6-WIRE Piano Trio Biography  

CFInspired by the historical connection between the Erhu, the Chinese 2-stringed violin, and the 4-stringed Western violin – both essential leading instruments, 6-WIRE was founded in 2010 by two virtuoso musicians: violinist Sean Gao and erhu master Cathy Yang, who compose and perform contemporary, classical, chamber, world music, and jazz with the remarkable pianist and arranger, Matthew Brower. 6-WIRE celebrates diversity in its performances, weaving stories into its concerts, transforming how live instrumental music is experienced. 

Ensemble-in-residence at the University of Delaware since 2014, 6-WIRE performs each season on the University’s Master Players Series and Summer Festival. It has performed more than 100 performances internationally for performing arts centers, chamber music and university concert series, and community recitals, as well as outdoor and TV events as a “wildcard” ensemble, surprising and delighting cross-generational audiences. 6-WIRE’s performances redefine traditional chamber music with forward-looking compositions and commissions along with cutting-edge audio and video technology, fulfilling its mission to promote cultural exchange while attracting new chamber music audiences with new repertoire and new sounds. 

In the classical music world 6-WIRE appears as a piano trio performing familiar works by great composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach, alongside original works and arrangements ranging from classical to jazz and world music. They have commissioned works from prominent composers including Bright Sheng, Mark Hagerty, and Jennifer Margaret Barker, which premiered at their sold-out debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in 2019. This concert was recorded for 6-WIRE’s second CD: 6-WIRE on 57th , which was released in November 2021. Their first CD, 6 th Sense, was released in 2018 to wide acclaim. Both recordings were produced by Grammy-winning sound engineer, Andreas Meyer.

Among other notable performances, 6-WIRE premiered Sean Gao’s “Sleep now, O Earth” for the 40th anniversary concert of Earth Day in 2010. 6-WIRE has had multiple tours in Asia including the premiere of Encounters, a multimedia theatrical concert transporting audiences back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912).  

6-WIRE has been the recipient of grants from Chamber Music America, Shanghai Sonatas Foundation and the China Music Foundation. 

Violinist Sean Gao is recognized as a highly successful, multifaceted artist: a musician, singer, songwriter, composer, arranger and performer of jazz, funk, bluegrass, Asian folk, pop and Latin American music. He has appeared with more than 100 symphony orchestras throughout the world including the Czech Philharmonic, the Gothenburg Symphony-National Orchestra of Sweden, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in Russia, the Estonian National Symphony, the Mexico State Symphony, as well as the Detroit, Kansas City, Knoxville, Memphis and Aspen Music Festival Symphony Orchestras. He has performed for numerous world leaders including two former U.S. Presidents, former Chinese President Hu JinTao, and King Carlos I of Spain. In 2007 the Stradivari Society in Chicago selected Mr. Gao as a recipient of extraordinary Stradivarius violins for his concerts. Mr. Gao is the Trustees Distinguished Professor of Music, the youngest endowed professorship at the University of Delaware, and past “ZiJiang Professor of Music” in Shanghai at East China Normal University. He received the Delaware Governor’s Award in the Arts for his work at the University of Delaware. He is the founder of the China Music Foundation. He was named one of the Top 30 Professionals of the Year 2021 by Musical America magazine. He is the creator and composer of a new Musical, Shanghai Sonatas (shanghaisonatas.com), currently in development. 

Cathy Yang is an internationally acclaimed erhu virtuoso and guzheng (Chinese zither) soloist who performs frequently throughout China, Europe and the United States. She has performed as a soloist at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, among other major concert halls. The Chinese Government has named Ms. Yang numerous times to be a Chinese cultural ambassador, which included solo performances in Vienna, Frankfurt, Munich, Los Angeles, and other major international cities. In May 2008 she performed before thousands of New York Mets fans: the first traditional Chinese musician to appear at Shea Stadium. She has performed at the Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina and recently was soloist with the Annapolis Symphony. A former professor of music at the China Contemporary Cultural Academy, she has received numerous prestigious awards in China, including top prizes at the Long Yin Instrumental Competition, the Tian Hua erhu competition, the Chinese Ministry of CultureAnnual Music Competition, and the Chinese National Cultural Foundation Award. She is a resident ofMaryland where she is founding director of Amazing Culture and Arts Center, presenting concerts and teaching Erhu and Zither.

Dr. Matthew Brower, artist in residence at the University of Delaware with 6-WIRE, is a faculty pianist at Emory University. He has been hailed as “superb” by the Philadelphia Inquirer. A pianist, coach, Nationally Certified Teacher, his expertise spans from classical piano, chamber music, opera, and art song to musical theatre and jazz. Dr. Brower has appeared in many prestigious venues throughout the U.S. and Asia, including Carnegie Hall, the Kimmel Center, and the Shanghai Oriental Performing Art Center, and he has been featured on WRTI, Philadelphia’s classical radio station. He has performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia as well as members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and faculty from many leading conservatories. He has worked with Opera Philadelphia, Westminster Choir College, the Curtis Institute Summerfest Young Artist Voice Program, the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, Opera in the Ozarks, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the University of Delaware, and the University of Pennsylvania. In 2019, Dr. Brower served as Director of the Collaborative Piano Program at the University of Delaware’s Master Players Summer Festival, and in 2020, he served on the faculty of the Collaborative Piano Summer Institute at Louisiana State University. 

Gramophone Magazine review of CD “6th Sense”

In the midst of premiering new works by Mark Hagerty, Bright Sheng and Jennifer Barker and getting ready to make their debut at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, the self-described crossover piano trio 6-WIRE have issued a recording engineered by Grammy-winner Andreas Meyer that showcases their unique sound and repertoire.  

In fact, 6-WIRE is not a piano trio in the traditional sense. The University of Delaware’s ensemble-in-residence is made up of a conventional Western, four-string violin, a two-string Chinese erhu – the six wires from which the group takes its name – and piano. The sound of the three instruments together, and in various configurations with Chinese zither, cello, and sound effects, seems to inevitably become a fascinating game of contrasts between the sweet, soaring timbres of Sean Gao’s violin and Cathy Yang’s huskier and sexier erhu. 

The Chinese ‘folk’ tracks are sweet enough and give the piano more substantial roles; Matthew Brower’s opening solo in Sunrise over the Tashikuergan Desert is more than a minute long. But it is the two pieces by Gao – the nine-minute title-track in memory of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, ending in the sadness of sirens and a children’s song, and Beijinger, dedicated to Malaysian flight 370 – that have the most personal involvement. 

Of the seven Western lollipop arrangements, the Bach concerto is the most convincing; while it might not eclipse memories of the iconic Django Reinhardt version from 1937, the erhu joins in so brilliantly that after a while it becomes hard to sort the two string instruments out.”

                                                                                                                                              — November 2018