Miracle Year:
The 1919 Viola Sonatas
Hsiaopei Lee, viola
Michael Bunchman, piano
Guest Artist Series
Katzin Concert Hall I September 13, 20 I 9 I 7 :30 pm

Program
Suite for Viola and Piano
Lento - Allegro - Moderato
Allegro ironico
Lento
Motto vivo

Ernest Bloch
( 1880-1959)

Sonata for Viola and Piano
Impetuoso
Vivace
Adagio - Allegro

Rebecca Clarke
( 1886-1979)

Sonata No. 4, Op. 11
Fantasie
Thema mit Variationen
Finale (mit Variationen)

Paul Hindemith
(1895-1963)

Miracle Year: The 1919 Viola Sonatas
1919 is an important year for violists - we received three major works at the same year! Two of
them (Rebecca Clarke and Ernest Bloch) entered the 1919 Berkshire Festival Competition and
was a tie by the judges. Although the competition sponsor, Ms. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge
chose Bloch as the first prize for the competition, the arguments regarding who should be the
winner have never stopped. Although Paul Hindemith, who wrote his unusual lyrical sonata at
the same year, did not enter the competition, this Op. 11, No. 4 sonata is one of the timeless
favorites. Come to this centennial celebration and be your own judge!

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Hsiaopei Lee, Taiwanese-American violist, is Professor of Viola at the University of
Southern Mississippi. She has previously taught viola and chamber music at the Starling String
Project, University of Cincinnati. Additionally she coached many talented violists as the longtime teaching assistant to the viola studio at the College-Conservatory of Music, University of
Cincinnati.
As a recitalist, Lee has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Highlights of recent performances include concerto performance with orchestras both in USA
and Taiwan, solo performances at the International Viola Congress and the American Viola
Society Festivals, and a series of recitals featuring contemporary viola music both nationally and
internationally. As an orchestral musician, Lee has performed under the batons of David
Zinman, James Conlon, Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin, James DePriest, David Robertson, and at
such festivals as the Victoria Bach Festival, Texas Music Festival and the Aspen Music Festival,
where she received Talented Students in the Arts Initiative (TSAI) Orchestral String MentorFellowship. She is currently the principal violist of the Meridian Symphony Orchestra. A
passionate chamber musician, Lee has been a chamber music collaborator in such cities as New
York, Paris, and Taipei. She regularly performs with the Mississippi Chamber Circle and the
Impromptu Piano Quartet. Hsiaopei is an advocate of new music, her first CD, Viola Music
Written by American Female Composers, was released by Centaur Records in 2014.
A frequent guest artist on the university campuses both in the United States and Asia, Dr. Lee
has given master classes and performances at universities including Florida State University,
Vanderbilt University, and the University of Kentucky, to name a few. Dr. Lee's many students
have placed in competitions, such as the Young Artists Concerto Competition (Louisiana
Philharmonic Orchestra), have earned distinction in research (Dalton Research Competition,
American Viola Society), and have been appointed to orchestral and teaching positions both in
the United States and in their home countries.
At Southern Miss, Dr. Lee is the recipient of several awards, including the Committee on
Services and Resources for Women Competition, the Scholarly & Creative Research Awards
from the College of Arts & Letters, and The Aubrey Keith Lucas and Ella Ginn Lucas
Endowment for Faculty Excellence. Her research project has received support from the
Kentucky Foundation for Women. In 2011 and 2017, the Mississippi Arts Commission selected
Hsiaopei as one of the Artist Fellowship recipients, a highly competitive grant that is open to
artists of many different artistic disciplines to support professional development or the creation
of new work.
Dr. Lee holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Music from the National Taiwan Normal
University, a Master of Arts degree in Music Education from Colu.mbia University and a Doctor
of Musical Arts in Viola Performance from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory
of Music. Her principal teachers include Masao Kawasaki, Catharine Carroll Lees and Ting-Hui
Chen.

Pianist Michael Bunchman maintains a fulfilling schedule as a collaborative pianist and
chamber musician with both singers and instrumentalists throughout the United States. He is

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Design and the Arts

Arizona State University

currently on faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi as the director of the Collaborative
Piano Program. From 2015-2017 Dr. Bunchman served as coordinator of Collaborative Piano at
Truman State University.
.
Dr. Bunchman has performed and collaborated with the Las Cruces Symphony, Opera
Saratoga, Opera Santa Barbara, the Aspen Music Festival. and the Natchez Music Festival,
where he spent three seasons as Assistant Musical Director. Michael has spent five seasons as a
principal coach and pianist at the Utah Festival of Opera and Musical Theater. Also active as a
concerto soloist, Dr. Bunchman has performed with the Ridgefield Symphony, the Breckenridge
Music Festival, the Antara Ensemble in New York City, the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and
the National Repertory Orchestra. He and his wife, singer/actor Jessica Medoff, are co-creators
of three original cabarets, and perform regularly as a duo in multiple venues across the country.
He recently had the honor to be counted among the amazingly diverse and talented group of
artists of A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor, on their multi-city European
cruise.
Dr. Bunchman holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of
Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory,
and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the University of Texas at Austin. He
spent three summers at the Aspen Music Festival. His teachers have included Anne Epperson,
Rick Rowley, Marian Hahn, Joseph Kalichstein, Antoinette Perry, Adrienne Sielaff and Doris
Pridonoff-Le hnert.

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