Hsia-Jung Chang, Piano

www.hsiajungchang.com

A native of Taiwan, Hsia-Jung Chang grew up listening to the rehearsals and performances of her singer-guitarist mother, Ho Lan, whose musical repertoire ranged from Taiwanese folk songs, flamenco, to her own transcriptions of Chopin. Chang has premiered and commissioned numerous works by composers in the United States and Scandinavia. She has been featured soloist on KUHT television, KAMU radio, Danish National radio, Taiwan radio and TV. Her recent concerts feature the bulk of Frédéric Chopin's piano solo works, including the complete sets of Ballades, Impromptus, Etudes, Preludes, and Scherzi.

Chang's CDs are distributed by CDBaby.com. Chopin: Impromptus, Ballades, Berceuse was showcased on the Piano Bench hour on KPBX radio, and on Call of the Mountain of WNYE. Her CD of the Chopin Complete Préludes, recorded on a rebuilt 1907 Pleyel piano, is starting to generate a lot of interest in the US and abroad. It has been showcased on Reflections from the Keyboard with David Dubal on WQXR, CBC radio program As It Happens, WJFF radio interview, and other radio stations. It was reviewed by UK-based New Classics web critic: Hsia-Jung Chang performs the works with great delicacy and refinement, allowing a wide spectrum of colour and moods to emerge in a way that appears effortless. Chang’s first improvisation album, Inside the Piano – 21st Century Improvisations, makes use of the piano in unconventional ways, producing sublime as well as harrowing soundscapes using the strings and resonating surfaces inside the piano. This innovative recording was featured in an hour-long interview as part of the New York Alive series on WKCR. Her brand new album Chopin Etudes Op. 10 & Op. 25 will be available through CD Baby by April 2010. New Classics reviewer John Pitt writes, "Hsia-Jung Chang follows her recording of Chopin Preludes with this excellent new album of Études, revealing the power as well as the poetry in these spectacular works."

In addition to giving solo and chamber music concerts, Chang has been guest lecturer/performer at the Manhattan School of Music, Duke University, Prince George's Community College, College of the Mainland, Friends University, the Shengyang Music Conservatory, and Dong Bei University of China. She also performed with the Metropolitan Opera Guild Outreach, which introduced opera to children in schools of the greater New York area.

Chang received her Bachelors and Masters degree in Piano Performance from the University of Houston and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Manhattan School of Music. Her piano teachers include Mary Toy, Nelita True, Ruth Tomfohrde, Abbey Simon, and Constance Keene. She now resides in New York City.

Deborah Berioli, Soprano

Born in Harmony, New Jersey, soprano Deborah Berioli posseses a full, rich, velvety voice that soars in the upper registers.  Her great sense of musicality is distinctive and her ability to emote and communicate immediately warms the audience inviting them to share in the performance with her.  Her confidence as an actress has been described as compelling, dramatic, enveloping and melting, and as having raised the onstage temperature of many performances.

 Berioli’s performance of Amelia in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera was chosen as one of the years’ top ten best classical performances in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2005.  Of the performance was written:  “The Act II love duet between Berioli (as Amelia, the heroine) and Bengochea (as King Gustavus III, a doomed man) was over-the-top beautiful, emotive and nuanced in ways that audiences are unaccustomed to hearing in San José.” San José Mercury News, 2005

 Most recently Berioli made her debut in the title role in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with Opera San José in San José, California.  Her performances were hailed by critics as a touching, dramatic success.  She will perform the role again with the Stockton Opera Association in Stockton, California in January 2008.  Berioli was a resident artist with Opera San José from 2004 to 2006 and performed eight leading roles, including The Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, the title role in Puccini’s Tosca, Amelia in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera, Mimi in Puccini’s  La Bohème and Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.  On the concert stage, Berioli has performed in Carnegie Hall, Orchestra Hall with the Minnesota Orchestra, with Symphony Silicon Valley, Santa Cruz Symphony, Redwood Symphony, Venice Symphony, Charlotte Symphony and the acclaimed Mid-Summer Mozart Festival.

 Berioli was the first place winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition in the Upper Midwest District and the second place winner of the Upper Midwest Region in 1999.  Other operatic credits include performances with Minnesota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Sarasota Opera and the Metropolitan Opera Guild.  She is also the Founder and Artistic Director of the Venice Performing Arts Series, located in Venice, Florida.