During August 2016, Shenandoah University conservatory faculty members participated in two of China’s important summer music festivals.
Director of Instrumental Chamber Music, Professor of Viola and Chamber Music Doris Lederer Diploma, Curtis Institute of Music, and Professor of Cello Clyde Shaw, M.M., traveled to Qingdao, China by invitation to teach and hold public master classes at the 2016 Qingdao International Masterclass Festival, with faculty members representing many schools in China, as well as the Moscow Conservatory, and Oberlin and Shenandoah conservatories.
The Qingdao Festival teaching activities were held at the Ocean University of China International Center in Qingdao.
From Aug. 9 through Aug. 20, Shenandoah Conservatory faculty professors, including Lederer, Shaw, and Victor Brown Chair in Violin and Associate Professor of Strings Akemi Takayama, M.M., took part in Xi’an’s Silk Road – The Sound of Piano, Strings and Voice – China International Music Festival.
The festival was envisioned and created by Shenandoah alumni, “Nick” Hao Feng ’09 (business) and Dan Zhang ’11 (Artist Diploma). Nick serves as the festival’s executive director and Dan, its artistic director.
Violist Dan Zhang and baritone, Xiaoyang Zhao (Shenandoah DMA program), currently professor at Beijing Normal University in Zhuhai, also served as festival faculty members.
The Xi’an festival was held in two locations, beginning with lessons and masterclasses offered in a mountain resort in Phoenix County, near the City of Baoji in the Shaanxi Province. The festival concluded with concert performances by faculty and students in Xi’an.
Professors Lederer and Shaw first traveled to China in 1981 as members of the famed Audubon String Quartet, under an invitation from the Chinese Ministry of Culture.
Since that time, they have traveled to China to teach and recruit students to Shenandoah Conservatory.
This was Professor Lederer’s second trip to China this year, after traveling to the Wuhan Conservatory this past May. This was Professor Takayama’s first visit.