Schubert's B-flat Sonata is reverent and spiritual in tone, exploring tender human emotions. Godowsky's Passacaglia builds on these tones as an homage to Schubert.

5 MP3 Songs
CLASSICAL: Romantic Era, CLASSICAL: Sonata



Details:
about the artist:
Xiang Zou [pronounced Tsee-ung Zoh] was the youngest pianist ever to become First Laureate of Calgary's Honens International Piano Competition. At only 23, his performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Neville Marriner brought the cheering audience to its feet. He is an artist of the highest sensitivity, imagination and focus, combining consummate musicality with great fire and enthusiasm.

Zou has performed in recital and with chamber groups in major cities including Beijing, Boston, Chicago, Hong Kong, New York, Vancouver, Verbier, Santa Barbara and Shanghai. As soloist with orchestra, he has performed with the Shreveport, Shanghai, Vancouver and Victoria Symphony Orchestras, and the Calgary Philharmonic, China Central Broadcast, China Central Opera and Shanghai Opera House Orchestras. He recently performed at the Busoni and Ravinia Festivals, and appeared in recital throughout Germany, making stops in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Frankfurt. Engagements in 2005-2006 include appearances with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, and recitals for Chicago's Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series, Toronto's prestigious Women's Musical Club, and a Weill Recital Hall debut at Carnegie Hall.
In addition to his win at the Honens Competition, Zou has won top prizes at the Shreveport Symphony Nena Wideman Piano Competition in Louisiana, the Music Bridge and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra Music Competition, and the Hong Kong International Piano Open Competition. In 2005 Zou won the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition at The Juilliard School.

Xiang Zou gave his recital debut at age 13. A native of Hunan China, he studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, and later at The Juilliard School for his Bachelor of Music and his Master of Music degrees. His principal teachers have been Jerome Lowenthal and Xiaosheng Zhao, and, in chamber performance, Joseph Kalichstein and Seymour Lipkin. In 2005, Zou founded the New Asian Ensemble at Juilliard, an organization dedicated to introducing contemporary Asian music to Western culture, and Western contemporary music to Asian audiences. He is completing an Artist Diploma in Performance at Juilliard with Robert McDonald.