The Road to Zlin
These series of albums provide a unique platform for emerging voices in classical composition and performance, offering listeners a journey through both familiar traditions and unexplored musical landscapes.
Featured Works:
S. Rachmaninoff- Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2, Op.18 (1st movement)
Gong Qian - Strings Attached
W.A. Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 12 in A Major, K. 414 (1st movement)
Reiner Stegmann - Aprěs la guerre
E. Grieg - Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 16 (2nd movement)
G. Puccini - In quelle trine morbide, from 'Manon Lescaut'
F. Mendelssohn - Bartholdy - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 64 (1st movement)
Featured Artists:
Jennifer Savage (piano)
Louise Ting (piano)
Zhibin Chiam (piano)
Jelena Stefanic (soprano)
Kevin Matheson (violin)
Gong-Qian Yang (composer)
Rainer Stegmann (composer)
Artists' Biographies
Jennifer Savage
Jennifer Savage received her Master Manhattan School of Music, New York, studying piano performance with Arkady Aronov and Efrem Briskin under the Elva van Gelder Memorial and Constance Keene piano scholarship, previously studying at the MSM Precollege with Dr. Anna Ouspenskaya at the Levine School of Music. An avid performer, Jennifer has appeared as a soloist with the Virtuosi Brunensis Orchestra and at prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall, historical Palazzo dei Priori in Perugia Italy, the DiCapo Opera Theater in New York, and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
Jennifer has won numerous competitions, both in solo and chamber music, performing at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Merkin Concert Hall at the Kaufman Center in NY, Palazzo dei Priori in Italy, DiCapo Opera Theater in New York, Embassy of Italy, Mexican Cultural Institute, Lyceum in Alexandria, featured on Cable TV: A Holiday Recital, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Netherlands Embassy, Alden Theater Music Friends Concert, and the Kimmel Center in PA as well as giving a lecture-concert in Wuhan, China.
Louise Ting
Elite International Music Competition First Prize Carnegie Hall, Manhattan NY – January 2023
Golden Classical Music Awards First Prize and Exceptional Young Talent Special Prize and Carnegie Hall Manhattan, NY – July 2022
Windsor International Piano Competition Category A - 3rd Prize – July 2022
International Music Competition Amsterdam "Grand Prize Virtuoso" First Prize plus Exceptional Young Talent Special Prize "Young Musician Category" July 2022
International Music Competition Salzburg "Grand Prize Virtuoso" First Prize plus Exceptional Young Talent Special Prize "Young Musician Category" July 2022
7th Paderewski International Piano Competition Special Online Edition - Honorable Mention – June 2022
10th Concorso Musicale Ineternazionale Citta Di Palmanova Premio UNESCO First Prize Cat E - May 2022
Young Promise International 2021 Piano Competition Second Place – May 2021
Crescendo International Music Competition First Place - January 2021
Zhibin Chiam
Zhibin Chiam lives for the magical moments of sharing great music with audiences worldwide. He worked as an accompanist for 12 years before he played for the Belgian American pianist Tedd Joselson and with Joselson’s guidance has been developing his distinctive pianism of sensitivity, refinement and imagination ever since.
Season 2024/25 sees Zhibin Chiam performing at Music Fest Perugia in Italy and Season 2025/26 includes a solo recital at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Within 2 years of starting a concert career, Zhibin Chiam has played with the Orquestra do Algarve and the Orchestra delle Cento Città, played with the conductors Marius Stravinsky and Maurizio Colasanti, and has been signed by Price Attractions. His performances have taken him to Italy, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Hong Kong and Singapore. His audiences have included dignitaries from the Embassy of Italy and the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Singapore.
A pianist of distinctive pedigree, Zhibin Chiam presently studies with Tedd Joselson and is an heir in the lineage of Vladimir Horowitz, Rudolf Serkin and Clifford Curzon. He has studied with Boris Kraljevic who is a postgraduate of the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory in Moscow in the class of Lev Naumov, a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus. He has taken masterclasses with Mikhail Voskresenky (who worked with Dmitri Shostakovich), Jean-David Coen, Ian Jones, David Fung, Rixiang Huang, Danijel Gasparovic and Christopher Elton. He also attended a summer school at the Musikakademie Tübingen, Germany where he studied with Wei Tsin-Fu.
Zhibin Chiam has garnered multiple awards and prizes including Bronze Hands at the Carles and Sofia International Piano Competition 2024, Distinction at the WPTA Italy International Piano Competition 2024, Gold Award at the Gold Star International Music Competition 2024 Singapore Preliminary, Finalist in the colORCHESTRA Auditions 2024, Career Project Prize at the 5th Swiss International Online Music Competition 2023, Silver Award at the 5th WPTA Singapore International Piano Competition 2023, Special Prize in the 2023 Pacific Stars International Piano Competition, Gold Award in the 1st Ars Nova Fest in Singapore, Bronze Award in the 1st WPTA Singapore International Piano Competition, and Platinum Award in the 1st Le Petit Performers’ Festival in Singapore.
Jelena Stefanic
Jelena is Croatian soprano performing wide range of roles, spanning from iconic Baroque heroines, to Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Operetta Diva roles.
Jelena is a Croatian soprano performing a wide range of roles, spanning from iconic Baroque heroines to Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Operetta Diva roles.
When she was only 16 years old, she made her debut in Varaždin as Hyale in Acteon under the baton of Laurence Cummings. Through years she appeared at numerous stages such as Vienna Musikverein, State Opera Ruse, Bulgaria, State Opera Maldybayev, Croatian National Theatres in Varazdin, Osijek, Pola. Then NCPA Beijing, Carnegie Hall, Tokyo Bunka Kaikan, Mythos Opera Festival (Catania, Taormina Teatro Greco), Schlosstheater Schönbrunn Vienna, Vienna Volksoper, Teatro della Ciudad Mexico, Grand Theatre Suzhou, Bridewell Theatre London, Kensington Opera London and many more. Her repertoire include roles: Traviata, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Elettra in Idomeneo, Vitellia in Clemenza di Tito, First Lady in Magic flute, Konstanze, Rosalinde in die Fledermaus, Countess Mariza, Angelica in Orlando, Verdi Requiem, Lady Macbeth, Thais, Donna Anna, Desdemona, Medea, Tosca, Tatyana and many more.
She is an alumna of iSING Festival China, under guidance of Hao Jiang Tian and honorary chair Placido Domingo. In 2012 Jelena was invited to participate on Domingo’s Operalia as the first Croatian female singer in the long history of this greatest competition.
From 2021 Jelena is a casting director of small Classical Music Festival, Noctes Aquae Iasae in Croatia.
Kevin Matheson
Violinist Kevin Matheson was awarded first prize in the 2021 Charleston International Music Competition for his performance of Vieuxtemps’ “Souvenirs d’Amérique.”
Kevin Matheson, with his brother as violin-viola duo, received critical acclaim at their Carnegie Weill Recital Hall debut as part of the Ibla Grand Prize competition winners’ tour. They have been recognized for their mesmerizing and spirited performances - two perfect virtuosos, playing as one. Their two successful tours to Japan included recorded performances at Yamaha Hall in Tokyo.
Kevin performed Vivaldi’s Four Violin Concertos with the Irish Sinfonietta Orchestra in New York City and has performed Bruch and Mozart concertos with the Valley Chamber Orchestra at Hollins University. Matheson is a frequent recitalist and chamber musician on concert series throughout Virginia. He has organized new ballet choreography for his performances of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, selections from Bartok’s 44 Duos for Two Violins and other works with the Roanoke Ballet Theatre and Southwest Virginia Ballet. Kevin Matheson has arranged many Broadway, movie, operatic and orchestral works for his violin-viola-piano trio which tours for the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
Kevin Matheson has commissioned and premiered new chamber compositions, recorded five CDs and is a Performing Artist for Young Audiences of Virginia, presenting school concerts throughout the state. He is concertmaster of the Orchestra of Virginia’s Blue Ridge and Adjunct Instructor at Hollins University.
Gong-Qian Yang
Yang’s music is in the 21st century modern classical music style ranging from Choral, movie soundtrack, TV, radio headlines and gaming music, soundscape, to symphonic works such as "Nature and Me " Symphonic Poem and "Dawn-Awakening", etc. His music is natural, easy listening, uplifting and inspirational.
As a composer, producer and publisher, Gong Qian Yang has released seven of his music albums:
"Sonic Poem”;
"Sonic Spring by Gong Qian Yang”;
"Sonic Wave by Gong Qian Yang”;
"Lean on Me”;
"Music for Yoga and More”;
"Sonic Fusion”;
"Space and Stars” - Yang's inspiration for communication with nature: Birds, Forest, Seashore, Wave, Wind, Night sky, Moon and twinkling stars.
As an accomplished violinist, Yang has been twice first-prize winner of the Starling International Scholarship Foundation in U.S. He pursued his violin study with the legendary violin teacher Prof. Dorothy Delay and Prof. Kurt Sassmannshaus at both Aspen music Festival and Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music (CCM). Yang has been conferred a Master's Degree of Music. Yang also studied with Ms. Kathleen Lenski, and Prof. Robert Lipsett earlier when he was in California.
Yang very much enjoyed taking composer Joel Hoffman's class at CCM. He was also very grateful to his music mentor Gerhard Samuel (who studied composition with Paul Hindemith and conducting with Koussevitzky). Yang was coached and influenced by Prof. Samuel on modern music languages and new music for the future. Fortunately, Yang was offered the opportunity to play Prof. Samuel's Gagliano violin during the time while he was studying at CCM.
While enjoying a successful career as soloist and concert artist, Yang always kept keen interest in music composition. Focusing on his music production, Yang has studied a wide range of repertoire and a great diversity of music by western masters. As a sensible composer, Yang has often been inspired by the harmony between all the creatures in the universe. A lot of his music ideas came to him when he was on his music tour. He was humming along on the way to Nashville, and his heart was singing when he was driving in the Appalachian Mountains. Yang says he enjoys being close to nature whether it is sunny or rainy; he feels the energy and harmony coming from everywhere.
Yang’s music is in the 21st century modern classical music style ranging from Choral, movie soundtrack, TV, radio headlines and gaming music, soundscape, to symphonic works such as "Nature and Me " Symphonic Poem and "Dawn-Awakening", etc. His music is natural, easy listening, uplifting and inspirational.
Rainer Stegmann
Rainer Stegmann is a concert guitarist, composer and music educator. He studied in Frankfurt am Main at the Musikhochschule and at the Dr. Hoch's Conservatory. Rainer Stegmann performs as a soloist, in various chamber music casts and with orchestra. His musical focus is clearly in the field of new music. He wants to prove that contemporary music is not just for experts.
Rainer Stegmann has performed numerous rarely heard contemporary chamber music and solo works for guitar. His CDs 'Soundscapes I, II and III' published by the classical label GENUIN received excellent reviews and established Rainer Stegmann as a globally respected interpreter of contemporary music. Rainer Stegmann has been active in composition since his youth. His teacher at the Frankfurt University of Music was Prof. Jürgen Blume. After that, he continued his autodidactically training, but also in courses, e.g. with Leo Brouwer.
In his compositions, he often mixes different musical styles. He loves the strict classical forms as well as the free, quasi-improvisatory of contemporary music, but also rock and jazz. In his oeuvre there are solo, chamber music and orchestral works. www.rainerstegmann.de