Kia-Hui Tan plays all-Prokofiev concert Feb. 21

Kia-Hui Tan

Violinist Kia-Hui Tan, assisted by pianist Xak Bjerken, presents a program Feb. 21 at 8 p.m. in Barnes Hall commemorating the 50th anniversary of Sergei Prokofiev's death. Tan, Cornell assistant professor of music, will perform Prokofiev's two sonatas for violin and piano (op. 94a in D Major and op. 80 in F Minor), as well as 5 Melodies, op. 35bis.

Described in The Strad as a "violinist whose virtuosity was astonishing," Tan has performed on five continents, recorded for film and theater, and has broadcast on radio, television and the Internet. Originally from Singapore, she studied with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and David Updegraff at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received the doctor of musical arts degree.

Valedictorian of the graduating class for both her bachelor's and master's degrees, she has won many prizes in violin, chamber music, new music and academic scholarship. She has served as violin and viola faculty, chamber- music coach, music theory lecturer and staff accompanist at various institutions and summer festivals in the United States and abroad.

Bjerken, assistant professor of music at Cornell, has given solo and chamber music recitals in Europe and throughout the United States and has appeared as soloist with, among others, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. Bjerken has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall, the Phillips Collection and the Kennedy Center; has held chamber music residencies at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy; and is the pianist of the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, which tours the United States regularly.

Bjerken earned his bachelor's degree cum laude at the University of California-Los Angeles, studying with Aube Tzerko, and his master's and doctoral degrees from the Peabody Institute as a student and teaching assistant to Leon Fleisher.