Ayano Ninomiya, former violinist of the Ying Quartet has been praised by The New York Times as "deeply communicative and engrossing," Winner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition, Ayano Ninomiya will perform a recital with pianist Pei-Shan Lee, at the 2019 Lyra Music Festival.
Smith College l Sage Hall
Tickets $20
Festival Pass $100 (Entrance to all 2019 Lyra Music Festival Events)
Program:
Bach: Sonata No. 1 in G minor
Janacek: Sonata for Violin and Piano
-- intermission --
Prokofiev: Five Melodies
Poulenc: Sonata for Violin and Piano
Ayano Ninomiya, Violin
Sat. July 13, 2019
Smith College, Sage Hall
1:00pm Violin Masterclass
4:00pm Recital with pianist Pei-Shan Lee
Praised by The New York Times as "deeply communicative and engrossing," violinist Ayano Ninomiya is committed to creating invigorating live performance experiences from concert stages to private homes and public schools. The Boston Globe wrote that, "A note from her was never just a note...Whatever project she takes on next, it is sure to be worth a listen."
Equally at home as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, Ayano has performed throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Puerto Rico, Europe, China, Japan, Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand. In addition to recent performances at Weill Hall, Zankel Hall, and Merkin Hall, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2016 with the Stravinsky Violin Concerto. Recent performances include solos with A Far Cry and the Jacksonville Symphony, as well as recitals at the Music Mountain Festival, the Sembrich Opera Museum, and the Moab Festival. She will also perform with Beaux Arts Series (FL), Chamber Music International (TX), Boston Chamber Music Series, and Chameleon Ensemble (MA), as well as at the Cooperstown, Orford (Canada), Bowdoin, Morningside Music, Interlochen Arts, and Anchorage chamber music festivals.
She has won numerous awards, including the Naumburg International Violin Competition, the Tibor Varga International Competition, Astral Artists National Auditions, and the Young Performer’s Career Advancement Award (APAP). As a recording artist, Ayano has released a variety of albums including a solo album of works for violin by Larry Bell and more recently, three albums as the first violinist of the Ying Quartet.
In 2012 Ayano was invited to give a TEDx talk at the University of Tokyo. Other past projects include a benefit performance for victims of the 2009 Haiti earthquake, a fundraiser in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake with sumo wrestler Konishiki, and the creation of her own Elderhostel “Day of Adventure” programs in NYC that gave an insider's view of making music. As a recipient of the Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship, Ayano conducted research of scores at the Bartók Archives in Budapest, Hungary.
During the summers, she has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Kingston, Skaneateles, Caramoor, Bowdoin, and Moab music festivals, as well as at Prussia Cove's International Musicians Seminar, the Canberra International Festival (Australia), and the Adams Festival (New Zealand), among others. She has been invited to tour France and the west and east coasts of the U.S. and France with "Musicians from Marlboro" (Marlboro Festival) and "Musicians from the Steans Institute" (Ravinia Festival). She is also a founding member of the exciting conductorless string orchestra, ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), which is composed of soloists and leaders of quartets and orchestras from around the United States. Because of her own experience beginning the violin in a public school program in Boston at the age of seven, Ayano has given numerous programs for children across the U.S. from Bethlehem, New Hampshire to Columbia, Missouri, to Denton, Maryland, including many in the greater Philadelphia area.
After graduating from Harvard University and The Juilliard School, Ayano studied at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest, Hungary. Her principal teachers and mentors were Miriam Fried, Robert Mann, Eszter Perenyi, Michele Auclair, and Robert Levin at Harvard. From 2010-2015, Ayano was first violinist of the renowned Ying Quartet and Associate Professor at the Eastman School of Music. In the fall of 2015 she joined the faculty of New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. She has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at the East Harlem Justice Center and volunteer at the Lighthouse Music School (NYC). In her spare time, she loves to paint and practice Aikido.
Pei-Shan Lee, Pianist
Sat. July 13, 2019
Smith College, Sage Hall
4:00pm Recital with Violinist Ayano Ninomiya
Pianist Pei-Shan Lee has toured the world as a duo and chamber music partner in concerts including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, Cleveland’s Severance Hall, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, venues in France, Germany, Belgium, Israel, and throughout the United States. A member of New England Conservatory's Collaborative Piano and Chamber Music Faculty, she has worked with the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s guest conductors and soloists, and is seen as a pianist in the documentaries 'The Portrait' on the life of violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, and in 'Talent Has Hunger' on cellist and teacher Paul Katz.
In recent summers, Ms. Lee has performed at the Mostly Mozart Festival, Caramoor Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Chautauqua Institute, Music Academy of the West, Pro Quartet in France, Great Wall Academy in Beijing, Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, and the International Piano Festivals in Spain and Russia.
A native of Taiwan, Ms. Lee came to the U.S. after winning the Youth Division of Taiwan’s National Piano Competition. She is frequently invited for guest residency and master class in the U.S., China, and Taiwan. Her doctoral thesis “The Collaborative Pianist: Balancing Roles in Partnership” has become an important resource for researchers and schools wishing to begin a Collaborative Piano program.
A passionate advocate advancing the art and education of instrumental collaboration, Ms. Lee created a new MM in Collaborative Piano at California State University in 2013. She also serves on the faculty of the Perlman Music Program’s winter residency in Sarasota, and in the summer directs the Collaborative Piano Fellowship program at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine.