Encore Piece No. 1

Playing for Formosa - Rising Star Series [Evan WongXMon-Puo Lee]
【Time and Date】 2018/07/13 National Taichung Theater
【Featuring Musicians】 Evan Wong, Mon-Puo Lee
Evan Wong
Silver medalist and audience prize winner of the 2016 Sendai International Competition, Taiwanese American Pianist Evan Wong has appeared in recitals and concerts throughout North America, Europe and Asia.
Recent performances included solo and chamber concert reengagements throughout Taiwan and Japan as well as an orchestral debut with the New Sendai Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2018. Performance highlights of his 2017-18 season included recital tours in the cities of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, Hannover, Essen, Krefeld, Helsinki, Chicago, Yuanlin and Taipei as well as orchestra appearances with orchestras in Sendai, Taichung and Chicago. More recently he has performed in Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, Taichung Opera House and Kirishima Concert Hall in Kagoshima, Japan as part of Playing for Formosa and PACE foundation’s 2018 New Year’s Gala.
As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras including the Sendai Philharmonic, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, World Civic Orchestra, Saga Philharmonic Orchestra, Northwestern University Symphony and the NEC Philharmonia Orchestra and conductors Pascal Verrot, Julian Kuerti, Victor Yampolsky, Paul Meyers, Seitaro Ishikawa and Vincent Koh.
Also a dedicated chamber musician, he has worked and collaborated with musicians such as Itzak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Midori, Mihaela Martin, Pamela Frank, Franz Helmerson, Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian, Merry Peckham and members of the Cleveland, Borromeo, Takacs and Juilliard Quartets.
Evan holds degrees from the Hannover Hochschule fur Musik Drama und Medien in Germany (Solo Klasse), The Juilliard School (M.M) and the New England Conservatory (B.M) in the U.S, and is currently working towards his Doctorate Degree at Northwestern University with Boris Slutsky under a full scholarship as the recipient of the Alvia S. and Helen Cottongim Award. Other accolades include first prizes from the 2017 Thaviu Issak Competition and the concerto competitions at the New England Conservatory and Northwestern University. His teachers include Matti Raekallio, Jerome Lowenthal, Wha Kyung Byun, Mengchieh Liu, Alan Chow, Ewa Kupiec and Rolf-Peter Wille.

Mon-Puo Lee
As an international competition prizewinning cellist he won First Prize at the VII International Competition Karl Davydov, top prize in the Brahms Competition, first prize in the International Pedro Bote Competition, first prize and the special OSPA prize in the international cello competition of Llanes (Asturias). He was awarded the second prize at the Isang Yun International Cello Competition in Tongyeong (South Korea) in 2015. In April of 2016 he was awarded first prize in the International Chamber music Bacewicz competition as a cello piano duo together with pianist Han Wen Yu. Later that year he won the Berlin Philharmonic Debut Competition, as well as the third prize at the George Enescu Festival Competition in Bucharest (Romania). In 2017, he won the 29th Chi-Mei Foundation Art Award in Taiwan.

Mon-Puo is now studying with Prof. Jens Peter Maintz at Universität der Künste Berlin. He plays a cello loaned by the Beares foundation in London.
【Program】
Schumann: Kreisleriana, op 16
Ravel: La Valse
Tchaikovsky: Pezzo Capriccioso in b minor
Brahms: Sonata No. 2 in F Major, op 99
I. Allegro vivace
II. Adagio affettuoso
III. Allegro passionato
IV. Allegro molto

【Event Description】
Taiwan has many talented young musicians who leave the country after their studies. After years of working hard in the international community, they have had little success or are trying to seek a breakthrough in their career. Musicians at this stage need not only performance opportunities, but also a business model to support them with school, living, and competition expenses. We uphold a “spirit of timely help” (strategizes to intervene at this time), hoping not only to become a platform to create performance opportunities for these rising stars, but also to establish a business model. This business model on one hand allows Taiwan’s audiences to meet and build relationships with these world-class rising stars. On the other hand, Playing for Formosa’s business model stimulates the local music ecosystem. It creates a healthy cultural environment so aspiring musicians can return to Taiwan, and so that Taiwan's younger generation of students can be motivated to pursue excellence and later return to Taiwan to share their experiences and talents.