Join us on October 30 as we kick off a special concert series celebrating 25 years of Music on Park Avenue, the acclaimed performance series curated by Swedish pianist Per Tengstrand that has been with Scandinavia House since its inauguration in 2000. In honor of Scandinavia House’s silver anniversary, Tengstrand presents a program of chamber music performances featuring distinguished guest musicians that will continue into 2026.
For the opening performance, violinist Julia Hwang and cellist Robin Park will join Tengstrand onstage to play some of the great works in Music on Park Avenue’s history, including iconic pieces as well as lesser-known discoveries.
Thanks to a generous loan by Victor Borge’s grandson Finn, concerts will be performed on Victor Borge’s personal Steinway piano.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
PER TENGSTRAND, PIANO
Per Tengstrand was born in 1968 in Växjö, Sweden. He started playing the piano at the age of 6 with his mother as a teacher. At age 16, he went to the Malmö Conservatory of music and later the Conservatory of Paris, where the audience broke the 300-year ban to applaud at the graduation competition after his performance.
He was a prize-winner in international competitions in Paris, Brussels and Geneva, and after winning first prize in Cleveland’s International Piano Competition, he debuted at the Lincoln Center in New York in 1997. After that he has performed in venues such as the Kennedy Center, Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. He has performed as soloist with the Detroit Symphony, National Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Osaka Philharmonic, The Hague Resident Orchestra, Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, Singapore Symphony, the Nationals Symphony of Taiwan and Orchestre National de France.
Mr. Tengstrand’s career highlights include performing the Tchaikovsky Concerto in Suntory Hall with Japan Philharmonic, Beethoven’s Concerto No. 5 during Neeme Järvi’s final subscription concerts with the New Jersey Philharmonic; performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at Wolf Trap; the Residentie Orkest in den Haag, under Neeme Järvi; the Royal Philharmonic in Stockholm, under Leonard Slatkin, and Stenhammar’s first PIano Concerto with Tonkünstler Orchestra Orchestra in Vienna’s Musikverein and Leipzig’s Gewandhaus under the baton of Kristjan Jarvi.
Per Tengstrand gave the last concert in the governor’s palace in Hong Kong under British rule, with Chris Patten and Margaret Thatcher in the audience. Together with the Deputy Secretary General of the UN, Jan Eliasson, he made a performance of music and talk at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Per Tengstrand is an artistic director of Music on Park Avenue at Scandinavia House, the Princeton Chamber Music Series, and he has a festival in his name in his birth town of Växjö. He is the recipient of the Royal Medal of Litterus and Artibus, which he received from the King of Sweden.
JULIA HWANG, VIOLIN
Praised by Gramophone for displaying a “model of expressive purity”, Julia Hwang gave her professional solo debut with the English National Baroque Chamber Orchestra at the age of nine, performing Bach’s Concerto in A minor. She recorded two CDs and debuted with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra by the age of twelve. Following her debut at the Wigmore Hall, other concerts include recitals at St Martin in the Fields and the Royal Albert Hall, and performances of the Bruch, Korngold and Mendelssohn concertos in the UK and South Korea. An avid chamber musician, she has performed in piano quintets, string trios, and in her clarinet, violin and piano trio around the world.
She is a cultural ambassador for the BRACE Alzheimer’s Research, and is also a Concordia Foundation Artist, leading to many performances in hospitals and care centres across London. Other charity performances have included performing at the Violins of Hope music festival in North Carolina, USA, with Shlomo Mintz; a collaboration in Israel with Vadim Gluzman; concerts at Highgrove to raise funds for The Prince’s Trust alongside Julian Lloyd-Webber; and innumerable further concerts to raise money for, among others, The Alzheimer’s Society, the NSPCC and MacMillan Cancer Relief.
Julia has appeared many times on live television and radio through the BBC and ITV, and was featured in a BBC4 documentary about ‘The Lark Ascending’ by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Her performance of this work was specifically chosen by the BBC and the documentary has been re-broadcast on many occasions due to popular demand. Her latest CD, featuring works by Grieg, Lutoslawski, Wieniawski and Vaughan Williams, was met with critical acclaim, reviewed by Gramophone as representing “old-world wit and warmth”.
As a student, Julia was a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University under the tutelage of Ani Kavafian, where she is now completing her doctorate. She completed her undergraduate degree as a scholar at St John’s College, Cambridge, graduating with the 2017 Larmor Award. Julia began her violin studies at the age of seven with Richard Crabtree at Clifton College, followed by Itzhak Rashkovsky in London. Having been offered a full postgraduate scholarship from the Royal College of Music, she graduated with the highest performance mark of the year.
She is the winner of numerous prizes and awards, including the Hattori Foundation Postgraduate Award, the annual Musicians Company Award, the Countess of Munster Award, and Talent Unlimited.
Julia plays on a Peter Guarnerius of Mantua violin c.1698, on generous loan from the Alderson Trust.
ROBIN PARK, CELLO
Robin Park is a cellist based in CT and the greater New York area. Robin aims to pursue careers as a cellist and a scholar of medieval East Asian history, having graduated cum laude from Princeton University with a B.A. in History, and currently pursuing a masters degree at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Paul Watkins.
Robin has won numerous accolades, namely first prizes in the International Mozart Competition Vienna, 5th Mahler Cello Competition, 2023 Princeton University Competition, and the 2018 Caprio Competition. Robin is also a YoungArts alumnus, having been a winner in its 2017 and 2018 editions. An avid chamber musician, Robin performs regularly across the US East Coast, as well as internationally in Sweden, Japan, and China.
Robin is also the former music director of Opus Chamber Music Princeton and La Vie en Cello. Robin is also an active orchestral musician, having held numerous leadership positions including Principal Cellist of the 2022 Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and the 2019 National Youth Orchestra of the USA, as well as Associate Principal Cellist of Symphony in C.
As a professional arranger, Robin has written arrangements for a wide range of ensembles, from the Yale Cellos to the Northwestern Orchestra. Robin is also a huge proponent of music education, having taught a personal studio for the past four years and having been a cello coach for the Trenton Youth Orchestra.
In his free time, Robin enjoys playing the saxophone, learning languages, and writing creative nonfiction.
Photo Credits
Tengstrand: Anders Bergön, Alex Fedorov (Talk)
Hwang: Courtesy Julia Hwang
Park: Alex Fedorov