East Meets West – A Musical Interpretation of Poem’s Savors

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East Meets West - A Musical Interpretation of Poem’s Savors is a programme that includes a piano recital alongside a lecture on the subject of contemporary piano works combining Eastern and Western cultural influences.

Hua Lin is one of the most prominent contemporary Chinese composers. Using western compositional techniques he created a series of works illustrating the Poem’s Savors, based on the literary work of an ancient Chinese poet, and also wrote a collection of preludes and fugues for solo piano. 

Chinese pianist Lei Cai, Professor of Piano at Ouachita Baptist University, USA, will perform these pieces and introduce the works to the audience through reading his English translations of the Chinese poems and showing traditional Chinese paintings of the artistic conception.  At the concert, Dr. Cai and Korean concert-pianist, Hee-kyung Juhn will also play various works by other Asian and western composers.

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Lei Cai was born in Shanghai, China. His musical training began at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music when he was six.  Having received the prestigious Shanghai Conservatory Scholarship Award for five consecutive years, he came to the United States in 1992. He secured the MM in Piano Performance at the University of Tennessee, DM in Piano Performance at the Florida State University. His teachers include Qing-Hua Wang, Stanley Potter, David Northington, and Leonard Mastrogiacomo. Dr. Cai joined the music faculty at Ouachita Baptist University in 2001, and serves as Professor of Piano.

Dr. Cai has collaborated with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra on CD. He has premiered and recorded solo works by famous Chinese composers for Radio Shanghai; those critically acclaimed recordings have been broadcast in China. He has presented numerous recitals in China, Europe, and the United States. His performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No.1 was described as “one of the finest performances of this work…Cai displayed a power and crispness of technique that would make any soloist proud” (Knoxville News-Sentinel). Radio Shanghai described his playing as “clear, colorful, and poetic.”

Dr. Cai has won numerous awards, including the 1998 Music Teachers National Association Southern Division Collegiate Artist Piano Competition, the 1997 Young Chang Artist Competition, the 1997 Oak Ridge Symphony Young Artist Competition, Tallahassee Music Guild Award, and the Liberace Scholarship Award for Performing Arts. He has been invited to judge national competitions, to perform at world-famous music halls including the Sydney Opera House and at historical music sites such as the SchumannHaus, to hold master classes in the United States, Korea and China, to perform as the featured artist at the national convention of the National Federation of Music Clubs and at the “Hands on Piano” International Piano Conference in Portugal, to present lecture recitals at the state convention of Florida State Music Teachers Association, and has produced MTNA student competition winners. Dr. Cai was inducted into the “Steinway Teacher Hall of Fame” in 2023.

Pianist Hee-Kyung Juhn was described as “subtle, technically brilliant, a top notch, superb pianist” by New York Concert Review, “sensitive and imaginative” by the American Record Guide. Upon the release of her Bach’s Goldberg Variations recording, Santa Barbara News-Press declared “We have a strong new Goldberg contender in the marvelous Hee-Kyung,” and Gramophone noted “her acumen for voice-leading lends impressive clarity.”  Her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations has been released on MSR Classics and is widely available.

Hee-Kyung Juhn made her orchestra debut at age 16 with Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción playing Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto. She has also been featured as a soloist with New York Classical Players, Camerata Miranda, Pine Bluff Orchestra, Central Coast Philharmonia, Mass Brass, and others. She has performed in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie, Paul Hall, and 92 Street Y in New York, Utzon Room in Sydney Opera House, Schumannhaus in Leipzig, Teatro Municipal in Asunción, and performed extensively in Korea (Sejong Cultural Center, Seoul Arts Center Recital Hall, HoAm Art Hall, Youngsan Art Hall, Kumho Arts Center) and other venues in Belgium, Brazil, Japan, and Portugal. During 2020-22 season, Hee-Kyung toured with violinist Tai Murray, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, BBC Artist, and Yale faculty, and performed a violin/piano duo program in New York City, Albany, Pittsburgh, and Boston. This tour started with the streamed concert from the 92nd Street Y in New York City during the pandemic. Dr. Juhn served as a judge and adjudicator at several regional and national competitions, including MTNA, NFMC, and other music competitions in the states of Alaska, California, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

Hee-Kyung Juhn was born in South Korea, lived her teenage years in Paraguay, South America, and was later trained at Rutgers University, The Juilliard School (MM), University of Michigan, and Indiana University (DM). She received further training at the summer festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin, Yale Summer Piano Institute, International Summer Institute in Brasilia, and Tanglewood Music Center in Boston as a fellow. Her teachers include Leonard Hokanson (a pupil of Artur Schnabel), Arthur Greene, Martin Canin, and collaborative pianists Martin Katz, Marshall Williamson, and Jonathan Feldman.

A versatile pianist, Hee-Kyung Juhn has worked as an opera coach/repetiteur, harpsichordist, staff/faculty accompanist at several summer institutions with vocalists and instrumentalists: Opera Lírico del Paraguay, Great Mountains International Music Festival in South Korea, Martina Arroyo Foundation in New York City, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and most recently the Bay View Summer Music Festival in Michigan. As a church musician, she has served as an organist and choirmaster for several years.

As an academic, Hee-Kyung Juhn taught at the University of California in Santa Barbara (as a full-time Lecturer) and Henderson State University in Arkansas (as a tenured member), and part-time as artist-in-residence at the University of Arkansas in Pine Bluff. She has taught masterclasses at University of Texas in Arlington, University of Georgia in Atlanta, Kennesaw State University, Baylor University, University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Daegu Catholic University, JoongAng University, and Eastern China Normal University. Hee-Kyung was heard on NPR and other broadcasting venues such as TBS eFM in Seoul, Korea; and most recently NPR’s “From the Top” with young violinist Samuel Garcia.