Date and Time: Thursday, June 22, 2023; 7-8:30 PM with a brief intermission.

Location: Island Arts Center, 1127 US Rt 2, North Hero, VT 05474

Tickets: Free event. Registration is suggested.

Come enjoy a concert of piano favorites with Yang Bao, accompanied by renowned violinist Kenneth Renshaw. All are welcome to join us at this concert in celebration of the life of Bob Foley, long time Island Arts supporter. The program will include some of Bob Foley’s favorites by Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, and Schubert.

Yang Bao’s association with Island Arts began back in 2014 while he was still an undergraduate piano student at the New England Conservatory of Music. He continued to appear with Island Arts for six seasons.

It is thanks to Bob Foley and his wife Priscilla Rose, who recruited Yang Bao and underwrote those early concerts, that classical music is now a popular feature of Island Arts’ annual events calendar. The Priscilla Rose Talent Scholarship was created by Bob Foley in his wife’s name. He provided an endowment so this scholarship could continue as a valuable resource for Grand Isle youth to study in the arts.

Yang Bao is now a cross-disciplinary artist, composer, and pianist based in
New York, classically trained in piano performance at The Juilliard School and New England Conservatory of Music. He frequently performs at prestigious venues including Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Lincoln Center in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, and Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. His recent concerts include the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 with China Philharmonic Orchestra in their Spring 2022 Concert Season.

Bao’s multi-media works create an experiential “synthesis of the arts” that is precise in texture while hypnotizing in motion. Inspired by classical music and post-human minimalism, his sensory-based “physical music” condenses complex emotions into poetic fables. Further enhanced by film and installation, Bao’s works materialize the intangible music into ever-morphing sonic monuments. 

Kenneth Renshaw gained international attention in 2012 after winning First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition. He has performed as soloist with major orchestras including the Belgian National Orchestra, the China Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, and in recitals at venues such as the Louvre Museum and the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad. He has collaborated with pianist Leon Fleisher, violinists Itzhak Perlman and Pamela Frank, and violist Kim Kashkashian, among others. He also enjoys pre-60s jazz and plays with a West Coast band, The Hot Clams.

Passionate about teaching, Renshaw is Teaching Assistant to Perlman and Li Lin at The Juilliard School. His private students have won prizes and been admitted to major conservatories including Juilliard and New England Conservatory. Renshaw holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Juilliard.