Canonic Sonata No. 1
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
1. Vivace
2. Adagio
3. Allegro
Cello Duets
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
1. Gavotte (from French Suite No. 5)
2. Bourrée (from Lute Suite No. 1)
3. Menuet (from English Suite No. 4)
4. Two-Part Invention No. 8
Sonata in G Major for 2 Cellos
Jean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747)
1. Andante
2. Adagio
3. Allegro prestissimo
Duo in B-Flat Major, K. 292
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Rondo: Allegro
Duetto
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
1. Allegro
Suite for 2 Cellos, Op. 16
David Popper (1843-1913)
1. Andante grazioso
2. Gavotte
3. Scherzo
Cello Duets, Op. 53
Reinhold Glière (1875-1956)
3. Con moto
7. Animato
Danzas Latinoamericanas for 2 Cellos
José Elizondo (b. 1972)
1. Otoño en Buenos Aires
2. Pan de Azúcar
3. Atardecer Tapatío
Bios
A versatile artist, cellist Carol Ou has warmed the hearts of audiences across five continents with her “fiery, marvelous” and “meltingly melodic outpourings” (Boston Globe) and her “wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique” (The Strad). A founding member of the Buswell-Ou Duo and a former member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, Ms. Ou’s exuberant solo and chamber music performances have taken her to prestigious concert venues across the globe including Carnegie Weill Hall, Jordan Hall, and the National Concert Hall of Taipei.
At ease with the diverse musical styles of the last five centuries, Ms. Ou’s creative programming is often a mélange of traditional European masterworks with more eclectic ones. She has recorded three of the most beloved cello concerti by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar and premiered several new compositions written for her. She gave the first performance of Hsiao Tyzen's Cello Concerto in Taipei and collaborated with Hsiao on the premiere of a number of solo and chamber music works throughout the US and Singapore. American composers, Richard Toensing and Daniel Pinkham, have also dedicated works to her. Recent new music performances have featured collaborations with crossover artists on the banjo, accordion, didgeridoo, Chinese erhu and pipa, and the Persian santoor.
Carol Ou’s discography includes solo and chamber music discs issued by Chi-Mei, Naxos, CRI, and Albany Records. Her three solo and concerti recordings are all produced by the Chi-Mei Label in Taiwan. Among her many recordings with the Carpe Diem String Quartet are “Sergei Taneyev’s String Quartets” - Vol. 4 & 5 on Naxos and “The Book of Calligraphy” - the solo cello and string quartet works by Reza Vali - released by Albany Records. Her recording of Walter Piston's Chamber Music won the 2001 Chamber Music America's Best Chamber Music CD award.
A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Ou received her BA magna cum laude from Yale College and her MM and DMA in music performance from the Yale School of Music. A much sought after teacher, Ms. Ou serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and mentors both the aspiring pre-college and college students there. Since 2015, as the assistant chair of the string department at the conservatory’s School of Continuing Education, she also cultivates a music-loving adult community. In 2018, Carol Ou was invited to join the artist cello faculty at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Music. In addition to her regular teaching duties, Ms. Ou travels internationally to teach cello and chamber music master classes, most recently in Hong Kong, Turkey, and Italy.
When not playing her cello or teaching, Carol loves long days of reading and hiking with her family. She especially enjoys ice skating with her graceful daughter and learning about the animal world and comic book heroes from her inquisitive son.
~
Praised for his "impassioned performance" (Boston Globe) and playing "with remarkable ease and clarity, while maintaining a graceful—if vociferous—line that fit well into the narrative" (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), cellist Sam Ou enjoys an active musical life in the Greater Boston area. A recipient of the Rosemary Scales Prize for best cello concerto performance at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, Mr. Ou has performed at several prestigious summer venues including Tanglewood, Sarasota, Musicorda, Santa Fe, and La Jolla music festivals. In 2012, he gave the world premiere performance of Larry Bell’s Cello Concerto entitled The Triumph of Lightness with the Boston Civic Symphony at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall (NEC). An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ou has collaborated and performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, James Buswell, Hung-Kuan Chen, Pi-Hsien Chen, James Dunham, Thomas Hill, Patricia McCarty, Paul Neubauer, Heiichiro Ohyama, Lois Shapiro, and Marcus Thompson. He performed Yehudi Wyner's Tanz and Maissele with violinist Lucy Chapman, clarinetist Bruce Creditor, and the Pulitzer prize-winning composer at the piano at The Center for Jewish History in New York. As one-half of the Formosa Duo, he performs regularly with pianist Chi-Chen Wu. Symphonically, Mr. Ou can be found occasionally playing in the Boston Pops and Boston Ballet Orchestras.
Mr. Ou came to the United States from Taiwan at age 4, and began his cello studies at age 9. He has been a pupil of several renowned cello teachers, including Gretchen Geber, Eleonore Schoenfeld, and Aldo Parisot. After completing his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees in New York from Columbia University and The Juilliard School in their double degree program, Mr. Ou moved to Boston to study with Laurence Lesser at NEC, where he graduated with a Doctorate of Musical Arts. His dissertation was entitled "In Felix's Footsteps: An Examination of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Approach to Her Chamber Music."
While a student at NEC, Mr. Ou founded the NEC String Trio, which won the NEC Honors Ensemble Competition, was featured on Boston’s WGBH radio station, and was the resident chamber ensemble at the Musicorda Music Festival. As a former member of the Huntington Piano Trio, he performed extensively throughout New England and traveled to Poland, giving concerts in Poznan and Zakopane. He has studied with several inspiring chamber music coaches including Toby Appel, Emanuel Ax, Neil Black, James Buswell, Earl Carlyss, Lucy Chapman, Norman Fischer, Felix Galimir, Christoph Henkel, Lewis Kaplan, and Emma Tahmisian.
In addition to being a prize recipient at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, Mr. Ou has also been awarded the Rome Festival Concerto Soloist Award, the Chi-Mei Music Scholarship from Taiwan, the ARTS Level II Award from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, and the Joseph Schuster Memorial Cello Scholarship from the Young Musicians' Foundation.
Mr. Ou has been a visiting lecturer, performer, and cello teacher at Fu-Jen University in Taiwan, where he conducted solo and chamber music masterclasses and performed with Fu-Jen faculty musicians. As a participant of Fu-Jen’s 18th Century Piano Literature Symposium and the International Strings Literature Symposium, he presented papers on the chamber music of Beethoven and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Mr. Ou has also coached undergraduate chamber ensembles and orchestral cello sectionals at Tufts University. In 2016, he was invited to México City to conduct masterclasses and give a solo recital at the National University of México's School of Music as part of the School's "5th National Cello Encounter" Conference. In summer 2018, he gave a recital at the Sejong Cultural Arts Center and taught a cello masterclass at Sejong University in Seoul, Korea.
A faculty member and assistant string chairperson at NEC’s Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education, Mr. Ou coaches chamber music and also maintains a private teaching studio. In the summer, he has taught at Music on the Hill in Belmont, MA, the Vianden International Music Festival in Luxembourg, the Walnut Hill Music Festival in Natick, MA, and Point Counterpoint in Leicester, VT. Mr. Ou released a CD entitled With String & Pipe, in which he collaborated with the late organist Harry Lyn Huff. He was also featured in Larry Bell’s CDs entitled In a Garden of Dreamers, where he collaborated with recorder player Aldo Abreu and harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa. For more information, please visit his website at samweiou.weebly.com.
Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767)
1. Vivace
2. Adagio
3. Allegro
Cello Duets
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
1. Gavotte (from French Suite No. 5)
2. Bourrée (from Lute Suite No. 1)
3. Menuet (from English Suite No. 4)
4. Two-Part Invention No. 8
Sonata in G Major for 2 Cellos
Jean-Baptiste Barrière (1707-1747)
1. Andante
2. Adagio
3. Allegro prestissimo
Duo in B-Flat Major, K. 292
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
1. Allegro
2. Andante
3. Rondo: Allegro
Duetto
Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
1. Allegro
Suite for 2 Cellos, Op. 16
David Popper (1843-1913)
1. Andante grazioso
2. Gavotte
3. Scherzo
Cello Duets, Op. 53
Reinhold Glière (1875-1956)
3. Con moto
7. Animato
Danzas Latinoamericanas for 2 Cellos
José Elizondo (b. 1972)
1. Otoño en Buenos Aires
2. Pan de Azúcar
3. Atardecer Tapatío
Bios
A versatile artist, cellist Carol Ou has warmed the hearts of audiences across five continents with her “fiery, marvelous” and “meltingly melodic outpourings” (Boston Globe) and her “wonderfully pure cello tone and incisive technique” (The Strad). A founding member of the Buswell-Ou Duo and a former member of the Carpe Diem String Quartet, Ms. Ou’s exuberant solo and chamber music performances have taken her to prestigious concert venues across the globe including Carnegie Weill Hall, Jordan Hall, and the National Concert Hall of Taipei.
At ease with the diverse musical styles of the last five centuries, Ms. Ou’s creative programming is often a mélange of traditional European masterworks with more eclectic ones. She has recorded three of the most beloved cello concerti by Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Elgar and premiered several new compositions written for her. She gave the first performance of Hsiao Tyzen's Cello Concerto in Taipei and collaborated with Hsiao on the premiere of a number of solo and chamber music works throughout the US and Singapore. American composers, Richard Toensing and Daniel Pinkham, have also dedicated works to her. Recent new music performances have featured collaborations with crossover artists on the banjo, accordion, didgeridoo, Chinese erhu and pipa, and the Persian santoor.
Carol Ou’s discography includes solo and chamber music discs issued by Chi-Mei, Naxos, CRI, and Albany Records. Her three solo and concerti recordings are all produced by the Chi-Mei Label in Taiwan. Among her many recordings with the Carpe Diem String Quartet are “Sergei Taneyev’s String Quartets” - Vol. 4 & 5 on Naxos and “The Book of Calligraphy” - the solo cello and string quartet works by Reza Vali - released by Albany Records. Her recording of Walter Piston's Chamber Music won the 2001 Chamber Music America's Best Chamber Music CD award.
A graduate of Yale University, Ms. Ou received her BA magna cum laude from Yale College and her MM and DMA in music performance from the Yale School of Music. A much sought after teacher, Ms. Ou serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and mentors both the aspiring pre-college and college students there. Since 2015, as the assistant chair of the string department at the conservatory’s School of Continuing Education, she also cultivates a music-loving adult community. In 2018, Carol Ou was invited to join the artist cello faculty at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Music. In addition to her regular teaching duties, Ms. Ou travels internationally to teach cello and chamber music master classes, most recently in Hong Kong, Turkey, and Italy.
When not playing her cello or teaching, Carol loves long days of reading and hiking with her family. She especially enjoys ice skating with her graceful daughter and learning about the animal world and comic book heroes from her inquisitive son.
~
Praised for his "impassioned performance" (Boston Globe) and playing "with remarkable ease and clarity, while maintaining a graceful—if vociferous—line that fit well into the narrative" (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), cellist Sam Ou enjoys an active musical life in the Greater Boston area. A recipient of the Rosemary Scales Prize for best cello concerto performance at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, Mr. Ou has performed at several prestigious summer venues including Tanglewood, Sarasota, Musicorda, Santa Fe, and La Jolla music festivals. In 2012, he gave the world premiere performance of Larry Bell’s Cello Concerto entitled The Triumph of Lightness with the Boston Civic Symphony at New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall (NEC). An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ou has collaborated and performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, James Buswell, Hung-Kuan Chen, Pi-Hsien Chen, James Dunham, Thomas Hill, Patricia McCarty, Paul Neubauer, Heiichiro Ohyama, Lois Shapiro, and Marcus Thompson. He performed Yehudi Wyner's Tanz and Maissele with violinist Lucy Chapman, clarinetist Bruce Creditor, and the Pulitzer prize-winning composer at the piano at The Center for Jewish History in New York. As one-half of the Formosa Duo, he performs regularly with pianist Chi-Chen Wu. Symphonically, Mr. Ou can be found occasionally playing in the Boston Pops and Boston Ballet Orchestras.
Mr. Ou came to the United States from Taiwan at age 4, and began his cello studies at age 9. He has been a pupil of several renowned cello teachers, including Gretchen Geber, Eleonore Schoenfeld, and Aldo Parisot. After completing his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Music degrees in New York from Columbia University and The Juilliard School in their double degree program, Mr. Ou moved to Boston to study with Laurence Lesser at NEC, where he graduated with a Doctorate of Musical Arts. His dissertation was entitled "In Felix's Footsteps: An Examination of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Approach to Her Chamber Music."
While a student at NEC, Mr. Ou founded the NEC String Trio, which won the NEC Honors Ensemble Competition, was featured on Boston’s WGBH radio station, and was the resident chamber ensemble at the Musicorda Music Festival. As a former member of the Huntington Piano Trio, he performed extensively throughout New England and traveled to Poland, giving concerts in Poznan and Zakopane. He has studied with several inspiring chamber music coaches including Toby Appel, Emanuel Ax, Neil Black, James Buswell, Earl Carlyss, Lucy Chapman, Norman Fischer, Felix Galimir, Christoph Henkel, Lewis Kaplan, and Emma Tahmisian.
In addition to being a prize recipient at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, Mr. Ou has also been awarded the Rome Festival Concerto Soloist Award, the Chi-Mei Music Scholarship from Taiwan, the ARTS Level II Award from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, and the Joseph Schuster Memorial Cello Scholarship from the Young Musicians' Foundation.
Mr. Ou has been a visiting lecturer, performer, and cello teacher at Fu-Jen University in Taiwan, where he conducted solo and chamber music masterclasses and performed with Fu-Jen faculty musicians. As a participant of Fu-Jen’s 18th Century Piano Literature Symposium and the International Strings Literature Symposium, he presented papers on the chamber music of Beethoven and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Mr. Ou has also coached undergraduate chamber ensembles and orchestral cello sectionals at Tufts University. In 2016, he was invited to México City to conduct masterclasses and give a solo recital at the National University of México's School of Music as part of the School's "5th National Cello Encounter" Conference. In summer 2018, he gave a recital at the Sejong Cultural Arts Center and taught a cello masterclass at Sejong University in Seoul, Korea.
A faculty member and assistant string chairperson at NEC’s Preparatory School and School of Continuing Education, Mr. Ou coaches chamber music and also maintains a private teaching studio. In the summer, he has taught at Music on the Hill in Belmont, MA, the Vianden International Music Festival in Luxembourg, the Walnut Hill Music Festival in Natick, MA, and Point Counterpoint in Leicester, VT. Mr. Ou released a CD entitled With String & Pipe, in which he collaborated with the late organist Harry Lyn Huff. He was also featured in Larry Bell’s CDs entitled In a Garden of Dreamers, where he collaborated with recorder player Aldo Abreu and harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa. For more information, please visit his website at samweiou.weebly.com.