THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Guest Artist Recital
Julia Yang, Cello
Read Gainsford, Piano
Friday, March 6, 2026
7:30 p.m. | Longmire Recital Hall
Three Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op. 20 Hua Yang
1. Allegro — Lento — Moderato (b. 1955)
2. Andante
3. Allegro
Suite for Cello (2018)
Juri Seo
I. (b. 1981)
II.
Quartet for the End of Time
Olivier Messiaen
V. Louange à l’Éternité de Jésus (1908–1992)
Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano, Op. 19
Sergei Rachmaninoff
I. Lento - Allegro moderato (1873–1943)
II. Allegro scherzando
III. Andante
IV. Allegro mosso
To Ensure An Enjoyable Concert Experience For All…
Please refrain from talking, entering, or exiting during performances. Food and drink are prohibited in all concert halls. Recording or broadcasting of the concert by any means, including the use of digital cameras, cell phones, or other devices is expressly forbidden. Please deactivate all portable electronic devices including watches, cell phones, pagers, hand-held gaming devices or other electronic equipment that may distract the audience or performers.
Recording Notice: This performance may be recorded. Please note that members of the audience may at times be included in this process. By attending this performance you consent to have your image or likeness appear in any live or recorded video or other transmission or reproduction made in conjunction to the performance.
Florida State University provides accommodations for persons with disabilities. Please notify the College of Music at (850) 644-3424 at least five working days prior to a musical event to request accommodation for disability or alternative program format.
On stage as soloist and chamber musician, Julia Yang has been described as the “stunning find of the evening” (New York Classical Review) and has been noted for her “deep tone” and “precision” (South Florida Classical Review). Yang maintains a very active concertizing solo and chamber performance schedule with recent and forthcoming recitals in Carnegie Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Chamber Music Houston, and Amsterdam’s Het Concertgebouw. She has performed throughout the United States and internationally in Europe, Australia, Canada and Mexico, and has been featured as a Young Artist in Residence on Performance Today with Fred Child.
Yang holds extensive orchestral experience having recently served as principal cellist of the Colorado Music Festival under Peter Oundjian, as well as having performed and toured as principal of the New World Symphony as a fellow for two seasons. As principal cellist, Julia has performed in halls ranging from Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Miami’s Arsht Center and New World Symphony Center to Washington DC’s Kennedy Center under numerous esteemed conductors including Susanna Mälkki, Michael Tilson Thomas, John Adams and Leonard Slatkin.
A dedicated educator and pedagogue, Yang has served as a cello instructor and chamber music coach at the University of Pennsylvania and at the College of the Holy Cross. She holds degrees from Northwestern University and the New England Conservatory, studying with Hans Jørgen Jensen, Laurence Lesser and Yeesun Kim.
A native of New Zealand, Read Gainsford began full-time music study with top piano teachers, Janetta MacStay and Bryan Sayer, before receiving a grant from the Woolf Fisher Trust and the top prize in the Television New Zealand Young Musician of the Year. Gainsford then relocated to London, where he studied privately with Brigitte Wild, a protégée of Claudio Arrau, before winning a place in the Advanced Solo Studies course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he studied with Joan Havill, graduating with the prestigious Concert Recital Diploma (premier prix).
Read Gainsford has performed widely in the USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as solo recitalist, concerto soloist and chamber musician. He has made successful solo debuts at the Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, and has performed in many other venues, including the John F. Kennedy Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Barbican Centre, Fairfield Halls, Birmingham Town Hall and St-Martin-in-the-Fields. He has recorded for the Amoris label, BBC Radio Three, Radio New Zealand’s Concert Programme, and has broadcast on national television in New Zealand, the UK and Yugoslavia.
Gainsford moved to the United States in 1992 to enter the doctoral program at Indiana University, where he worked with Karen Shaw and Leonard Hokanson. Since that time he has been guest artist for the American Music Teachers Association and has also given numerous recitals, concerto performances and masterclasses. He has appeared at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and the Music Festival of the Hamptons, spent several summers at the Heifetz International Music Institute, is a member of the contemporary music group Ensemble X, and the Garth Newel Chamber Players. Gainsford has also enjoyed working with such musicians as Jacques Zoon, William Vermuelen, Roberto Diaz, Eddie vanOosthuyse and Luis Rossi. Formerly on the faculty of Ithaca College, where he received the college-wide Excellence in Teaching Award in 2004, Gainsford joined the piano faculty at Florida State University in 2005.