Horowitz Center Playbills and Programs
Musical Kaleidoscope: A Faculty Celebration
Saturday, November 1, 2025
7:30 p.m.
Monteabaro Recital Hall
PROGRAM
| Sonata for Timpani (1969) | John H. Beck (b. 1933) |
| I. Mysteriously | |
| II. Jazz-like | |
| III. Fast | |
| Tim McKay, percussion | |
| Rêve d’enfant, Op.14 | Eugene Ysaÿe (1858-1931) |
| It Ain’t Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess | George Gershwin (1898-1937) |
| Yi-Hsin Cindy Lin, violin | |
| Wei-Der Huang, piano | |
| Andante and Allegro Brillant for Piano, Four Hands, Op. 92 | Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) |
| Eun Suk Cha, piano | |
| Kuei-I Wu, piano | |
Intermission
| Prelude 6 | Manuel Ponce (1882-1948) |
| Prelude 1 | |
| Suite Venezuolana | Antontio Lauro (1917-1986) |
| Nortena | Jorge Gomez Crespo (1900-1971) |
| Mystified | Laurinda Almeida (1917-1995) |
| Bruce Casteel, guitar | |
| Silent Noon, The House of Life No.2 | Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) |
| Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden, Liederkreis Op. 24, No.5 | Robert Schumann (1810-1856) |
| The Daisies | Samuel Barber (1910-1981) |
| 怀念曲 (Longing) | 黄永熙 Huang Yongxi (1917-2003) |
| Liangjun Shi, tenor | |
| Deborah Allen, piano | |
| España | Emmanuel Chabrier (1841-1894) |
| Wei-Der Huang, piano | |
| Hsien-Ann Meng, piano | |
ARTIST BIOS
Tim McKay has served on the faculty of Howard Community College since 2005. He currently teaches percussion lessons through the music department and the Music Institute program. He is the director of the Drummin' Dragons Summer Percussion Camp, is a former Howard County Rising Star finalist, and the 2016 recipient of the Arts and Humanities Adjunct Faculty of the Year. In addition to teaching at HCC, he is the long-time percussion coach for the Howard County Youth Orchestra.
As a clinician and educator, Mr. McKay has given clinics and masterclasses throughout the area, including the Percussive Arts Society Day of Percussion. He has adjudicated solo festivals as well as regional and state-level auditions. Many of his students have performed in county, state, and national programs and festivals, and have been accepted into some of the top music schools and conservatories in the country. Mr. McKay is a member of the Percussive Arts Society, the Vic Firth Education Team, and the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network.
Mr. McKay is an active freelance performer and enjoys a myriad of playing opportunities - everything from accompanying local choirs and musical theater, to classical and contemporary music. He performs most often with the Apollo Orchestra. Notable career performances include Christopher Rouse's percussion concerto Der geretette Alberich with the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra, and PBS's A Capitol Fourth celebration on the National Mall with American Idol winner Phillip Phillips. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Maryland.
When he’s not teaching or performing, you will find Mr. McKay homeschooling his kids, on the baseball field helping coach his son’s travel baseball team, or baking artisan sourdough bread for the local farmer’s markets. He also enjoys hiking, biking, and camping with his family. He resides in Columbia with his wife, Amanda, children Isabelle and Zach, and their eight chickens the Lovely Ladies.
A seasoned performer, Dr. Lin presented her Carnegie Hall debut in New York at Weill Recital Hall. Of the performance, the New York Concert Review admired how Dr. Lin “projected her sound with solidity, warmth and elegance.”
She has concertized in Austria, Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, and Canada, as well as venues including the Kennedy Center, Taiwan National Concert and Recital Halls, and Strathmore Music Center. She has appeared with the National Philharmonic, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Maryland Lyric Opera, Concert Artists of Baltimore, and the Library of Congress, Evergreen Symphony, National Christian Choir, and Taipei Symphony Orchestras.
Dr. Lin holds a B.M. from Taiwan’s Soochow University studying with Chung-Cheng Chen, an M.M. from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University studying with Violaine Melançon, and a D.M.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park, studying with James Stern.
She has performed in masterclasses with Sylvia Rosenberg, Nai-Yuan Hu, conductor Felix Chiu-Shen Chen, and the Peabody Trio. She has also worked with members of the Guarneri String Quartet, as well as Keng-Yuen Tseng, Marian Hahn, Lynn Chang, and Peter Zazofsky. Summers have been spent at the Aria Music Festival in Toronto studying with Ilya Kaler and James Buswell, and at the Heifetz International Music Institute in Maryland as a scholarship student of Marc Ramirez and Daniel Heifetz.
Dr. Lin taught group classes at the Summerkeys Music Festival in Maine, and served as juror for the D.C. Youth Orchestra. She holds a faculty position at the Music Institute of Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland.
An active member of the Music Teachers National Association, and Maryland State Music Teachers Association, Wei-Der Huang, received her Doctoral of Musical Arts degree at the University of Maryland at College Park. Huang holds a Master of Music degree and professional study diploma from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Dr. Huang has studied with Hsueh Lee and Kuo-Shiang Kao, Solomon Mikowsky, Marc Silverman, Anne Koscielny, and Raymond Hanson.
Dr. Huang has performed as a soloist and a chamber musician at the Hubbard Recital Hall in New York, and several concert halls in the Baltimore/Washington area, including the Homer Ulrich Recital Hall, National Institute of Health's Masur Auditorium, the Montgomery College Concert Hall, the Mansion at Strathmore and the Sumner School Museum. In 2013, she was a featured pianist in a performance of Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos with Sun Taipei Philharmonic at the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Dr. Huang is a founder of the Octtava Piano Duo, which has performed at the College of Southern Maryland and various venues in the United States and Taiwan.
Dr. Huang previously held the Music Director and Organist position at Grace Lutheran Church in Astoria, New York. Huang is currently a music faculty member, piano Coordinator, and Coordinator of Howard Community College Concert Series, Maryland, and the Music Director and Organist at the Greenbelt Community Church in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Dr. Eun Suk Cha, a prodigious and passionate pianist, has captivated audiences across the globe, from the United States to Europe and her native South Korea. As an ardent performer, she has graced prestigious stages, including Lincoln Center’s Winners’ Recital of the National Artists Competition in New York City, the Stoughton Opera House in Wisconsin, and Sala dei Notari in Perugia, Italy, during Music Fest Perugia. Her international acclaim extends to performances at the Wiener Saal in Salzburg, Austria, for the Akademie Konzert at the Mozarteum International Summer Academy, as well as notable venues in Seoul, such as the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Universal Arts Center, and Yurim Art Hall.
Dr. Cha’s remarkable talent has been recognized through her success in concerto competitions, where she performed with esteemed orchestras including the Parlarte Symphonic Orchestra, Yonsei University Orchestra, and Sunhwa Arts School Orchestra. Her exceptional skill has earned her numerous accolades in national and international competitions, including First Prize at the Sixth Competition of the Piano Society of Korea, Second Prize at the Brahms Competition, Third Prize at the Sunhwa Chamber Music Competition, Second Prize at the National Artists Competition, and Third Prize at the Paderewski International Piano Competition.
Beyond her competitive achievements, Dr. Cha has received prestigious scholarships from renowned institutions such as the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York City, the Malinin Fedkina Internationale Sommer-Meisterklasse in Germany, and the Society of Lee Sumie in Korea. Notably, she was honored with the distinguished A. David Renner Endowed Presidential Academic Excellence Scholarship.
A versatile artist with both theoretical and technical expertise in classical music, Dr. Cha possesses a broad repertoire encompassing solo, concerto, and chamber works ranging from the Baroque era to the 20th century. Her scholarly perspectives on 20th-century American music, as presented in her thesis, “Charles Ives’ Paradoxes in the Three-page Sonata,” earned high praise from internationally acclaimed music theorists, including Professors Elliott Antokoletz and B. Glenn Chandler.
Through her extraordinary artistry and dedication, she continues to inspire audiences and elevate the world of classical piano. Currently, Dr. Cha is expanding her musical reach through performances at the Howard Community College Concert Series at the Horowitz Visual & Performing Arts Center. In addition to her performances, she is a devoted educator, teaching at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Howard Community College, and The Music Institute at HCC.
Kuei-I Wu, who began earning national accolades at the age of nine, is regarded as one of most promising pianists from Taiwan. Dr. Wu, known for her elegant style and exuberant technique, made her concerto debut at the National Dr. Sun Yet-Sen Memorial Hall with the National Taiwan Academy of Arts Symphony Orchestra before moving to the United States.
Highly sought after as both a soloist and a chamber musician, Dr. Wu has collaborated with members from BSO, NSO and Colorado Symphony, and has performed at numerous festivals in Taiwan, Spain, Austria and here in the United States. Her concerto appearances include Liszt Concerto No.2 at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, Saint-Saëns Carneval of Animals in Gijón, Spain and Mozart Concerto "Coronation" in Horowitz Performing Arts Center. She most recently performed the Beethoven Choral Fantasy with the Frederick Symphony Orchestra and The Frederick Chorale at Coffman Chapel in Frederick. Dr. Wu has won awards in multiple international competitions, including the Mieczyslaw Munz Piano Competition, New York's Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation International Piano Competition, and the Promising Artist Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters Competition.
Dr. Wu received a bachelor's degree from San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she studied with Mach McCray and was named "Outstanding Pianist" at graduation. During her studies at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University under the tutelage of Boris Slutsky, Dr. Wu served as an accompanying assistant and collaborated with distinguished artists Leon Fleisher and John Shirley-Quirk. Dr. Wu received a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree from the University of Maryland at College Park and studied under Santiago Rodriguez.
Dr. Wu demonstrates both exceptional proficiency and enthusiasm for teaching and is an active member of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) as well as the American College of Musicians. She has successfully mentored many students who have achieved competition awards and performed at esteemed venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Strathmore, and on WETA radio's "From the Top" program. Her students have achieved recognition as prize winners in both national and international piano competitions. Dr. Wu currently teaches at Howard Community College and Hood College while maintaining an active private studio in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Award-winning Chinese tenor Dr. Liangjun Shi is a frequent recitalist and accomplished vocologist. He currently serves on the voice faculty at Howard Community College. Dr. Shi has performed widely across China and the United States and has presented research and lectures at international conferences. As founding President of the Mainland China Chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (USA), he is dedicated to fostering cultural exchange and strengthening the musical bridge between Mainland China and the United States. He has contributed as the translator of the Chinese edition of Your Voice: An Inside View 3 by Dr. Scott McCoy, and as a recording artist for the textbook Bel Canto of China. Beyond the standard canon, Dr. Shi has a particular dedication to advancing Chinese Art Songs and repertoire from other underrepresented cultures.
Committed to vocal health and in-depth artistry, Dr. Shi’s teaching helps students develop a systematic understanding of their voices through both scientific principles and artistic expression. His students have performed with professional ensembles such as The Washington Chorus and The San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and have been accepted into competitive programs at Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, The Ohio State University, Vanderbilt University, Manhattan School of Music, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, among others.
Dr. Shi holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Pedagogy from the University of Maryland. At The Ohio State University, he earned a Master of Arts in Voice Pedagogy, a Master of Music in Voice Performance, and a Singing Health Specialization. He also completed a Vocology Certificate from the National Center for Voice and Speech and the University of Utah, as well as a Master of Fine Arts in Opera from Peking University. His mentors include renowned scholars Scott McCoy, Carmen Balthrop, Delores Ziegler, and Ingo R. Titze.
Deborah Allen is an active collaborative pianist in Howard County, Maryland. She received her Bachelor and Master of Music Degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland in College Park, where she studied with Thomas Schumacher. Ms. Allen is a gifted collaborative pianist, as evidenced by her many years of experience accompanying vocalists, instrumentalists, choral groups, church services and musical theatre productions. She is staff pianist at both UMBC and Howard Community College, where she performs with students and faculty members alike. She also enjoys teaching and maintains a private piano studio made up of students from all age groups.
Hsien-Ann Meng holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland, both Master of Music in Piano Performance and Music History degrees and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance degree from the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. She has studied and coached with distinguished teachers and artists Walter Hautzig, Marian Hahn, Yehoved Kaplinsky, Samuel Sanders, Anne Koscielny, Bradford Gowen, and Raymond Hanson.
Dr. Meng is active in the Baltimore-Washington area as a duo-pianist with the Octtava Piano Duo and chamber musician, had performed as a member of the Friday Morning Music Club in its recital series, as guest artist on the Ward Virts Concert Series at College of Southern Maryland, and as a member of faculty on the Faculty Concert Series at Howard Community College. Her duo performances has taken her to perform in the National Recital Hall and Shih Chien University in Taipei, Taiwan. Dr. Meng is also a lecturer on topics in music, and she had appeared as pre-concert lecturer for the Columbia Orchestra Concert Series, the Candlelight Concert Series, as guest lecturer for OASIS in Bethesda, Maryland, SASI in Columbia, Maryland, and as a member of a panel of speakers for the Women’s Studies Speaker Series at Howard Community College.
Hsien-Ann Meng had held teaching positions at Washington Conservatory of Music in Washington, D. C. and Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. She is currently a Professor in the Performing Arts Department at Howard Community College. She is Director of the Howard Community College Concert Series. Dr. Meng is an active piano teacher in the Washington D. C. Metropolitan area. She is a member of the National Music Teachers Association and both state and county music teachers association. Dr. Meng is a sought-after adjudicator in local, county, and state piano competitions.
PROGRAM NOTES
Sonata for Timpani by John Beck
Since its composition over 50 years ago, John Beck's Sonata for Timpani has been a standard timpani solo in the percussion repertoire. Percussionist, educator, and composer John Beck explores the timpani to the instrument's fullest potential, writing a piece that employs not only standard performance techniques, but unconventional ones as well, such as playing on the bowls of the drum and requiring the performer to strike the instrument with their hands. Each movement of Sonata for Timpani was composed in a distinct musical style, taking both the performer and listener on a satisfying and exciting musical journey.
Rêve d'enfant by Eugene Ysaÿe
Composed in the mid-1890s and dedicated to Ysaÿe's youngest son Antoine -- later to become his father's biographer and publisher -- the Rêve d'enfant mines a familiar vein of sentiment after the manner of Fauré's Berceuse, Brahms' Lullaby, and countless other encore effusions. Over an engagingly tugging accompaniment, the violin sings a suavely rocking melody -- an archetypal cradle song -- which becomes melodically involved and, for a moment, impassioned before a reprise of the opening and a diminuendo fadeout. The harmonic idiom and dreamy aura recall the more quietly ecstatic moments of Franck's violin sonata, composed in 1886 as a wedding present for Ysaÿe and dedicated to him. Ysaÿe was undoubtedly the greatest violinist after Paganini -- an artist who, like Busoni and Godowsky at the piano, bridged the Romantic and Modern manners of playing. Thus, his revealing, if primitive, acoustic recording of the Rève d'enfant made in 1913 is of supreme interest. Dwelling lovingly over the piece at a slower tempo than any contemporary violinist would allow himself, he softens the melody in discreetly crooning portamenti while unfolding it with a subtle rhythmic flexibility -- or rubato -- and sweetness of tone that invests every note with meaning and beside which the flawless precision of today's best violinists seems deadpan, generic, and empty. With the challenging but eloquent Six Sonatas for Solo Violin and the ambitiously substantial Poème élégiaque, the Rève d'enfant has remained at the fringe of the repertoire largely thanks to the pietas of violinists, while Ysaÿe's some 60 other compositions, ranging from chamber works, concertos, and an opera, have been forgotten. The Rêve d'enfant also exists in a scoring for violin and orchestra. ~ Adrian Corleonis, All Music Guide
It Ain't Necessarily So from Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin
“It Ain't Necessarily So" is a popular song with music by George Gershwin and lyrics by his brother Ira Gershwin. The song comes from the Gershwins' opera Porgy and Bess (1935) where it is sung by the character Sportin' Life, a drug dealer, who expresses his doubt about several statements in the Bible. The song's melody also functions as a theme for Sportin' Life's character.
Violin virtuoso Jascha Heifetz, close friend of George Gershwin, transcribed the song for violin in 1944.He recorded this version on September 15, 1970, in ORTF Studio 102, Paris, first appearing on the Heifetz on Television album from 1971.
This arrangements for violin and piano combine the immortal songs of Gershwin with the classical purity of one of the world’s greatest musicians, Jascha Heifetz. The rare combination can only enhance the beauty and versatility of songs that have already found their place in the hearts of so many.
Andante and Allegro brillant by Felix Mendelssohn
Composed in 1841, Mendelssohn’s Andante and Allegro brillant is a spirited and elegant work for piano four hands. Written as a gift for his sister Fanny, the piece showcases both lyrical charm and virtuosic brilliance. The Andante opens with graceful, flowing melodies, offering a gentle prelude to the Allegro brillant, which bursts forth with dazzling energy and rhythmic vitality. This work exemplifies Mendelssohn’s gift for combining classical balance with Romantic flair, and it remains a favorite in the piano duet repertoire.
Silent Noon from The House of Life by Vaughan William
Silent Noon is the second song in Vaughan Williams’s The House of Life; it sets a sonnet by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Its long-breathed melody and modal, pastoral harmonies suspend time, build to a gentle climax, and settle into a hush that seals the poem’s sunlit vision of love.
Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden from Liederkreis, Op. 24 by Robert Schumann
Composed in Robert Schumann’s “Liederjahr” (1840), Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden—the fifth song in his first cycle Liederkreis, Op. 24—sets a poem by Heinrich Heine. It is cast in strophic variation with a lullaby-like motif that casts the farewell in tender melancholy.
The Daisies by Samuel Barber
Dedicated to his mother during Barber’s studies at the Curtis Institute, The Daisies is a setting of James Stephens’s poem in a spare, cantabile idiom. Despite its early date, the song already prefigures the lyrical profile and economy of craft that would characterize Barber’s mature style.
怀念曲 (Reminiscence) By Yongxi Huang
怀念曲 (Reminiscence) is an art song composed in the 1930s, with text by Mao Yu and music by Huang Yongxi. It uses gentle personification to voice deep longing for a beloved and stands as an early landmark of modern Chinese art song.
España by Emmanuel Chabrier
Emmanuel Chabrier was a piano prodigy as a child, and he grew up longing to be a composer. But his parents insisted on a “sensible” career, and so Chabrier spent several decades as a minor clerk in the Ministry of the Interior who dabbled in composition in his spare time. Then in the spring of 1882 Chabrier and his wife took a vacation trip to Spain, where – like so many other French composers – he was intoxicated by Spanish music. Back in France, he noted down several characteristic melodies and dance rhythms that he had heard in Andalusia, and from these he fashioned what he called a fantasia for solo piano. When the conductor Charles Lamoureux heard Chabrier play this piece, he urged him to orchestrate it. Lamoureux led the premiere of the orchestral version, now titled España, in Paris on November 4, 1883. It was an instant success, and Chabrier woke the next morning to find himself famous. One hundred and forty years later, España remains his best-known work. Chabrier himself noted that he had built España on two characteristic Spanish dances – the sultry malaguena and the lively jota – and he contributed a third theme of his own, a jaunty melody shouted out by the trombones. Much of the fun of this piece lies in its rhythmic vitality.
España gets off to a steady start that convinces us that it’s in 2/4, and just when our ears have adjusted to that, Chabrier shifts the accents in a way that lets us know that this piece is really in 3/8. That sort of rhythmic displacement will occur throughout, and at several points Chabrier experiments with polyrhythmic overlapping: one part of the orchestra will stay in 3/8 while other sections within it are playing in 2/4. (Try beating time along with this piece – it will fool you again and again.)
As infectious as the rhythms are, the colors of España are just as memorable. Chabrier writes imaginatively for the orchestra, employing such unusual instruments as cornets and basque tambourine and such effects as col legno: requiring the strings to play extended passages with the wood of the bow. The Spanish dances sing and surge voluptuously, and España rushes to its close in a great wash of brilliant sound. ~ Program notes by Eric Bromberger
TRANSLATIONS
| 怀念曲 | Reminiscence |
|---|---|
| 把印着泪痕的笺 | Pass the tear-stained letter |
| 交给那旅行的水 | to the wayfaring stream; |
| 何时流到你屋边 | when will it reach your eaves |
| 让它弹动你心弦 | and set your heartstrings trembling? |
| 我曾问南归的燕 | I asked the swallow bound south |
| 可带来你的消息 | to carry news of you— |
| 他为我命运呜咽 | it only keened for my fate: |
| 希望似梦心无依 | hope a dream, my heart unmoored. |
| Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden | Lovely cradle of my sorrows |
|---|---|
| Schöne Wiege meiner Leiden, | Lovely cradle of my sorrows, |
| Schönes Grabmal meiner Ruh’, | Lovely tombstone of my peace, |
| Schöne Stadt, wir müssen scheiden,— | Lovely city, we must part— |
| Lebe wohl! ruf’ ich dir zu. | Farewell! I call to you. |
| Lebe wohl, du heil’ge Schwelle, | Farewell, O sacred threshold, |
| Wo da wandelt Liebchen traut; | Where my dear beloved treads, |
| Lebe wohl! du heil’ge Stelle, | Farewell! O sacred spot, |
| Wo ich sie zuerst geschaut. | Where I first beheld her. |
| Hätt’ ich dich doch nie gesehen, | Had I never seen you though, |
| Schöne Herzenskönigin! | Fair queen of my heart! |
| Nimmer wär es dann geschehen, | It would never then have come to pass |
| Dass ich jetzt so elend bin. | That I am now so wretched. |
| Nie wollt’ ich dein Herze rühren, | I never wished to touch your heart, |
| Liebe hab’ ich nie erfleht; | I never begged for love, |
| Nur ein stilles Leben führen | To live in peace was all I wished, |
| Wollt’ ich, wo dein Odem weht. | And to breathe the air you breathed. |
| Doch du drängst mich selbst von hinnen, | But you yourself, you drive me hence, |
| Bittre Worte spricht dein Mund; | Your lips speak bitter words; |
| Wahnsinn wühlt in meinen Sinnen, | Madness rages in my mind, |
| Und mein Herz ist krank und wund. | And my heart is sick and sore. |
| Und die Glieder matt und träge | And my limbs, weary and feeble, |
| Schlepp’ ich fort am Wanderstab, | I drag away, my staff in hand, |
| Bis mein müdes Haupt ich lege | Until I lay my tired head down |
| Ferne in ein kühles Grab. | In a cool and distant grave. |
HCC CONCERT SERIES
Hsien-Ann Meng, Director, HCC Concert Series
Bill Gillett, Chair, Performing Arts
HOROWITZ CENTER STAFF
Janelle Broderick - Director
Jessica Chaney - Content Coordinator
A. Lorraine Robinson - Production Manager
John Elder - Technical Director
Darius McKeiver - Business Associate
Linwood Milan – Technical Coordinator
Eric Moore - Production Electrician
Mark Smedley - Associate Technical Director
Julie Via - Audience Services Manager
Bill Watson – Gallery Manager and Curator
SPECIAL THANKS
This performance is made possible through generous support from the Galbraith-Winer Family Trust Fund and the Maryland State Arts Council.
