Trio Opus Three

Performers

Notes on the performers

Youngmin Lee is a Korean violinist and educator based in China. She began her solo career at the age of 18 with the Kyoungki Festival Orchestra, performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto. After graduating from Yonsei University College of Music in South Korea, she gained extensive experience with various professional orchestras, including Gunpo Prime Philharmonic, Creadia, New World Symphony, and served as the second violin associate principal of the Seoul Metropolitan Youth Orchestra. Following her relocation to China, Youngmin took several gap years. In 2022, she became a 1st violin player of the Xian Symphony Orchestra, performing across China. She has collaborated with numerous conductors and soloists, including Zhang Guoyong and Ningfeng, in various cities throughout the country.

Youngmin has received multiple awards. In September 2024, she won first prize at the 8th Japan International Competition, and she was a semifinalist in both the 1st Joachim Violin Competition 2023 (UK) and the 3rd Grazyna Bacewicz International Violin Competition in Lodz (Poland). She earned gold and silver medals at the Gyeonggi-Do Student Music Competition in South Korea in 2003, 2004, and 2005, competing successfully as both a soloist and chamber musician. Her string quartet won first prize at the Hong Kong International Music Competition (Chamber Division) 2017 and second prize at the Osaka International Music Competition (Chamber Music) 2016. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Arts in Performance Studies (Violin) at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Cameron Walls is a nineteen-year-old cellist studying at the Royal Academy of Music as a scholarship holder with John Myerscough. He is a passionate chamber musician, having won the Avison Ensemble Young Musician’s Award, and receives valuable coaching from esteemed musicians at the Academy. As a member of the Scintilla Quartet, he regularly benefits from coaching with Anthony Marwood and members of the Doric, Barbican, and Castalian Quartets. His collaborative playing also extends to a newly formed viol consort, in which he enjoys playing tenor viol.

Chinese American pianist Pan Xiao has embarked on a multifaceted career as a soloist, collaborator, and pedagogue. Raised in Colorado, Pan was most recently based in Chicago, and served on the accompanying faculties at Northwestern University and Loyola Academy.

Among other accomplishments, Pan has won awards from Chicago’s Musicians Club of Women, the Music Teachers’ National Association, and the International Institute for Young Musicians. Additionally she has soloed with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Breckenridge Festival Orchestra, and has given performances at the Chicago Cultural Center’s Chamber Mondays Concert Series and the WFMT Bach Keyboard Festival.

Pan holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from Northwestern University and is currently at the Royal Academy of Music to continue her post-graduate studies in Ensemble Piano. Pan is also a graduate of Northwestern’s dual-degree program, having earned bachelor’s degrees in both piano performance and chemistry.

Programme

Programme notes

Jean Sibelius (1865 – 1957)

6 Pieces for Violin and Piano, op 79

1. Souvenir

Youngmin Lee and Pan Xiao will perform a duet of Sibelius Op. 79, piece 1 which was composed in 1915-17.

Jean Sibelius, though known for his large-scale works, also composed numerous sets of miniature ‘character’ pieces throughout his life–almost always for violin and piano. The Six Pieces, op 79 was written from 1915-17, and are distinctly Romantic in style. The first piece, “Souvenir,” displays Sibelius’ idiomatic writing for violin and piano, including virtuosic passage work and sudden changes in register, but the character never diverges too far from the nostalgic, bittersweet mood that its title implies.

Source: Wikipedia

Dora Pejačević (1885 – 1923)

Sonata for Violin and Piano, op 43

1. Allegro molto vivace

The duo will also perform this second piece. Dora Pejačević was a Croatian composer, pianist and violinist and one of the first composers to introduce the orchestral song to Croatian music. Sonata in B minor Slawische Sonate for violin and piano, Op. 43 was composed in 1917; dedicated to violinist Zlatko Baloković.

Dora Pejačvić composed her Violin Sonata in B-flat minor, op 43 in 1917 while serving as a nurse in her hometown of Našice, Croatia during World War I. The third and final movement, Allegro molto vivace, is marked by driving, almost relentless quaver passages exchanged between the piano and violin, along with sudden shifts in harmony and texture. The piece was dedicated to noted Croatian violinist Zlatko Baloković, who briefly lived in Britain from 1920 to 1923 before settling permanently in the United States. 

Source: Wikipedia

Amy Beach (1897 – 1944)

Romance for Violin and Piano, op 23

The last duo, before the cellist joins in will be an Amy Beach piece. The composer was the first American woman to have a symphony published. Beach’s ‘Gaelic’ Symphony was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896. She also wrote an outstanding piano concerto, choral works and an opera in one act. But in this piece, she shows her complete mastery of chamber music and more intimate compositions for small ensembles.

Source: Wikipedia

Johannes Brahms (1883 – 1897)

Piano trio No.1 in B major Op. 8

1. Allegro con moto — Tempo un poco più Moderato — Schnell
2. Scherzo: Allegro molto — Trio: Più lento — Tempo primo
3. Adagio non troppo — Allegro — Tempo primo
4. Finale: Allegro molto agitato — Un poco più lento — Tempo primo

The Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8, by Johannes Brahms was completed in January 1854, when the composer was only twenty years old. It has often been mistakenly claimed that the first performance had taken place in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia