Felix Fan 范雅志, Cellist
Felix Fan is a celebrated young cellist whose eclectic music-making and leadership reflect a 21st Century sensibility rare among musicians. He is a musical explorer whose journey takes him from a performance of Tan Dun’s music one day to a Devorak Concerto the next.
This superb musician – with his unique musical curiosity – has won praise as a recitalist, chamber music partner and soloist. Because of his interest in playing outside the standard repertory, Mr. Fan founded Muzik3, an eclectic concert series consisting of classical, contemporary, and improvised music. Held annually since 1998, Muzik3 attracts an enthusiastic following and is recognized as one of the West Coast’s most important contemporary and experimental music events.
Mr. Fan’s globe-straddling 2001-2002 season includes dates in Taipei (with the Taipei Symphony), Lausanne (in recital with pianist Andrew Russo), London (in recital at the Wallace Collection), Madrid (with the RTVE Orchestra), Santa Barbara (with the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra), San Diego (in March 2002 for the fifth annual Muzik3 Festival), and in Summer 2002 at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
Mr. Fan has worked closely with significant living composers including Oliver Knussen, Tan Dun, Hans Werner Henze, and the Swedish bass guitarist Jonas Hellborg. He has appeared in many established concert halls including: the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Budapest’s Vigado, the Palau in Valencia, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Izumi Hall in Osaka, Casals Hall in Tokyo and the Salle Cortot in Paris. He has also concertized with the Pacific, Syracuse, San Diego, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Taiwan National symphonies.
In 1997, the renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma invited Mr. Fan to join him on stage for the opening concert of the La Jolla Chamber Music Society’s Celebrity Series. Other notable chamber music collaborations have included performances with Janos Starker (one of his music mentors) and an acclaimed tour of Taiwan with violinist Cho-Liang Lin in 1995. An artistically successful duo, Fan and Lin reunited for a performance at Mr. Lin’s 2000 Taipei International Music Festival, which also featured such luminaries as Emanuel Ax, Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleisher, and Gil Shaham. During the 2000-01 season, Mr. Fan and Mr. Lin joined the San Diego Symphony for an inspired rendition of Brahm’s Double Concerto.
Other highlights of the 2000-01 season included the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival working with composer Charles Wuorinen, at SummerFest La Jolla collaborating with composer/violinist Mark O’Connor, performing with the Southern California ska band, Common Sense, his own Muzik3 festival, and playing Tan Dun’s Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for Cello and Orchestra in Taipei and Hong Kong. Since 1992, Mr Fan has appeared annually in SummerFest La Jolla and has had engagements at the Santa Fe Chamber Mucis Festival, New York’s Bargemusic series, and the 43rd Festival Internacional de Santander.
Born in Boston and raised in San Diego, Mr. Fan’s prodigious talent was first recognized at the age of 4. He has studied under the eminent Hungarian cellist Janos Starker at Indiana University, with Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, with Aldo Parisot at Yale University, and with Boris Pergamenschikov in Cologne, Germany. In 1993, at the age of 17, he was honored at the White House by President Clinton as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts.
自幼即被公認為音樂神童的范雅志，出生於波士頓，兩歲時隨父母遷往加州聖地牙哥，四歲開始學琴，十二歲與洛杉磯市內交響樂團巡迴演出。由於天賦聰 慧，加上父母熱心栽培，從小即到處遠行，跟隨當今諸位大提琴泰斗名師學琴，十五歲受教於史塔克(Janos Starker)，十七歲接受克林頓總統頒發「最高榮譽藝術獎」，並受邀在甘迺迪中心演出，高中畢業後轉往德國科隆音樂學院深造。
2001-2002音樂季中，范雅志除了與台北市立交響樂團、西班牙馬德里國家交響樂團、聖塔巴巴拉室內樂團、聖地牙哥交響樂團合作外，也曾在聖大 菲室內樂節中與 Charles Wuorinen 合作、於SummerFest La Jolla 中與 Mark O’Connor合作。其他參與演出的還有Southern Californian ska band – Common Sense，自己舉辦的 Muzik3 Festival，並受邀擔任奧斯卡得主譚頓在台北及香港得獎曲“臥虎藏龍”演奏會中的大提琴獨奏。
年紀尚輕的范雅志，由於出道甚早，已有闖蕩樂壇數年的豐富經驗，不僅合作過的樂團無數，其演奏足跡更是遍及歐、亞、美、澳各洲大城。各地的樂評皆稱 讚他令人驚異的成熟表現，一致認為范雅志高超的琴藝早已超過他的實際年齡。樂迷們聽他的演奏，隨著他控制自如、自然流露的優美音色，更是難忘他對於音樂的 完全投入。(取自美東夏令會簡介http://tacec.org/2002/Fan_Chen.htm)
