Violin & Piano Classical Concert

Violinist Hsuan Chen and pianists Vincent Catalano and Katrina Sudman join together from three different continents for an exciting and varied program of violin and piano music. The program includes works by Mozart, Beethoven, Czerny, as well as Romantic and 20th century composers. Chen, Catalano, and Sudman collaborate throughout the evening as violinist & pianist, piano four-hand duo, and soloists.

Program:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Violin Sonata No.11 in G Major K.379
I. Adagio-Allegro
II. Tema con variazioni

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Sonata No.1 in D Major Op.12 no.1
I. Allegro con brio
II. Tema con variazioni
III. Rondò

Carl Czerny
Sonatina Brillante Op.50 no.1 in G Major
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andantino con moto
III. Molto allegro

Gustav Mahler – trans. Josef Venantius von Wöss
from Symphony No.3 in D minor
V. Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck

Edward Grieg – trans. Adolf Ruthardt
Lyric Piece Op.65 No.6 ‘Wedding Day at Troldhaugen’

Eugène Ysaÿe
Sonata for Solo Violin in D minor Op. 27, No. 3, ‘Ballade’

Ludwig van Beethoven – trans. Franz Liszt
from Symphony No.5 in C minor
I. Allegro con brio

Frédéric Chopin
Polonaise No.6 Op.53 in Ab Major ‘Heroic’

Hsuan Chen, violin

Hsuan Chen is a 25 year-old violinist who studied with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin Conservatory and currently studies with I-Hao Lee at the DePaul University School of Music. She began violin studies at age five and graduated from the Elementary School and Middle School Affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Binyou Zhou. She is an avid fan of early music and contemporary sounds.

Chen has performed with the Oberlin Baroque Ensemble and achieved a minor in Historical Performance. She performed Britten’s Suite No. 6 in ‘Music from Oberlin’ at the Oakton Eighteenth Anniversary Season recital. She was awarded assistant principle multiple times in the Oberlin orchestra. With this orchestra, she performed Debussy’s La Mer and Ogonek’s All These Lighted Things in Carnegie Hall in New York.

Chen completed her Master of Music in Violin Performance with Prof. I-Hao Lee at DePaul University School of Music in 2022. She also serves as a regular member at the Civic Orchestra in Chicago. In 2021, Chen was given an honorable mention in the concerto competition held by DePaul University.

Vincent Catalano, piano

Born in L’ Aquila (Italy), he graduated with the highest possible scores at the “G.Braga” conservatory in Teramo. He then graduated with his Masters Degree in Piano Interpretation-Composition, summa cum laude. He perfected his musical studies with internationally renowned pianists Aldo Ciccolini and Carlo Maria Dominici with which he is currently studying.

Catalano won different piano competitions including the “8th Concorso Nazionale di Cittá S.Angelo (Pescara),” where he performed at the event “Dall’Etna al Gran Sasso Tradizioni in Festa”. He also won 1st place at the “10th Concorso Internazionale Paolo Barrasso di Caramanico Terme (Pescara) and 2nd place at the “17th Concorso Nazionale Flegreo in Pozzuoli (Napoli).

In addition to various piano masterclasses he participated in “Harpsichord Masterclass 2011 on G.Bohm” in Teramo. He played concerts in Roma, Saracinesco (Roma) at the “5th Accademia Festival”, Pescara, Gaeta (Latina), Giulianova (Teramo) at the Sala Kursaal and Palazzo Re and in Teramo for “150 years of Italy’s Unit celebrations” and “Maratona Liszt for his birth’s bicentenary”; in Napoli at “Sala A.Ciccolini”, “Sala Chopin” in Palazzo Mastelloni and “Tennis Club lungomare Caracciolo”; in Bosa (Oristano) at the “8th Festival Internazionale Musica da Camera”; in Bomarzo (Viterbo) in the splendid and historic rooms of Palazzo Orsini. He also dedicates himself with passion to instrumental duos including a piano four-hands duo with Katrina Sudman, as well as violin and flute.

Katrina Sudman, piano

Katrina Sudman is from Chicago, USA and currently lives in Rome, Italy. She earned her Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University (Chicago, Illinois), and her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance, summa cum laude, from Azusa Pacific University (Azusa, California). She now continues her studies privately with internationally acclaimed pianist Carlo Maria Dominici in Rome.

In 2018, Sudman took second place in the International Piano Competition at the Festival of the Gulf in Salerno, Italy. She has performed in venues across the Chicago area including the Grant Park Music Festival, Nichols Hall, the Studebaker Theater, the Chicago Botanic Gardens, the Chicago Temple Building, and the Michigan Avenue and Hinsdale Steinway Galleries. In addition to her solo performances, Sudman has a four-hand piano duo with Vincent Catalano. Together they have performed throughout Chicago and at the Basilica of St.Anne of Detroit, which is the second oldest continuously operating parish in the United States.

Sudman has taught privately since 2009 and has been a piano instructor at Concordia University’s Preparatory and Community Piano Program since 2017. She was the Director of Music at Woodridge United Methodist Church for four years, and an accompanist at Gurnee Community Church and Medinah Baptist Church. She has also worked as a ballet accompanist at the Joffrey Ballet, Hubbard Street Dance’s Lou Conte Dance Studio, Ballet Chicago, and Roosevelt University.