Andy & Friends

W. A. Mozart: Sonata for Piano Four Hands in B-flat Major, K. 358

Claude Debussy: Petite Suite for Piano Four Hands

Johannes Brahms: Hungarian Dances for Four Hands, WoO 1

Antonin Dvořák: Slavonic Dances for Four Hands

Piotr Tchaikovsky: From Symphony No. 6, Opus 74, III. Allegro molto vivace

Maurice Ravel: Mother Goose Suite for Four Hands, percussion arr. Fang

George Gershwin: Cuban Overture for Four Hands & Percussion

Steinway Piano Selected from Steinway Piano Gallery-Columbia – www.steinwaycarolina.com.

Praised by critics for his passionate expression and dazzling technique, pianist Andrew Armstrong has delighted audiences across Asia, Europe, Latin America, Australia Canada, and the United States, including performances at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, and Warsaw’s National Philharmonic.

Andrew’s orchestral engagements across the globe have encompassed a vast repertoire of more than 60 concertos with orchestra as well as solo recitals and in chamber music concerts at festivals around the globe.

This 2025-26 season, Andrew will perform Grazyna Bacewicz’s Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto both with the South Carolina Philharmonic.  This October 2025, Andrew launches the first presentation of his Tuscan Music Festival, October 11-19.  Throughout calendar year 2026, Andrew joins longtime friend and duo partner, Two-Time Grammy Winning violinist James Ehnes in a cross-country tour across Canada, playing in each capital, province, and territory. Back in the States, year-round, Andrew directs and hosts six thriving chamber music series. Three of them are in South Carolina – in Beaufort (USCB Chamber Music), in Columbia (SC Philharmonic’s Andy & Friends), and in Greenville (Sigal Music Museum presents Andy & Friends, a combination of evening chamber music concerts and daytime workshops with students at the remarkable public arts high school, the Fine Arts Center).  He also directs New Canaan Chamber Music in Connecticut, Fabbri Chamber Concerts in NYC at Fabbri Mansion’s 1609 Italian Renaissance Library, a rare, intimate jewel with only 80 seats, and A Little Night Music at Tuckerman Hall in Worcester, MA, the vibrant city where Andrew lives happily with his wife Esty, their three children Jack (19), Elise (14), and Gabriel (8), and their dog Dooker.

Described as an “intrepid percussionist” by Fanfare Magazine, I-Jen Fang has a career as a solo performer, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teacher. She joined the faculty of the Music Department at the University of Virginia in 2005 and serves as the Principal Timpanist and Percussionist of the Charlottesville Symphony.

As a soloist, I-Jen has performed in Taiwan, U.S., Austria, France, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and South Africa. She was also the featured marimba soloist with the Charlottesville Symphony in 2006 and 2010. As a chamber musician, I-Jen has performed or recorded with artists such as Keiko Abe, Gregory Beyer, William Cahn, Christopher Deane, Mark Ford, Dave Hall, Edward Janning, Heini Kärkkäinen, Sivan Magen, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Jan Müller-Szeraws, Diane Pascal, Minna Pensola, Carsten Schmidt, Ed Smith, Nanik Wenton, Nyoman Wenton, EcoSono Ensemble, Cantata Profana, Attacca Percussion Group, DaCapo Chamber Players, Victory Hall Opera and Charlottesville Opera. She has appeared in Staunton Music Festival, Wintergreen Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Heritage Theater Festival, Greencastle Summer Music Festival (IN), DRUMFEST XXVIII (Poland), International Viola Congress, National Flute Association Convention, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) Conference, Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) and Regional PAS Day of Percussion. She is also a founding member, with Ayn Balija, of the Piedmont Duo, which explores the sonic possibilities of the viola and percussion. Their recent international performances included stops in Hungary, Brazil, and France.

An advocate of New Music, I-Jen was the director of the UVA New Music Ensemble for 14 years. The ensemble collaborated with composer/improviser George Lewis, flutist Claire Chase, and performed for composers such as Phillip Glass and Christian Wolff. She has also commissioned and/or premiered works by JoVia Armestrong, Jon Bellona, Matt Boehler, Becky Brown, Matthew Burtner, Cameron Church, Ted Coffey, Kevin Davis, Christopher Deane, Erik DeLuca, Aurie Hsu, André Mehmari, Sarah O’Halloran, Chris Peck, Leah Reid, Judith Shatin, Brian Simalchik, Ed Smith, D.J. Sparr, Max Tfirn, Zachary Wadsworth, Kristina Warren, and Michele Zaccagnini.

A lover of Gamelan Music, I-Jen was a member of Makan Malam Gamelan Ensemble (TX) and Charlottesville Javanese Gamelan Ensemble (VA). Other than studying with Ed Smith in Texas, she also studied Gamelan Gender Wayang under the tutelage of I Ketut Madri in Bali. In 2005 and 2009, she was invited to perform at PASIC on the Gamelan Gender Wayang.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, I-Jen began her musical education at age six taking piano lessons. Taking up percussion at the age of nine, she came to the United States at age fifteen to pursue her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Percussion Performance at Carnegie Mellon University. She received her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas where she served as a teaching fellow.

I-Jen is an Innovative Percussion, Marimba One and Sabian Cymbals artist.

One of the most sought-after soloists and chamber music collaborators of his generation, Orion Weiss is a “brilliant pianist” (The New York Times) with “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post). He has dazzled audiences worldwide with his “head-spinning range of colors” (Chicago Tribune) and has performed with all the major orchestras of North America, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Cleveland Orchestra.

Highlights of Weiss’s recent seasons include performances at London’s Wigmore Hall; his return to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, led by Michael Tilson Thomas; his debut with the National Symphony Orchestra, led by Ken-David Masur; a live-stream with the Minnesota Orchestra; and performances of Beethoven's Triple Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra. Recently, Weiss was featured in performances in Tokyo’s Kioi Hall and Opera City Concerto Hall, Taiwan’s National Concert Hall, Hong Kong’s Premiere Performances and Next Generation Arts, as well as at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Bergen International Festival in Norway.

Known for his affinity for chamber music, Weiss performs regularly with violinists James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, and William Hagen; pianists Michael Stephen Brown and Shai Wosner; and the Ariel, Parker, and Pacifica Quartets, among others. He has appeared across the United States at venues and festivals including the Ravinia Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Seattle and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, and more.

In March 2022, First Hand Records released the first album of Weiss’s Arc Trilogy – Arc I: Granados, Janáček, Scriabin; followed by Arc II, featuring the music of Ravel, Brahms, and Shostakovich in November 2022. Arc III, featuring works by Brahms, Schubert, Debussy, Dohnányi, Ligeti, and Talma, was released in February 2025. Weiss can also be heard on the Naxos, Telos, Bridge, Yarlung, Warner Classics, Cedille, and Artek labels on recordings such as The Piano Protagonists with The Orchestra Now, led by Leon Botstein; a disc of Scarlatti Sonatas for Naxos; a solo recital disc of Bartók, Dvorák, and Prokofiev; Brahms Sonatas with violinist Arnaud Sussmann; a solo recital album of J.S. Bach, Scriabin, Mozart, and Carter; and recital discs with cellist Julie Albers and violinist Augustin Hadelich. In addition, Weiss has released a recording of Christopher Rouse’s Seeing, a recording of Korngold’s Left Hand concerto, other works with Leon Botstein and TON, and recordings of Gershwin’s complete works for piano and orchestra with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and JoAnn Falletta. Upcoming recordings feature Korngold’s Piano Quintet with the Pacifica Quartet and Debussy’s complete Études.

A native of Ohio, Weiss attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and made his Cleveland Orchestra debut performing Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1999. The next month, with less than 24 hours’ notice, Weiss stepped in to replace André Watts for a performance of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and was immediately invited to return later that year. Career honors include the Classical Recording Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year, Gilmore Young Artist Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Gina Bachauer Scholarship at The Juilliard School, and the Mieczyslaw Munz Scholarship.

In 2000, he graduated from the Young Artist high school program at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Paul Schenly, Daniel Shapiro, and Sergei Babayan. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Emanuel Ax and Jerome Lowenthal. In 2005, he toured Israel with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Itzhak Perlman. That same year, he made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall and his European debut in a recital at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Learn more: www.orionweiss.com.