Zion Trio commemorates Zion National Park centennial
By Ashley Pollock
Southern Utah University will host the Zion Trio March 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Thorley Recital Hall of SUU’s music building. Zion Trio includes Dr. Paul Abegg on violin, Dr. Ka-Wai Yu on cello, and Dr. Christian Bohnenstengel on piano. They will perform music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Paul Schoenfield. This concert is free and open to the public.
Violinist Dr. Paul Abegg is a music professor at DSU where he is director of string studies and conducts the orchestra. As a soloist, he has performed throughout the United States as well as in Japan, Brazil, France, England, and Malaysia. His chamber music experience includes studies at Kneisel Hall and performances with the Colson String Ensemble in France. Abegg has recorded extensively for film and television scores. He has performed with Celtic Woman, Mannheim Steamroller, Donny Osmond, Peter Cetera, Natalie Cole, and Marvin Hamlisch and classical artists including Audra McDonald, Leon Fleisher, Marilyn Horne, Peter Serkin, Ellen Zwilich, Frederica von Stade, Mark O’Connor, Peter Schickele, Elmar Oliveira, Kathleen Battle, and Gil Shaham.
Dr. Ka-Wai Yu is an assistant music professor at DSU where he teaches cello and string chamber music. He previously taught at Eastern Illinois University and Indiana Wesleyan University. Yu has given master classes in numerous universities and institutions in North America and Asia. He has taught in music camps and workshops in Illinois, Georgia and Michigan, as well as in Hong Kong, among them the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Currently the principal cellist of the Southwest Symphony Orchestra, Yu has performed at major concert halls in Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and the United States. Yu obtained his doctorate degree in music from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He also holds a master’s degree in cello performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and a bachelor’s degree in music with first-class honors from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Dr. Christian Bohnenstengel was recently featured as soloist in Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” with the Orchestra of Southern Utah. His performances have taken him all over the world. Bohnenstengel has performed on public radio and presented at state, regional, national, and international conferences. He received his bachelor’s degree in music from Missouri Western State University. He earned master’s and doctorate degrees in music from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has been director of keyboard studies at SUU for over eight years.
