Cost: Free - Ticket Required Artist(s): Chinese violist Wenting Kang was praised by The New York Times as an “excellent violist” who “possesses a dark, glowing sound” following her performance at Carnegie Hall. The Strad likewise noted “her soulful sound from the outset”, “evident virtuosity”, and “brilliant arranger”. Her playing has also been described by The Boston Musical Intelligencer as “elegant,” “precise,” and “pure,” with a “tone passionate without ever losing a sense of control.” Her debut recording with pianist Sergei Kvitko, Mosaic (2022), received widespread critical acclaim. Gramophone Magazine wrote, “Part of the allure is her golden and glowing tone, but the subtlety of her shading is just as transfixing… Her technique is close to flawless… A terrific programme in every way.” The album was awarded the Gold Medal and named a Recommended CD by Melómano Magazine (Spain). Tracks from Mosaic were featured on Spotify’s Best New Classical Music playlist and the American Society of Composers, authors and Publishers’ New Music Friday playlist. Kang has also collaborated with conductor Gil Rose and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, releasing a recording of George Perle’s Serenade No. 1. As a soloist, Kang has appeared with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, TOHO Gakuen Orchestra, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia, and the Madrid Soloists Chamber Orchestra, collaborating with conductors including Ivor Bolton, Michiyoshi Inoue, Koichiro Harada, and José María Moreno. Her repertoire includes Don Quixote, the viola concertos of Bartók, Walton, and Elgar, and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante. An active chamber musician, Kang has shared the stage with artists such as Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Bruno Giuranna, and Pinchas Zukerman. From 2018 to 2020, she was a member of the Dalia String Quartet, and in 2017 she co-founded the Imai Viola Quartet. Additionally, she is the founding member and artistic advisor of the Madrid Soloist Chamber Orchestra. Kang is the First Prize winner of the 2nd Tokyo International Viola Competition and has also received prizes at the Johannes Brahms International Competition and the Primrose International Viola Competition. She studied at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the New England Conservatory, and Kronberg Academy, working with distinguished teachers including Nobuko Imai, Kim Kashkashian, Garth Knox, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, Liangsheng Chen, and Changhai Wang. In September 2025, Kang joined the Viola Faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston. Between 2016 and 2025, she served as Assistant Professor alongside Nobuko Imai at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid. She has given masterclasses in viola and chamber music at leading institutions including the Mozarteum University Salzburg, Eastman School of Music, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Kunst-Universität Graz, Accademia Stauffer in Cremona, and the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest. Lauded by The Washington Post for playing “…with intelligence, poetry and proportion,” pianist Tanya Bannister has made a versatile career that is immersed in tradition combined with an entrepreneurship that seeks to create projects that inspire genuine connections between music and the world we live in.  Ms. Bannister has been a winner of Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the New International Piano Competition confirming her status among the leading pianists of her generation. Ms. Bannister’s career has already brought her to many of the world’s great concert halls, with recitals at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Salle Cortot in Paris, Teatro Communale in Bologna, Tokyo’s Nikkei Hall, London’s Queen Elizabeth and Wigmore Halls, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.  In addition to mastering the traditional repertoire, she has a deep affinity for contemporary music and has premiered numerous works written for her, including Christopher Theofanidis, David del Tredici, Suzanne Farrin, Harold Meltzer and Sidney Corbett. She has released several CDs, including piano concerti of Mozart, Chopin and Schubert arranged with string quintet, which was selected for special mention by the New York Times.  Tanya is currently president of Concert Artists Guild and co-founder and Artistic Director of AlpenKammerMusik Festival in Austria. Ms. Bannister has also co-founded Roadmaps Festival in New York City, an artistic, humanitarian and cultural venture. Recent festivals have centered around the crisis in Syria and climate change. Born to an English father and Japanese mother, Ms. Bannister started her musical education in Hong Kong and continued in London, Italy, Germany and the USA.  Ms. Bannister holds degrees  from the Royal Academy of Music in London under Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne, Yale University, where she studied with Claude Frank, and New York’s Mannes School of Music, where she received an Artist Diploma as one of a handful of pianists selected to study with Richard Goode. Program: Schumann: 3 Romances, op. 94 Prokofiev: Selections from Romeo and Juliet (arr. by V. Borisovsky) intermission Britten: Suite No. 3 for Solo Cello, op. 87 (transcribed for solo viola by Nobuko Imai) Stravinsky: Suite Italienne, (arr. Kim Kashkashian) Live Stream: Tickets: Event Type: Concert,Recital Category: Strings Open to the Public: Yes programlink: Update: 16/10/2026 12:06 The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.