Press Release

January 10, 2025

For Immediate Release

Press Contact:

Gail Wein - (646) 484-9691

ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com

Baruch Performing Arts Center's Spring 2025 Performances

Percussionist Michael Yeung, pianist/soprano Chelsea Guo, and classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang fill BPAC's intimate Engelman Recital Hall with compelling music

Special three-concert ticket package available for $75

This spring, Baruch Performing Arts Center's "perfect hall for chamber music" (New York Times) is full of great performances. From award-winning percussionist Michael Yeung to classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang and the multi-talented Chelsea Guo, who is equally at home as a pianist and singer, audiences have the chance to see these three remarkable artists early in their careers in the intimate recital hall which David Letterman called "delightful."

Ticket offer: Purchase tickets to all three recitals for a special price of $75 at this link.

Tickets to all shows available at bpac.baruch.cuny.edu

Downloadable images & bios available in the digital press kit

January 27, 7 pm: Percussionist Michael Yeung

Michael Yeung is winner of the prestigious Susan Wadsworth International Auditions by Young Concert Artists. He has toured the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer. Yeung has appeared with the internationally acclaimed Percussion Collective and performed with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel. In 2024 he curated a series of concerts sponsored by TEDx in Shenzhen, China, and made his Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center recital debuts.

Michael Yeung performs Aperghis's Le corps à corps

From arrangements of classics including Debussy's Rêverie and a lute suite by J.S. Bach to Xenakis' 20th-century solo percussion staple Rebonds A and B, Yeung's versatile skills are on full display on this adventurous and unusual program. The recital also features works by Georges Aperghis, Phillippe Hurel, and John Cage's stunningly gorgeous In a Landscape. 

Tickets $35 ($15 for students and Baruch staff) | $75 three-concert package deal available here

March 6, 7 pm: Pianist/soprano Chelsea Guo

Chelsea Guo is one of the rare talents equally formidable as both a soprano and a pianist. First-prize winner of the 2022 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and a 2022 Classic FM Rising Star, Guo has attracted international attention as a pianist and soprano of remarkable gifts.

Her Baruch PAC performance features classical favorites for voice and piano, with Guo accompanying herself on a program that features works by Chopin, Ravel, Faure, Donizetti, Rossini and more. The concert is part of the Silberman Recital Series. Tickets $35 ($15 for students and Baruch staff).

Chelsea Guo performs Chopin-Pauline Viardot's Mazurka Op.33 No. 2 ”aime moi”

May 19, 7 pm: Classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang

Acclaimed for her “staggering virtuosity,” the classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang returns to Baruch PAC with a performance of works by Bach, Piazzolla, original compositions, and more.

A groundbreaking artist, Hanzhi was the first accordionist to win Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the first to be named Musical America’s “New Artist of the Month,” and the first solo accordionist on WQXR Radio’s Young Artists Showcase.

Hanzhi Wang performs her own transcription of Piazzolla's Milonga del Angel

Hanzhi made her Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center debuts in 2017. Her awards include the Ruth Laredo Prize and Mortimer Levitt Career Development Award for Women Artists of YCA and First Prize in the 40th Castelfidardo International Accordion Competition in Italy. She inspires the next generation of accordionists with lectures, performances, and master classes at the Manhattan School of Music, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Tianjin Music Conservatory, and across Europe. 

Tickets $35 ($15 for students and Baruch staff).

Now-February 9: Wakka Wakka's Dead as a Dodo

January 27: Percussionist Michael Yeung

March 6: Pianist/soprano Chelsea Guo

May 13-25: Heartbeat Opera's "Faust"

May 19: Classical accordionist Hanzhi Wang

Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Avenue (enter on 25th Street between Third and Lexington Avenues, on the south side of the street) in the heart of Manhattan. Praised for its superb acoustics, the Rosalyn and Irwin Engelman Recital Hall has been called "a perfect hall for chamber music" by Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times.