ARTISTS
Michael Stephen Brown, Piano
Orion Weiss, Piano
Wu Han, Piano
Wu Qian, Piano
PROGRAM
Mozart Sonata in C major for Piano, Four Hands, K. 521 (1787)
Mendelssohn Andante and Variations for Piano, Four Hands,Op. 83a (1844)
Mendelssohn Andante and Allegro brillant for Piano, FourHands, Op. 92 (1841)
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DvořákSlavonic Dances for Piano, Four Hands (1878, 1886)
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue for Piano, Four Hands (arr.Henry Levine) (1924)
Michael Stephen Brown is a composer and pianist hailed by the NewYork Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” The 2026 Andrew Wolf Award Winner and a recent fellow at both MacDowell and Yaddo, he is also a recipient of Lincoln Center’s Emerging Artist Award and an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Brown performs internationally and receives commissions from orchestras, soloists, and festivals around the world. Recent highlights include a recital at Alice Tully Hall for CMS, and collaborations with cellist Nicholas Canellakis and violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Kristin Lee, and Arnaud Sussmann. He is currently composing The Carnival of Endangered Wonders, a CMS-led project co-presented by a consortium of US presenters. His first album devoted entirely to his music, Twelve Blocks, was released in February 2026. Brown is also composing the score for Angeline Gragasin’s upcoming film Look But Don’t Touch and is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program. He lives in New York City with his two 19th-century Steinways, Octavia and Daria.
Orion Weiss is widely regarded as a “brilliant pianist” (New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (Washington Post). He has performed with dozens of orchestras in North America including the Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and New York Philharmonic and at major venues and festivals worldwide. Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists Augustin Hadelich and James Ehnes; pianists Michael Stephen Brown and Shai Wosner; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets. In recent seasons, he has also performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Weiss can be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, First Hand, Yarlung, and Artek labels. Weiss has been awarded the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship. A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax.
Pianist Wu Han, recipient of Musical America’s Musician of the Year Award, enjoys a multi-faceted musical life that encompasses artistic direction, performing, and recording at the highest levels. Co-Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2004 as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Silicon Valley’s innovative chamber music festival Music@Menlo since 2002, she also serves as Artistic Advisor for Wolf Trap’s Chamber Music at the Barns series and Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts, and as Artistic Director for La Musica in Sarasota, Florida. Her recent concert activities have taken her from New York’s Lincoln Center stages to the most important concert halls in the United States, Europe,and Asia. In addition to countless performances of virtually the entire chamber repertoire, her concerto performances include appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of ArtistLed, classical music’s first artist-directed, internet-based recording label, which has released her performances of the staples of the cello-piano duo repertoire with cellist David Finckel. Her more than 80 releases on ArtistLed, CMS Live, and Music@Menlo LIVE include masterworks of the chamber repertoire with numerous distinguished musicians. Wu Han’s educational activities include overseeing CMS’s Bowers Program and the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. A recipient of the prestigious Andrew Wolf Award, she was mentored by some of the greatest pianists of our time, including Lilian Kallir, Rudolf Serkin, and Menahem Pressler. Married to cellist David Finckel since 1985, Wu Han divides her time between concert touring and residences in New York City and Westchester County.
Winner of a 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award and first prize in the Trio di Trieste DuoCompetition, pianist Wu Qian has performed worldwide for over two decades. As soloist she has appeared with the Konzerthaus Orchester in Berlin, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brussels Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the London Mozart Players, I Virtuosi Italiani, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, and the Munich Symphoniker. She is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio with which, in addition to performing in major concert halls and series around the world, she has released critically acclaimed and prize-winning recordings on the BIS and Wigmore Live labels. Wu Qian is an alum of CMS’s Bowers Program and is the Artistic Director of the Surrey Hills International Festival in Surrey, UK.
