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Tuesday 15 July 2025Doors: 6.30pm
Concert: 7.30pm (100 min inc. interval) Tickets: £25 |
7 Star Arts proudly presents a recital of piano transcriptions of famous works by Richard Strauss and Alexander Scriabin.
ProgrammeRichard Strauss (transcribed by Mei-Ting Sun)
Der Rosenkavalier Four Last Songs Alexander Scriabin (transcribed by Leon Chen) Poeme de l'Extase |
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Proudly presented by 7 Star Arts supporting the ENO Benevolent Fund
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7 Star Arts presents a diverse range of unique and original productions from the intimate life stories of the great composers to dazzling cutting edge musicians of the younger generation.
7 Star Arts’ popular mixed-genre concerts combine music, words and art to create intriguing and engaging aural and visual experiences. |
"When I was diagnosed with leukaemia life suddenly became fragile and scary, not just for me but for my family. When we needed it most the ENO Benevolent Fund stepped in, giving us help and support so I could concentrate on recovery. I'm now back at work and I've just celebrated 25 years at ENO. Thank you." |
When the music stops...Everyone who attends English National Opera (ENO) will experience the thrill of being transported by a live performance that lingers long in the memory. At ENO a hugely gifted ensemble on stage, in the pit and behind the scenes, contributes a wide range of skills to the audience's total enjoyment. But what happens when life suddenly changes through illness or accident and a performer or technician loses the ability to earn a living? At a stroke this person faces an uncomfortable reminder of how precarious a profession opera can be.
This is where the ENO Benevolent Fund, a registered charity first established almost 60 years ago, can make a significant difference. The Fund aims to alleviate hardship wherever it can in the form of a grant or loan. This may involve tiding a person (and sometimes his or her dependants) over a difficult patch, or providing longer-term support. Beneficiaries may include singers with throat and chest problems, musicians afflicted by loss of sight or hearing, wig and wardrobe technicians whose eyes or fingers are no longer up to the job, or any of the dedicated team which unites to make the Company what it is. Sometimes a one-off grant is given for a piece of equipment to help overcome a disability, or a loan to secure immediate medical advice or treatment. The Trustees who administer the Fund consider each case with great care. |
Leon Chen |
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Born in Auckland, New Zealand, 25-year-old pianist / conductor Ruiyang Leon Chen is a repetiteur fellow at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He moved to the UK in 2018 with the Gill Culpin Scholarship Award to study piano with Mei-ting Sun, and conducting with Sian Edwards and Dominic Greir, finishing bachelor and master of music degree both with first-class honours, including a research dissertation and a DipRAM, the highest award for performance excellence. Known for having in-depth training on a wide range of skills, especially adept at sight-reading and conducting, while years of working at Academy’s Museum also gathered him skills with period instruments as well as piano maintenance and tuning. His frequent performances in England and Europe saw collaborations with orchestras such as Worthing Philharmonic, Brighton Philharmonic and Chinike! Orchestra, and was awarded the Accompanist’s prize in 2023 for his performance during the Academy’s Bicentenary Awards in Wigmore Hall. His concert appearances include the Savonlinna Music Festival in Finland, Virtuoso-Belcanto in Italy and more recently in KKL for the Luzern festival in Switzerland. Leon’s also been invited as a guest artist in the London Young Talent Festival, as well as the London Chinese New Year Gala concert. As an experienced collaborative pianist, Leon has worked as a repetiteur with Carshalton Opera, and now as a part of Royal Academy Opera, he’s now rehearsed and assisted on scenes and productions including Wozzeck, La bohème, Madame Butterfly, Hänsel und Gretel, Die Zauberflöte, Burning Firey Furnace and many more.
In his hometown prior to the move to London, Leon won the first Asia-Pacific Musician Association competition, the LECT Alice Cole Scholarship and was a joint winner of the 2019 New Zealand National Concerto Competition. He’s also a recipient of the Arts Excellence Award from Dame Malvina Major Foundations.
In his hometown prior to the move to London, Leon won the first Asia-Pacific Musician Association competition, the LECT Alice Cole Scholarship and was a joint winner of the 2019 New Zealand National Concerto Competition. He’s also a recipient of the Arts Excellence Award from Dame Malvina Major Foundations.
Mei-Ting Sun
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Mei-Ting has performed the complete works for solo piano of Brahms, Chopin, and Debussy, in addition to all 32 Sonatas of Beethoven.
After winning several major competitions, including the first Piano-e competition and the National Chopin Competition of the US, Mei-Ting’s career has taken him throughout most of the US, Latin America, Asia, and Europe, at venues such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, Tonhalle in Zurich, and Obecni Dum in Prague. He has collaborated with many major orchestras, including the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, the Prague Philharmonia, Orquesta Nacional de España, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and the National Symphony of Mexico, working with eminent conductors including Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Antoni Wit, Jakub Hrůša, Michał Nesterowicz, Lü Jia, Antoni Ros-Marbà and Pablo González. While performing the complete works of other composers, Mei-Ting transcribed and arranged several orchestral and operatic works, expanding the technical and tonal possibilities of the modern piano. This project, which encompasses selections from R. Strauss’s Rosenkavalier and Salome, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite from 1919, and a brand new transcription of Ravel’s La valse, has already garnered rave reviews around the world. Mei-Ting is a Yamaha artist. |
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