Saturday, August 3, 2019 from 2PM
At The Colburn School (LA downtown)

Pianist Jun Asai returns for her annual concert at Zipper Hall.

The program opens with “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring,” the well-known transcription of the chorale from Bach’s cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (“Heart and Mouth and Deed and Life”). The text describes the believer’s intention to never leave Jesus and the joy He gives, and Bach sets this beautifully to music by weaving one melody (essentially never leaving this melody) throughout the chorale.

Two sonatas, both using the sonata form in innovative ways, make up the rest of the program.

Beethoven’s “Waldstein” Sonata is the first piano sonata from his middle “Heroic” period and combines virtuosic grandeur with flashes of innovation that would increasingly permeate his later music. This sonata uses the instrument in a way that had never been done before—from the opening repeated chords to the trills in the last movement and plays with the structure and key relationships in a way that expands and begins to question the definition of sonata form. The second movement merging into the third foreshadows the last work on the program, Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, wherein all boundaries between movements have completely dissolved. Although it is now regarded as one of Liszt’s greatest works, it was widely criticized in the beginning (Brahms fell asleep during a performance by Liszt himself, and Clara Schumann, whose husband was the dedicatee of the work, allegedly declared it to be “merely a blind noise”).

【Program】
Bach Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring
Beethoven Sonata No. 21 in C, op. 53 “Waldstein”
Liszt Sonata in B minor

The tickets are all sold out.

【Profile】
Jun Asai has performed with the L.A. Philharmonic, Glendale Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Utah Symphony, Nagoya Philharmonic and Shanghai Philharmonic. Winners of various prizes, including at L.A. Phil’s Kaper Awards, the National Chopin Competition, Shanghai Int’l Competition, Joanna Hodges Int’l Competition, Bachauer Int’l Competition, New Orleans Int’l Competition, Città di Cantù Int’l Piano Competition, etc. Her teachers include Eduardo Delgado, Daniel Pollack, Oxana Yablonskaya, and Yoheved Kaplinsky. She has also worked with John O’Conor, Arie Vardi, Mikhail Voskressensky and Nelita True in various masterclasses. She gave her debut recital at Carnegie’s Weill Hall in 2002, appeared four times on the TV program “Musical Encounter,” and played the role of a piano prodigy in “Sneakers” with Robert Redford. She was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up locally in Pasadena where she took lessons at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and later at the Colburn School of Music. She entered the Juilliard School at the age of 15, graduated with a Master’s Degree in 2004 and is currently in the doctoral program at the Johns Hopkins University under the tutelage of Leon Fleisher. She serves as music director at Davar Church in Pasadena.

【Direction】
The Colburn School
Zipper Hall
200 S Grand Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90012

The Colburn School is located on the east side of Grand Avenue, one block south of First
Street, diagonally across the street from the Walt Disney Concert Hall. The main entrance
to the school is located at 200 South Grand Avenue between Second and Third Streets.

【Contact】
Davar Church (626) 219-6425
Email: info@davarkg.com