News

The Lee University School of Music will present Dr. Muen Vanessa Wei, piano, in a faculty recital on Monday, Feb. 28, at 7:30 p.m. in the Squires Recital Hall, located in Lee’s Humanities Center.

The recital will feature works of two of the most prominent pianists in music history, F. Chopin and F. Liszt. In the first half, Wei will perform Chopin’s “Etudes Op. 10,” which includes 12 virtuosic studies for piano. In the second half, she will perform Liszt’s “Sonata in B Minor.”

The sonata is based on the classic tragic play, “Faust,” by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

“The erudite Faust is highly successful but dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the devil, exchanging his soul for unlimited knowledge and worldly pleasure,” said Wei. “The story has a lot of biblical references, and we could hear those references in the music.”

Wei is an assistant professor of piano with a record of distinction and acclaim in solo piano performance and in collaborations with musicians of note. At Lee, she teaches courses such as applied piano, piano seminar, and piano for ministry. Prior to Lee, she served as a guest professor at China West Normal University, piano faculty at New Tampa Piano and Pedagogy Academy, and worked in various piano teaching assistant instructional roles at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

She earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana, a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor of Music from the China Conservatory of Music.

The recital is free, non-ticketed, and open to the public. Livestream viewing will be available at leeu.live.

For more information about the concert, contact the Lee University School of Music at (423) 614-8240.