Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on America Online as CultureFinder's “Star Find of the Week,” on the Internet Cello Society as “Artist of the Month,” and most recently in print in the newly published book 21st Century Cellists.
Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Moscow and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American, Pacific, Delaware and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra and the Taiwan National Orchestra. In recent seasons, he made solo debuts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago with Zubin Mehta and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and at the Esplanade in Boston with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the US premiere of the Enescu Symphonie Concertante, Op. 8 with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall, the US premiere of Tan Dun's Crouching Tiger Concerto for Cello Solo and Chamber Orchestra at Atlanta's Symphony Hall, the Boston premiere of the Korngold Cello Concerto, Op. 37, and the world premiere of a new concerto written for him by Noam David Elkies.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as violinists Pamela Frank, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Kyoko Takezawa, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianists Anton Nel and Leon Fleisher. Mr. Tsang will perform recitals in Austin and Dallas with Mr. Fleisher again this season. Mr. Tsang has been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Tucson, Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.
Mr. Tsang's discography includes a recently released recording of the Kodaly Sonata for Unaccompanied Cello, Op. 8 as well as a forthcoming set of the complete Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello recorded on the 1713 “Bass of Spain” Stradivarius. In recent years, in an unusual twist, he performed the Kodaly Sonata in a production of There, After... and the Bach Suites in Plaza X, both by the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company. He has performed all six Bach Suites in one sitting first in Austin and later in Seattle at Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall. In addition, Mr. Tsang has toured the complete Beethoven works for cello and piano with pianist Anton Nel in, among other venues, the new Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, with the latter performance recorded and commercially released on the Artek label.
Mr. Tsang made his professional debut at age eleven in two concerts with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. That same year he returned to perform two more concerts with Maestro Mehta and the Philharmonic. One of these performances was broadcast worldwide on the CBS Festival of Lively Arts television series. While still in his teens, he became the youngest cellist ever to receive a Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize and the youngest recipient ever of an Artists International Award. He was also chosen as a Finalist of the NFAA's Arts Recognition and Talent Search and subsequently as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At age nineteen, Tsang became the youngest cellist to win a prize in the VIII International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at age six and cello at age seven. The following year, he entered The Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal cello teachers have included Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.
Mr. Tsang is on the music faculty of The University of Texas at Austin, where he was the recipient of the 2004 Texas Exes Teaching Award after just one year of service. In 2005-06 he was also visiting professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. In his spare time, Bion enjoys golf, following the ups and downs of the Miami Dolphins, and especially playing with his two sons, Bailey and Henry.
Website: www.biontsang.com
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