Formal Concert 2024-02-03

The Fortnightly Music Club In cooperation with The City of Palo Alto Arts and Culture Division
Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Road

*guest performers

Pianist Miyuki Otani is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory, where she won the Concerto Competition, and debuted as a soloist with the Boston Conservatory Orchestra. Her numerous concerts appearances include the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago, a performance on Boston’s Fox Channel 25 morning news to name a few. Performances with orchestra include the Cape Ann Symphony playing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 23, the Melrose Symphony Orchestra performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, and the Quincy Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 & No. 4, and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9. She also performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 with the Tahoe Toccata Symphony in July 2014, with the one-month short notice.

14 year-old pianist and composer Karen Matsui started piano at the age of five with a gift of perfect pitch. Her current teachers are Mrs. Kaichi Zhu and Mr. Grant Kondo. Karen has won numerous piano competition awards since 2019. As a Chamber Musician, her Valley Christian Junior High Piano Trio has won Frist Prize in Santa Cruz Youth Chamber Competition 2023 and Unites States international Music Competition 2023. Karen is also an avid improviser, creating musical impressions on the spot. As a piano improviser, she was awarded First Prize at CAPMT Creative Competition 2023 and also invited to Honor’s Recital at MTAC annual convention 2023. Most recently her first composition “Awakening” won Second Prize at Golden Keys Piano Composition Competition and invited to perform at World Composer’s Concert in Vienna 2024. Besides piano, Karen enjoys drawing comics, raising five cats, and playing the Cello.

Soprano Sang Eun Lee earned Bachelor of Music degree from Han-Yang university and Master of Music degree from the Dan-Kuk university in Seoul Korea. She made a debut as a professional musical actress in Korea in 2003. She played the main role of the Last Empress in the Musical “Last Empress” in Toronto’s Hummingbird Center and various cities in Korea. She played the role of Seol-Hee in the Musical “Hero” in David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center, NY, and various cities in Korea in the 2010-2012 seasons. Mrs. Lee had won several outstanding music awards; The Loren L. Zachary Society Internal Voice Competition, San Diego Choral Club Competition, Virginia Hawk Voice Competition, National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS), Musical Merit Foundation of Greatest SD Voice Competition, Young Artist Voice Competition.

Pianist Eunbok Park has been a performing member of the Fortnightly since 2015, and she has performed piano solo as well as piano four-hands at formal concerts. She has performed actively as a soloist, a chamber musician, and had served as a church accompanist for many years. Eunbok went to Brooklyn College Conservatory in NY for her BM in Piano Performance, and got her Master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music. She is a member of MTAC (music teachers’ association of California), has over 15 years of teaching experience to students of all ages, including preparing students for CM (certificate of merit) exam.

Violinist Hannah Tarley began playing the violin at age two. Winner of Astral’s 2018 National Auditions, Hannah has soloed with orchestras including the Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, and Lynn Philharmonia Orchestra. Hannah has worked with numerous conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas and Edwin Outwater, and has participated in various festivals, including the Heifetz International Music Institute, Perlman Music Program, Kronberg Academy Masterclasses, and Aspen Music Festival and School. Hannah also performs with Violins of Hope, an organization that brings to life the history of the Holocaust and the stories of its victims and their violins. A former student of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn School, Hannah received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Royal College of Music in London, studying with Mark Messenger. She received her Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School, under the guidance of Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein and Catherine Cho, and was
awarded the Irene Land Scholarship and the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant. Hannah recently graduated with a Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, studying with Ani Kavafian, and was awarded the Horatio Parker Memorial Prize and the Philip F. Nelson Prize.

Pianist Era Lifschitz is a frequent guest professor and pianist at several international music festivals including the International Academy of Music, which takes place every summer in locations such as Italy, Spain, Russia, and New York. She is also the artistic director for the “Sounds of Music Festival” in Palo Alto, California which is presented by the Oshman Jewish Community Center at the Albert & Janet Schultz Cultural Arts Hall. Ms. Lifschitz began her piano studies at the Gnessins Academy of Music in Moscow where she was a student of Theodore Gutman, a protege of Heinrich Neuhaus. While a student she received several honors as well as prizes in competitions. Following her graduation, she was a professor of piano at the Scriabin College of Music outside of Moscow. She currently has a private teaching studio, the ‘Arpeggione,’ in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Cellist Dahna Rudin received an artist diploma from the prestigious Vienna University for the Performing Arts, where she worked with Wolfgang Herzer, principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic, and coached chamber music with members of the Alban Berg string Quartet. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College. Since returning to California, she has performed regularly with the Atlantis Trio and has presented numerous solo recitals throughout the greater Bay Area. As an orchestral musician in the Bay Area, Ms. Rudin has performed with the West Bay Opera, Symphony Silicon Valley, and the San Francisco Symphony. She currently maintains a private studio in Mountain View where she offers private lessons and coaches chamber ensembles.