An Evening of Viola and Piano
The concert includes music by Caroline Shaw, Ellen Taafe Zwilich, Radiohead, Bohuslav Martinu, and Nikolai Roslavets performed by Tze Ying Wu, viola, and Jacob Coleman, piano.
Dr. Tze-Ying Wu is associate professor of viola and string education at the University of Kentucky, where she directs the UK String Project. An active chamber musician, Dr. Wu performs with the Formosa Trio (viola, harp, flute), appearing at major venues and festivals in Asia and the U.S., including the 13th World Harp Congress in Hong Kong, the National Taichung Theater, and the National Concert Hall in Taipei. The trio’s 2024 tour featured performances across the Midwest and premieres of new works by Zhou Tian, and Yuchun Hu. Their debut album, First Impression, was released in 2018.
Recognized for her dedication to teaching, Dr. Wu received the 2024 Outstanding Educator Award from the Kentucky Chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Her students have earned professional positions with orchestras such as the Lexington Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Virginia Symphony, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. Dr. Wu earned her Doctor and Master of Music degrees in viola performance from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with Atar Arad, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from National Taiwan Normal University. She has served on the summer faculties of the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts and the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute and is currently the board president of the National String Project Consortium.
A native of Athens, Georgia, pianist Jacob Coleman is associate professor of piano and collaborative piano at the University of Kentucky School of Music. As a collaborator, Dr. Coleman has performed with artists such as Franklin Cohen, David Kim, Jeff Nelsen, Leone Busye, Amy Porter as well as the Zohn Collective and Kenari Quartet. He has served as an official pianist for the Mid-South Flute Fest, National Trumpet Competition, ProjetoBone Brasil (2019), and Muestra Internacional de Clarinete de Panamá (2019). Coleman has also frequently appeared at the North American Saxophone Alliance and International Double Reed Society conferences.
Prior to coming to Kentucky, Dr. Coleman taught at the University of Southern Mississippi, where he directed the Collaborative Piano Program and created a new doctoral degree. From 2014-2016, he served as visiting assistant professor of collaborative piano at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. For six summers, he was a member of the piano staff at the Meadowmount School of Music founded by Ivan Galamian. Dr. Coleman holds degrees from The University of Texas at Austin (D.M.A., Collaborative Piano), University of Oregon (M.M., Collaborative Piano), and University of Georgia (B.M., Piano Performance). His primary teachers were Richard Zimdars, David Riley, and Anne Epperson.
