Vancouver Island Opera’s third concert in the Parksville recital series will feature three professional musicians with ties to the Lower Mainland. Violinist Li-Ling Liao and cellist Brian Mix will join pianist Nikolai Maloff for an afternoon of chamber music.
Hugh Sinnott, who is a founding member of the Vancouver Island Opera, said the music featured in the concert will be of the highest-quality.
That’s not surprising when you look at the musicians’ backgrounds.
Maloff is the only Canadian pianist to win first prize at the prestigious Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Italy, and is winner of many other competitions including the Eckhardt-Grammaté Piano Competition, the Young Keyboard Artist Association International Piano Competition and the Canadian Music Competitions.
He has also appeared as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and collaborative musician in North America, Russia, Europe and Latin America.
Previously a faculty member at institutions such as the University of British Columbia, the Royal Conservatory of Music, the Lima Conservatory of Music, the Arts Connection and the Euromusic Piano School, Maloff now focuses on his private studio in Richmond.
Liao, who was born in Taipei, Taiwan, attended Ecole d’Humanité in Switzerland at the age of sixteen and studied violin with Daniel Dodds at the Lucerne Conservatory.
She then came to North America and studied violin with Lynn Chang at the Boston Conservatory and with Eric Rosenblith and James Buswell IV at the New England Conservatory of Music, and completed her doctorate in musical arts degree.
Liao is currently assistant concertmaster of the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra, as well as a member of the first violin section of the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra.
Finally, Mix has been playing cello professionally in Vancouver since 1992. He has performed frequently with the Vancouver Symphony, as well as the CBC Radio orchestra, Vancouver Opera, the National Ballet and other ensembles.
Mix is still an active chamber musician and recitalist, appearing throughout the Lower Mainland and on Vancouver Island, Gulf Islands, the Sunshine Coast and the Interior. Alongside performing, he also writes about music and teaches.
Mix has been on the faculties of Vancouver Community College, the North Shore Music Academy and Kingston College. He himself received a Master of Music degree from UBC, and has also studied at the Banff Centre, the National Arts Centre, the University of Ottawa and the University of Cincinnati.
The duo’s upcoming performance will take place on Sunday, May 31 in the McMillan Arts Centre at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door.
—NEWS Staff/VIO