St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble: Beethoven & Mozart

• Zhu Wang, piano

OSL's renowned wind players take center stage in classics of the chamber wind repertoire. Mozart's Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat major was written during the same breakneck period as his greatest piano concertos, composed for his own concert performances. Here Mozart employs ideas of concerto writing for a previously unexplored interplay of piano and unusual wind grouping—flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. Mozart himself was more than pleased with the outcome, as he famously wrote to his father, Leopold, after the quintet's premiere: "I consider it the best work I have ever written. How I wish you could have heard it, and how beautifully it was performed!" Pianist Zhu Wang, who joins OSL wind players in this classic example of true chamber dialogue, has gained praise for his Mozart interpretations, with Spokane's The Spokesman-Review acclaiming, "The miracle of performing Mozart as well as Zhu Wang does is that it produces the effect of complete spontaneity." Wang is also featured in Beethoven's woodwind-focused "Gassenhauer" Trio, and a wind arrangement of Richard Strauss's Til Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks. 

About St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble

St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble was founded in 1974 when a group of virtuoso musicians began performing chamber music concerts at Greenwich Village’s Church of St. Luke in the Fields. Today, the 24 Ensemble musicians make up the artistic core of Orchestra of St. Luke's. Every season, OSL features the Ensemble in its Chamber Music Series that explores beloved chamber works and brings attention to lesser-known or rarely-performed works through three distinct programs performed at The Morgan Library & Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and Merkin Hall. Throughout the season, musicians of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble perform on almost every program presented by OSL.

About Zhu Wang, piano

Praised by the New York Times as "a superb pianist" and "a thoughtful, sensitive performer," pianist Zhu Wang was awarded First Prize in the 2020 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions. In 2019, Zhu was finalist in the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition, and he has been a featured soloist on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase and WFMT’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts. The world-renowned pianist Fou Ts’ong recognized Zhu as an "excellent pianist with a natural sense of harmony and imagination" whose sensitive and engaging performances exhibit a remarkable depth of musicianship and poise beyond his age. His Carnegie Hall debut made The New York Times' "Best of Classical Music 2021" list.

Zhu started learning piano at the age of five. He is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and of The Juilliard School. Zhu is currently pursuing his Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald. He gratefully acknowledges the support of the Bagby Foundation for the Musical Arts.