer) and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon & Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.
The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 6.:15 p.m. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each concert.
Masks optional. If you have a fever, cough, or flu-like symptoms, please stay home.