Frank Huang
Encyclopedia
Frank Xin Huang is a Chinese
-born American
violin
ist and teacher. He has won several international music competitions, most notably the 2003 Naumburg Competition
. Huang has concertized widely as a soloist, and his debut recording has been critically acclaimed. Effective 2009, he has been appointed the first violinist of the Ying Quartet
and a professor of violin and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music
. On January 19, 2010, it was announced that Huang would be leaving the Eastman School and the Ying Quartet in order to assume his new position as concertmaster of the Houston Symphony.
and moved to the United States with his family when he was 7. As a child in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, Texas
, he began violin lessons with his mother, then commenced study with Fredell Lack
in Houston. He first soloed with orchestra at 9. At 10 he received eight curtain calls for his solo performance of Wieniawski
's Scherzo Tarantelle with the Houston Youth Symphony Philharmonia Orchestra. At 11 Huang was a soloist with the Houston Symphony
in a nationally broadcast performance. At 16 he enrolled in the pre-college program at the Cleveland Institute of Music
, where he studied with Donald Weilerstein; he continued studies with Weilerstein in college and earned his Bachelor of Music
degree from CIM in 2002. Subsequently he attended the Juilliard School
in New York City
, studying violin with Robert Mann
.
in 2004 to high acclaim (see "Reviews and commentary," below). He has performed as a soloist with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra
, the Genoa Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra
, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
, the NDR-Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hanover
, and others. Huang has appeared on American Morning
(CNN
), Good Morning America
(ABC
), and Performance Today
(National Public Radio). He has performed at many of the most prestigious music festivals in the U.S., including the Caramoor Festival
, the Marlboro Music Festival
, and Ravinia
, and has participated in The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
's CMS II program.
, Ernst
, Schoenberg
, and Franz Waxman
. Naxos Records
8.557121 (recorded 2002; released 2003).
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and teacher. He has won several international music competitions, most notably the 2003 Naumburg Competition
Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
The Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of...
. Huang has concertized widely as a soloist, and his debut recording has been critically acclaimed. Effective 2009, he has been appointed the first violinist of the Ying Quartet
Ying Quartet
The Ying Quartet is an American string quartet. The Ying siblings from Winnetka, Illinois, formed the quartet in 1988 while studying at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. The quartet began performing in the farm town of Jesup, Iowa, as the first artists involved in the National...
and a professor of violin and chamber music at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
. On January 19, 2010, it was announced that Huang would be leaving the Eastman School and the Ying Quartet in order to assume his new position as concertmaster of the Houston Symphony.
Early life and musical training
Frank Huang was born in BeijingBeijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and moved to the United States with his family when he was 7. As a child in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, Texas
Sugar Land, Texas
Sugar Land is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the metropolitan area and Fort Bend County. Sugar Land is one of the most affluent and fastest-growing cities in Texas, having grown more than 158 percent in the last decade. In the time period of 2000–2007, Sugar Land also enjoyed a...
, he began violin lessons with his mother, then commenced study with Fredell Lack
Fredell Lack
Fredell Lack is an American violinist. Noted as a concert soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, and teacher, she is retired from a position as the C. W...
in Houston. He first soloed with orchestra at 9. At 10 he received eight curtain calls for his solo performance of Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski
Henryk Wieniawski was a Polish violinist and composer.-Biography:Henryk Wieniawski was born in Lublin, Congress Poland, Russian Empire. His father, Tobiasz Pietruszka, had converted to Catholicism. His talent for playing the violin was recognized early, and in 1843 he entered the Paris...
's Scherzo Tarantelle with the Houston Youth Symphony Philharmonia Orchestra. At 11 Huang was a soloist with the Houston Symphony
Houston Symphony Orchestra
The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....
in a nationally broadcast performance. At 16 he enrolled in the pre-college program at the Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music
The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States and is overseen by president Joel Smirnoff and Adrian Daly, dean....
, where he studied with Donald Weilerstein; he continued studies with Weilerstein in college and earned his Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music
Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...
degree from CIM in 2002. Subsequently he attended the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, studying violin with Robert Mann
Robert Mann
Robert Mann is a musician, composer, and conductor.He was a founding member and first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet for 52 years, and mentor to younger generations of string musicians....
.
Career
As a winner of several international music competitions (see "Awards and distinctions" below), Frank Huang is much in demand as a soloist, both in recital and with orchestra, and as a chamber musician. Huang performed his New York debut recital at Alice Tully HallAlice Tully Hall
Alice Tully Hall is a concert hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City. It is named for Alice Tully, a New York performer and philanthropist whose donations assisted in the construction of the hall...
in 2004 to high acclaim (see "Reviews and commentary," below). He has performed as a soloist with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
, the Genoa Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra
Houston Symphony Orchestra
The Houston Symphony is an American orchestra based in Houston, Texas. Since 1966, it has performed at the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts in downtown Houston....
, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana.Annually, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performs 200 concerts for over 350,000 people. It is the largest performing arts organization in Indiana. The ISO is currently one of only 18 American...
, the NDR-Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hanover
North German Radio Symphony Orchestra
The North German Radio Symphony Orchestra is a German orchestra, the symphony orchestra of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg....
, and others. Huang has appeared on American Morning
American Morning
American Morning is the morning television show on CNN. It premiered in 2001.-About the show:American Morning is hosted by Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin & Soledad O'Brien. Others who appear regularly are Rob Marciano with the weather, Sunny Hostin on legal news, and CNN senior medical...
(CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
), Good Morning America
Good Morning America
Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...
(ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
), and Performance Today
Performance Today
Performance Today is a Peabody Award-winning classical music radio show, currently hosted by Fred Child. It is the most listened-to daily classical music radio program in the United States, with 1.2 million listeners on 237 stations...
(National Public Radio). He has performed at many of the most prestigious music festivals in the U.S., including the Caramoor Festival
Caramoor International Music Festival
The Caramoor International Music Festival is a summer music festival founded in 1945 that is held on the estate of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Inc., which includes a Mediterranean-style stucco villa and is located about north of New York City in Katonah, New York.The Caramoor...
, the Marlboro Music Festival
Marlboro Music School and Festival
The Marlboro Music School and Festival is a retreat for advanced classical training and musicianship held for seven weeks each summer in Marlboro, Vermont...
, and Ravinia
Ravinia Park
Ravinia Festival is the oldest outdoor music festival in the United States, with a series of outdoor concerts and performances held every summer from June to September. It has been the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1936...
, and has participated in The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is an American organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. Its website states that it is "the nation’s premier repertory company for chamber music."...
's CMS II program.
Awards and distinctions
- 3rd prize, 1999 Ima HoggIma HoggIma Hogg , known as "The First Lady of Texas", was an American philanthropist, patron and collector of the arts, and one of the most respected women in Texas during the 20th century. Hogg was an avid art collector, and owned works by Picasso, Klee, and Matisse, among others...
National Young Artist Competition, Houston - 2nd prize, 1999 Premio Paganini International Violin CompetitionPaganini CompetitionThe Paganini Competition is an international violin competition named after the famed virtuoso and founder of contemporary violin technique Niccolò Paganini. Created in 1954 it has been carried out ever since in the months of September and October. The "Paganini Competition" is one of the most...
, GenoaGenoaGenoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... - 1st prize, Kingsville International Competition, Kingsville, TexasKingsville, TexasAs of the census of 2000, there were 25,575 people, 8,943 households, and 6,134 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,848.8 people per square mile . There were 10,427 housing units at an average density of 753.8 per square mile...
- 1st prize, 1999 Irving M. Klein International String CompetitionKlein CompetitionThe Irving M. Klein International String Competition is recognized as the world’s leading competition for young string musicians and one of the most prestigious international events . It is open to young musicians, ages fifteen to twenty-three and takes place every June in San Francisco, California...
, San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland... - 1st prize, 2000 D’Angelo International Competition, Erie, PennsylvaniaErie, PennsylvaniaErie is a city located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the United States. Named for the lake and the Native American tribe that resided along its southern shore, Erie is the state's fourth-largest city , with a population of 102,000...
- 1st prize, 2000 Hanover International Violin Competition
- 4th place laureate, 2002 International Violin Competition of IndianapolisIndianapolisIndianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
- 1st prize, 2003 Naumburg International Violin CompetitionWalter W. Naumburg FoundationThe Walter W. Naumburg Foundation sponsors competitions and provides awards for young classical musicians in North America. It was founded in 1925 by Walter Wehle Naumburg, a wealthy amateur cellist and son of noted New York music patron and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg. Elkan Naumburg, owner of...
, New York CityNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
Reviews and commentary
- "Huang made everything he played seem easy. . . . In the end, what impressed most was Huang’s total grasp of each musical idiom he addressed and his ability to communicate such a variety of styles with force and immediacy. A debut recital of this quality used to be an automatic passport to a major career." —"Sweet Sounds" by Peter J. Davis in New YorkNew York (magazine)New York is a weekly magazine principally concerned with the life, culture, politics, and style of New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to The New Yorker, it was brasher and less polite than that magazine, and established itself as a cradle of New...
magazine, 2 February 2004 - "One had a right to expect technical competence. . . . But Huang had much more than that on offer. He is a sensational musician. . . . a musician of elegance and impeccable taste. . . . There were simply no flaws." —"Fine Fiddling" by Heuwell Tircuit at SFCV.org (San Francisco Classical Voice), 1 December 2003
- "[An] important artist." —San Francisco ChronicleSan Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
Discography
Violin Recital. With Dina Vainstein, piano. "Fantasies" by SchubertFranz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
, Ernst
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst
Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst was a Moravian-Jewish violinist, violist and composer. Ernst was widely seen as the outstanding violinist of his time and one of Paganini's greatest successors....
, Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
, and Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman
Franz Waxman was a German-American composer, known for his bravura Carmen Fantasie for violin and orchestra, based on musical themes from the Bizet opera Carmen, and for his musical scores for films....
. Naxos Records
Naxos Records
Naxos Records is a record label specializing in classical music. Through a number of imprints, Naxos also releases genres including Chinese music, jazz, world music, and early rock & roll. The company was founded in 1987 by Klaus Heymann, a German-born resident of Hong Kong.Naxos is the largest...
8.557121 (recorded 2002; released 2003).
Sources
- Cleveland Institute of Music Notes March/April/May 2004
- Huang's biography at Hannover International Violin Competition website
- Huang's biography at Naxos website
- Irving M. Klein International String Competition website
- "Local violinist honored" by Charles Ward. Houston ChronicleHouston ChronicleThe Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
, 27 June 2003. - "Youth Symphony offers peek at musical future" by Betty Ewing. Houston Chronicle, 24 May 1989.