BEETHOVEN FESTIVAL "Beethoven by Special Arrangement" Winter Concert

PROGRAM: BEETHOVEN BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Variations on a Theme by Mozart for Clarinet and Piano by Ludwig van Beethoven

The Piano Trio Op. 1 No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven, arranged for Clarinet, Viola and Piano

The Quartet for Piano, Op. 16 for Clarinet, Viola, Cello and Piano

About the Artists:

PIANIST HSIANG TU

Beethoven Festival audiences have fallen in love with the artistry of virtuoso pianist Hsiang Tu, the Taiwan native who earned his master’s and doctorate from the Juilliard School. Hsiang Tu will be joined by Festival Artists Russell Harlow, clarinetist, Leslie Harlow, violist, and Julie Bevan, cellist.

Praised by The New York Times for his "eloquent sensitivity" and The Boston Intelligencer for his "impeccable technique," pianist Hsiang Tu has graced the audience with his creative programming and wide range of repertoire. Dr. Tu is currently working on the complete cycle of piano solo works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel and thematic recitals featuring animal-themed music and opus-one compositions. Born in Taipei, Taiwan, he debuted in New York at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center as the winner of The Juilliard School Concerto Competition, and he has performed in venues all over the world, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, National Museum Cardiff, and National Recital Hall in Taipei. 

A prize winner at the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Iowa International Piano Competition, and the American Paderewski Piano Competition, Dr. Tu has appeared with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, and the World Civic Orchestra, among others. He has given master classes at Cardiff University, University of Southern California, Penn State University, Loyola University New Orleans, Utah Valley University, and Colorado Mesa University.

Before being appointed as an Assistant Professor of Piano at Virginia Tech, Dr. Tu taught at the University of New Hampshire, Utah Valley University, and Snow College. He studied with Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, and HaeSun Paik, and holds a B.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Calgary and an M.M. and D.M.A. in Piano Performance from The Juilliard School. For more info, please visit hsiangjohntu.com.

FESTIVAL ARTISTS

CLARINETIST RUSSELL HARLOW

Clarinetist and Beethoven Festival Artist in Residence Russell Harlow is one of the nation's premiere solo and chamber clarinetists. Mr. Harlow performed the New York Premiere of the Ramiro Cortes Trio (written for him), along with the Brahms Quintet, at Carnegie's Weill Hall in New York. The Sonolumina Ensemble ISOMIKE Label recording featuring Mr. Harlow, "Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings”, has received critical acclaim in both the U.S. and Europe.

Russell Harlow co-directs the Beethoven Festival Park City and has performed and lectured for International Clarinet Association events throughout the world. His webiste ClarinetCentral.com is regularly visited by clarinetists worldwide. In addition to performances in Utah with the Beethoven Festival, the Contemporary Music Consortium and Sonolumina Orchestra, Mr. Harlow has performed with the Affetti Festival, Sitka and Anchorage Fall Classics Festivals (Alaska), the Amsterdam Chamber Players, the Puerto Rico Clarinet Festival, the Ars Nova, Lyrica and Piatigorsky Foundation concerts in New Jersey and with the Leonore Trio and Bargemusic in NYC.

Russell Harlow's mentors include Gary Foster, Mitchell Lurie, Harold Wright and violinist Charles Libove, and he was coached in chamber music and attended the master classes by cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. Harlow is featured on recordings with flutist Laurel Ann Maurer, the Mirecourt Trio, the Beethoven Festival and the Utah Symphony abd has recorded numerous solos for major filmscores. He founded and directed Utah's Nova Series until he joined the Beethoven Festival as Co-Director in 1986. He attended both UCLA and USC before joining the Utah Symphony at the age of 21.

VIOLIST LESLIE BLACKBURN HARLOW

Festival Artist in Residence, Violist Leslie Harlow, is the Founder and Co-Director of the Park City Beethoven Festival. She has performed in chamber concerts with a host of the finest artists of this era. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Leslie Harlow performed in master classes for William Primrose, Paul Doktor, Donald McGinnis, Heidi Castleman and Nabuko Imai and her primary teachers were Marna Street, Susan Schoenfeld, Paul Doktor, and violinist Harry Shub with additional lessons with Heidi Castleman, Donald Wright and Francis Tursi. Ms. Harlow studied chamber music with coaches including Felix Galimer, Samuel Rhodes, David Soyer, Paul Doktor, Charles Castleman, Robert Sylvester and Julius Baker.

Following graduation from Juilliard, Ms Harlow moved to Utah with the plan to found a chamber music festival modeled after festivals she had been performing with over the years. She founded the Deer Valley (Utah) Chamber Music Festival in 1984 which has since been renamed the Beethoven Festival. The Festival continues to this day as Utah's oldest classical music festival, as of 2019, presenting over 750 festival chamber concerts featuring many of the finest classical soloists of this era.

An active recording artist, both in chamber music and in commercial studio work, Ms. Harlow's viola solos have been featured on a number of film and television soundtracks including "Murder in the First”, "Surviving Picasso” and, most recently “Alpha”. She also founded and for many years directed the Park City Film Music Festival, the first U.S. film festival dedicated to the impact of music in film.

Active in teaching, Leslie Harlow is the coordinator and coach for the chamber music program Utah Valley University Department of Music in Orem, Utah. In 2015 Ms. Harlow was invited to present the collegiate level viola master class at the National ASTA Convention and to as judge for the collegiate solo competition.

Representing the Festival, Leslie and clarinetist Russell Harlow perform concerts together with their colleagues throughout the year. They particularly enjoy performing for senior residents in retirement homes and for aspiring young artists at their schools.

Outside of the Festival, Harlows are busy professional performing artists, invited to perform in Utah and beyond, including for the Bargemusic Series in New York. Leslie Harlow’s recording credits also include the critically-acclaimed SACD recording for the ISOMIKE label: Chamber Music for Clarinets and Strings which features works by Karel Husa, Bohuslav Martinu and Ingolf Dahl.

CELLIST JULIE BEVAN

Julie Bevan has had a diverse career as a cellist and teacher throughout the West and Midwest. A native of Utah, she received her musical training at Brigham Young University and later at the University of Southern California, where she received a Master of Music degree as a member of the master class of legendary cellist Gregor Piatigorsky.

A widely experienced performer, Julie Bevan has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Sir Neville Marriner and was principal cellist of the Chicago String Ensemble for fifteen seasons, appearing frequently as soloist. She was a member of such prestigious chamber orchestras as the Storioni Ensemble and the Ars Viva Orchestra, both in Chicago, and was principal cellist of the Sinfonia da Camera in residence at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Bevan has served on the faculties of North Park University, Northeastern Illinois University, Eastern Illinois University and Northern Michigan University, and has taught cellists ages three to seventy during the past 25 years.

As a chamber musician, Bevan performed with the Chicago Ensemble, one of Chicago's premiere chamber ensembles, for twelve seasons. She was cellist of the Fontenelle String Quartet of the Omaha Symphony and the Testore Piano Trio, and was cellist of the Deseret String Quartet in residence at BYU from 1982-1988.

Bevan has performed extensively with orchestras such as the Omaha Symphony, the Nebraska Sinfonia, the Pasadena (CA) Symphony, Symphony II (Chicago), and she was principal cellist of the Lake Forest (IL) Symphony. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras and in recital throughout the West and Midwest. She can be heard in Bloch "Prayer" for cello and string orchestra on "Israeli Melodies", a recording on the Centaur label.