Casella Sinfonietta
September 4 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Program
Jonathan Caldwell, conductor
Annie Jeng, piano
WEILL Kleine Dreigroschenmusik (Little Threepenny Music)
MINGUS Adagio ma non troppo
GERSHWIN Rhapsody in Blue
The UNCG Wind Ensemble is a highly select concert band of fifty performers majoring in music at the UNCG School of Music. Performers in the current Wind Ensemble are drawn from sixteen states, Slovenia, and Hong Kong. The ensemble has enjoyed a distinguished record of performance throughout its history. In January 1992, the UNCG Wind Ensemble performed “A Tribute to John Philip Sousa” to a capacity crowd of 2,700 at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Twice, the Wind Ensemble earned critical acclaim from The Washington Post following concerts in the nation’s capital. The Wind Ensemble has performed throughout the eastern United States in recent years including the first-ever performance, in 1987, by a North Carolina collegiate ensemble in Lincoln Center, New York City. The Wind Ensemble performed that same year in West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. The Wind Ensemble has recorded nineteen commercially-available albums which have received widespread praise.
Hailed for her “brilliant pianism” (Gramophone) and “acrobatic” performances (Take Effect), Taiwanese-American pianist Annie Jeng has performed widely as a solo and chamber musician at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Italy, the Gijón International Piano Festival in Spain, the Kennedy Center, New York City, China, and at numerous academic institutions as a guest artist. As an advocate for pushing the boundaries of traditional performances, Annie has performed and curated concerts at breweries, parking deck rooftops, intimate living room settings, and other unconventional spaces, all with the aim of making the arts more accessible and interdisciplinary. Annie has presented at Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) conferences at collegiate, state, and national levels, The National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP), and College Music Society (CMS) conferences. She is the current President of Greensboro Music Teachers Association (GMTA) and serves on the board for the North Carolina Music Teachers Association (NCMTA). Annie is also the Assistant Director of Piano for the Brancaleoni International Music Festival (brancaleonifestival.com) in Piobbico, Italy.
Annie has commissioned and premiered dozens of new works. She is the pianist of Khemia Ensemble (khemiaensemble.com), a contemporary chamber ensemble that is dedicated to promoting contemporary classical music by cultivating inclusive place-making, collaborative mentorships, and authentic storytelling through immersive, multimedia performances. She also released the album “World Map” with Parma Recordings as the former pianist of Four Corner’s Ensemble. Her latest commissioning project, Circles and Lines, consists of new pedagogical works by women composers that introduces contemporary piano techniques to intermediate pianists. As a strong believer in creating a better and more equitable “normal” in the piano community, she also founded A Seat at the Piano (ASAP) in the summer of 2020 (aseatatthepiano.com). ASAP is a 501(c)(3) that is dedicated to the promotion of inclusion in the performance and study of solo piano repertoire. In collaboration with the Frances Clark Center for Keyboard Pedagogy, she has co-created an online course on women composers, been invited to speak on panels, present workshops, and serves on the Career Develop and Innovation subcommittee chair for NCKP.
Annie received her DMA in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Michigan, where she also received her MM. She earned her BM in Piano Performance with a minor in Public Health from New York University. Her primary teachers have included Logan Skelton, José Ramón Mendez, Miyoko Lotto, Anne-Marie McDermott, and Faye Bonner. She is currently Assistant Professor of Piano and Piano Pedagogy at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
