Cellist Bion Tsang

Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition.  Mr. Tsang’s career highlights include many great stages and studios.  He is seen on the PBS Great Performances Now Hear This series with Scott Yoo, including “Beethoven’s Ghost” (S2 E4) and “Schumann: Genius and Madness” (S4 E2), and earned a Grammy nomination for his performance on the PBS special A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert (Harmonia Mundi).  With pianist Anton Nel, he recorded the only classical music concert ever performed on the Austin City Limits stage for the Austin PBS series Arts in Context.

Mr. Tsang has established a distinguished and venerable career as both a soloist and chamber music collaborator, having performed around the globe with the Mexico City, Moscow, Busan and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the Atlanta, Pacific, Civic, American and National Symphony Orchestras, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Saint Paul and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, the Seoul Sinfonietta and the Taiwan National Orchestra.  As a chamber musician, he has: shared the stage with violinists James Ehnes, Pamela Frank, Nai-Yuan Hu, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Chee Yun, violists Paul Neubauer and Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher; been a frequent guest artist of the Chamber Music Societies of Boston, Brooklyn, Fort Worth, Seattle and Vancouver, Accordo in Minneapolis, Chamber Music International in Dallas, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica in Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York; and performed at summer festivals worldwide, including the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, Festival Mozaic, Le Musicimes Courcheval, Marlboro Music, Music in the Vineyards, Orford Musique and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as violinists James Ehnes, Pamela Frank, Nai-Yuan Hu, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Chee Yun, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher. He has been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Fort Worth Chamber Music Society, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Cape Cod, Tucson, Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado, Music in the Vineyards and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.

Mr. Tsang’s discography includes three live recordings: Beethoven: Sonatas and Variations for Cello and Piano (Artek), Brahms: Cello Sonatas and Four Hungarian Dances (Artek), and Bion Tsang & Adam Neiman: Live at Jordan Hall (BHM Media).  He released The Blue Rock Sessions (BHM Media), featuring his own virtuoso transcriptions for cello and piano, followed by Dvořák/Enescu Cello Concertos (Sony Classical) with conductor Scott Yoo and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the complete Bach Solo Cello Suites (Sony Classical), and Cantabile (Universal Classics), again with Yoo and the RSNO.

A versatile collaborator, Mr. Tsang was featured on the soundtrack to Recapturing Cuba: An Artists Journey, a PBS documentary by Trinity Films, winning two Gold Medals—Director’s Choice and Artistic Excellence—at the Park City Film Music Festival, coincident to the Sundance Film Festival.  With the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company, he has performed solo cello onstage alongside the dancers in productions of There, After... (to the music of the Kodaly Solo Cello Sonata) and Plaza X (Bach Solo Cello Suites).

Mr. Tsang made his professional debut at age eleven in two concerts with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. That same year he returned to perform two more concerts with Mehta and the Philharmonic. One of these performances was broadcast worldwide on the CBS Festival of Lively Arts television series. While still in his teens, he became the youngest cellist ever to receive a Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize and the youngest recipient ever of an Artists International Award. He was also chosen as a Finalist of the NFAA’s Arts Recognition and Talent Search and subsequently as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At age nineteen, Tsang became the youngest cellist to win a prize in the VIII International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on America Online as CultureFinder’s “Star Find of the Week,” on the Internet Cello Society as “Artist of the Month,” and most recently in print in the book 21st-Century Cellists.

Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at age six and cello at age seven. The following year, he entered The Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal cello teachers have included Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.

Mr. Tsang resides in Austin, TX, where he is Division Head of Strings and holds the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Chair in Cello at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin. He was the recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Award after just his first year of service and soon after was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by the Austin Critics Table. He has also served as visiting professor at Indiana University in Bloomington.

In his spare time,  Bion follows the ups and downs of the Miami Dolphins and dreams of having a low handicap in golf.  Most of all, he enjoys keeping up with the lives of his three children: Bailey, Henry and Maia.

Mr. Tsang plays on a Wayne Burak workbench series cello made in April 2011.