Yale Cellist Chang Pan Makes Carnegie Hall Debut with Brazilian Pianist Ronaldo Rolim – February 3, 2016

Written shortly before WWI, Manuel de Falla’s Suite popular Española displays influence from Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky and Albéniz, whom the composer met while living in Paris. Franck’s Sonata in A major, arranged for cello and piano, follows in the program — the only alternative setting sanctioned by the composer. Festival Tianshan was written in the mid-20th century by Chinese composer Wen Tao Jiang, and is a folk dance song used for celebrating festivals in Xin Jiang, China. “Tian Shan” is the most famous, magnificent mountain in Xin Jiang, and has been referred to as the “cradle” of northwestern China. Every year, people flock to “Tian Shan” for celebrations, and its spectacle and cheerful passion has been expressed in this piece. This work has several arrangements, mostly for Chinese instruments; it is performed in this concert by the evocative solo cello. Grieg’s Sonata for Piano and Cello in A minor — his only composition for this pairing of instruments — concludes the program.

Chang Pan has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S. Highlights include performing in Singapore for President Tony Tan and Premier Lee Hsieh Long, and participating in the “Stars of Tomorrow” concert series at the Heifetz International Music Institute. He has had engagements with the International Holland Music Sessions, Great Mountain Music Festival and Great Wall Music Festival, and has played in such chamber ensembles as the China and Korea (Chirea) cello quartets, which have performed at Beijing Concert Hall, The Central Conservatory of China and XiaMen University Concert Hall.

CHANG PAN, cello
RONALDO ROLIM, piano
Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 8:00 PM
Carnegie Hall – Weill Recital Hall

MANUEL DE FALLA: Suite popular Española
CÉSAR FRANCK: Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major
– Intermission –
WENTAO JIANG/ LING CAO: Festival Tianshan
EDVARD GRIEG: Sonata for Piano and Cello in A minor, Op. 36

Admission: $25, $20 for students and seniors. Tickets on sale at www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800 and at the Carnegie Hall Box Office.

Chang Pan has appeared as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout Asia, Europe and the U.S. In 2014, he performed a cello concerto entitled Duo, written by well-known Chinese composer Lin Zhao, with the Guangzhou Youth Orchestra. He has shown his talent in solo performances from a young age; in 2008, he performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with Maestro Mark Gibson and the Starling Chamber Orchestra at Cincinnati University. From 2009-2013, Mr. Pan played numerous recitals in Singapore, and was selected to perform for President Tony Tan and Premier Lee Hsieh Long.

Chang Pan has been active in participating in music festivals throughout the world. In 2011, he was invited to the International Holland Music Sessions with a full scholarship and performed a solo recital in The Netherlands. The following year, he received a full scholarship from the Heifetz International Music Institute, and was chosen by the festival to perform in the “Stars of Tomorrow” concert series. Mr. Pan has also performed with the Great Mountain Music Festival and Great Wall Music Festival. His mentors include cellists Bernard GreenHouse, Steven Isserlis, JianWang, Ralph Kirshbaum, David Geringas, Lynn Harrell and Myung-wha Chung.

As a chamber musician, Chang Pan has studied with major ensembles and artists such as the Emerson String Quartet, Takacs String Quartet, Hagen String Quartet, Shanghai String Quartet, Kyung-wha Chung and Peter Frankl.

Mr. Pan began to study cello at the age of six, and was later admitted into the Central Conservatory of Music in China. He graduated from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, where he studied with Li-Wei Qin. In 2013, he was accepted to Yale School of Music with a full scholarship, and is currently a graduate student of Aldo Parisot.

Described by newspaper El Norte (Monterrey, Mexico) as an artist “especially capable of moving an audience through his interpretations,” Brazilian pianist Ronaldo Rolim is a prominent figure among the newest generation of outstanding musicians. In June 2015, he was awarded the Third Prize and the Schumann Prize at the prestigious Concours Géza Anda, in Zurich, adding to an extensive list of more than 30 prizes in competitions around the globe.

Ronaldo has performed extensively in his native Brazil, as well as in the United States, Mexico, Peru, South Korea, Portugal, Spain, France, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and Austria, having played at prestigious venues in four different continents, such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Tonhalle (Zurich), Wigmore Hall (London), Theatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), and Seoul Arts Center (Seoul), among others. He has been a guest soloist of several Brazilian orchestras, including the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra, São Paulo Radio Orchestra, São Paulo University Orchestra and Campinas Symphony Orchestra; in Europe, he performed with the Tonhalle Orchester, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Republic of San Marino Symphony Orchestra and the Northern Orchestra of Portugal; in the United States he was guest soloist of the Phoenix Symphony, the Pontiac Symphony and the Peabody Symphony Orchestras. Moreover, Ronaldo has been invited to participate in important music festivals, such as the Folle Journée, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Académie Musicale de Villecroze and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute.

A passionate chamber musician, Ronaldo frequently collaborates with diverse singers and instrumentalists, among them luminaries like Marina Piccinini, Michael Kannen and Maria Lambros. Alongside violinist Lydia Chernicoff and cellist Andrea Casarrubios, he founded Trio Appassionata in 2007, since then developing extensive activities through the United States and abroad. In the Fall of 2014, the ensemble released its first album, gone into night are all the eyes, on Odradek Records, featuring piano trios by American composers.

Ronaldo’s music has had a substantial presence in radio broadcasts in Brazil (Radios MEC and Cultura), as well as in the USA (Spokane Public Radio and WBJC Baltimore) and Europe (Radios SWR 2, Rai 3 and France Musique). He has also been featured in several TV programs in his home-country, including Brasil Piano Solo, a series of broadcast recitals dedicated exclusively to Brazilian Music, presented by the TV Cultura Channel of São Paulo. Also, Ronaldo has participated in the documentary Magda Tagliaferro: The World Inside the Piano, in which he performs music by Scriabin.

Born in 1986 in Votorantim, Brazil, Ronaldo Rolim started his musical studies with his mother, Miriam Correa, giving his first public performance at the age of four. In 1998 he was admitted at the Magda Tagliaferro School, in São Paulo, as a student of professors Zilda Candida dos Santos and Armando Fava Filho. At the age of eighteen, after winning the Nelson Freire and the Magda Tagliaferro Piano Competitions, he moved to the USA to study with Flavio Varani at Oakland University (Michigan). In the meantime, he was awarded Outstanding Student in Piano Performance by Oakland University and by the Mu Phi Epsilon Association, having performed extensively in the Metro Detroit area. In 2007, Ronaldo moved to Baltimore, where he attended the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Benjamin Pasternack, having pursued the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, besides the prestigious Artist Diploma. In 2014, Ronaldo Rolim was one of the very few pianists admitted into the Doctor of Musical Arts program at the Yale School of Music (New Haven, Connecticut), where he is currently guided by renowned pianist Boris Berman.