Saturday, October 3, 2026, 7:30 pm
Trinity St-Paul's Centre, 427 Bloor St. West
Homeland
Two wonderful works by Beethoven bookend a nostalgic journey
through ancestral melodies by a Jules Léger Prize winning Canadian composer
SINFONIA TORONTO
NURHAN ARMAN Conductor
SHENG CAI Pianist
Program
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 2
SARGSYAN Ergir (Homeland) world premiere
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 10, “Harp” orchestra version
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PERFORMER BIOGRAPHIES
Pianist Sheng Cai has been delighting audience and critics across four continents with his electrifying performing charisma and individual personality. Described as "with seeming effortlessness and performing with gusto and a loving attention to detail" by Buffalo Hives in New York and as "having the inner passion paired with Rubinstein's nonchalance" by Thuringer Allgemeine in Germany. Sheng Cai has gained praise worldwide for his performances of major keyboard works for the past four centuries. With a number of prizes and awards, he continues to push the boundaries in interpreting both the established and rarities of the piano literature.
Since winning top prizes at Montreal Symphony Competition and Toronto Symphony Competition at age 15, Sheng Cai has performed a broad spectrum of over 35 piano concertos from Mozart to 21st century composers with more than 60 orchestras worldwide. In solo recitals, Sheng Cai has performed at many prestigious venues in North America and Europe. He is a passionate recording artist. His first CBC recording was a CD of Mozart and Martinu. His most recent Schumann, Liszt, Grieg, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky discs on ATMA label gained international acclaim from the America Record Guide, Classic Today, the international Music web Review in UK , the Wholenote Magazine, Le Devoir in Canada and the Fanfare Music Magainze in US.
Sheng Cai is instrumental in advocating many neglected works by composers such as Enescu, Kabalevsky, Kapustin, Medtner, Mathieu, Villa-Lobos and a number of his own works. He has also promoted and premiered many living composer's works like Claudia Montero, Fazil Say and Vache Sharafyan.
Sheng Cai studied in Canada and US at the Royal Conservatory of Music of Toronto, Julliard School, and at New England Conservatory in Boston. His teachers and mentors include pianists Anton Kuerti, Gary Graffman and Russell Sherman.
Sinfonia Toronto now in its 28th season, has toured twice in Europe, in the US, South America and China, receiving glowing reviews. It has released six CD’s, including a JUNO Award winner, and performs in many Ontario cities. Its extensive repertoire includes all the major string orchestra works of the 18th through 21st centuries, and it has premiered many new works. Under the baton of Nurhan Arman the orchestra’s performances present outstanding international guest artists and prominent Canadian musicians.
Maestro Nurhan Arman has conducted throughout Europe, Asia, South America, Canada and the US, returning regularly to many orchestras in Europe. Among the orchestras Maestro Arman has conducted are the Moscow Philharmonic, Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt, Filarmonica Italiana, Orchestra Sinfonico di Roma, St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra, Orchestre Regional d’Ile de France, Hungarian Symphony, Arpeggione Kammerorchester, Milano Classica and Belgrade Philharmonic.