Director of Music, Toorak Uniting Church, Melbourne toorak.unitingchurch.org.au Email: bachbwv000@gmail.com Mobile phone: 0410 844 552
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Jennifer Chou
“…Dealing with Messiaen's purple musical romanticisms on the king of instruments is no easy task and Chou stepped up to the plate with calm assurance, complete clarity and unruffled accuracy. With notes and stops flying every which way, that was the best performance solution by far. She also managed to make the giant Church organ sound tolerably like Messiaen's own instrument at La Sainte Trinite in Paris, no mean feat given the huge disparity between it and the original.” (The Advertiser, South Australia)
“… Uncommon brilliant also the victorious conclusion part, which was pushed briskly by pedal runs towards the end. Jennifer Chou had not shrunk from difficulties, for which audience thanked with enthusiastic applause.“ (Schwarzwaelder Bote Donn)
“... the performer offered a maximum of virtuosity in the chromatic passages and fascinated her listeners with her rapid and secure playing. The fully voiced chordal passages and the almost "whirling" runs, played with breathtaking speed, left and equally deep impresssion” (Goslar Zeitung)
"Chou is a player of great energy and vitality who never loses focus, even in the largest canvases....she drove points home without becoming boring and with immense elan." (The Advertiser, South Australia)
Since residing in Australia in 2004, Jennifer Chou has firmly established herself as a recitalist at home and afar. As part of the centennial celebration of Olivier Messiaen in 2008, she was invited by Recitals Australia to perform the complete Livre du Saint Sacrement in Adelaide. It was the second Australian performance of the work in entirety. In 2009, she world premiered The end of the illusion: an epitaph to Jean Baudrillard, a commissioned organ work by the City of Melbourne, written by Australian composer David Chisholm (b.1970). Her recital on the Clavieruebung Part III by J.S. Bach at the Elder Conservatorium in Adelaide in May 2010 received critical acclaims.
Overseas, Jennifer has appeared as solo recitalist in venues including Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, Westminster Abbey in London, Magdeburg Cathedral in Germany, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Cathedrals in New Zealand; and in festivals in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
Jennifer is a sought after organ teacher, she has taught for the Australian Catholic University. Born in Hong Kong, she graduated from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in organ performance. She was awarded a scholarship to study the organ with Wolfgang Rübsam at Northwestern University at which she obtained a Master of Music degree and the prestigious Certificate of Performance with honour. She furthered her studies at the Conservatoire National de Région de Rueil-Malmaison in Paris in the organ class of Susan Landale and obtained the Prix de Virtuosité à l'unanimité avec les félicitations du jury, the highest award of the conservatoire. Following that, she specialised in French baroque and North German repertoire with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen at the Centre d'Etudes Supérieures de Musique et Danse in Toulouse in Cycle de Perfectionnement, the highest programme in the French system. She obtained the Premier Prix d'Orgue à l'unanimité in the frame of the Toulouse les Orgues International Festival (2001). In 2003 she won Mention Speciale in the Biarritz International Organ Competition.
She also appears in recitals as half of the Organ and Trombone Duo with Joseph Yu. The Duo has performed in Italy, England, Hong Kong, and in festivals in Australia.
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From 2007 recital.wma Size : 6.246 Kb Type : wma |
