Incredibly Inspiring

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 the USA, 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 the 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 the 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, the 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/

Praised by The New York Times as “vivid and dramatic,” the music of Carl Schimmel is dense with literary and musical references, often humorous, and combines intensity of expression with a structural rigor which is influenced in part by his mathematics background.  In weaving his musical narratives from poetry, art, and even unusual words, he strives to construct emotional and culturally complex sound worlds that excite the listener’s imagination.  His recent honors include a 2018 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2018 commission from Harvard University’s Fromm Foundation, and the 2017 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  His music has been awarded Columbia University’s Joseph Bearns Prize, the Lee Ettelson Award, the First Music Award, and the Emil and Ruth Beyer Award, and he has received residencies at Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, Copland House, and the Bogliasco Foundation.  His compositions have been performed in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Hall, Merkin Hall in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, and at other venues throughout North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia.  Ensembles which have commissioned or performed his works include the American Composers Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, the California EAR Unit, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and many others.  His music has been recorded on various labels, including Navona Records, Albany Records, and New Focus Recordings.  A graduate of Duke University (Ph.D.), the Yale School of Music (M.M.), and Case Western Reserve University (B.A. Mathematics and Music), he is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Illinois State University in Normal, IL.