University of Florida Performing Arts

Dr. Steven Thomas, Conductor
Xiayin Wang, Piano

To see Xiayin Wang perform on You Tube, click here.

Program:
Coriolan Overture - Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor - Beethoven (Xiayin Wang, Piano)
Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 - Tchaikovsky

About the University of Florida Symphony Orchestra
The University of Florida Symphony Orchestra is dedicated to the learning of symphonic music through performance. The literature includes established orchestral and choral masterworks, ballets and operas, from the 18th century to the present, by composers of all nations and both genders. In accordance with the research mission of the University of Florida, the Orchestra is also committed to the promotion of new and contemporary works as well as noteworthy and overlooked works from the past.

About Dr. Steven Thomas, Conductor
Steven Thomas was appointed to the University of Florida’s School of Music in 2007, following a 13-year tenure at the Hartt School, where he had chaired both the string and chamber music departments.

Dr. Thomas brings to the University of Florida an unusually vast wealth of performing experience, having appeared as soloist and recitalist, orchestral and chamber musician and conductor on four continents. His repertoire includes classical and non-classical music from Baroque to newly-commissioned works, as well as Broadway shows and popular music. Whether playing a Bach suite, conducting a Beethoven symphony, or narrating his own version of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale, his performances are consistently described as having “…everything to do with art.” (The Birmingham News)

A top prize-winner in the Villa-Lobos (Rio) and Bach (Washington) International Cello Competitions, as well as the Hudson Valley and Charleston Competitions, Dr. Thomas has appeared as soloist with orchestras in North and South America and throughout Europe. As a member of the Cantilena Piano Quartet, he toured and performed in most of the major concert halls of Europe and the United States. He has performed as recitalist and chamber musician at festivals such as Windsor (England), Gstaad (Switzerland), the Israel Festival (Jerusalem), Prague, Tivoli (Denmark), Itu and Fortaleza (Brazil). As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such renowned artists as Yehudi Menuhin, Erick Friedman, Donald MacInnes, Jesse Levine, Joseph Robinson, David Shifrin, Peter Frankl, Boris Berman and the Miami String Quartet.

Steven Thomas has served as the Principal Cellist of several symphony and chamber orchestras, including the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra New England, and has given over 1,500 concerts in that role in the last 25 years. He is also the Music Director and Conductor of the Saybrook Orchestra at Yale University.

Having received his early training at the prestigious Yehudi Menuhin School in England, Dr. Thomas was a student of Maurice Gendron and William Pleeth. He holds degrees from Cambridge and Yale Universities, including a Doctorate from the latter, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. He also earned a Performer’s Diploma from the Royal College of Music (London) at the age of 17.

As a result of his extensive solo, chamber music and orchestral background, Steven Thomas is widely regarded as one of the foremost teacher-pedagogues and chamber music coaches of his generation, and is regularly sought-after for classes in orchestral audition preparation. He has also enjoyed a long relationship with underpriviledged students in many parts of Brazil.

About Xiayin Wang
A Carnegie Hall debut with Symphony behind her and glowing reviews from her first recording, Introducing Xiayin Wang, now starting to blossom, there is no doubt that this charming young pianist is starting to set the classical music world on fire. Before arriving in the United States from her native China, where she had completed her studies at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Xiayin Wang (pronounced shy-inn ) had garnered an enviable record of first prize awards and special honors.  In addition, she had played as soloist with China’s leading orchestras. In the United States, she has studied at the heralded Manhattan School of Music and won its Eisenberg Concerto Competition, as well as the noted Roy M. Rubinstein Award. In addition to a wide and eclectic repertoire, she also has a love for chamber works and plans to record in this area in the coming year. New CDs, video on YouTube and MySpace, a recital at Carnegie’s Zenkel Hall in New York and extensive touring this coming season promise to carry this exciting artist to her next adventures on the world’s great concert stages.