About the Young Concert Artists Performance
PROGRAM:
Albert Cano Smit, Piano
Lun Li, Violin
Jonathan Swensen, Cello
“Los Requiebros” from Goyescas , Enrique Granados (1867- 1916)
Albert Cano Smit, Piano
Suite for Solo Cello No. 3 in C Major, J.S. Bach (1685- 1750)
i. Prelude
iii. Courante
iv. Sarabande
vi. Gigue
Jonathan Swensen, Cello
Violin Sonata, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
i. Allegro con fuoco
ii. Intermezzo
iii. Presto tragico
Lun Li, Violin
Albert Cano Smit, Piano
-INTERMISSION-
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 63, Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
i. Mit Energie und Leidenschaft
ii. Lebhaft, doch nicht zu rasch
iii. Langsam, mit inniger Empfindung
iv. Mit Feuer
Jonathan Swensen, Cello
Albert Cano Smit, Piano
Lun Li, Violin
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
LUN LI, violin
A native of Shanghai, China, violinist Lun Li won First Prize in the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, and was named John French Violin Chair at YCA. Additionally, he is also the recent joint winner of First Prize at the Lillian and Maurice Barbash J.S. Bach Competition. Lun has had the honor and privilege of traveling between Shanghai and New York bringing him a plethora of experiences. An avid chamber musician, Lun has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, the Verbier Music Festival Academy, Music@Menlo’s international program, and Music from Angelfire. He has had the pleasure to work alongside prestigious musicians such as Kim Kashkashian, Ani Kavafian, Ida Kavafian, Marcy Rosen, Steven Tenenbom, Peter Wiley, and with members of the Calidore, Doric, and Miro Quartets. Further accolades include winning second prize in Shanghai’s Haydn Chamber Competition, resulting in an invitation to perform at the Helsinki Music Centre Festival. Lun served as the concertmaster of the Pacific Festival Orchestra 2017. He has appeared in major musical stages including Konzerthaus Berlin, Kulturpalast Dresden, Wiener Konzerthaus, and Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center. In the coming season, he will be on chamber music tours with Curtis Institute of Music, Marlboro Music Festival, and the inaugural chamber music ensemble, YCA on Tour, bringing him to Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, 92Y, and the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.
During the 22-23 season Lun will make his NYC recital debut at Merkin Concert Hall and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, both presented by Young Concert Artists. Other recital and chamber music appearances include Clarion Concerts, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Jupiter Chamber Players, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Evergreen Museum & Library in Baltimore, Port Washington Library, and Cutchogue Library. He will appear as concerto soloist with the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra and the Riverside Symphony at Alice Tully Hall. As part of Young Concert Artists’ special season finale performance at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2023, Lun will perform alongside fellow YCA roster artists and distinguished alumni including violinist Chee-Yun, and harpsichordist Anthony Newman.
Lun holds degrees from Curtis Institute of Music (BM’20) and The Juilliard School (MM’22). His mentors include Ida Kavafian, Catherine Cho, and Joseph Lin. He is currently pursuing an Artistic Diploma at The Juilliard School where he serves as teaching assistant to Catherine Cho.
ALBERT CANO SMIT, piano
A musician who has been praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir), Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, the San Diego Symphony, Montréal Symphony, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle, Orquesta Filarmónica de Boca del Río, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, Manchester Camerata, Nottingham Youth Orchestra, and American Youth Symphony. Recital highlights have included his Carnegie Hall debut presented by The Naumburg Foundation, his Merkin Concert hall debut presented by Young Concert Artists, recitals at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Paris’ Fondation Louis Vuitton (the performance was streamed live globally), the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC, Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, and return performances at the Steinway Society in San Jose. He has been in residence at France’s Festival de Musique de Wissembourg for seven years, a piano fellow at Bravo! Vail Music Festival and Tippet Rise Art Center, and has had his recital debut in Asia at Xiamen’s Banlam Grand Theater.
Albert has been presented in recital by Festival Bach Montréal, University of Florida Performing Arts, the Krannert Center (Urbana, IL), and Matinée Musicale (Cincinnati, OH). He recently premiered Katherine Balch’s "Spolia" with flutist Anthony Trionfo taking them to the Morgan Library and Carnegie Hall. Recent recitals with Trionfo have included the Alys Stephens Center, Kravis Center, Evergreen Museum & Library, and others. Cano Smit is set to continue touring with violinist William Hagen, with whom he has recorded the CD “Danse Russe”. During the 22-23 season Albert will appear in recital and chamber music performances at Merkin Hall (New York, NY), the Cosmos Club (Washington, DC), the Crystal Valley Concert Series (Middlebury, IN), Friends of Music Concerts (Sleepy Hollow, NY), Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota (Sarasota, FL), and Abbey Church Events (Lacey, WA), and will also participate in the inaugural chamber music ensemble of YCA on Tour. He will appear as soloist playing Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 4 in G Minor with the Seattle Symphony (Seattle, WA), Gershwin’s Concerto in F with the Aiken Symphony (Aiken, SC), and Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major with the Elgin Symphony (Elgin, IL). An advocate for new music, Albert has premiered numerous solo works on his recital programs, commissioned for him by Stephen Hough, Miquel Oliu, and Katherine Balch. He has given four hand performances with Jean-Yves Thibaudet at the Wallis Annenberg Center Hall and Zipper Hall, taken part in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the Bridgehampton Chamber Festival, and performed with such artists as Gary Hoffman, Andrej Bielow, Thomas Mesa, and Lev Sivkov. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with such ensembles as the Ebene, Szymanowski, Casals, Cosmos, Gerhard, and Verona Quartets, and has released an album of Austrian viola music for Champs Hills with Emma Wernig.
Albert was First Prize winner at the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition. Additional special prizes at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions include The Paul A. Fish Memorial Prize, the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert Prize for support of his Kennedy Center debut, the Friends of Music Concert Prize (NY), and the Sunday Musicale Prize (NJ).
Born in Geneva, Switzerland, Albert recently completed an Artist Diploma with Robert McDonald at the Juilliard School, where he was awarded the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano. Later, he studied piano with Graham Caskie, Marta Karbownicka, and Ory Shihor. He is an alum of the Verbier Festival Academy and holds a BA in Piano Performance from the Colburn School, as well as a MM from the Juilliard School. He currently resides in New York City.
JONATHAN SWENSEN, cello
Jonathan Swensen first fell in love with the cello upon hearing the Elgar Concerto at the age of six, and ultimately made his concerto debut at the age of twenty performing that very piece with Portugal’s Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. Since then, he has appeared as soloist with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra, Mobile Symphony Orchestras, Orquesta Ciudad de Granada, Venice State Symphony Orchestra, Denmark’s Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Odense Symphony Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and the Sun Symphony Orchestra in Vietnam. Winner of the prestigious 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Jonathan has also captured First Prizes at the 2018 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, 2018 Khachaturian International Cello Competition, and 2019 Windsor International String Competition. In his native Denmark, he was recipient of the Jacob Gades Scholarship in 2019, the Léonie Sonning Talent Prize in 2017, and First Prize at the 2016 Danish String Competition.
Young Concert Artists presented Jonathan’s recital debuts in New York on the Michaels Award Concert at Merkin Concert Hall, and in Washington, DC on the Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater. Recent recital and chamber music appearances outside of the U.S. have included a return to Armenia to take part in the Khachaturian Festival in Yerevan, the Usedomer Musikfestival in Germany, the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen and a South Korean debut at the Seoul Arts Centre. He is also a frequent performer at festivals in Denmark, including the Schubertiaden, the Copenhagen Summer Festival and the Hindsgavl Summer Festival.
The 2022-23 season sees Jonathan Swensen returning to the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra under Marc Soustrot and the NFM Leopoldinum in a play-direct programme, as well as his debut with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra under Douglas Boyd. He will also be appearing with the Slovak State Philharmonic Košice both in Košice and at the Festival Allegretto Žilina following his recital debut there in 2022 with pianist Filip Strauch, where he was awarded the Festival Prize for the most distinguished performance at the festival. In the US, he will be performing Shostakovich’s 2nd Concerto with the New England Conservatory Orchestra and Hugh Wolff, Lalo Concerto with Aiken Symphony in South Carolina, and chamber music tours with YCA on Tour and Camerata Pacifica. The season also sees the release of Jonathan’s debut recording ‘Fantasia’, on Champs Hill Records, an album of works for solo cello, including Bent Sørensen’s ‘Farewell Fantasia’, composed for and dedicated to Jonathan and which he premiered in 2021. Jonathan also co-created the classical music festival called Festival & Friends, and was artistic director of this festival in 2020.
A graduate of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Jonathan has studied with Professor Torleif Thedéen at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He now attends the New England Conservatory of Music for graduate studies, under the tutelage of Laurence Lesser.
