SUNY Fredonia attracts celebrated musicians to annual string festival

Three acclaimed guest artists – violinist Yuki Numata Resnick, violist Phillip Ying and cellist Guy Johnston – will give master classes and also perform in concert with SUNY Fredonia School of Music string faculty at the annual Fredonia String Festival on Sunday, Feb. 27.

All events are to be held in Mason Hall and are free and open to the public.

Mr. Johnston will conduct a cello master class in Diers Recital Hall from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Ms. Resnick will conduct a violin master class in Rosch Recital Hall from 1 to 2:30 p.m., and a chamber music master class, also in Rosch, from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. with Mr. Ying. Mr. Ying will conduct a viola master class in Room 1080, from 1 to 1:45 p.m.

At the festival concert in Rosch at 5 p.m., the guest musicians will perform with Assistant Professor Jessica Tong (violin), Adjunct Lecturer Isabel Ong (violin), Associate Professor David Rose (viola) and Professor Natasha Farny (cello).

On her 2016 debut solo album, "For Ko," Resnick interweaves the movements of J.S. Bach’s Partita No.1 in B minor with newly commissioned responses from Caleb Burhans, Clara Iannotta, Matt Marks, and Andrew Greenwald. Others include Jóhann Jóhannsson and Max Richter, for whom she has performed the eight-hour "Sleep" and been soloist in his "Vivaldi Recomposed," both at Sydney Opera House. She has performed as soloist with the Knoxville Symphony, Tanglewood Orchestra and Wordless Music Orchestra. Most recently, Yuki is featured on Taylor Swift’s "Folklore" and "Evermore" albums which Yuki recorded in her attic with her trumpet-player/sound engineer husband, Kyle Resnick.

Collaboration and the creation of community are guiding values for Resnick, and exemplified with her non-profit organization Buffalo String Works, BSW. Resnick is a founder and executive director of BSW, an after-school music program serving youth in Buffalo. BSW’s mission is to ignite personal and community leadership through accessible, youth-centered music education.

Born in Vancouver, Resnick holds violin performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan. She holds a Certificate in NonProfit Management from Duke University.

Resnick replaces Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra concertmaster Nicki Chooi, originally announced as a guest artist for the event.

Ying, associate professor of Chamber Music and Viola at the Eastman School of Music, has performed across the United States, Europe and Asia. He received the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music and a GRAMMY for a collaborative recording with the Turtle Island String Quartet. Ying has a vital interest in new music, with recent and planned premieres of works by Chen Yi, Jennifer Higdon and Kenji Bunch, among many others.

Creative projects across musical styles with other artists are pursued by Ying. He also performs during summers at Tanglewood and the Vineyard and Skaneateles Music Festivals.

Ying received his education at Harvard University, the New England Conservatory and Eastman.

Johnston, considered one of the most exciting and versatile British cellists of his generation, has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the DSO Berlin, Oaka Philharmonic and the English Chamber Orchestra, among many others. He plays a 1714 David Tecchler cello.

He has recently commissioned and recorded a number of short new works by composers including Charlotte Bray, David Matthews, and Mark Simpson to celebrate his cello’s 300th anniversary. The CD also includes a performance with the acclaimed Accademia di Santa Cecilia recorded in Rome where the cello was made.

Also performing in the festival concert with Johnston, cellist, will be Chiao-Wen Cheng, a Taiwanese pianist who has performed as a soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Her solo engagements include the Fort Worth Symphony, Greece Symphony and Taiwan Shin-Min Orchestra. She has also presented solo piano recitals in major venues around the world.

A rewarding facet of her career has involved chamber music concerts with musicians from all of the world, including Juliana Athayde (concertmaster, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra); Astrid Schween (cellist, Juilliard String Quartet) and Ko-ichiro Yamamoto (principal trombone, Seattle Symphony Orchestra).

Ms. Cheng has a doctoral degree from Eastman, where she is an assistant professor of Accompanying.