Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instru-
mentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an
MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition. Mr.
Tsang earned a Grammy nomination for his performance on the PBS special A Company of
Voices: Conspirare in Concert (Harmonia Mundi).
Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Mexico City,
Moscow, Busan and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American, Pacific, Del-
aware and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Saint Paul and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras,
the Louisville Orchestra and the Taiwan National Orchestra. Other highlights include making
his solo debuts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago with Zubin Mehta and the Civic Orchestra of
Chicago, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and at
the Esplanade in Boston with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the U.S. pre-
miere of the Enescu Symphonie Concertante, Op. 8 with the American Symphony Orchestra
in Avery Fisher Hall and the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto for Cello
Solo and Chamber Orchestra at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as violinists James
Ehnes, Pamela Frank, Nai-Yuan Hu, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Chee
Yun, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher. He has
been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music
Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Fort Worth Chamber Music Society, Da Cam-
era of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed
at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Cape Cod, Tucson, Portland and Seattle Cham-
ber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado, Music in the Vineyards and the Laurel
Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.
Mr. Tsang made his professional debut at age eleven in two concerts with Zubin Mehta
and the New York Philharmonic. That same year he returned to perform two more concerts
with Mehta and the Philharmonic. One of these performances was broadcast worldwide on
the CBS Festival of Lively Arts television series. While still in his teens, he became the young-
est cellist ever to receive a Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize and the youngest recipient
ever of an Artists International Award. At age nineteen, Tsang became the youngest cellist to
win a prize in the VIII International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on Amer-
ica Online as CultureFinder’s “Star Find of the Week,” on the Internet Cello Society as “Artist
of the Month,” and most recently in print in the book 21st-Century Cellists.
Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at age six and cello at
age seven. The following year, he entered The Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of
Arts degree from Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale Uni-
versity, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal cello teachers have included
Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.
Mr. Tsang resides in Austin, TX, where he is Division Head of Strings and holds the Joe
R. & Teresa Lozano Long Chair in Cello at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The
University of Texas at Austin. He was the recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Award after just
his first year of service and soon after was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by the Austin
Critics Table. He has also served as visiting professor at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Mr. Tsang plays on a Wayne Burak workbench series cello made in April 2011.