Lee University will host “Ning and Friends” on Tuesday, April 5, featuring the Ensō String Quartet and Lee’s own Ning An on piano. The concert represents the final performance of the season in the school’s acclaimed Presidential Concert Series.

Founded at Yale University in 1999, the Ensō String Quartet has risen to the front rank of string ensembles. Described by The Strad as “thrilling,” and praised by the Washington Post for its “glorious sonorities,” the Ensō has won numerous awards, including top prizes at the Concert Artists Guild competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

The group tours extensively in the U.S. with concerts at Bargemusic in New York, Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Recent highlights include debuts at the Kennedy Center and in Seattle at Town Hall, and returns to Interlochen and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music in Houston. In summer 2013 the group made debut appearances in both Brazil and Mexico, at Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordão and Festival Internacional de Musica de Camera San Miguel de Allende.

In addition to their in-demand performances at concert halls around the world, the Ensō and its individual members are sought after as instructors. The ensemble gives master classes for the next generation of professional musicians, but also works with enthusiastic amateurs of all ages. Additionally, the Ensō works with the United Kingdom-based organization Music for Autism and has been awarded for its work with schoolchildren in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Apart from a busy touring and teaching schedule, the New York-based quartet has made a number of critically-acclaimed recordings for the Naxos label. Its album of works by Alberto Ginastera was nominated for a Grammy award.

An, an artist in residence in Lee’s Department of Music Performance, is hailed by the New York Concert Review as a musician who “combines a flawless technique and mastery of the instrument with an expressive power that is fueled by profound and insightful understanding.”

He made his concerto debut at the age of 16, performing the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1993. He has since appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others.

An has worked with conductors Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos and Kamierz Kord and has presented recitals at Salle Verdi (Milan), Salle Cortot (Paris) and the Palais de Beaux Arts in Antwerp. He was also the first prize winner of the 2006 Tivoli Piano Competition and the third prize winner of the 2002 Paloma O’Shea Santander Competition.

An’s top prizes from the Queen Elizabeth, Cleveland, and William Kapell Piano competitions led to performances across the globe, from Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital and Milan’s Salle Verdi to Beijing’s Great Hall of the People. He has performed with some of the world’s great ensembles, including the Ysaÿe, Daedalus, and Takács quartets, as well as with renowned instrumentalists Paul Neubauer, Andres Diaz, and Soovin Kim.

The concert will be held at 7:30 in Pangle Hall.

Tickets will be available beginning March 29 at the Lee University Dixon Center Box Office Monday-Friday or by contacting (423) 614-8343, from 3-6 p.m.

For more information about the Presidential Concert Series, call the School of Music at (423) 614-8240.