JOSEPH HAYDN

Divertimento in D Major

NADIA BOULANGER

Trois Pièces for Cello and Piano

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62 for Cello and Piano

ERNEST BLOCH

From Jewish Life, B. 54

SAMUEL BARBER

Cello Sonata in C Minor, Op. 6

Benett Tsai

The music-making of Australian cellist, Benett Tsai has been described as “electrifying…flawless freshness” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and “charismatic, heartfelt playing full of fluid intensity” (Sydney Arts Guide). Profiled as a VC Artist on The Violin Channel, he came to attention at the prestigious Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in 2022, where he received both the Third Prize and Special Prize for the Best Haydn Concerto as the youngest competitor. Most recently, he joined the storied roster of Young Concert Artists for management upon winning First Prize at the 2023 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions in New York. He was additionally the recipient of The Stern Young Artist Award from the Linda & Isaac Stern Foundation, The Anne & George Popkin Cello Chair, and The Michaels Award for a New York recital, which was subsequently listed as one of the best NY debuts in 2024 by New York Classical Review.

Since his mainstage debut at the age of thirteen, Benett has performed actively as a solo artist and chamber musician. He has appeared with orchestras such as the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, Kammerphilharmonie Metamorphosen Berlin, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra Academy. In recitals, he has been presented at the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, Berliner Philharmonie, City Recital Hall in Sydney, Helsinki Music Centre, and Melbourne Recital Centre among other venues worldwide.

Notably, he was featured in the 2020 documentary film, The Way Forward, where he collaborated with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

In the 2024/25 season, Benett will perform with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Umberto Clerici, Maryland Symphony Orchestra with Elizabeth Schulze, and the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra. In addition to recitals at The Kennedy Center (Washington D.C.) and Merkin Hall (New York), he will also appear at Carnegie Hall for the YCA Season Finale, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and on a nationwide tour of Australia as a part of Selby & Friends. Recent highlights include Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto with the Colburn Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen at The Soraya, and both solo and chamber music appearances at the Verbier Festival Academy.

Born in 2003, Benett commenced playing the cello at the age of five under the guidance of his uncle and teacher, Thomas Tsai. He is currently an undergraduate student of Clive Greensmith at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. In previous years, he also learned with Susan Blake and Li-Wei Qin. His other significant mentors include Ralph Kirshbaum, Steven Isserlis, Alban Gerhardt, and his pianist father, Joshua Tsai.

Benett plays on a 1719 Giuseppe Guarneri ‘filius Andreae’ cello, on loan to him from a generous benefactor.

 Hyejin Kim, piano

Praised by critics for her “passionate…polished and expressive” performances, pianist HyeJin Kim is one of South Korea’s most thrilling young classical stars. Born in Seoul, she began playing piano at age five, and later enrolled at the prestigious Yewon Arts School. She furthered her studies in Germany, earning her master of art in musical art as a “Konzertexamen” (highest distinction) from Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. She recently received an artist diploma at the Colburn School in its Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Fabio Bidini.

HyeJin has received numerous awards including prizes at the 2008 Hong Kong International Piano Competition, DAAD Prize, Steinway & Sons Advancement Award Competition, and Toronto International Piano Competition. She has performed and toured with numerous orchestras such as the Russian State Philharmonic, Konzerthaus Orchester, Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Praha Broadcast and Budapest Symphony Orchestras; Bohuslav Martinů, Seoul, Dae-jeon, Pilsen, and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestras; the State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg, Nürnberger Symphoniker, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and the Hessischer Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester. She has worked with noted conductors including Eliahu Inbal, Carl St. Clair, Christoph Poppen, Achim Fiedler, Yehuda Gilad, Tomáš Hanus, Shi-yeon Sung, Dae Jin Kim, Jiri Malat, and Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

Including the Konzerthaus of Berlin, Herkulessaal of Munich, Rudolfinum/Dvorak Hall and Smetana Hall of Prague, Seoul Arts Center, Marvão Music Festival, Napa Valley Festival, Klavier Festival Ruhr, Korea Symphony Festival, Cesky Krumlov Festival, Praha Spring Festival, and Kotor Arts Festival, Grand Piano Series and among others, HyeJin has been invited to participate in international venues and music festivals. She has participated in master classes and collaborated with artists such as Jean-Yves-Thibaudet, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Jerome Rose, Robert McDonald, Aquiles Delle Vigne, Bernd Geotzke, John O’Connor, Arnold Steinhardt, Clive Greensmith, Martin Beaver, Robert Lipsett and the Opus One Quartet.

Her major label debut recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra led by Eduard Topchjan, on Sony Classical has been released in 2013. In 2018 HyeJin made her debut with Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra performing Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 under the baton of JoAnn Falleta followed by her debut recital in Carnegie Hall with music of Scarlatti, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Barber, and Gershwin followed in July 2016. She also made her west coast debut with MUSE/IQUE.

HyeJin Kim is an appreciative recipient of generous support by the Amron-Sutherland Grant for Young Pianists from the Colburn School. She joined the faculty of the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts and Colburn pre-college division in August 2018 and a resident artist of the Salastina Music Society.