Soo Bae To Perform On Her Precious Cello

Canadian cellist Soo Bae will appear in recital in Newtown on Sunday, February 11, at 3 pm, at Edmond Town Hall. Her concert will resume the 2006-07 series of performances sponsored by Newtown Friends of Music.

Ms Bae was recognized, just last September, by her home country as the top young cellist in Canada when she garnered first prize in the Canada Council of the Arts Instrument Bank competition, resulting in a three-year loan of the 1696 Bonjour Stradivari cello (valued at just under $5 million).

Ms Bae was the winner of the 2005 Concert Artist Guild International Competition and winner of the 2006 Adam International Cello Festival and Competition in New Zealand.

Born in Seoul, Korea, she began her studies at the age of six, and then moved to Toronto, Canada, at age eight, where she enrolled at the Royal Conservatory of Music. She went on to study at The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, from which she received her Bachelor of Music in 2001. Ms Bae received her masters of music degree and then the prestigious Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School under Joel Kosnick and Harvery Shapiro as a full scholarship candidate.

An avid chamber musician, she has participated in collaborative tours of both Europe and Asia and has appeared at numerous festivals, and also collaborating with world renowned members of the Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets. Ms Bae has concretized in Asia, Europe, Canada and the US, including such prestigious venues as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Additionally, she was featured soloist for the closing ceremony of the 1997 Pablo Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, where she performed on Casals’ own instrument.

Ms Bae will be accompanied on the Knabe Grand Piano by pianist Ying-Chien Lin, an outstanding artist in her own right. Ms Lin received a doctor of musical arts degree in piano performance from SUNY-Stony Brook and then an artist diploma in collaborative piano from The Juilliard School in May 2004.

The program for February 11 includes of Fauré’s Elegie, Opus 24;  Piatti, Two Caprices for solo cello; Schumann, Fantasy Pieces Opus 73; and Shostakovich, Sonata in D minor.

An informal reception to meet and chat with the artists will be held after the concert in the town hall lobby.

Since cello recitals are extremely popular, NFoM president Ellen Parrella reminds everyone that advance reservations are strongly suggested for this performance.

Tickets for adults are $18, those for seniors over age 65 are $16. Children, when accompanied by a ticket-holding adult, are welcomed for free.

Remaining tickets will be sold at the town hall’s box office, which will open one hour before concert time.

Edmond Town Hall, at 45 Main Street, has plenty of free parking available. The facility is handicap accessible.

For further information and for reservations call Newtown Friends of Music, 426-6470, or visit NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.