04-23-10
EMILY WONG, piano
Award-winning composer/pianist Emily Wong began her professional career as a pianist, now dividing her time between performing, composing and teaching. As a pianist, she was a 1st Prize winner of the Hodges International Concerto Competition, the Schubert Competition, and has won numerous other awards as both a soloist and chamber musician. She has gone on to champion the works of many living composers including her own, and has been highly praised for her interpretations of contemporary as well as traditional piano literature. Critics have portrayed her playing as passionate, enthralling, brilliant, and refined. The New York Times characterized her performances as “clean and rhythmically charged” and “played beautifully”, while Phil Collins of the Santa Cruz Sentinel wrote “She swept through the work with a magic wand … the dazzle was in itself splendid.”
Ms. Wong has appeared often with such orchestras as the San Francisco Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, Philharmonia Virtuosi, Continuum, American Composers Orchestra, and the Stamford Symphony. She has performed on the New York Philharmonic Chamber Series, and in the Summer Garden Series at the New York Museum of Modern Art. An active chamber musician, she has appeared in concert with such artists as Nadia Solerno-Sonnenberg, Mark O’Connor, Ani Kavafien, Philip Glass, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet.
Ms Wong’s own music engenders genuine and enthusiastic responses from audiences of all ages. Performances are inevitably followed by requests for scores and recordings. Her performance of Circle Dance for solo piano in recital at UCSC triggered a request from conductor Marin Alsop for an orchestral piece. Waves and Raves was a result of that inquiry, dedicated to Ms. Alsop, Consequently, Ms. Wong received a commission for a large-scale work from the Concordia Orchestra in New York, for which she wrote her Symphony #1/Structures III, previewed in at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and premiered by the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, receiving critical support for both performances.
Performances of Ms. Wong’s works have been heard at the Moab Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, by The Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Chappaqua Orchestra, and such groups as the Locrian Chamber Players, MusicArts Ensemble, The Concert Artists of Chappaqua and the Ragdale Ensemble, and members of the Grand Rapids Symphony. Ms. Wong recently completed her chamber opera, Romeo e Giulietta, commissioned by the International Opera Theater and premiered in Citta della Pieve, Italy. She concurrently finished a composition for solo harp commissioned by harpist Amy Berger, and a Concerto for Alto Saxophone for Eric Thomas at Colby College. She is currently working on a Concerto for Harpsichord, commissioned by the San Jose Chamber Orchestra.
Ms. Wong most recently joined the staff at American Ballet Theater as pianist.