Eric Tran & Shelly Ng

UW Mead Witter School of Music concert. Free.

media release:

Eric Tran, piano; Shelley Ng, piano

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Program

Andante and Allegro Brillant Op. 92      Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)

Rondo in A Major D. 951      Franz Schubert (1797–1828)

Sinfonietta Op. 49.       Nicolai Kapustin (1937–2020)

I. Overture

III. Intermezzo

Ma mère l’Oye      Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)

I. Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant

II. Petit Poucet

III. Laideronette, Impératrice des Pagodes

IV. Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête

V. Le Jardin féerique

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Eric Tran is a pianist-composer and teacher. He is a native of the Bay Area, CA, graduating with honors from Stanford University and receiving his MM from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. After his piano duo—infamously known as “Happy Dog Duo”—won 1st prize and the Abild American Music Award at the Ellis Duo Piano Competition, he went on a 2-year performance tour of the US, which included a guest artist performance at the Chautauqua Institution and a historic performance on the Pleyel Double Grand Piano. Tran moved to Madison, earning his DMA with Christopher Taylor at the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Tran has performed in Italy, Korea, China, Canada, and in 20 US states. He won multiple awards from the Wideman International Piano Competition, 3rd place from the American Prize, and invitations to the US Chopin National and Virginia Waring International. Tran was selected for a Gilmore Fellowship and has also performed at PianoTexas, Aspen, and Art of the Piano, where he worked with Jonathan Biss, Robert Levin, Leonard Slatkin, and Olga Kern.

Tran has given masterclasses and workshops for the Jacobs School of Music Young Pianists program, the National Federation of Music Clubs Conference, and for teachers in the Madison area. His scholarly edition of the Chopin Barcarolle Op. 60 has been downloaded more than 3000 times and has been praised by International Chopin winner Kevin Kenner, Juilliard Professor Hung-Kuan Chen, and Van Cliburn Winner Jon Nakamatsu. Tran’s students have won prizes for piano and composition and have gone on to pursue degrees at UC Berkeley and UCLA.

His principal studies were with pianists Sharon Mann, Thomas Schultz, and Christopher Taylor; and with composers Jaroslaw Kapuscinski and Laura Schwendinger. He underwent additional piano studies with Julian Martin, Arie Vardi, and Kevin Kenner. Outside of music, Tran is also a youth chess coach.

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Shelley Ng has performed extensively as a soloist and in chamber ensembles on three continents in the world’s most renowned venues including Carnegie Hall (New York), the Seiji Ozawa Hall (Tanglewood), Harris Hall (Aspen), and Milton Court (London). She was invited to perform at prestigious festivals including the Tanglewood Music Festival, where she also appeared in the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Aspen Music Festival and Taiwan International Festival of Arts. Her performances and interviews have been featured on Radio Television Hong Kong and WHRB, Harvard Radio Broadcasting.

During the 2021/2022 season, Shelley was invited by the Consulate of the Czech Republic to perform on the National Day of the Czech Republic. She gave solo recitals in Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival upon the invitation of the artistic director Marc Neikrug, Hong Kong Museum of Art and Magnolia, Texas where she also gave a masterclass. Shelley was invited to present a lecture recital on Messiaen’s Vingt regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus in the HKU MUSE series of The University of Hong Kong. Beyond solo performances, she toured the USA, Canada and Mexico with the piano quartet in residence on Lincoln Center Stage.

Shelley is currently associate musician of the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. Before she returned to Hong Kong, Shelley was the staff pianist of studios of Midori Gotō, Pamela Frank, Bing Wang and Margaret Batjer. Shelley earned her Master’s degrees from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with distinction and subsequently from Rice University, where she worked closely with Virginia Weckstrom, Cho-Liang Lin and Norman Fischer.