Bio

The internationally renowned Felici Piano Trio has performed well over 500 concerts in Europe, South America and the U.S.. The ensemble has distinguished itself as a unique presence on the national music scene since coming to Mammoth Lakes as grantee of Chamber Music America's Rural Residencies Program and as a California Arts Council (CAC) Touring Roster Ensemble.

Through Chamber Music Unbound, a nonprofit arts organization based in Mammoth Lakes, Felici presents a full winter concert season (Felici & Friends), as well as an international summer festival, the Unbound Chamber Music Festival.

The ensemble members direct a year-round community music school serving local students in weekly group and individual lessons. They perform "Kids & Young Peoples' Concerts" for Eastern Sierra schools and teach music appreciation classes and chamber orchestra in collaboration with Cerro Coso College.

The Felici Trio was a recipient of a Creating Public Value grant from the California Arts Council (CAC), a three-year Artists-in-Residence grant, a Youth Education in the Arts grant and an Exemplary Grant. In Germany, the ensemble has concertized under the auspices of the Kultursommer Festival, and appeared on 3SAT and ZDF Television, as well as on German Southwest Radio (SWF). Felici has recorded four CDs, Chamber Music of Women Composers, Tchaikovsky's Trio in A Minor, Beethoven's "Ghost" Trio & Brahms' Trio op. 87, and the Ravel Trio coupled with Saint-Saëns' opus 18.

Steven Vanhauwaert, piano. Hailed by the Los Angeles Times for his 'impressive clarity, sense of structure and monster technique', Steven Vanhauwaert has garnered a wide array of accolades, amongst which the First Prize at the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition. Mr. Vanhauwaert has appeared as a soloist at the National Center of the Performing Arts in Beijing, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center, the Concertgebouw in Brugge, the Great Hall of the Budapest Liszt Conservatory, the Forbidden City Theatre in Beijing, Segerstrom Hall, and the National Philharmonic Hall in Kiev. He has appeared with orchestras including the Pacific Symphony, the Lviv Philharmonic, the Sofia Sinfonietta, the Reno Chamber Orchestra, the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico, the Flemish Symphony and the Kyiv Kamerata. His discography, on the Hortus, Sonarti, ECM, New Focus, and Bridge labels, covers a wide range of composers, from Joseph Woelfl to Stravinsky and Tigran Mansurian. His recordings have been awarded 5 Diapasons, a nomination for the International Classical Music Awards, the France Musique's Editor's Choice, and 5 stars on Pizzicato Magazine. Mr. Vanhauwaert serves on the faculty at the University of Utah's School of Music and he is a Steinway Artist. More info at www.stevenpiano.com.


Rebecca Hang, violin, was born in Germany and began her violin studies at the Peter-Cornelius- Conservatory in Mainz with Helga Waehdel. From 1987 until 1990 she lived in Israel where she studied with the concertmaster of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Chaim Taub. Rebecca continued her musical education with Atar Arad and Paul Biss at Indiana University, Bloomington, where she received her Bachelors of Music "with high distinction" and a Masters of Music in violin performance. As member of the internationally renowned Felici String Quartet, she won first prize in the 1992 Michael Kuttner Competition at IU, the MTNA Competition in Indianapolis, the Russell Award of the 1993 Coleman Competition and was a prize winner of the International String Quartet Competition in Osaka, Japan, in the same year. In June of 1993 Rebecca gave her New York solo debut in Lincoln Center's Juilliard Theater performing Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. As member of the first violin section of the International "Guido Cantelli" Chamber Orchestra in Milan, Italy, she toured throughout Europe and the U.S. before accepting the NEA Rural Residency Grant with the Felici Piano Trio in Mammoth Lakes, CA, in 1998. Rebecca dedicates much of her time to CMU's Community Music School. Through her pedagogical work she hopes to nurture children's innate musicality and lay the foundations for a lasting love of great music.


Brian Schuldt, cello. As a founding member of the Felici Piano Trio, Brian Schuldt has performed hundreds of critically-acclaimed concerts in the U.S., Europe and South America. His chamber music collaborations include renowned artists such as Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Edward Auer, Atar Arad, Corey Cerovsek, Hagai Shaham and Eli Eban. Brian was the cellist of the Arcadia String Quartet, which won the grand prize of the 1995 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and the Indiana University Kuttner Quartet Scholarship. He has appeared as soloist with the Oak Ridge Symphony, Auburn Symphony, Owensboro Symphony, Eastern Sierra Symphony and the Chamber Orchestra "Cantelli" of Milan, Italy. He has served as guest principal cellist for the Fresno Philharmonic, Reno Chamber Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony and has been a guest performer/instructor at Indiana University, UNLV, Cal-State Fresno, University of Tennessee and Tennessee Tech. Brian studied with Toby Saks at the University of Washington and continued under Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker at Indiana University, where he earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. From 1994-1996, he held the appointment of Assistant Instructor of Cello at Indiana University. He is currently Executive Director of Chamber Music Unbound and conductor of the Eastern Sierra Chamber Orchestra. Brian plays a cello by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume.