THE 2024 CIPAF GUEST ARTIST SERIES WELCOMES
CIPAF FACULTY RECITAL
FEATURING 2024 CIPAF FACULTY AND GUEST ARTISTS
SUNDAY, JULY 28, 2024 at 7:00 PM
MILNE AUDITORIUM AT KEPNER HALL (UNC)
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As one of the laureates of the 1992 National Piano Competition of China under the instruction of Prof. Yang Jun, Chang-xin Guan was invited to give performances representing China in the 1993 Tokyo International Young Artist Festival. His success led to a nation-wide concert tour, including appearances with orchestra and multi-disciplinary collaborations.
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Born into a musical family in Guangzhou, Chang-xin Guan began studying piano, ear training, and music theory from his mother. His early teachers also included Chen Hua-yi, Zhao Bi-shan, Wu Zheng-wen, Pan Xing-hua, and Ying Shi-zhen. Mr. Guan studied at the Guangzhou Xing-hai Conservatory of Music, and later was selected to study in Beijing at the Central Conservatory of Music where he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees of Art in piano performance under the instruction of Prof. Li Hui-li and Prof. Yang Jun.
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Moving to the United States for further study, Mr. Guan entered the Music School of Texas Christian University with scholarship and served as Departmental Artistic Assistant. He studied with Dr. Tamás Ungár, a renowned professor and the Executive Director of PianoTexas International Academy & Festival where Mr. Guan served as Staff Accompanist of the Concerto Competition. After winning the 8th Martin Memorial Piano Competition, Mr. Guan earned another master's degree in piano performance.
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Not only is Mr. Guan a gifted soloist, he is also an enthusiastic chamber musician. As an experienced instructor, Mr. Guan has been invited to teach and perform at different music institutions and give master classes and lectures both in China and the U.S. Mr. Guan is currently a piano lecturer and Foreign Exchange Coordinator at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Steinway Artist, Dr. Lei Weng enjoys a successful international career as an accomplished pianist, a dedicated teacher, and a sought-after adjudicator and clinician.
Hailed as “a colorist of exemplary control” by the New York Concert Review for his sold- out Carnegie Hall debut, he has performed at many prestigious venues around the world including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Steinway Hall in New York, Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., Chicago Culture Center, China’s National Center for Performing Arts, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall and Kaohsiung Cultural Center, Banff Center in Canada, Peterskirche in Vienna, Basilica di San Pietro in Italy, London’s Royal College of Music, Singapore National University, and major universities and conservatories throughout China. He has been invited to perform and teach at such music festivals as Tanglewood
Music Festival, TCU Cliburn Institute, Messiaen Festival, Music Fest Perugia (Italy), Vianden Festival (Luxemburg), and Breckenridge Music Festival.
As a frequent concerto soloist, he has appeared with such conductors as Gerhardt Zimmerman, Steven Smith, Uri Segal, Robert Olson, Geoffrey Simon, Lingfen Wu, Yang Yang, Glen Cortese, Wes Kenney, and with more than thirty orchestras across the U.S., Europe and Asia, including the Symphony Orchestras of Fort Worth, Fort Collins, Beijing, Tianjin, Gimhae (Korea), Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Alicante (Spain), as well as China National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and Breckinridge Music Festival Orchestra. As an avid chamber music performer, he has performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra Concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley in Sarasota Music Festival, with the Associate
Concertmaster of Chicago Symphony Orchestra Stephanie Jeong and Cleveland Institute of Music Cavani Quartet cellist Siyan Li in Rocky Ridge Music Festival, and with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Nathan Olson and the Naumburg First Prize Winner cellist David Requiro in the Breckenridge Music Festival. He has also studied and worked closely with musicians such as Emmanuel Ax, Jerome Lowenthal, James Tocco, Co-Liang Lin, Pamela Frank, Dawn Upshaw and Lucy Shelton.
A dedicated educator, Dr. Weng is the Keyboard Area Head at the University of Northern Colorado , where he was the recipient of the “College of Performing and Visual Arts Scholar of the Year”. He has been frequently invited as guest professor by major conservatories in Asia, such as China Central Conservatory and Shanghai Conservatory, and Taiwan National Normal University. His students have won top prizes in numerous national and international competitions, and have been admitted into such top schools as Julliard, Eastman, Peabody, Cleveland, New England, Cincinnati, Oberlin, and
Manhattan. Weng is the also Founder and Director of the Colorado International Piano Academy and Colorado Piano Festival , two intensive summer piano programs that take place annually on the UNC Campus. Dr. Weng has been invited to serve on jury panels of many national and international piano competitions around the world, including the Cleveland International Piano Competition, International Rachmaninoff Piano Competition in Moscow (2020), Hong Kong International Music Competition, “Nuova Coppa Pianisti” International Piano Competition, China National Piano Competition,
Mexico “Parnassus” National Piano Competition, and MTNA Competitions. He is the
Chairman of the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation Keyboard Scholarships.

Dana Landry is Director of Jazz Studies and Professor of Music at the University of Northern Colorado. Under his leadership, the UNC Jazz Studies Program has garnered over 65 DownBeat Student Music Awards. This includes nine over the last twelve years for UNC Jazz Lab Band I as Graduate College Winner, most recently in 2022. Lab I’s most recent CD release, The Romeo and Juliet Project, is a jazz suite based on Shakespeare’s most famous play. In April of 2021, the group premiered An Electronic Wonderland, a large work blending big band and electronica, featuring Ingrid Jensen, Camille Thurman, and Rachael Price.
Landry has directed all-state jazz ensembles in California, Texas, Washington, New Mexico, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. He created curricula at UNC for undergraduate and graduate degree programs in Jazz Studies and Music Business, and designed the curriculum for a Latinx Music degree, which will begin in fall 2023. Prior to joining the faculty at UNC, he was Director of Jazz Studies at Middle Tennessee State University.
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Dana is always pursuing the next artistic challenge. He is as at home playing Bebop with a jazz quartet as he is performing Prokofiev with an orchestra, as comfortable playing duo in a small dive as he is accompanying a diva in a concert hall. He has been performing regularly with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra for the past fourteen years as part of their Classical and Pops series. In the summer of 2021, he performed Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks with the great Renée Fleming at the Aspen Music Festival.
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Landry has performed throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Australia, and China, and is featured on recordings released by record labels, including Summit, Origin, and Artist Alliance, several of which made it to the top of the Jazz Week U.S. Radio Airplay Chart. His first CD as a leader, Journey Home, featured virtuoso vibist Gary Burton. Landry is a member of 7 on 7, a group featuring Clay Jenkins, Paul McKee, Don Aliquo, Jim White, Steve Kovalcheck, and Erik Applegate. They plan to release their second album in 2023.

“Pianist Jinha Park demonstrated ample dexterity, velocity, and accuracy in Chopin’s Piano Concerto in F Minor.” – San Antonio Express-News
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Jinha Park stands today on the brink of a significant career as a concert pianist, shaped by a journey spanning three decades and enriched by a mosaic of global experiences. From the bustling streets of Seoul to the cultural landscapes of Baltimore and Paris, her transformative path has been marked by relentless dedication and diverse encounters.
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Commencing her piano studies at the tender age of six, Dr. Park made her public debut at fourteen with the Sunha Arts Orchestra. Her arts-based education commenced at Seoul National University in South Korea and culminated at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory in the U.S. Guided by teachers including Marina Lomazov, Marian Hahn, Philippe Entremont, and others, she also studied under the tutelage of renowned pianists such as Yong-Hi Moon, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jerome Lowenthal, Ann Schein, John Perry, and Leon Fleisher.
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A laureate of competitions, Dr. Park’s journey has been adorned with victories in the Vienna Allegro Vivo International Chamber Music Competition, Burgos International Music Competition, Baltimore Music Competition, and the Texas Music Teachers Association (TMTA) competition. Noteworthy engagements include performances with the Virtuoso Brunesis Orchestra (Italy), Vienna CMS Chamber Orchestra, Festival Philharmonic Orchestra (Korea), National Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, Oltenia Symphony Orchestra (Romania), Alicante Symphony Orchestra (Spain), Romanian Timisoara Orchestra (Romania), and performances across Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, Austria, Korea, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and major cities in the United States.
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Dr. Park has contributed her discerning expertise as a jury member at international competitions, including the International Youth Competition’ A Step Towards Mastery’ in Saint Petersburg, Russia, the ICA International Piano Competition in Hanoi, Vietnam, the Virginia Queen Piano Competition in the U.S., the New York Musicians Club in the Seoul International Piano Competition, the Sunhwa Piano Competition in Seoul, and the OMTA (Oregon Music Teachers Association) Classical Music Competition in Portland. Additionally, she has lent her discerning insights to the Kirov International Music Competition in Washington, D.C., and the Northern Virginia Music Teachers’ Association Concerto Competition.
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Beyond the spotlight, Dr. Park’s commitment to education and artistic leadership shines through. She has served as the Director of the Music Fest Perugia in Seoul and on the faculty of the Music Fest Perugia in Italy, Summit Music Festival, Montecito International Music Festival, Triumph International Music Festival, Portland Classical Festival, Ouachita International Keyboard Music Festival, Washington International Piano Festival, and Costa Rica International Music Festival.
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Her teaching roles include positions at the University of Maryland University College, August State University, Sookmyung Women’s University, Sunhwa Arts Performing Arts High School, and Kirov Academy of Washington, D.C. Currently, Dr. Park holds the position of Associate Director at the Colorado International Piano Academy and Festival, Chair of the YMIC Virtuoso International Music Competition (U.S.), and U.S. Associate Director of the Amigdala International Music Competition (Italy). Her role as Department Manager and Piano Faculty at Levine Music adds a harmonious note to her illustrious career.

“An amazing pianist.” -The Houston Chronicle
Brendan Kinsella presented the concert ‘Lisztomania’ on a date that could be daunting, October 22nd, 2011, the actual 200th birth anniversary of Franz Liszt, but you will hear that it didn’t seem to faze him at all. In fact, he attacked one of Liszt’s more famous transcriptions [Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, op. 67] with the passion and energy that Liszt required.” -Bill Baker, host of Syracuse Public Radio’s “Concert Hall”.
Described as a “sensitive musician with an ear for color” by the Cincinnati Enquirer, pianist Brendan Kinsella’s recent concert engagements have taken him to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans, Holland, Italy, and other cities throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. He earned his Bachelor (with honors) and Master of Music degrees at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as a pupil of Frank Weinstock (with additional coaching from James Tocco and Kenneth Griffiths) and in 2008 received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City as a student of Robert Weirich. In master classes, he has performed for artists such as Christopher Elton, Susan Graham, Martin Katz, Ani Kavafian, Anne-Akiko Meyers, Frederic Rzewski, Andre-Michel Schub, Peter Serkin, DavidShifrin, Midori, and the Takacs Quartet. He completed his training as a Solo Piano Fellow at the Music Academy of the West, working under the guidance of Jerome Lowenthal, Professor of Piano at the Juilliard School. In 2010, he debuted as a soloist in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and was a featured concerto soloist at the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago.
A dedicated teacher, Kinsella presently serves as Professor of Piano at the University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley, where he teaches applied piano, chamber music, piano pedagogy, and piano literature to an international class of gifted young musicians. Members of his select studio regularly participate in national and international summer festivals, perform in master classes for distinguished concert artists (such as Jerome Lowenthal, David Korevaar, Kevin Kenner, and Sean Chen), present their scholarly research at professional conferences, and gain admittance to prestigious MM and DMA programs nationwide (the Peabody Institute, The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan, Temple University, and the University of Texas-Austin, to name a few. As the founder of the South Texas Collegiate MTNA Chapter, students in his piano pedagogy symposium gained national prominence as the recipients of the 2022 “Collegiate Chapter of the Year” Award by Music Teachers National Association, the highest honor in their discipline. Before joining the faculty at UTRGV, he was a member of the piano area at Missouri Western State University and held graduate assistantships in piano and collaborative piano at CCM and UMKC.
Born 1980 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kinsella began playing the piano at age 11 and made his concerto debut at 15. A live recording of his performance of Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques at the Midwest Clinic is commercially available from the MarkRecords label, and his recording of Narong Prangcharoen’s chamber music was released on Albany records in 2012 to favorable reviews. His
recent and upcoming engagements include performances of concerti by Ravel, Bach, Beethoven, and Grieg; speaking engagements at the MTNA National Conference, the National Conference for Keyboard Pedagogy, and the TMTA State Conference; and nationwide performances of Bach’s Goldberg Variations.