Program
Harpsichordist Takae Ohnishi and Friends
Takae Ohnishi, harpsichord
Che-Yen Chen, viola
Fandango
ANTONIO SOLER (1729 - 1783)
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in B Minor, BWV 1014
J. S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
Adagio
Allegro
Andante
Allegro
Air from Orchestral Suite No. 3 BWV 1068 (“Air on the G String”)
J. S. Bach (1685 - 1750)
INTERMISSION
Suite No. 5 in D minor
JEAN-BAPTISTE FORQUERAY (1699 - 1782)
La Rameau
La Boisson
La Sylva
Jupiter
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in E Major, BWV 1016
J. S. BACH
Adagio
Allegro
Adagio ma non tanto
Allegro
Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in A Major, BWV 1015
J. S. BACH
Andante dolce
Allegro
Andante un poco
Presto
Takae Ohnishi
Harpsichordist Takae Ohnishi has performed extensively as a soloist, chamber musician and continuo player. The Gramophone remarks that "Ohnishi's brilliant artistry immerses the listener in the creative and emotional narratives Bach unfolds with incomparable mastery." Classics Today described her performance as "masterful," and praises its "vitality and impressively differentiated articulation."
Ms. Ohnishi has been the principal harpsichordist at Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, as well as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble, Gardner Chamber Orchestra, and continuo player with Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and Bach Collegium San Diego. She has performed at the Festival Internacional Cervantino in Mexico, Boston Early Music Festival, the American Academy in Rome, and took part in the complete Brandenburg Concertos at the Gardner Museum directed by Paula Robison. As a performer of contemporary music, Ms. Ohnishi appeared as a guest artist at Yellow Barn, and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance held at the New England Conservatory of Music. She also performed with the Harvard Group for New Music and the Callithumpian Consort.
Ms. Ohnishi is a prizewinner at the International Early Music Harpsichord Competition in Japan. Her debut CD A Harpsichord Recital was selected as an International Special Prized CD by the Japanese leading music magazine Record Gei-jyu-tsu. Her recording of contemporary music is released on Mode and New World Records. Her latest solo disc Goldberg Variations is released on Bridge Records to critical acclaim.
As a lecturer, Ms. Ohnishi has been invited to lecture and give master classes in Yantai, China, Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, as well as the Early Music Festival in Fukuoka, Japan. She participated in a lecture series entitled "Historical Performance Practice," recorded and published by Tokyo's Muramatsu Gakki company. Her recital tour in Japan was broadcast nationally on NHK TV program "Classic Ku-ra-bu."
Ms. Ohnishi graduated from Toho Gakuen School of Music, and holds a Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University. Her teachers include Arthur Haas, Peter Sykes, John Gibbons and Chiyoko Arita. Since 2007, Ms. Ohnishi has been Lecturer of Harpsichord and Baroque Chamber Music at the University of California, San Diego; she also taught at the University of San Diego. As Music Director of the "Music at Green" concert series, she brings live performance to the patients at the Scripps Hospital. In 2011-12, Ms. Ohnishi served as Visiting Artist at the American Academy in Rome.
Che-Yen Chen
Newly appointed professor of viola at the UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music, award- winning violist Che-Yen Chen is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet and First-Prize winner of the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. He was awarded the First- Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and has been described by San Diego Union Tribune as an artist whose "most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music." Chen’s recordings with the Formosa Quartet can be found on EMI, Delos, and New World Records, and the quartet’s current project, From Hungary to Taiwan, will be released with Bridge Records in the 2018-19 season. Having served as principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Chen has appeared as guest principal with Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Performing in chamber music festivals across North America and Asia, Chen is a founding member of Camera Lucida and The Myriad Trio. As a former member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society and a participant of the Marlboro Festival, Chen’s combine passion in chamber music and education has led him to embark on cofounding the Formosa Chamber Music Festival, the first intensive chamber music training program of its kind in Taiwan. Before joining UCLA, Chen has been on the faculty of USC, UCSD, SDSU, CSU Fullerton, and has given master class across North America and Asia.