Summer Music Festival Spotlights Guest Pianist Sheng-Yuan Kuan

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Program IV musicians, clockwise from upper left, Ronda Mains, Sheng-Yaun Kuan, Stephen Gates and Er-Gene Kahng.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The fourth annual KUAF/Fulbright Summer Chamber Music Festival continues its season on Thursday, June 14, with the fourth of six programs. Program IV features works by Prokofiev and Brahms. The free concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. A reception will follow.

The Chamber Music Festival will showcase guest artists as well as faculty from the University of Arkansas department of music in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences. Performances will include a variety of chamber music using diverse instrumental groups from many musical eras.

Program IV will feature guest pianist Sheng-Yuan Kuan and include “Sonata for Flute and Piano” by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) and “Trio in B Minor, Op. 8” by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897).

A Taiwan native, Kuan holds degrees from the Yale School of Music as well as the Manhattan School of Music. Kuan has received multiple awards including the Best Female Pianist Award at the 13th Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna in 2009, 3rd Prize at the 12th Taipei Chopin International Piano Competition in 2008, 2nd Prize at the Corpus Christi International Competition in 2008 and 3rd Prize at the New York Kosciuszko Chopin Piano Competition in 2003. She has performed in major music venues and festivals in Austria, Taiwan and the United States. Kuan is currently a candidate for a doctorate of musical arts degree at the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore.

The Summer Chamber Music Festival concerts are held at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday evenings through June 28. The concerts are all free and open to the public and each will be followed by a reception.

Free parking is available in the Stadium Drive Parking Facility, where parking is free after 5 p.m. Entrance to the parking facility is on Stadium Drive, and the facility’s elevator will take patrons to street level directly across from the Fine Arts Building. Music previews of all six programs may be found at http://www.fulbrightsummermusic.uark.edu/index.php.

Professor of music Stephen Gates will preview the fourth concert on the June 11 edition of “Ozarks at Large” at noon and 7 p.m. on KUAF 91.3 FM. On the June 14 edition “Of Note with Katy Henriksen,” Katy will talk with Gates and music professor Richard Rulli. The program will air on KUAF at 11 a.m.