Quan Yuan, Sue-Ellen Hersman, Ian Greitzer, Donald Berman & David Witten
Biography Quan Yuan, Sue-Ellen Hersman, Ian Greitzer, Donald Berman & David Witten
Quan Yuan
has shown himself to be an accomplished and versatile young soloist. He has won the China International Young Artist Competition, the 2006 Delaware Symphony Orchestra young artist competition, and the 2000 Denmark International Young Artist Competition.
Mr. Yuan has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia. These venues includes: Library of Congress, Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Beijing Concert Hall, Merkin Hall, and Town Hall of New York City. He has played concertos with the Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Symphony Orchestra, Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, China Youth Chamber Orchestra, Taipei Youth Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Pro Musica, New England Conservatory Philharmonic Orchestra, NEC Wind Ensemble, NEC Bach Ensemble, and NEC Percussion Ensemble. Mr. Yuan has given master classes in Taipei and Beijing and he is a faculty member at Focal Chinese Music School since 2012 in Boston.
Born in Beijing, China, Mr. Yuan began his violin studies at age four with Muyun Yang. At age 13, he studied with Wei Zhao in the Central Conservatory of Music. After graduating with special distinction, he traveled to the United States to become a student of Joseph Silverstein. He has graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music and continued his studies with Donald Weilerstein at NEC since 2008
Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin
first appeared with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as flute soloist at the age of 16, and has subsequently performed throughout Europe, Latin America, South America, Russia, China and the US as both soloist and recitalist. With pianist David Witten, she frequently performs as a member of Dúo Clásico. Since 1986 the Duo has represented the US on State Department-sponsored foreign tours.
Hershman-Tcherepnin is both founding member and flutist of Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Other local activities have included performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera Company, New England Ragtime Ensemble, Portland (Maine) and Springfield (Mass.) Symphonies, and Broadway productions in the musical theaters of Boston.
Deeply committed to new music, Sue-Ellen performs regularly with numerous contemporary music ensembles. She has given many world premieres, including flute concertos by Tom Flaherty and William Eldridge, the latter of which was written in memory of her late husband, composer Ivan Tcherepnin. She has been flutist with Dinosaur Annex Contemporary Music Ensemble since 1985, and was appointed Artistic Director in 2002.
Sue-Ellen was raised in Norwood, Massachusetts (USA), received her Bachelor of Music degree from Boston University and Master of Music degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal teachers were Phillip Kaplan, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Samuel Baron.
Ms. Hershman-Tcherepnin has been a visiting artist at many universities and conservatories, including the Shanghai Conservatory (China), the Mozarteum (Austria), and the Porto Allegre Conservatory (Brazil). Closer to home, Sue-Ellen has taught at South Shore Conservatory (Hingham, MA), New School of Music (Cambridge, MA), New England Conservatory (preparatory division) and Tufts University. She has served as the principal flute instructor at MIT since 1991, where she is also founding director of MIT’s Flute Ensemble, The Institooters. From 1995-1999 Hershman-Tcherepnin also served as President of the 1800-member American Federation of Musicians Local 9-535-Boston.
Ian Greitzer
serves as Principal Clarinetist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, and the Boston Classical Orchestra. He performs with the Boston Symphony, Cantata Singers, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Collage New Music.
Mr. Greitzer holds both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music Degree from the New England Conservatory and was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center. A devoted performer of contemporary music, he is a member of the Boston Musica Viva, the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Ian Greitzer has appeared at the Rockport (Maine) Chamber Music Festival, the Blossom Festival, Ravinia, the Rockport (Mass.) Chamber Music Festival, Wolf Trap, and the Tanglewood Music Festival. He has performed at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Carnegie Recital Hall, and at the Edinburgh Festival.
Mr. Greitzer has also appeared in concert with the Blair, Manhattan, Lydian, and Vermeer String Quartets as well as being a member of the Zephyr Wind Quintet. He was a founding member of the New England Woodwind Quintet, the Arada Trio, and the Extension Works New Music Ensemble. Mr. Greitzer is a faculty member of both The Boston Conservatory and the Boston University College of Fine Arts. He has recorded for the Philips, CRI, Koch International, and Northeastern Records labels.
David Witten
has been described as a pianist "with that rare, elusive quality that charms and fascinates the listener." (Redondel, Milan, Italy) Witten's international career has included numerous concert tours in Ireland, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Europe, Mexico, South America, and China. As the recipient of a 1990 Fulbright Scholar award, Witten spent five months teaching and concertizing throughout Brazil, and he is frequently invited back to give concerts and masterclasses.
Closer to home, Witten’s performances have included solo appearances with the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and various chamber music collaborations with the Shanghai String Quartet, and also with members of the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Witten has also been active in contemporary music. He has recorded Piano Music of Nicholas Van Slyck for Titanic Records, and has commissioned over a dozen new works for Soli Espri, a chamber trio he founded in Boston with clarinetist Chester Brezniak and mezzo-soprano D’Anna Fortunato. With flutist Sue-Ellen Hershman-Tcherepnin, Witten formed Dúo Clásico; their recording, Flute and Piano Music of Latin America, was issued on the Musical Heritage Society label. Marco Polo Records released Witten’s solo recording, Piano Music of Manuel M. Ponce. His most recent recordings, Piano Music of Nikolai Tcherepnin, and Songs of Nikolai Tcherepnin, with soprano Elena Mindlina, were issued on the Toccata Classics label. Currently, Witten is preparing a solo CD of the piano music of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Witten’s involvement in music has not been limited to performance. He is the editor of Nineteenth-Century Piano Music: Essays in Performance and Analysis (Garland Publishing, 1997), which includes his landmark analytical study of the Chopin Ballades.
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Witten received his early training at the Peabody Conservatory, and at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem. His undergraduate studies at the Johns Hopkins University led to a degree in Psychology. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree in piano performance from SUNY at Buffalo. Later graduating with high honors from Boston University, he earned the degree of Doctor of Musical Arts in piano performance. His most influential teachers have been Tinka Knopf, Benjamin Oren, Reynaldo Reyes, Walter Hautzig, Leo Smit, Anthony di Bonaventura, and Dorothy Taubman. After twenty years as an active recitalist, chamber music pianist, and teacher in the Boston area, Witten accepted a position at the Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, where he is currently Coordinator of Keyboard Studies. He is also Artist Laureate of the Tcherepnin Society.
As an enthusiastic photographer, Professor Witten has won top prizes in several international photography competitions. He has had solo photography exhibitions in Budapest and Milan.
