REVIEW

Anglo-Malaysian cellist Miranda Su Lan Harding was born in England in 1976 and spent her childhood in Singapore and Australia. Showing musical ability from an early age, she took up the piano at the age of 4 and the cello at the age of 8. At the age of 10 she gave her first solo concert at the National University of Singapore playing Bach's Solo Suite no.1, and in the same year won a scholarship to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School of Music in Surrey, England. During this time, her teachers included Melissa Phelps, William Pleeth and members of the Amadeus Quartet. She has also participated in masterclasses with Steven Isserlis and David Geringas, and in composition workshops with composer Malcolm Singer. In 1991 she was a string finalist in the BBC 'Young Musician of the Year' competition and in 1992 she won first prize at the International Constantin Silvestri Competition. In 2001 she graduated her Bachelor's degree with distinction at the Musikakademie in Detmold, Germany, where she studied with Prof. Karine Georgian.

Miranda has played at many venues in Britain including at the South Bank in London and at St. James' Palace where she performed chamber music with Lord Menuhin. Further international concert engagements led her to Belgium, Germany, Norway, Italy, Romania, and in the USA, the International Music Festival in Colmar, France and the International Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, Switzerland, including features on Classic FM Radio in Britain. Since 1998 she has been cellist with the Heitor Villa-Lobos Music Society of New York, an organisation promoting interracial tolerance through music.

Chong Lim Ng was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1972 and began his piano studies at the age of four. He was the Malaysian representative in the 1986 and 1988 International Junior original concert in Japan with his own original compositions. In 1993, he won the 1st Prize of the Malaysian National Piano Competition.

In 1994, financial assistance from the Royal College of Music, London enabled him to study with Professor Frank Wibaut at the Royal College of Music (Postgraduate Diploma). During his stay in London (1994-1997), he won numerous awards and prizes such as winner of the Philip Crashaw Memorial Prize for Outstanding Overseas Musician in the Royal Overseas League Competition, 2nd prize in the AT&T Istel Young Musician Award Piano Competition, prize winner of the International Newport Piano Competition scholarship awarded by the Countess of Munster and Anthony Saltmarsch Junior fellowship by the Royal College of Music. Besides this, he was the RCM representative in the Royal Northern College of Music Festival, "Glories of the Keyboard" in Manchester, England and selected to perform the Tchaikovsky 1st Concerto with the RCM Symphony Orchestra.

In 1997, he continued his piano studies in the Hochschule fur Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz, Austria with Professor Elza Kolodin. He was awarded the "Streifstipendiem" and the representative Graz Musikhochschule in the International Music Festival Graz. Later that year, he was invited to perform the Schumann concerto with Kharkov Youth Symphony Orchestra in the Kharkov Opera House, Ukraine. In 1999, he was awarded full scholarship to attend the Hamamatsu International Piano Academy in Japan. In 2000, he performed the Tchaikovsky 1st Concerto with the Malaysian National Symphony Orchestra in the National Theater, Kuala Lumpur for the International Piano Festival. During the same year, his "2 Preludes" for piano solo was commissioned for the National Piano Festival, Malaysia.

Since 2000, he has been studying composition with Professor Beat Furrer in the Universitat fur Musik und darstellende Kunst, Graz, Austria. "Khatulistiwa" (for two pianos and two percussionists) and "Sonata for cello solo" premiered in Graz and Kuala Lumpur. He was also awarded the Begabtenstipendiem from the Graz University of Music and Art. His compositions included String Quartet, 4 Klavierstiicke, Klavierstiicke... "Wama"…Khathulistiwa for 2 pianos and 2 percussionists, Sonata for cello solo, "Daun" for solo piano and works for piano and orchestra.

He has given recitals both as a soloist and chamber musician in England, Austria, Germany, Spain, Ukraine, Holland, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

As a duo, they will be performing Schuman’s "Fantasiestucke" for cello and piano Op. 73, Brahms’ Sonata in E Minor op. 38 and Chopin’s Sonata in G Minor op. 65.

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