Professor Tsang and the Longhorn Cellos are both referenced by Ariane Todes in her article “Spread the Love,” from the June 2013 issue of The Strad, which reports about the enormous influences of pedagogues Aldo Parisot and the recently deceased (April 28) Janos Starker. Arianne writes…
“The festival’s format was to have seven 50-minute masterclasses, a different professor and two students each, all in a row, from 9am to 5pm, with an hour for lunch and 10-minute breaks, over three days. The relentless pace of this immersion might not have led to in-depth problem solving, but then how much can be achieved in a masterclass anyway? The best classes tackled one or two problems and just nudged the students to think in a different way. For example, Bion Tsang (a Parisot student), in the limited time, encouraged the students to listen to themselves properly, and to learn how to teach themselves. He asked, ‘What can you self-assess?’ ‘Can you tell me what you’re doing to work on it?’ After getting one student to work on the consonant sound of a chord in the Elgar Concerto by singing it, and working out if she wanted a ‘ya’ or a ‘bam,’ he said, ‘You have to experiment on your own—a teacher can only tell you so much.’
“Another aspect [of the festival] that has developed is the participation of cello ensembles—something that is a key part of the Parisot training, with his Yale Cellos group. Some teachers brought ensembles made up of their students, and as well as the members taking part in the masterclasses, each group performed in the final concert. This culmination involved a wide ranging programme that showed what a versatile and exciting instrumentation massed cellos can provide. At one end of the spectrum was a sonorous arrangement of the Bach Chaconne performed by Bion Tsang’s Longhorn Cellos, sounding more like a Walton film score in this sound world, and taking on a romantic life of its own.”
Longhorn Cellos 