Seattle orchestra Harmonia (William White, conductor) performs concerto excerpts with UW piano students. Kane Chang, Jiaxuan Wu, Eli Antony, and Yuchen Qi.
This performance is made possible with support from the Willard Schultz Piano Fund in the School of Music.
Program
Kane Chang
Schumann: Concerto in A minor, Opus 54
Allegretto affettuoso
Yuchen Qi
Beethoven: Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Opus 37
Allegro con brio
Hsing-Hui Hsu, assistant conductor
-INTERMISSION-
Jiaxuan Wu
Beethoven: Concerto No. 4 in G major, Opus 58
Allegro moderato
Eli Antony
Carl Maria von Weber: Konzerstucke in F minor, Opus 79
Larghetto affetuoso
Allegro passionato
Tempo di marcia
Presto giocoso
Biographies
Kane Chang
Kane is a second-year student in the Doctor of Musical Arts piano division at the University of Washington. He is currently studying with Craig Sheppard. He lived in Australia, where he attended the University of Melbourne and the prestigious Australian National Academy of Music. He moved to the U.S. in 2022 to study with Alexandre Moutouzkine at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. Kane has performed in several significant venues in China, Australia, and the United States, including the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre, Melbourne Recital Centre, and Lincoln Center in New York.
Yuchen Qi
Yuchen Qi is a second-year Doctor of Musical Arts student at the University of Washington, studying with Dr. Robin McCabe, where he also serves as a teaching assistant in the UW Secondary Piano program. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Beijing Normal University and his Master of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. As a pianist, Yuchen has performed across Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States, with appearances at venues including Hannover City Hall in Germany and the European Times Vienna Chinese Cultural Center. He is a prizewinner of several international competitions, including the 20th Hong Kong–Asia Piano Open Competition and the Singapore International Piano Competition.
Jiaxuan Wu
Jiaxuan Wu is a first-year Doctor of Musical Arts student in piano performance at the University of Washington, where she studies with Dr. Cristina Valdés, and was awarded a teaching assistantship with the Modern Music Ensemble. She received her bachelor’s degree from Soochow University and her master’s degree from Tianjin Conservatory of Music. Born in China, Jiaxuan began studying piano at the age of five and erhu at the age of eight. Alongside the standard piano repertoire, she has a particular interest in contemporary music and enjoys exploring the wide range of sounds and colors the piano can create.
Eli Antony
Eli Antony is a First-year Undergraduate Piano Major student at the University of Washington School of Music, studying under Dr. Robin McCabe. He was accepted into the University of Washington as a freshman at the age of fifteen through the highly selective Robinson Center for Young Scholars' UW Academy Program. A recipient of multiple state-level awards as a pianist, he is also an accomplished cellist and composer. His compositional works for cello and piano have received national recognition and acclaim. In addition to a piano major, he is working towards studying medical sciences, and is pursuing a minor in Japanese language studies.
Harmonia
Harmonia is a vocal-instrumental ensemble unique among Pacific Northwest musical organizations, combining a 70-member orchestra with a 55-voice chorus to perform oratorio masterworks alongside symphonic and a cappella repertoire, world premieres and chamber music.
Founded by George Shangrow in 1969 as the Seattle Chamber Singers, from its inception the group performed a diverse array of music — works of the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods to contemporary pieces and world premieres — accompanied by an ad hoc group of instrumentalists for Bach cantatas and Handel oratorios (many of which received their first Seattle performances at SCS concerts).
A decade later, in 1979, Shangrow formed an orchestra at the request of these musicians, calling it the Broadway Chamber Symphony (after the Broadway Performance Hall on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, where it gave its first concerts). The orchestra’s name soon became the Broadway Symphony and then (beginning with the 1991–1992 season) Orchestra Seattle.
With Shangrow on the podium (or conducting from the harpsichord), the combined ensembles became renowned for performances of the Bach Passions and numerous Handel oratorios — particularly Messiah. During the “Bach Year” of 1985, the organization presented 35 concerts devoted to dozens upon dozens of Bach’s works to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Over the past five decades, the ensemble has performed all of the greatest choral-orchestral masterpieces, from Beethoven’s Ninth and Missa Solemnis to Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Mendelssohn’s Elijah to Brahms’ German Requiem, and Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons to Britten’s War Requiem. Meanwhile, the orchestra, partnering with world-class soloists, has explored the symphonic repertoire, programming beloved warhorses alongside seldom-performed gems. Throughout, Shangrow championed the music of local composers (in particular Huntley Beyer, Robert Kechley, Roupen Shakarian and Carol Sams, pictured below), presenting well over 100 world premieres.
George Shangrow lost his life in a car crash on July 31, 2010, an event that shocked not only our musicians and our audiences, but the entire Pacific Northwest musical community. Over the ensuing three seasons, the volunteer performers of our orchestra and chorus partnered with a number of distinguished guest conductors to carry on the astounding musical legacy Shangrow created.
A search process during the 2012–2013 season led to the selection of Clinton Smith as the group’s second music director. Clinton led the ensemble for four seasons. The 2017–2018 season brought four music-director candidates to the podium, resulting in William White being named music director and principal conductor beginning with the 2018–2019 season. White’s tenure has already been marked by several notable developments: a season devoted to the works of Lili Boulanger; the organization’s 50th anniversary celebrations; a pandemic year commissioning project; and the adoption of a new name: Harmonia.
William White
The 2025–2026 season marks William White’s eighth as Harmonia’s music director. Maestro White is a conductor, composer, teacher, writer and performer whose musical career has spanned genres and crossed disciplines. For four seasons (2011–2015) he served as assistant conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, working closely with music director Louis Langrée and an array of guest artists, including John Adams, Philip Glass, Jennifer Higdon, Itzhak Perlman and James Conlon.
A noted pedagogue, he has led some of the nation’s finest youth orchestra programs, including Portland’s Metropolitan Youth Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. Mr. White has long-standing associations with a number of musical organizations, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and the Interlochen Academy.
In addition, Mr. White maintains a significant career as a composer of music for the concert stage, theater, cinema, church, radio and film. His music — which includes a symphony, an oratorio, chamber music of all varieties, and several works intended for young audiences — has been performed throughout North America as well as in Asia and Europe. Several of his works have been recorded on the MSR Classics, Cedille and Parma record labels. Recordings of his music can be heard at www.willcwhite.com, where he also maintains a blog and publishing business.
Mr. White earned a master’s degree in conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, studying symphonic and operatic repertoire with David Effron and Arthur Fagan. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of Chicago, where his principal teachers were composer Easley Blackwood and conductor Barbara Schubert.
Harmonia Orchestra
Flute
Lisa Hirayama
Elana Sabovic Matt*
Oboe
Yuh-Pey Lin*
Margaret Siple
Clarinet
Christopher Peterson*
Gregory Glatzer
Bassoon
Jeff Eldridge*
Kerry Philben
Horn
Robin Stangland
Carey LaMothe
Trumpet
Aaron Coe
Janet Young*
Bass Trombone
Albert Huang
Timpani
Dan Oie
Violin
Leah Anderson*
Lauren Daugherty
Dean Drescher
Jason Forman
Jason Hershey
Manchung Ho
Fritz Klein
Jonathan Kuehn
Stephen Provine**
Kyle Purnell
Theo Schaad
Kenna Smith-Shangrow
Viola
Colleen Chlastawa*
Deborah Daoust
Grant Hanner
Katherine McWilliams
Karoline Vass
Cello
Christy Johnson
Patricia Lyon
Katie Sauter Messick
Valerie Ross
Matthew Wyant*
Bass
Jo Hanson
Steven Messick*
*principal **concertmaster