NATCHITOCHES – Pianists Chialing Hsieh and Michael Young will present a recital at Northwestern State University on Thursday, Sept. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.
The program, “Music for Two Pianos,” includes “Las Niñas from Tres Romances Argentinos” by Carlos Guastavino, “Symphonic Dances” from “West Side Story” by Leonard Bernstein/John Musto, “Metamorphose” on M. C. Escher’s “Metamorphose III” by Young and “Paraphrase” on Dizzy Gillespie’s “Manteca,” Op. 129 by Nilolai Kapustin.
An avid performer of contemporary music, Hsieh is devoted to promoting new piano solo and chamber works. Hsieh has been a featured pianist on seven CDs for the Centaur, Innova, Enharmonic and Ballpark labels. She joined NSU’s faculty in 2016 as an assistant professor of collaborative piano. In the summer, she is the piano instructor at the Lutheran Summer Music Festival and Academy and the Sounds of Summer Institute. Hsieh earned her bachelor’s degree from the National Taipei University of the Arts and a master’s and doctorate in piano performance at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.
Young’s compositions have been performed in Korea, Taiwan and throughout the United States, including at several of the College Music Society’s regional conferences and its 2011 international conference, the 2010 Society of Composers Inc. National Conference, the 2010–2018 Southeastern Composers League Forums and the 2008 Ball State University Festival of New Music. As the 2016 pedagogical composer for the Kentucky Music Teachers Association, he composed and performed “Six Inventions” for solo piano at the KMTA state conference. His “Capriccio” for clarinet, bassoon, and piano was performed at the 2014 international conference and Mid-America Festival of the International Clarinet Association and recorded by Trifecta! on the CD Cumulus Accumulation.
His modernized arrangement of Saint-Saens “Carnival of the Animals” for saxophone quartet, piano, and percussion was performed at the 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance and the 2011 World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Conference in Taiwan. Young is the immediate past president of the Southeastern Composers League. He is an accompanist for music majors at Northwestern State and the choir accompanist for the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts. He earned his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance at Northwestern University and his Master of Music in piano at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
