Danwen Jiang
Associate Professor
480-965-8548
danwen.jiang@asu.edu
A Chinese National Violin Competition prizewinner, Danwen Jiang began studying the violin with her father at the age of six. At age nine, she was chosen to perform in a recital for the former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and the Chinese government at the Great Hall in Beijing. A year later, she was selected as a child protégé by the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where she continued her music study. Since her arrival in the United States in 1987, Ms. Jiang won the First Prize in the Mid-America Violin Competition, the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Scholarship Competition and the St. Louis International Artist Presentation Society Competition.
Called by The Boston Globe, "an intelligent, agile and breathtaking violinist", Ms. Jiang has performed as a recitalist and concerto soloist with numerous symphony and chamber orchestras in Asia, Europe and the North America, and has appeared in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, La Salle Gaveau in Paris and the Cultural Centre Concert Hall in Hong Kong. Many of her performances also have been heard through classical radio networks such as NPR, WQXR, KFOU, WILL, KING, KBAQ, and CNR (China National Radio). She has recorded for the China Record Corporation as well as the Manchester Music Festival labels.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Jiang has collaborated in concert with the Soloists of The Pacific Rim, The Boston Players, American Chamber Players, and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Guarneri, Juilliard, Tokyo, Emerson and Shanghai String Quartets. She has appeared at the Sanibel Chamber Music Festival, Yale Chamber Music Series, Rutgers SummerFest and the Manchester Music Festival in the United States, the Festival du Quercy Blanc and Festival Dan le Gard in France, Gioventù Musicale in Italy, Victoria International Music Festival in Canada, among others.
In addition to being an avid performer, Danwen Jiang is a devoted and accomplished teacher. Prior to joining the ASU faculty in 2003, Ms. Jiang taught at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has given guest recitals and master classes at other music schools such as the Universities of Maryland, Michigan, Utah, Wisconsin and Florida State University. As an international visiting artist / teacher, she has taught at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, the State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart in Germany and the Vancouver Academy of Music in Canada. Her students were winners of numerous national and international violin and chamber music competitions in the United States, Canada, China and Romania, as well as the concerto competitions at Oberlin Conservatory, University of Illinois and Arizona State University. Her former students also include the current Concertmaster of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Associate Concertmaster of the Reno Philharmonic Orchestra and the Reno Chamber Orchestra, First Violinist in the Julstrom and Vinca String Quartets, and Assistant Professor of Violin at Western Illinois University.
Ms. Jiang is a recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award and President's Tenured Faculty Exemplar Award at Arizona State University. She was invited and featured twice as soloist and violin master class artist by the American String Teachers Association at ASTA National Conferences (2005 and 2008).
Danwen Jiang studied at Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, St. Louis Conservatory of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Rutgers University. Her former violin teachers include Weijian Zhao, Taras Gabora, Oscar Shumsky and Arnold Steinhardt. Additionally, she studied chamber music with Jaime Laredo, Felix Galimir, Michael Tree, Seymour Lipkin, and Zara Nelsova.
Ms. Jiang plays on a 1727 Antonio Stradivarius violin (the "Ex-Ries").
Katherine McLin
Professor
480-727-8377
k.mclin@asu.edu
Violinist Katherine McLin enjoys an extremely varied and prolific performing career as a concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber and orchestral musician. Since her debut with the Oregon Symphony at the age of fifteen, Dr. McLin has made over 40 appearances as soloist with orchestras across the country. Appearances since 2008 include the Bach Double Concerto with Ani Kafavian and the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Ohio, the North American premier of Hans Gal’s Violin Concerto with the Musica Nova Orchestra of Scottsdale, Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy with the Tempe Symphony Orchestra, and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Parkway Concert Orchestra of Boston, MA.
A member of the McLin/Campbell Duo with pianist Andrew Campbell and Trio del Sol (with Robert Spring, clarinetist, and Campbell), Dr. McLin performs extensively throughout the United States and abroad. She has served as a featured performer in numerous national and international conferences, including the International Schoenberg Conference (2005), National MTNA (Music Teacher’s National Association) Conference in Salt Lake City (2003), the IPAC (International Percussive Arts Conference) in Columbus, OH (2002), SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US) in Tempe (2003), and the IDRS (International Double Reed Society) Conference in Tempe (1997).
Dr. McLin appears on 14 compact disc recordings under the Summit, Centaur, and Opus One labels and has four additional releases pending for 2010-11. Her most recent project Beau Soir, a disc of French violin/piano duo music with Andrew Campbell, was released on the Summit Records label in 2010 and was a KBAQ CD of the week in February. Additionally, Dr. McLin’s live and recorded performances have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, NYC’s WQXR (Bob Sherman’s “Listening Room” program), and local radio stations throughout the country.
A frequent guest recitalist and clinician, Dr. McLin gave the featured Pre-College Violin Master Class at the 2008 National American String Teacher’s Association Conference in NM. She has presented master classes at over 50 music schools across the country and abroad, including the University of Michigan, Trinity College (London), North Carolina School for the Arts, Boston University, Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Oklahoma, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Kansas, University of Oregon, University of Georgia, University of Kentucky, West Virginia University, Texas Christian University, and University of Miami, to name a few.
Dr. McLin currently serves as Concertmaster of the Columbus ProMusica Orchestra in Ohio, and in the past has served as Concertmaster of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, the Michigan Sinfonietta, and the Aspen Sinfonia Orchestra, and Principal Second Violin of the Michigan Opera Theater Orchestra.
Dr. McLin received her doctorate in violin performance from the University of Michigan as a student of Paul Kantor. She holds additional performance degrees from Indiana University and the Oberlin College Conservatory, and for three years was an orchestral fellowship recipient at the Aspen Music Festival. Her former teachers include Franco Gulli, Josef Gingold, and Kathleen Winkler.
A committed and passionate teacher, Dr. McLin won the 2004 Distinguished Teacher Award for the College of Fine Arts at Arizona State University, chosen from over 170 faculty, and was a finalist for the 2007 university-wide ASU Professor of the Year award. Former students of Dr.McLin’s include members of Barrage, the Quebec, Phoenix, Tucson, and Flint Symphony Orchestras, Concertmaster of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Assistant Concertmaster of the Seoul National Symphony, Principal Second of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra, and faculty members of Mercer University, Georgia Southern University, BYU-Idaho, Westminster College (PA), Southeastern College (FL), and Grove City College (PA). Her students have been prizewinners and finalists in the Stradivarius International Competition, MTNA National Competition, and ASTA National Solo Competition, among others. Graduates have gone on to performance programs at the Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Michigan, to name a few and have performed in as diverse settings as soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, touring with rap artist Kanye West, and recording with John Tesh. Her students regularly participate in summer festivals such as Aspen, Blossum, Tanglewood, Meadowmount, NRO, Chautauqua, and Brevard.
Dr. McLin plays on a 1734 Sanctus Seraphin violin, on loan from an anonymous foundation.
Associate Professor
480-965-3640
swartz@asu.edu
A native of Toronto, violinist Jonathan Swartz has distinguished himself throughout North America both as a performer and pedagogue. While serving on the faculties at Arizona State University, the Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory, and the Domaine Forget Academy, Swartz has managed to maintain a prolific performing career. He collaborates often with his sister Jennifer Swartz, principal harpist of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, and his wife, American pianist Wendy Chen.
Swartz has appeared at the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society, Colorado’s Strings in the Mountains Chamber Festival, the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival, the Mooredale Concert Series, and the Artists Series at Roy Thompson Hall, in addition to several venues under the auspices of Les Jeunesses Musicales du Canada. He is also a member of the IRIS Orchestra under conductor Michael Stern, an ensemble that regularly performs with the world’s leading artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gil Shaham, Jaime Laredo, Joshua Bell, Midori, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Yefim Bronfman.
Sought after as a master clinician, and frequent presenter at the American String Teachers’ Association National Conferences, Swartz was interviewed by STRINGS magazine for an article in the October 2006 issue regarding his approach to bow technique. He has given master classes throughout North America, including at Vanderbilt University, Bowling Green State University, Florida State University, the Interlochen Arts Academy, Stanford University, and the Royal Conservatory of Music/Glenn Gould School in Toronto. Swartz serves as panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and has previously served on the faculties at the University of Texas at El Paso, the Interlochen Arts Camp, and the Innsbrook Institute.
Swartz is the founder and Artistic Director of the Visiting Quartet Residency Program at Arizona State University, a chamber music program that integrates visiting resident artists with a comprehensive chamber music curriculum. Quartets in this residency have included the St. Lawrence, Juilliard, Brentano, Tokyo, and Orion String Quartets. Swartz is also co-founder of the Violinists’ Seminar at Le Domaine Forget in Quebec, Canada – a team-taught intensive training program for advanced violinists.
Swartz earned a Bachelor of Music cum laude from Rice University, a Master of Music from the Mannes College of Music, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Rice University. His doctoral thesis is titled Perspectives of Violin Pedagogy: A Study of the Treatises of Francesco Geminiani, Pierre Baillot, and Ivan Galamian, and a Working Manual by Jonathan Swartz
