Young Stars

Sponsored by the Lewisville Lake Symphony in cooperation with the University of North Texas

Young Stars above L to R: John-Henry Crawford, Allie Switala, Robbie Switala, Shannon Lee, Wyndham Tsai. Below: Rick Wu

Trinity Presbyterian Church (Map)
5500 Morriss Road, Flower Mound TX 75028
(Just south of Marcus HS, on the other side of the road.)

Schubert: Cello Quintet in C Major for 2 violins, viola, and 2 cellos, Opus 163

Shannon Lee and Robbie Switala, violins; Allie Switala, viola; John Henry and Wyndham Tsai, cellos

Schumann: Piano Quintet in E Flat major for piano, 2 violins, viola, and cello, Opus 44

Shannon Lee, Robbie Switala, Allie Switala' Wyndham Tsai, cello;
Lizhen (Rick) Wu, piano: .

Erlkonig by Schubert played by Shannon Lee-13 year old prodigy. and yes she IS playing all by herself. there's no one else playing in the background.

More information:

The compositions: Cello Quintet | Piano Quintet

The composers: Schubert | Schumann

Cellist John-Henry Crawford, age 15, of Shreveport, Louisiana attends Caddo Magnet High School. He began cellos lessons at age 5 in the Centenary Suzuki School and has studied with Kristina Vaska-Haas for 9 years. In addition, he travels regularly to Dallas to study with concert cellist and SMU Cello professor, Andres Diaz.

He studied with renowned Northwestern University Professor Hans Jorgen-Jensen for the last two summers at Meadowmount School of Music in New York. He has soloed with numerous orchestras as a Concerto Competition winner: Saint-Saens Concerto in 2006 with Monroe and Rapides Symphonies, LA. In 2007 two performances of Elgar with Louisiana Philharmonic in New Orleans and Elgar with Lewisville (TX) Symphony as their “Grand Prize Winner” and First Place winner with Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Competition (Shostakovich.)

John Henry also received an Honorable Mention in the 2008 Lennox International. In Jan. 2008 he won first place at the regional Music Teachers National Association (AK, LA, TX, OK ) and is one of seven students chosen to compete at the MTNA National Conference in Denver in March.

In addition to master classes with Shauna Rolston and Jesus Castro Balbi, he was also chosen to perform for a Master Class with Anthony Elliot for the Suzuki Associations of Americas May 2008 National Conference in Minneapolis. He won First Place in the Tennessee Cello Competition, pre-college division, Jan. 2008 in Knoxville.

John-Henry is from a musical family and performs on the 187 year old European cello inherited from his Austrian grandfather and cellist, Dr. Robert Popper. In addition to playing the cello, he enjoys math, fencing, track and field, and performing magic tricks.

Shannon Lee

Young Canadian-born violinist Shannon Lee made a stunning orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in the summer of 2005, performing both the Chausson Poeme and Franz Waxman’s fiendishly difficult Carmen Fantasy, originally written for Jascha Heifetz. In a front page article, The Dallas Morning News exclaimed, “When she started to play, her maturity and skill suddenly placed her artistic age far beyond her calendar one.”

Shannon opened the Lewisville Lake Symphony’s International Music in 2005 and earned a prolonged standing ovation our local audience. Maestro Adron Ming invited her back to open last season's Dallas Morning News Symphony Series.

Shortly after her performance here, she toured Texas as soloist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra performing the Barber Violin Concerto. She was immediately engaged by the tour’s conductor, Giancarlo Guerrero, for solo performances of Prokofiev D major Concerto with his orchestra in the spring of ’07. Charlotte’s Maestro Perick also heard Shannon while conducting in Dallas and invited her to North Carolina to perform the Sibelius Concerto.

In April, Shannon made a recording for Telarc International Corporation that is planned for release in January of '08.

Shannon moved to Plano, TX when she was two and began studying the violin at the age of four. Multiple local awards and prizes followed, and at the age of eleven she won her first national award: top prize among bowed instruments in the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) Biennial National Solo Competition’s junior division. Subsequent awards have included the Bayard H. Friedman Award for Outstanding Student in Performing Arts, the Texas’ Young Master Scholarship, the Asian American Alliance for the Arts Outstanding Achievement Award, a Silver Medal in the Stulberg International String Competition, and several top prizes in the Kingsville Competition.

Shannon has studied privately with Jan Mark Sloman since 2000 and has performed privately and in master class for artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Jaime Laredo, Elmar Oliveira, and Arnold Steinhardt. An avid chamber musician, Shannon’s summer activities have included Mr. Sloman’s Institute for Strings in Dallas, the Heifetz International Music Institute in New Hampshire, and, this summer, the ENCORE School for Strings in Cleveland, where Shannon studied with David and Linda Cerone.

Shannon was started on violin with teachers Paul Landefeld and Ann Grosshans. She currently attends Spring Creek Academy, a school for gifted young artists and athletes attended by several Olympic medalists, and enjoys her many friends, swimming, computers, and reading.

Alexandra Switala, a 13-year-old homeschooler from Grapevine, Texas, began violin lessons at age 4 and has been a student of Jan Mark Sloman, associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the past four years. She was the Junior Grand Prize Winner in this year’s Dallas Symphonic Festival and was awarded an orchestral debut with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Dr. Paul Phillips, this past March. She also represented the South-Central Region at this year’s MTNA National Solo Competition in Toronto in March, bringing home second place. Alexandra was the national runner-up for the biennial 2007 ASTA Solo Competition, a Semi-Finalist in this year’s Sphinx Competition in Detroit, and has been featured on the nationally syndicated radio show “From the Top.” Recently, she was a finalist in this year’s Dallas Symphony Orchestra Lynn Harrell competition.

The past four summers, Alexandra has participated with Mr. Sloman in The Institute for Strings (TIFS) in Dallas and, in 2004, attended the Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. This summer, she will be a full scholarship student at the acclaimed ENCORE music camp as a student of David Cerone. A former student of Marcia Thumma, Gwen Runyon, and Nicolette Solomon, she has had the honor of performing for Ida Kavafian and Elmar Oliveira in master classes. She shares her love of chamber music with her brother, taking turns at the viola with him. Alexandra also enjoys playing tennis, knitting, and reading.

Robert Switala, a 14-year-old homeschooler from Grapevine, Texas, began taking violin lessons at age 6 and has been a student of Jan Mark Sloman, associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the past four years. He was the Junior Grand Prize Winner in the 2005 Dallas Symphonic Festival and was awarded an orchestral debut at the age of 12 with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Dr. Paul Phillips.

In 2006, Robert represented the South-Central Region at the 2006 MTNA Jr. National Finals , was chosen as a Finalist in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, and was featured on the nationally syndicated radio show “From the Top”. This year, Robert placed first in the strings category of the Juanita Miller Competition and was selected as the Texas Winner in the National ASTA Solo Competition. In February, Robert was awarded the First Place Junior Laureate in the Sphinx Competition held in Detroit and, as a result, will be performing with the Florida Symphony Orchestra in Tampa in September, and the New World Symphony in South Beach in November.

Robert’s summer activities have included participating with Mr. Sloman in The Institute for Strings (TIFS) in Dallas and attending the 2004 Heifetz International Music Institute in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire. This summer, he will study violin with internationally acclaimed concert violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program in New York. A former student of Marcia Thumma, Gwen Runyon, and Nicolette Solomon, he has had the honor of performing for Elmar Oliveira in master class. He enjoys chamber music with his sister, trading off viola with her. Some of his favorite things are tennis, computers, math, and reading.

Fourteen-year-old Wyndham Tsai began his first cello lesson at the age of six with Miss Myrna Trent at TCU in Fort Worth, Texas.

Winner and the youngest entrant of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra’s first Young Artist Competition, Wyndham was invited to perform with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Miguel Harth-Bedoya at the opening performance of the Garden Concert series in June 2006. According to the Star-Telegram Review, the crowd of almost 2,000 gave him a standing ovation after listening to him play Saint-Saens Cello Concerto.

Wyndham also won First Prize in Lewisville Lake Symphony Young Artists’ Competition in 2006, the Grand Prize of the North Texas Youth Music Competition and the First Prize of the Dallas Symphonic Festival in 2003, and the Grand Prize of the Suzuki String Competition in 2001.

He was the Grand Prize winner of the Collin County Young Artist competition of 2006. He made his solo debut in March 2006 at the Eisemann Center with the Plano Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Hector Guzman.

Since 2005, Wyndham has served as Principal Cellist of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth and of The Oakridge School Advanced String Program.

As an enthusiastic chamber music player, Wyndham joined the playing and performances at TIFS (The Institute For Strings) Summer Camp conducted by Violinist Jan Mark Sloman (SMU, Dallas) He also played in the master classes to Yuri Anshelevich, disciple of Mstistlav Rostropovich, at TIFS, 2004 and 2006.

Wyndham is studying cello with Mr. Michael Coren, Cellist of Dallas Symphony Orchestra and adjunct professor at SMU. His previous teacher was Mrs. Jungshin Lim Lewis, Artist of Chamber Music International at Dallas and Principal Cellist of Richardson Symphony Orchestra.

Lizhen Wu

Pianist Lizhen Wu was born in 1988 in the town of Yue Yang in the People's Republic of China. He began studying the piano at the age of 5. Because of his promising musical gifts, he was accepted into the Wuhan Conservatory, which necessitated moving away from home. He studied at the Conservatory with Wang Xian, who remained his teacher until he came to the United States in 2006.

Mr. Wu - known to his American friends as Rick - won First Prize in the Hazimen Piano Competition in China and was invited to the United States to perform at four universities, including the University of North Texas. He auditioned for the Bachelor of Performing Arts degree at the UNT College of Music, and was accepted as a freshman performance major in the fall of 2006 on a scholarship. He is presently studying with Dr. Pamela Mia Paul.

Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44

Robert Schumann

This work was composed in just a few weeks in the fall of 1843, during Schumann’s “Chamber Music Year.” Prior to that year, Schumann had composed no chamber music at all with the exception of a piano quartet in 1829. During this year-long concentration on chamber music he wrote 3 string quartets, a piano trio, and a piano quartet in addition to this popular piano quintet.

The first movement opens with a bold, assertive tutti. The remainder of the movement is largely in the character of the first theme, which at times is contrasted by a theme of gentle lyricism.

The second movement (“In the Style of a March”) contains two contrasting episodes. The first is a broad soaring theme which to some is suggestive of a funeral march, while the second episode is a stormy Agitato section. The movement concludes with a final statement of the first theme.

The Scherzo is a glorification of the scale. Whether a single instrument or in combination, going up or down, loud or soft, the subject is always scales. The lyrica,l legato first trio offers a welcome respite from the relentlessly scalic Scherzo. The second trio is almost the opposite in character – a whirling section reminiscent of Hungarian gypsy music.

The fourth movement is characterized by a persistent theme which makes entrances throughout the movement. The movement ends in a deftly written fugue, where the first movement’s main theme returns. This reappearance brings a sense of unity to the work.

String Quintet in C Major, Op. 163, D. 956

Franz Schubert

This work is frequently called the “Cello” Quintet in C Major. Instead of following the traditional instrumentation of the standard string quartet plus an additional viola, Schubert decided to replace the additional viola with a second cello, enhancing the richness of the quintet texture’s lower register. Many music lovers consider Schubert’s cello quintet to be the greatest work in the chamber music repertoire. Pianist Arthur Rubinstein asked that the slow movement be played at his funeral, and violinist Joseph Saunders had the second theme of the first movement engraved on his tombstone.

The first movement opens very simply. The music grows more and more agitated. After building to a climax, a series of slow arpeggios occur in the first violin. The short coda builds to a frenzy before fading to a gentle ending, capped by two loud chords.

The principal subject of the second movement is one of sublime lyricism. Then, with no warning there is a musical onslaught which includes syncopated patterns. The opening section returns, and after a brief return to the fiery mid-section, the movement ends quietly.

The Scherzo opens with what might be a boisterous peasant dance, but which does not last too long. The tempo then changes from Presto to Andante sostenuto, and a transition section subsequently reverts to the opening Scherzo.

The principal theme of the finale is a rollicking dance tune that has a Hungarian flavor. The second theme is more suggestive of Viennese café music. In the coda, the tempo increases, making for a brilliant, exciting finish.

Franz Schubert was the son of a schoolmaster who showed an extraordinary childhood aptitude for music, studying the piano, violin, organ, singing and harmony, and composition by the age of sixteen. Historically he is looked upon as the last master of the Viennese Classical school and one of the earliest proponents of musical Romanticism. Although he died at the young age of 31, he wrote some six hundred romantic songs (lieder) as well as many symphonies, sonatas, string quartets, and other works.

Schubert is counted among the most gifted composers of the 19^th century, and the one who effectively established the German lied as a new art form. Public appreciation of his work during his lifetime was thought to be limited, but when he died at just 31 years of age over one hundred of his compositions had already appeared in print. He was never able to secure adequate permanent employment and for most of his life was supported by friends or employed by his father.

Robert Schumann was the son of a book publisher and writer. As a child, Schumann showed early ability in both music and literature, but was not considered a prodigy by any means. At sixteen he was sent to the University of Leipzig at his mother’s insistence. He studied law until he was able to convince his mother of his much greater interest in music. In Leipzig he studied with the renowned piano teacher Friederich Wieck. His ambitions as a pianist were hampered by the weakness of the fingers of one hand, but this did not prevent him from writing some marvelous compositions for piano.

Schumann’s work is noted for its links to literature. This relationship with the written word gives his music an extra dimension, and its sheer joyfulness ranks it among the best loved music of the age. Overall, his early piano compositions are the most original of his works. His songs qualify him as a worthy successor to Schubert . His great orchestral works remain close to the traditional classical forms. In 1850 Schumann was appointed Music Director to the city of Dusseldorf, where he enjoyed little success. Suffering from rapidly declining mental facility, he resigned in 1853 and shortly thereafter was confined to an asylum where he remained until his death in 1856.