September 27, 2015
Season Opening Concert

"Classical Pops"

Featuring
Constance Kaita, piano

Program

Best of Broadway
Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Beethoven Symphony No. 5

Return to 2015-16 season

21-year-old Young Steinway Artist Constance Kaita is a recent graduate of the Peabody Conservatory where she studied under Yong Hi Moon. Constance made her orchestral solo piano debut with the Westfield Symphony in New Jersey when she was nine years old. She has also performed as a soloist with the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey, the Shanghai Chamber Musicians Orchestra, the Ambler Symphony, the Olney Symphony, and the Cairn (formerly Philadelphia Biblical) University Orchestra. Constance has performed in prestigious venues including Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall numerous times as a result of winning competitions such as the Cecilian Music Club and National League of Performing Arts competitions. Constance has won numerous music awards, including first prize four times for her age group in the New Jersey Music Teachers Association Young Musicians Competition and first prize three times in the Steinway Scholarship Competition. Constance was a semifinalist in the 2012 Thomas and Evon Cooper International Piano Competition and a finalist in the 2014 New York International Piano Competition. She also won first place in the open division and received the Richard Tang Yuk award for best overall performance at the 2015 Princeton Festival Piano Competition.

Constance was a featured Rising Star in the 2004 Beijing Music Festival, the first international exchange of its kind sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Culture. She performed in the Forbidden City Concert Hall and the People’s Congress Hall in Beijing. These performances were broadcast on national television across China and around the world. She has also appeared as a soloist in the Shanghai Grand Theatre and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center during the Sino-American Cultural Exchange gala concerts in 2007 and 2009. In 2012, she performed in the Taipei City Hall Family Theater as a member of IMPACT (International Musicians’ Performing Arts Cultural Troupe). In 2009, Constance was invited to perform at the United Nations headquarters in New York City in a performing arts gala celebrating the 30th anniversary of U.S. – China diplomatic relations.

In addition to her musical accomplishments, Constance received a dual degree from the Johns Hopkins University where she majored in English and creative writing. She is also an avid runner, finishing the 2015 NYC Marathon, and has published poems in several literary magazines including The Legendary and J. Mag.