Yuko Uébayashi is a composer who was born in Japan and presently resides in France. She moved to Paris in 1998 and through her encounters with musicians and artists found inspiration for the music she wrote for the next 20 years. Her music has been described as “Debussy and Ravel meet in Nippon” and soloist Jean Ferrandis characterized Uebayashi’s works as “gems that, although they are so different, they yet belong to the same world, a world of vivacity, dreams, tenderness, and humour”. The first movement of her Sonate for flute and piano, which she dedicated to flutist Jean Ferrandis and pianist Emile Naumoff, is likely the most famously representative of her unique style. On its premiere it was referred to as Piéce which later became the full 4 movement sonata. During this unprecedented time following the 2020 French quarantine Thomaz Tavares and Suejin Jung (19/20 Woolley Scholars) have the chance to put together a video recording of this first movement as well as present a masterclass video recording with international soloist Jean Ferrandis, for whom the sonata was originally written, exploring the tender and magical world of Yuko Uebayashi’s music.
The Program
Yuko Uebayashi
Sonata for Flute and Piano
I. Lento
About the Musicians
Korean American pianist Suejin Jung has appeared in concert at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Steinway Hall, Count Basie Theatre, le Poisson Rouge, and other opportunities through the Stecher and Horowitz Foundation. Highlights of 2019-2020 season include an artist residency at the Fondation des États-Unis in Paris, France as a recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship, performance at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, and guest artist appearance at the Vršac International Chamber Music Festival in Vršac, Serbia. Her interview and performances have been broadcasted live on WWFM radio and aired nationally in a documentary Piano Forte on PBS. She studied at The Juilliard School and is a candidate of DMA at the Mason Gross School of the Arts of Rutgers University. Currently, she is pursuing a stage de perfectionnement at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris where she is working closely with Anne Queffélec.
Flutist Thomaz Tavares Paes has been praised by the Virginia Gazette as a « polished performer, with a pure, direct sound…embracing the work’s lyrical and virtuoso demands. » A native New Yorker later raised in Brazil, Thomaz Tavares completed his Bachelor’s degree in flute performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Thomas Robertello with a “Premier Young Artist” scholarship. He later started his graduate studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris under international soloist Jean Ferrandis, and recently obtained his Diplome Supérieur D’Execution with unanimous distinction from the jury. Tavares is a recipient of the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year, during which he will be exploring French solo and chamber music of the Belle Epoque period as well as interning with the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle Europe.