Works by Johann Sebastian Bach 

Joanne Kong has been critically-acclaimed as a Bach specialist, with performances at the Los Angeles Bach Festival, Long Beach Bach Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Abbey Bach Festival, Bach Aria Festival and Institute, Texas Bach Collegium, Houston Harpsichord Series, and the Winter Park Bach Festival where she is regular guest harpsichordist. Dr. Kong is available to give performances focusing on the works of Bach including the complete Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, numerous chamber, concerto and orchestral works, and both the St. John and St. Matthew Passions. She regularly gives Master Classes on the performance of works by Bach.

“obviously is a Bach specialist … her technique is impressive.”

Mark Swed, LOS ANGELES HERALD EXAMINER

“Joanne Kong is one of the premiere harpsichordists in the United States.”

WINTER PARK BACH FESTIVAL

The Sonatas of J. S. Bach,  for Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord

Lisa Terry, Viola da Gamba

Audiences will become acquainted with Bach’s masterpieces in depth through a lecture-performance of the three Sonatas for viola da gamba and harpsichord. The Terry/Kong Duo tailors the presentation to the presenter’s desires, weaving in stories about the musicians of Bach’s day, details on the structure and genius of the compositions, with revelations about the emotional impact of working on this project.

Lisa Terry practices, performs and teaches viola da gamba and violoncello in New York City, where she is a member of Parthenia and the Dryden Ensemble (Princeton). Lisa is principal cellist and viol soloist with Tempesta di Mare, Philadelphia’s baroque orchestra, and she serves the Viola da Gamba Society of America as President. She was a founding member of ARTEK, and has performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Juilliard Opera Orchestra, Opera Lafayette, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Winter Park Bach Festival, Bethlehem Bach Festival, Concert Royal, New York Collegium, American Classical Orchestra, Four Nations Ensemble, and Chicago Opera Theatre. She earned her degree in cello performance from Memphis State University and continued her studies in New York with Richard Taruskin, viol, and Harry Wimmer, cello. Ms. Terry appears to great acclaim as soloist in the Passions of J.S. Bach, notably under the batons of Robert Shaw, Richard Westenburg, Kent Tritle and Lyndon Woodside in Carnegie Hall, in the Jonathan Miller staged performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music conducted by Paul Goodwin, and with Andrew Parrot, Gary Thor Wedow, Julian Wachner, John Sinclair and Simon Carrington. Ms. Terry teaches viol and cello privately in New York and at workshops around the country.

“[Lisa Terry’s] front and center position . . . made it impossible to miss her intense musicality and beauty of tone.”

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

“The gambist played with an exquisite legato.”

THE BOSTON GLOBE

Wagner and Kong Duo
With Christoph Wagner, Cello

Christoph Wagner and Joanne Kong have been praised for their impeccable ensemble and sensitive, communicative performances that convey the unique power of music. Concertgoers have described their artistry as “exquisite and a gift to all who have the opportunity of experiencing them. Christoph and Joanne come together with exquisite beauty. Their level of technical ability is the underpinning of their intuitive and soulful playing.”

Wagner, a native of Germany, is a sought-after cellist who has concertized on four continents. In 2018, he received the Sviatoslav Richter Grant from Rice University, followed by the Amici di Via Gabina Fellowship in 2019. His many concerts include a 2019 tour of Italy, appearances at Wiesbaden Winter Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, the Holocaust Museum in Houston, Texas, and performances as orchestral cellist throughout the US and Germany. Active in expanding the role of the arts in community outreach, Wagner participated in a summer residency with Street Symphony in Los Angeles in 2018, working with homeless and prison communities, and he designed a program through the DACAMERA Young Artist Program combining health, mindfulness and music for underserved communities in the Houston area. With expertise in the roles of nutrition and mindfulness in musical peak performance, Dr. Wagner’s doctoral dissertation examines the topic of injuries in professional orchestral musicians.

Michael Colgrass: Side by Side

Pulitzer Prize – winning composer Michael Colgrass’s Side by Side was composed for Joanne Kong, as the only concerto for a soloist in the dual role of pianist and harpsichordist. The unique work received critical acclaim upon its first performance with Toronto’s Esprit Orchestra, and audience members described it as a “wonderfully insane multi-tasking concerto,” “endlessly creative and fascinating,” with listeners “mesmerized by the whole theatrical element of the work.” Subsequent performances of Side by Side have taken place in Boston (Boston Modern Orchestra Project, BMOP) and Richmond (Richmond Symphony), where it was praised in the Richmond Times-Dispatch as “unusual not just in its double-barreled soloist, but also in its combination of busy playfulness and luminous sound.” An excerpt can be heard at the composer’s website, www.michaelcolgrass.com, the score is available upon request, and a commercial recording is available through the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, https://www.bmop.org/audio-recordings/buy-recordings.