Claude Debussy; Sonata for Violoncello and Piano
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Six Studies in English Folksong
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 3 for Piano and Cello in A Major, Op. 69
A graduate of The Juilliard School and Yale School of Music, cellist Angela Lee is a recipient of a Fulbright scholarship to study in London with William Pleeth, a grant from the Foundation for American Musicians in Europe, the Jury Prize in the Naumburg International Cello Competition, and a cello performance fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation. She is a founding member of The Lee Trio, which won top prizes in the Kuhmo International Chamber Music Competition in Finland and the Gaetano Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition in Italy. The Trio has commissioned and premiered works of numerous living composers and has recordings on Delos, Innova, and the Chelsea Music Festival Records labels. In its third decade, the Trio regularly gives master classes worldwide and performs in major venues across North America, Asia, and Europe, including the South Bank Centre and Wigmore Hall in the U.K., Carnegie Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Leipzig Gewandhaus, The National Philharmonic in Kyiv, and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. She is invited to perform at international festivals, and her various chamber music partners include members from the Beaux Arts Trio, the Alexander, Cypress, Guarneri, Hausmann, Juilliard, St. Lawrence, and Telegraph string quartets, the Canadian Brass, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Using music to foster peace and goodwill, Angela Lee has made humanitarian trips to the Republic of the Philippines and the former Yugoslavia. While on a U.N.-sanctioned tour of six war-torn cities throughout Bosnia-Herzegovina, she performed for NATO troops and displaced civilians. She is deeply committed to community outreach and also performed at the street renaming ceremony for Vicha Ratanapakdee Way in San Francisco. As a member of Ensemble SF since 2022, she continues to delve into a vast array of chamber music, allowing this multi-faceted art form to inspire and connect with others in unconventional settings. She also devotes time to performing with Orquesta Tipica Domo while exploring the richness of the “Golden Era” of Argentine Tango. Ms. Lee has been coaching chamber music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 2017 and serves on the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra Alumni Association Leadership Council and on the Board of Directors of The Resonance Project, which promotes empathy through live music.
Amy Zanrosso’s playing has been hailed as expressive, magnetic, and masterful, but since no one at the New York Times has said this, she’s not allowed to put it in quotes. Her first touch of a keyboard was a two-octave electric organ that her parents had found, who knows where. She enjoyed picking out tunes like O Sole Mio and Ode To Joy until her cousin decided to show her Heart and Soul on an acoustic piano. That’s the moment Amy fell in love. Thanks to her attentive and industrious Italian immigrant mom, piano lessons started at the age of 6, and by the age of 15, Amy had decided to make music her life. A few years later, she was accepted into the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, where, in Bruce Vogt’s studio, she realized that she had way too much to learn and would always be in awe of the absolute force that is music. Bruce’s wisdom and humor still influence her life today, and she will always be thankful for his guidance in those early years of learning what playing the piano meant. As a soloist, Amy is addicted to the thrill of performing with the orchestra. Since 2016, concerto repertoire, similar to chamber music but on steroids, has forced her to push her limits, helping make her into the confident and electrifying player she always hoped to be. She has appeared as a soloist with the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Symphony of the Kootenays, the Russian Chamber Orchestra, the Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, the Symphony of the Redwoods, and the Kensington Symphony. Her intense love of chamber music has led her to more fully admire and explore her favorite composers while sharing the experience with countless inspiring, dedicated players and appreciative audiences.
After her Bachelor’s, Amy furthered her studies for a few years in Italy and then completed a Master’s Degree at McGill University in Montreal. Her life is filled with a wealth of chamber music and was rounded out by some Broadway musicals, German cabaret, and several years in an Argentine tango quintet. In 2014, Amy moved from Montreal to the Bay Area with her partner, Dave, and her dog Roscoe. She is currently based in Oakland. Since the big move, Amy went on tour to China with the GRAMMY award-winning Pacific Boychoir, rehearsed Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel at the podium, and was the pianist for Chorissima, the five-time GRAMMY award-winning San Francisco Girls Chorus Premier Ensemble throughout the 2017–18 season. Like performing, Amy finds teaching to be a highly rewarding part of a musician’s life. She is a faculty member and chamber music coach at the Pre-College Academy of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as well as at The Nueva School in Hillsborough, CA. She is constantly fueled by her fantastically inspiring students and enjoys forcing her favorite composers on them as well as telling them what to do. Amy is looking forward to all the superb music, musicians, students, and enthusiastic audiences that will come her way in the future. Many thanks to Beethoven and Brahms for inspiring her to come this far – she wouldn’t change a thing. For more information, please visit www.amyzanrosso.com.
