Chowan University’s Department of Music is proud to present special guests Chihee Hwang and Agnes Wan in a highly-anticipated Piano Duet Concert on Thursday, March 19th at 7:30 pm in the newly renovated Briley Recital Hall. This will be the debut performance in the new Briley Recital Hall located in Music’s Daniel Hall on the Chowan University campus.

The Hwang-Wan Piano Duo was formed in early 2010, when pianists ChiHee Hwang and Agnes Wan were both faculty members at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Over the last few years, the duo has performed on the Signature Series and Nightcap Series at the Blair School of Music, and on the Sondheim Chamber Music Series at the Sondheim Center for Performing Arts, Fairfield Arts and Convention Center in Fairfield, Iowa. Other recitals have been given at the University of Tennessee and the Steinway Piano Gallery of Nashville, to name a few. Despite the distance, the partners intend to continue their periodic collaborations in years to come.

Guest Artist ChiHee Hwang has performed solo and chamber recitals in Korea and the United States, featuring advanced repertoire such as Béla Bartók’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Her performances have been broadcasted on WNPT-2 Television and WUOT 91.9 FM. In recent years, she has been sought after particularly in the area of duo piano performances. Specifically, besides her collaboration with Agnes Wan, she has also been invited to partner with other prominent pianists in Tennessee, such as Jama Reagan and Patricia Carter.

ChiHee Hwang is currently a Senior Artist Teacher at the Blair School of Music in Vanderbilt University, where she has been on the full-time faculty since 2005. Ms. Hwang was selected by the Korean Ministry of Education among Koreans abroad to receive a full scholarship to attend Hanyang University – one of the top five music schools in Seoul, Korea, where she obtained her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. She also completed her second Master of Music degree at the University of Tennessee where she has taught Class Piano as a graduate teaching assistant. Her solo piano mentors included David Brunell and Eun-Mo Chung, and her piano pedagogy mentors were Fay Adams and Patricia Z. Carter.

An experienced clinician, Ms. Hwang is certified in numerous pedagogical methods, including the Orff-Schulwerk, Suzuki, and Robert Pace approaches. In the summer of 2008, she was invited to serve as a music instructor at the International Christian Academy of Nagoya, Japan, and over the years, many of her students have won awards in several local and state-level piano competitions. Ms. Hwang frequently appears as an adjudicator at various piano competitions and auditions, including the Junior Federated Piano Festival, Nashville Music Teachers Association Annual Auditions, as well as the competitions organized by the Tennessee and Alabama music teachers associations. She is an active member of music teachers associations, and currently serves on the board for the Music Teachers National Association Senior Piano Competition. For her contributions to the Nashville Music Teachers Association for which she is the Vice President and Program Chair, as well as the Chair for the Fall Fest Piano Competition, she was recently chosen as the Service Award recipient.

Agnes Wan joined Chowan University in fall 2014 as an Assistant Professor of Music. A Steinway Artist since 2013, the Hong Kong native has been hailed as a “big pianist, big musician, big potential” with “compelling artistry that draws the listeners in and envelops them with musical joy.” An active recitalist, she has given solo recitals in about fifteen states, the District of Columbia, Canada, France, and Hong Kong. Her performances have been broadcasted live on radio stations in Chicago, Louisville, and Nashville, and she has also appeared as concerto soloist with various orchestras. Most recently, she was selected through a worldwide audition to give a solo recital on the “Pianists of the World” Series at the prestigious St. Martin-in-the-Fields in London, United Kingdom, where she will appear in September 2015.

As a clinician, Agnes Wan has served on the adjudicating panels for many youth piano competitions. This spring, she will be an adjudicator for the Nashville Area Music Teachers Association auditions, North Carolina Music Teachers Association State-West Auditions, the Cary-Apex Piano Teachers Association Bullard Competition, South Carolina Music Teachers Association State Pre-College Competition, and the Virginia Music Teachers Association Central District Auditions.

As a presenter, she has appeared at music teachers association state conferences in Alabama, Indiana, and Texas. Her Book, “Physical and Mental Issues in Piano Performance: The Interrelationships between Physical Tension, Performance Anxiety, and Memorization Strategies”, has reportedly been recommended as a reference book for piano pedagogy courses at a few universities.

Agnes Wan holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa and an Artist Diploma from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She also studied at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts and Loyola University New Orleans, where she obtained her undergraduate degree and master’s degrees in piano performance and music therapy respectively. Her piano mentors have included Gabriel Kwok, Nancy Loo, Jac McCracken, Uriel Tsachor, James Tocco, and Michael Chertock. Before her appointment at Chowan University, Wan taught privately and also served as an Adjunct Artist Teacher of Piano at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University.

Please join Chowan University’s Department of Music in welcoming these two well-accomplished piano performers for their Piano Duet Concert in the new Briley Recital Hall on Thursday, march 19th at 7:30 pm.

The concert is free and the public is invited to attend. The doors to Briley Recital Hall, located in Daniel Hall, will open at 7:00 pm for seating.