Leland Ko + Adria Ye

Rising Stars

Artists
Leland Ko, cello
Adria Ye, piano

Prize-winning cellist Leland Ko is joined by Juilliard-trained pianist Adria Ye for a program of folk music bridging the spaces and the sounds between Germany (Robert Schumann), China (Bright Sheng), Hungary (Béla Bartók), and Georgia (Sulkhan Tsintsadze).

Program

Robert Schumann, Five Pieces in Folk Style, Op. 102 (1849)
Vanitas vanitatum: Mit Humor
Langsam
Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen
Nicht zu rasch
Stark und markiert

Bright Sheng, Seven Tunes Heard in China (1995)
Seasons (Qinghai)
Guessing Song (Yunnan)
The Little Cabbage (Hebei)
The Drunken Fisherman (Classical)
Diu Diu Dang (Taiwan)
Pastoral Ballade (Mongolia)
Tibetan Dance (Tibet)

Béla Bartók, Rhapsody No. 1 for cello and piano, Sz. 88 (1928)
Lassú
Friss

Sulkhan Tsintsadze, Five Pieces on Folk Themes for cello and piano (1950)
Urmuli
Chonguri
Sachidao
Nana
Tsekva

About the Artists

Cellist Leland Ko, a Boston native, has performed solo and as a chamber musician in New York, Boston, Europe, and Israel. Violinist Itzhak Perlman praised his “beauty of sound and subtlety.” Mr. Ko received the Presidential Scholar Award at New England Conservatory for 2022-2024, and he was a winner of the 2023 Canada Council Musical Instrument Bank auditions. His orchestral appearances include the NEC Philharmonia, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Boston Landmarks Orchestra, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Pro Musica, and Wellesley Symphony. A graduate of Princeton University and Juilliard, Mr. Ko is a New England Conservatory Artist Diploma candidate. Before college, he studied with Ronald Lowry and Paul Katz. He plays a Spanish cello, nicknamed “El Tiburón,” attributed to Juan Guillami (ca.1769), loaned by the Canada Council.

Pianist Adria Ye has been driven from a young age by a fascination with music, old and new. Described by cellist David Finckel as having a “naturally beautiful sound and lyric instinct,” she made her orchestral debut with the Oregon Sinfonietta at age nine and has performed as soloist and chamber musician across Europe, China, and the United States. She has been featured in radio broadcasts of “Performance Today” with Fred Child and NPR’s “From the Top.” Most recently, she was the winner of the 2022 Music Academy of the West Solo Piano Competition. Ms. Ye earned her Bachelor and Master of Music at Juilliard with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Julian Martin and is currently a student of Wha-Kyung Byun at New England Conservatory.