Our season begins reaching for Stars, a gem of a tone poem by Mary Howe, followed by a celebration of Rachmaninoff's 150th birthday with his towering second piano concerto at the enchanting hands of Sandra Shen. Our season opening concert concludes with Mussorgsky's legendary Pictures at an Exhibition.

Pre-Concert Chat - You're invited to arrive a little early to join Maestro Wheatley and guest artist, Sandra Wright Shen, for an intimate pre-concert chat. Theater doors open at 6:40 pm for general seating, with the chat beginning at 6:45 pm. When the chat concludes, attendees will leave the theater and re-enter with their ticket to take their reserved seats for the concert.

Mary Howe
Stars

Serge Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18

Modest Mussorgsky
Pictures at an Exhibition

ARTIST BIO

Sandra Wright Shen, Piano

Steinway Artist Sandra Wright Shen has been described as a classical "pianist of the first order". With her passion, musicality, and inspiration, she aims to move hearts through music.

Sandra has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in 14 countries and throughout US, at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Music Center in DC, the Chicago Cultural Center, Monte Carlo Opera House, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Frankfurt Cultural Center in Germany, the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, Taiwan National Concert Hall, Korea Seoul Arts Center, Hong Kong City Hall, Granada Intl Music Festival, Recontres Musicale de Chaon in France, Brevard Music Festival and Masterworks Music Festival. As a guest artist, she has appeared with Charleston Symphony, Hilton Head Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Brevard Festival Sinfonia, New Millennium Orchestra, Greater San Diego Chamber Orchestra, Formosa Philharmonic Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Taipei Symphony and others. Shen is the Artist-In-Residence of the Charleston Symphony for the 2017-18 season. She has played chamber concerts with Vesselin Paraschkevov, former concert master of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and with Amos Yang, Assistant Principal Cello of San Francisco Symphony. She has also performed on tour in Asia with cellist Nina Kotova.

Shen has received several first prizes in several major piano competitions, including the 2012 France International Piano Competition, 1997 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the 1996 Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, and the 1990 Taiwan National Piano Competition.

Shen’s recordings include her debut CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto, recorded live, and the Saint-Saëns “Carnival of the Animals”, both released on the Taiwan Rolling Stone Music label.

As an educator, Shen served on the piano faculty at the Brevard Music Festival, Masterworks Music Festival, Steinway Society Summer Music camp and American Fine Arts Festival in Europe. She also served as piano faculty at Southern Illinois University. She was twice invited to be Distinguished Guest Faculty at Furman University.

Sandra performed live for WCQS radio station in Asheville, filmed a 4-part series titled "The Movements of the Master Pianists" for Hong Kong TV, and "Inspiration From Above" for US Creation TV. She also hosted a classical music program on Taiwan IC broadcast radio station. Mixing music and philanthropy, Sandra has played benefit concerts for disaster victims, foster children, and music education for underprivileged children. She is Honorary Advisor for Young Music Foundation and board member for Inspiring Foundation of Arts and Culture in Taiwan.

Sandra was born in Taiwan and received her Bachelor of Music in 1994 with a piano performance major and organ minor from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore Maryland, where she studied with legendary pianist, Ann Schein and organist Donald Sutherland. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.

http://sandrashen.com