THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY College of Music presents
Faculty Recital
George Speed, Double Bass with
Sophia Han, Violin Greg Sauer, Cello Stephen Mattingly, Guitar Qing Jiang, Piano
Sunday, October 4, 2026 2:00 p.m. | Longmire Recital Hall
PROGRAM Sonata in A minor Largo Allegro Adagio Vivace
Henry Eccles (1670–1742)
Stephen Mattingly, guitar Greg Sauer, cello
Sonata No. 9 in G major, G. 9 Andantino Adagio assai Tempo di Menuetto amoroso
Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805) Greg Sauer, cello INTERMISSION
Rapsodie from Suite Hébraïque
Ernest Bloch (1880–1959)
Legende, Op. 3
Adolf Míšek (1875–1955)
Qing Jiang, piano
Shelter Island for Violin and Bass
Sophia Han, violin
Xavier Foley (b. 1994)
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.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS Praised by Classical Voices of North Carolina for “making the violin seem easy, almost as child’s play,” violinist Sophia Han is a versatile performer. Han has appeared as guest soloist with orchestras across the United States and performed with artists including Michael Bublé, Audra McDonald, Stephen Curtis Chapman, and toured with the rock band STARSET. Among her extensive orchestral experience, Han has served as Associate Concertmaster of the Paducah Symphony Orchestra and has appeared with the St. Louis Symphony and The Florida Orchestra. Her chamber music experience includes performances with the 314 Quartet, the St. Louis Chamber Soloists, Rio Verde Quartet, and a distinctive violin-saxophone-piano trio alongside her husband, Dr. Zach Stern, and pianist Richard Blumenthal. Currently serving as Visiting Assistant Professor of Violin at Florida State University, Han is a dedicated educator and sought-after adjudicator. She is a proud alumna of Florida State University where she was a member of the graduate quartet in residence. Han has earned dual master’s degrees from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to returning to FSU as faculty, Han was Associate Professor of Violin and Viola at Southeast Missouri State University, where she founded the Performing Arts Thrive Here (PATH) Entrepreneurship Residency and built lasting connections with the surrounding community through numerous performances and educational outreach. Guitarist Stephen Mattingly has been warmly received by audiences in Europe, Africa, and the Americas as soloist and founding member of the Tantalus Quartet. Mattingly’s solo performances have taken him from venues such as Weill Hall to major festivals across the US and abroad. An avid chamber music collaborator, he received the prestigious Theodore Presser Award for his work on the complete guitar chamber works by Franz Schubert. Mattingly enjoys a vibrant career as Associate Professor of Guitar at the Florida State University where he nurtures the guitar legacy established by Bruce Holzman. During his 17year tenure as Professor of Guitar at the University of Louisville, Mattingly was recognized as a distinguished professor for creative activity. He has adjudicated, taught, and performed at the Silesian Guitar Autumn Competition in Poland, the Guitar Foundation of America Convention, the Iserlohn Guitar Symposium in Germany, and the Acadia Guitar Festival in Canada. Additionally, Mattingly is chair of the Guitar Foundation of America Board of Trustees. His students have won top-prizes in competitions and graduate awards at revered programs. Graduates hold high school and collegiate teaching positions, and serve the GFA, the Sphinx organization, Louisville Guitar Society, and Cleveland Guitar Society. Mattingly earned a Doctorate of Music and Theory Pedagogy certificate at FSU as a teaching assistant to renowned pedagogue Bruce Holzman. He received an Artist Diploma with Dale Kavanagh at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold in Germany and studied with Oscar Ghiglia at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy. Prior studies with Nicholas Goluses at the Eastman School of Music led to Master’s and Bachelor Degrees, a Certificate in
Arts Leadership, and a Performer’s Certificate. Mattingly is a D’Addario artist and his recordings are available on all streaming platforms. Praised for “spirited” (Boston Globe) playing and “vigorous and passionate” (New York Times) performances, Chinese-born pianist Qing Jiang enjoys a diverse career in solo, chamber, and contemporary music. As a concerto soloist, Jiang has appeared with the Britten-Pears Orchestra under maestro Oliver Knussen, and the Lanzhou Symphony under revered Chinese conductor Zushan Bian, as well as with the Chattanooga Symphony, Williamsport Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival Orchestra, and Arizona State University Orchestra. Passionate about chamber music, Jiang has performed with many leading artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Joel Krosnick, Joel Smirnoff, David Shifrin, Natalie Clein, and the Juilliard, Shanghai, Jasper, and Parker string quartets. She has held longstanding collaborations with cellist Michael Kannen, and violinist Ying Xue with whom she has performed at Yellow Barn and in Carnegie Hall at the invitation of celebrated violinist Christian Tetzlaff. Jiang has also performed extensively with Roger Tapping, Natasha Brofsky, and Laurie Smukler, including a multi-city China tour. Jiang is artist faculty at the Kneisel Hall Festival in Maine, as well as recurring faculty at Yellow Barn, Yellow Barn’s Young Artist Program, and the Interlochen Chamber Music Camp. Other festival appearances include Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Aldeburgh, Perlman Music Program, and the Garth Newel Music Center. Curious and invigorated by collaboration, Jiang has appeared with fortepianists and Jazz improvisers, as well as with noted singers Susan Narucki, Ariadne Greif, and Lucy Fitz Gibbon. She has also worked with composers Jennifer Higdon, Jörg Widmann, Brett Dean, and Colin Matthews, and commissioned works by Zhou Tian, Juri Seo, Eric Nathan, and Daniel Temkin. A recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Award, Jiang trained at Arizona State University, Juilliard, and New England Conservatory, under Caio Pagano, Robert McDonald, Wha-kyung Byun and Patricia Zander. She has previously taught at New England Conservatory, the Curtis Institute, and Bucknell University. Jiang currently serves as the Associate Professor of Piano and Director of Keyboard Collaborative Arts at Florida State University. Professor of Cello Gregory Sauer joined the College of Music in 2006. A native of Davenport, Iowa, Gregory Sauer attended the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory. His principal teachers included Ada Marie Snyder, Charles Wendt, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Bonnie Hampton and Colin Carr. For eleven years prior to his arrival at FSU Sauer taught at the University of Oklahoma, where he was named Presidential Professor (2005). Praised for his versatility, Sauer performs in many different musical arenas. He has appeared in recital at the Old First Concert Series in San Francisco, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, the Brightmusic Concert Series in Oklahoma City, at universities and schools of music such as the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt, the Shepherd School at Rice University, the University of Iowa and the University of Tennessee, among many others. Sauer was a prizewinner in the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and Ima Hogg National competitions and has performed concertos with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony, the
New American Chamber Orchestra, the Quad City Symphony, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Columbus (GA) Symphony, the Tallahassee Symphony, and the Missoula Symphony, among others. Sauer joined the Carpe Diem String Quartet in 2019, playing concerts in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Siena, Italy, and in the group’s first China tour. Along with his brother, Thomas Sauer, he serves as co-Artistic Director of Chamber Music Quad Cities in their hometown of Davenport, Iowa. Other chamber music ventures have resulted in appearances at the Austin Chamber Music Center, the Snake River Music Festival, the Victoria Bach Festival, the Texas Music Festival, the Colorado Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Music Center. As a member of the Fidelio Quartet, a prizewinning group in the London International String Quartet Competition, he performed concerts in the UK, Germany, Italy, and the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals. In 2006, Sauer was appointed to the music faculty at Florida State University. Prior to that he taught eleven years at the University of Oklahoma, where he was named Presidential Professor. Other teaching/performing positions have been a visiting professorship at the University of California at Los Angeles, summer programs such as the Texas Music Festival, the Duxbury Music Festival, the Foulger International Music Festival, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Red Lodge Music Festival, and the Hot Springs Music Festival. Sauer has recorded for MSR Classics, Harmonia Mundi, Albany, and Mark Records. Sauer attended the Eastman School of Music and the New England Conservatory. His teachers included Ada Marie Snyder, Charles Wendt, Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Bonnie Hampton, and Colin Carr. Bassist George Speed enjoys a career that combines teaching with solo, chamber and orchestral performing. Currently Principal Bass with the Tallahassee Symphony, Speed served as Principal Bass of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic from 2005-2019. For 17 years he was a regular player with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, including numerous television broadcasts and domestic and international tours. He has also performed with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Florida Orchestra and Handel & Haydn Society, among others. Speed is passionate about both chamber music and solo performance. The Pierre Boulez Workshop at Carnegie Hall selected him to perform Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie, Op. 9 in Weill Recital Hall under Maestro Boulez in 1999. From 2005-2019 he performed regularly with the Oklahoma City-based chamber ensemble Brightmusic. A frequent recitalist, Speed has also recorded two solo albums for Centaur Records: Vivaldi Cello Sonatas and Bass Favorites and Transcriptions from the 18th Century. Additionally, his original transcriptions of Vivaldi cello sonatas 1-6 were published by Recital Music in 2019. A devoted educator, Speed is Associate Professor of Double Bass at Florida State University. Prior to his appointment at FSU in 2019, Speed served in the same capacity at Oklahoma State University, where he received the 2009 WiseDiggs-Berry Award for Teaching Excellence. He has been on the faculty of the Brevard Music Center since 2016.
A native of Spartanburg, South Carolina, Speed earned the Bachelor of Music degree, summa cum laude, from Vanderbilt University, and the Master of Music degree from Boston University. Additional studies include summers at both the Aspen Music Festival and the Tanglewood Music Center, where he received the Rose Thomas Smith Legacy Prize. His principal teachers were Edwin Barker, Edgar Meyer, and William Scott. Speed plays on a late-19th century Neapolitan bass by Carlo Loveri.