{"id":279,"date":"2019-06-09T20:27:41","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T03:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.junasai.com\/?p=279"},"modified":"2019-11-20T21:09:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-21T05:09:58","slug":"jun-asai-piano-concert-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.junasai.com\/?p=279","title":{"rendered":"Jun Asai Piano Concert 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\n

Saturday, August 3, 2019 from 2PM
\nAt The Colburn School (LA downtown)<\/h1>\n

\"Jun<\/a><\/p>\n

Pianist Jun Asai returns for her annual concert at Zipper Hall.
\n
\nThe program opens with \u201cJesu, Joy of Man\u2019s Desiring,\u201d<\/strong> the well-known transcription of the chorale from Bach\u2019s cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (\u201cHeart and Mouth and Deed and Life\u201d). The text describes the believer\u2019s intention to never leave Jesus and the joy He gives, and Bach sets this beautifully to music by weaving one melody (essentially never leaving this melody) throughout the chorale.
\n
\nTwo sonatas, both using the sonata form in innovative ways, make up the rest of the program.
\n
\nBeethoven\u2019s \u201cWaldstein\u201d Sonata<\/strong> is the first piano sonata from his middle \u201cHeroic\u201d period and combines virtuosic grandeur with flashes of innovation that would increasingly permeate his later music. This sonata uses the instrument in a way that had never been done before\u2014from the opening repeated chords to the trills in the last movement and plays with the structure and key relationships in a way that expands and begins to question the definition of sonata form. The second movement merging into the third foreshadows the last work on the program, Liszt\u2019s Sonata in B minor<\/strong>, wherein all boundaries between movements have completely dissolved. Although it is now regarded as one of Liszt\u2019s greatest works, it was widely criticized in the beginning (Brahms fell asleep during a performance by Liszt himself, and Clara Schumann, whose husband was the dedicatee of the work, allegedly declared it to be \u201cmerely a blind noise\u201d).
\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\u3010Program\u3011
\nBach Jesu, Joy of Man\u2019s Desiring
\nBeethoven\tSonata No. 21 in C, op. 53 \u201cWaldstein\u201d
\nLiszt Sonata in B minor <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The tickets are all sold out.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u3010Profile\u3011
\nJun Asai has performed with the L.A. Philharmonic, Glendale Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Utah Symphony, Nagoya Philharmonic and Shanghai Philharmonic. Winners of various prizes, including at L.A. Phil\u2019s Kaper Awards, the National Chopin Competition, Shanghai Int\u2019l Competition, Joanna Hodges Int\u2019l Competition, Bachauer Int\u2019l Competition, New Orleans Int\u2019l Competition, Citt\u00e0 di Cant\u00f9 Int\u2019l Piano Competition, etc. Her teachers include Eduardo Delgado, Daniel Pollack, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Yoheved Kaplinsky. She has also worked with John O\u2019Conor, Arie Vardi, Mikhail Voskressensky and Nelita True in various masterclasses. She gave her debut recital at Carnegie\u2019s Weill Hall in 2002, appeared four times on the TV program \u201cMusical Encounter,\u201d and played the role of a piano prodigy in \u201cSneakers\u201d with Robert Redford. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up locally in Pasadena where she took lessons at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and later at the Colburn School of Music. She entered the Juilliard School at the age of 15, graduated with a Master\u2019s Degree in 2004 and is currently in the doctoral program at the Johns Hopkins University under the tutelage of Leon Fleisher. She serves as music director at Davar Church in Pasadena.<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

\u3010Direction\u3011
\nThe Colburn School
\nZipper Hall
\n200 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012<\/p>\n