The Musicians Club of New York proudly presents the Second Prize Winner of our 2017 Serge and Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards, Mo Mo, cello, in his Winner's Recital. 

 

MO MO, CELLO
2017 Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Second Prize Winners Recital

CARLOS AVILA, PIANO

Sunday, January 14, 2018 at 3:30 PM

Scandinavia House – Victor Borge Hall
58 Park Avenue (at 38th Street)
New York City

Program
Sonata in A Major, G.4.............................................. Luigi Boccherini
I. Adagio
II. Allegro
III. Affetuoso


Sonata No.5 in D Major, Op.102 no.2............. Ludwig van Beethoven
I. Allegro con brio
II. Adagio con molto sentimento d'affetto
III. Allegro fugato


Sonata in C Major, Op.119........................................ Sergei Prokofiev
I. Andante grave-Moderato animato
II. Moderato-Andante dolce
III. Allegro ma non troppo-Andantino


Encore: Dance of the Elves........................................ David Popper

This concert was made possible by Members of the Musicians Club of New York and the Grieg Society of New York.

Mo Mo, Cello

Hailed by the Young Performer Magazine for his ‘amazing technique and incredible personality’, cellist Mo Mo has performed as a soloist across the U.S. and China in venues such as Carnegie Hall, China National Center for Performing Arts, Beijing Concert Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston. A prize winner at several international competitions, Mr. Mo has won top prizes at the 2016 Schoenfeld International Competition in Harbin, China (3rd Prize), and the 2017 Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Award (2nd Prize). He was also a recipient of Aldo Parisot Prize at Yale School of Music, Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Award at the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Beneficent Society Scholarship at New England Conservatory of Music.

Born into a musical family in Beijing, Mo Mo began his cello study at age of six and was later accepted to the middle school of Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studied under Professor Tao Song and Professor Mula Na. A graduate of New England Conservatory in Boston, where he studied with renowned American cellist Laurence Lesser, Mr. Mo also studied at Yale University School of Music under full scholarship with legendary Brazilian cellist Mr. Aldo Parisot as one of his youngest pupils.

In 2016, Mr. Mo made his main stage debut at China National Center for Performing Arts, collaborating with Maestro Lihua Tan and the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, playing cello concerto “Reflet d`un temps disparu” by the famous Chinese Composer Qigang Chen. Mr. Mo is also serving as Artist in Residence at Heifetz International Music Institute. Mr. Mo is currently studying at Manhattan School of Music in New York with Mr. Phillipe Muller.

Carlos Avila, Piano

Carlos Avila began his professional career in 2001 when he stepped in for an ailing Stewart Goodyear on 24-hours-notice to play the Rachmaninoff First Piano Concerto with the California Symphony – a “pinch-hit homerun” (San Francisco Chronicle).

Since then, Carlos has been a guest at festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Tanglewood, Sarasota, Aspen, Banff, Music Academy of the West, Pianofest, Holland, ChamberFest Dubuque, Atlantic Music Festival, Lake George, and the Carnegie Hall Workshops where he had the opportunity to work and study with the late Isaac Stern, Daniel Barenboim, Michael Tilson Thomas, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode and members of the St. Lawrence, Tokyo, Guarneri, Juilliard, Ying, and Borodin String Quartets.

Carlos is also an avid collaborator – he shares an almost 20-year partnership with acclaimed violinist Jay Oh, with whom he has given over 80 recitals across Asia and the United States. Last spring, he performed in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s All-Access Chamber series and the New York Philharmonic’s Leonard Bernstein salon series. Prior to that, he embarked on a mammoth 29-city tour with award-winning baritone Leon Williams. Carlos was also recently showcased on New York’s WQXR, where he gave an all-transcription recital broadcast as one of the winners of Juilliard’s prestigious Gina Bachauer competition.

A dedicated member of community outreach, he also collaborates frequently with the New York Philharmonic’s Assistant Concertmaster Michelle Kim and participates in the promotion of her Doublestop Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing young musicians with no-cost loans of high-quality instruments. He has also made a large part of his musical home in South Korea where he was recently awarded Honorary Ambassadorship of the city of Chuncheon for his work in the chamber music initiative “New York in Chuncheon” and promoting and supporting national and international activities in the fields of policy, tourism resources, culture and art.

Carlos is on the Collaborative Piano Faculty at the Heifetz Institute, where he makes his summer home and for which he works year-round on American tours to promote the innovation of cross-disciplinary learning and communication in student training. He collaborates regularly there with fellow-faculty members Tim Eddy, Frans Helmerson, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Shmuel Ashkenasi among others.

A proud Filipino-American, Carlos is a graduate of the Juilliard School where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal and did prior studies at Yale with Peter Frankl and Claude Frank. He currently resides in New York City.