Recital by violinist Tomoko Tanaka Mao & pianist David Knowles
Hong Kong Chamber Music Society
proudly presents
Recital by violinist Tomoko Tanaka Mao & pianist David Knowles
Date and time:
Tuesday 17 June, 2014
(Concert at 7:20pm / Dinner at 8:45pm)
Location:
Central
Admission:
Concert only: $300
Concert and Dinner: $600
Programme:
J.S. Bach: Sonata for violin & keyboard in C minor, BWV1017
Mozart: Violin Sonata in E minor, KV304
Paradis: Sicilienne
Piazzolla: Escualo
Intermission
Liszt: Consolation (Transcribed by Nathan Milstein)
Brahms: Sonata No.3 for piano and violin in D minor Op.108
About the musicians:
Tomoko Tanaka (violin)
Born in Nagoya, Kumamoto, Japan, Tomoko Tanaka started playing the violin at the age of four. She was the youngest ever winner of the Kumanichi Student Music Competition Grand Prize, and after graduating from the Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music, she went on to the New England Conservatory in Boston.
She was appointed Associate Concertmistress of the New World Symphony Orchestra by the Music Director Michael Tilson Thomas, and appeared as a soloist with the orchestra. In 1997 she joined the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.
She has participated in the Aspen Music Festival in the US, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan where she toured as the Concertmistress.
She formed the MTT Music Studio, focusing on solo activities and holding recitals in Hong Kong, Japan, Europe and more.
She also engages in charity activities in Hong Kong and Italy, including fundraising for the Great East Japan Earthquake, the Kumamoto Earthquake, and victims of heavy rains in western Japan. She held Japan-Hong Kong friendship concerts with the Consulate General of Japan in Hong Kong, and has been active in fundraising scholarships for studying abroad in Japan.
She studied violin with Masuko Ushioda, Pinchas Zukerman, Marylou Speaker Churchill, and Koichiro Harada; and studied chamber music with Eugene Reina.
Her CD Tomoko Tanaka Album 1 was released in 2014.
David Knowles (piano)
A naturalised Icelander of Welsh and German ancestry, David Knowles was born in Bath, England. He began studying piano at the age of 8 and cello at the age of 12. In 1976, he entered the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England with piano as first study. He decided to concentrate on piano accompaniment and graduated in 1980. He was awarded two scholarships to further his studies on the professional performer course.
In 1982, David moved to Iceland to take up a teaching position and gradually became involved with performance work. He was the Director of Music at the Catholic Cathedral in Reykjavik, coach and accompanist at the Reykjavik School of Singing, as well as teaching piano and cello at the Icelandic Suzuki Association School. David performed and recorded frequently for Icelandic radio and television, as well as making television appearances in many other countries, including Norway, Sweden, Italy and Romania.
Since moving to Hong Kong in 1994, David has performed with instrumentalists, vocalists and choirs at most public performance venues in the City, as well as making a number of recordings for Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). He has worked as an accompanist at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in both the vocal and wind/percussion departments of the Academy. Apart from his work as an accompanist, David also teaches and coaches on a freelance basis.