PUTNEY — Violinist Ying Xue and pianist Qing Jiang return to Yellow Barn to complete the work that they began during an artist residency last season.
Their program, titled “Refractions,” focuses on sonatas of J.S. Bach and Maurice Ravel, juxtaposed with works written over the past decade by Tonia Ko, Eric Nathan, Sean Shepherd, and Daniel Temkin.
They will give the premiere performance of this new program in their free public concert on Sunday, Feb. 23. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will take place at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill.
Following the performance, audience members are invited to participate in a post-concert discussion with the artists moderated by Artistic Director Seth Knopp.
Xue was a musician at Yellow Barn during the summers of 2006 and 2010. Jiang was a Yellow Barn musician from 2011 to 2013. The duo returned to Putney last winter to formalize their collaboration as Duo-ING.
“Ying and I spent several summers at Yellow Barn when we were students at New England Conservatory,” Jiang said in a news release. “It was a magical place allowing each of us to connect to our inner self and to one another while adventuring in [musical works] that are often centuries apart.
“Looking at our own artistic journey, we feel our musical lives also mirror this thematic element, as we are coming back to Yellow Barn and finding connections we first experienced deeply many years ago as students.”
Following their performance in Putney, Xue and Jiang will bring this program to the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York City.
Xue has won prizes at the International Mozart Competition, the Corpus Christi Competition, the Hudson Valley String Competition, and Irving M. Klein International Competition.
From 2013 to 2018, she was a member of the Parker String Quartet, and served as a faculty member at Harvard University and the University of South Carolina. Since 2018, Xue has been a member of the London-based Doric String Quartet, together with Yellow Barn cellist John Myerscough.
Jiang has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Steinway Hall, and has performed as a concerto soloist with Oliver Knussen and the Britten-Pears Orchestra in the U.K.
She is a strong advocate of contemporary music and has worked directly with Jörg Widmann, who is regularly in residence at Yellow Barn, and other leading composers including Jennifer Higdon and Colin Matthews.
Qing is currently Assistant Professor of Piano at Bucknell University and on the piano faculty at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music School and Festival.