Texas Summertime Groupmuse

Excited to host these two incredible musicians at my next Groupmuse!

Dr. Gustavo Bianchi has enjoyed a distinguished international career, having performed in halls across the US, South America, and Asia. His long list of honors and awards includes prizes at the Sidney Wright Piano Accompanying Competition (first prize, 2003), the prestigious Bartok and Kabalevsky International Piano Competition (first prize, 1998), and the Florida Young Chang Artist Competition (first prize, 1998) to name a few. He also received a Pre-emptive Fellowship to attend University of Texas at Austin.

As a soloist and chamber musician, he has studied with and been coached by renowned artists and pedagogues including Anton Nel, Menahem Pressler, José Feghali, Randall Hodgkinson, Leonard Mastrogiacomo, Sergei Schepkin, and Yara Bernette. In addition, his first piano teacher, Nadia Soledade, was a student of Alfred Cortot. Cortot studied at the Paris Convervatoire under Emile Descombes (a pupil of the famous composer, Frederic Chopin). He has studied piano pedagogy with Sophia Gilmson, Martha Hilley, Victoria McArthur, and Faina Bryanskaya.

Dr. Bianchi was a teaching assistant at the University of Texas at Austin from 2003 to 2005. Upon graduation, he was hired as an adjunct faculty for the Butler school of Music in the capacity of collaborative pianist. Since then he has performed and taught masterclasses for several universities and cultural organizations in the USA, from California to Pennsylvania. He served as Vice president of the ADMTA from 2011 to 2014 and has been in the board of the Mika Hasler Young Artist Competition Foundation since its inception in 2012. In 2014, Dr. Bianchi performed several concerts and masterclasses in Beijing, Xi'an, and Hangzhou, China and last year he was invited to be a faculty member of the Burgos International Music festival in Spain.

Dr. Bianchi earned his doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin and his master's and bachelor's degrees from Florida State University. He also attended the pre-college music program at the New England Conservatory, as well as the Longy School of Music in Boston. He currently works in Austin where he is a highly sought-out pianist, collaborative artist, and teacher.

Christabel Lin was born in New Zealand and made her first major solo appearance with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (New Zealand) at the age of 10 for an audience of 250,000. Since then, she has appeared as a soloist with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (NZ), Taichung Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan), the Austin Civic Orchestra (Austin, TX) and the Vienna Conservatory Chamber Orchestra in venues such as the Sydney Opera House and the Wiener Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic.

In 2012 she was a full time violin player in the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra in Vienna, Austria before moving to Austin, Texas in 2013 to further her education at the University of Texas at Austin in the Artist's Diploma program with Professor Brian Lewis.

Christabel has been the winner of numerous chamber music competitions and has been involved in extensive chamber music performances and tours, which have taken her throughout New Zealand, to Asia and the UK (including St. Martins in the Fields in London and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival). She has collaborated with artists from around the world, including Anton Sorokow (Concertmaster, Vienna Symphony), Anton Nel (solo pianist and chamber musician), and David Kim (Concertmaster, Philadelphia Orchestra). In 2006, her string quartet, the Antipodes String Quartet, was selected to study extensively through the Graduate String Quartet program under the mentorship of the acclaimed New Zealand String Quartet at the New Zealand School of Music, where Christabel graduated with a Bachelor of Music in violin performance. She holds a Master's degree from the Vienna Conservatory.

Christabel is adjunct professor of violin at Concordia University in Austin, TX, and at Austin Community College. She is also on faculty at Suzuki Strings of Austin, and at Austin Chamber Music Center as a chamber music coach. Christabel is a member of the Austin Opera orchestra, and has performed as a collaborative artist for Austin Chamber Music Center.

Christabel an active performer who is involved in many projects of various artistic mediums. She holds a regular open chamber music reading event, Classical Jams Austin, at Batch Craft Beer and Kolaches every last Wednesday of the month, and played the role of Ex-Girlfriend in the 2018 production of Once the Musical at the Zach Theatre. Also in 2018, she was nominated for two B. Iden Payne Theatre Awards in the categories of Best Musical Performance and Best Original Score for her work in the play, Little Bird by the Heartland Theatre Collective.

What's the music?

Gustavo Bianchi

Christabel Lin Violin

Attendees

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Shernaz G.

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David H.

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Bruce

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Henri T.

Graham Y.

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Becca B.

Valdone A. (she/her)