Verve Trio
Founded in 2019, the award-winning Verve Trio has established itself as a diverse ensemble of technical precision and artistic flair. Comprised of pianist Chia-Lin Yang, violinist Elbert Tsai and cellist Brady Anderson, the trio has engaged audiences with creative programs combining familiar masterpieces with an array of duo sonatas and lesser-known gems that often highlight the influence of tango and jazz. They have performed at prestigious venues throughout California including the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, Burlingame Music Club Concert Series, Stoneridge Creek Concert Series, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, and Barbro Osher Recital Hall at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Upcoming highlights of the 2024-25 season include a return engagement at the Santa Cruz Chamber Players and concerts at the Taipei National Concert Hall, Ira F. Brilliant Beethoven Center, and San Francisco Flower Piano Festival. The Verve Trio members are also widely known as pedagogues, giving masterclasses at Banff, Oberlin, University of Michigan, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Seattle Young Artists Music Festival Association.
Dr. Chia-Lin Yang
Dr. Chia-Lin Yang has toured throughout the United States, Canada, and her native Taiwan as a concert pianist and chamber musician.
Winning top prizes at the Seattle International Piano Competition and Kingsville Isabel Scionti Solo Piano Competition helped launch a performance career which has included concerts at Benaroya Hall and Banff Centre’s Rolston Recital Hall as well as a national broadcast on WQXR Minnesota. Additional competition awards include the National Arts and Letters Competition, WAMSO Young Artist Competition, Camerata Concerto Competition, and Wideman Piano Concerto Competition. She is a recipient of the Hellen von Ammon Fund for Emerging Artists and the Doug Davis Composition and Performance Endowment Award.
Dr. Yang holds both her Doctor’s and Master’s degrees in piano performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of André Watts and Evelyne Brancart. Chia-Lin was previously on the faculty of Indiana University and West Valley College in Saratoga where she established the acclaimed WVC Young Artist Concert Series. As a dedicated chamber musician, Chia-Lin is the founder of the Aristo Duo, Yang-Shin-Bate Trio, and a member of the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival in Florida. She recently co-founded the Verve Trio with violinist Elbert Tsai and cellist Brady Anderson and they have taken home the Gold Prize from the 2022 Amadeus International Music Awards of Salzburg.
She currently serves as Lecturer in Piano at UC-Santa Cruz and is on the Piano Faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Academy. Visit www.chialinyang.com for more information.
Elbert Tsai
Violinist Elbert Tsai leads a multifaceted career as a soloist, chamber musician, and sought-after pedagogue. Widely praised as a teacher and educator, Elbert serves as a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory Pre-College as well as Center Stage Strings at the University of Michigan School of Music. Guest faculty appointments include the Oberlin Conservatory and SFCM Collegiate Division, and he previously taught at the Luzerne Music Center and Crowden School. His students have competed at the Menuhin Competition, won awards from the YoungArts Foundation, and are regularly accepted to Music@Menlo, NYO-USA, NYO2, Bowdoin Festival, Morningside Music Bridge, and “From the Top” on NPR.
Elbert maintains an active performing schedule which includes chamber music, recital, and concerto engagements. His solo recital programs include a wide variety of concert pieces, and have been featured recently at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts, Three Rivers Performing Arts Institute, and Bridges Hall at Pomona College. As a soloist, Elbert has appeared with the Bear Valley Music Festival, Cambrian Symphony, National Repertory Orchestra, and Sacramento Symphony, often performing concertos with his own original cadenzas. Early in his professional career, Elbert won positions with the San Francisco Ballet and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, subsequently touring to internationally-renowned concert halls including the Berlin Philharmonie, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, and Royal Albert Hall in London.
Originally from the Bay Area, Elbert holds degrees from the University of Southern California, Rice University, and Oberlin College, where he majored in violin and computer science and completed a minor in piano performance. His principal teachers and musical mentors include Robert Lipsett, Paul Kantor, Greg Fulkerson, Ken Goldsmith, Anne Crowden, Joel Smirnoff, and Paul Katz.
Elbert performs on an outstanding violin made by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, the “ex-Sophie Hummler.” For more information, please visit www.elberttsai.com.
Brady Anderson
Cellist Brady Anderson is a highly acclaimed cellist and pedagogue. At just fifteen years old, he made his solo debut performing Joseph Haydn's Cello Concerto in C Major, marking the beginning of a career filled with numerous prizes from competitions such as the Music Teachers National Association and the American String Teachers Association.
Brady is the executive director of the Benicia Chamber Players and director of the Pleasanton Chamber Players. Having performed chamber music extensively, Brady has had the opportunity to collaborate with both faculty and colleagues across the country and the world. He is the cellist and a founding member of the Verve Trio and was the interim cellist of the Thalea String Quartet. Brady studied chamber music under the guidance of Menahem Pressler, Jorja Fleezanis, Anne Epperson, Atar Arad, Paul Hersh, Ian Swensen, the Pacifica String Quartet, the Juilliard String Quartet, the JACK Quartet, the Miró Quartet, and many others. Brady also enjoys performing all genres of music and has recorded with dozens of groups, including Nataly Dawn, Cypress Hill, Jennifer Hudson and can be heard on the Grammy-nominated La Orquesta Sinfonietta album Canto America.
As an avid orchestral musician, he played in the cello sections of several California orchestras, such as the Stockton Symphony, Monterey Symphony, and Fresno Philharmonic, and Indiana orchestras Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, Owensboro Symphony Orchestra, and Columbus Philharmonic. He was principal cellist of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Berkeley Chamber Orchestra, IU Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra, Concert Orchestra, and Summer Philharmonic. Brady has played under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Marin Alsop, and Jakub Hruša.
Brady’s former teachers include Peter Stumpf, Jonathan Koh, and Irene Sharp. During his cello studies, Brady performed in master classes of Tamas Varga, Zuill Bailey, David Geber, Emilio Colon, Mark Votapek, Irene Sharp, Wendy Sharp, and the Alexander String Quartet.
A dedicated cello teacher with almost a decade of teaching experience, Brady served as Jonathan Koh’s Teaching Assistant at UC Berkeley and at Mr. Koh’s private studio while maintaining his own private studio of nearly forty students. Brady has coached cello sectionals for the Solano County Youth Orchestra, the Berkeley Chamber Orchestra, the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, and the California Youth Symphony. During his graduate program in Indiana, Brady took courses in cello pedagogy and has been a guest artist in several teaching residencies around the country. Upon returning to California, he began teaching in his current studio in Dublin.
Brady received a Master of Music in Cello Performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he was a recipient of the Janos Starker Scholarship. Brady earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music from the University of California at Berkeley, receiving the Eisner Award for outstanding musical achievement.
Brady plays on a cello by W. H. Hammig, Leipzig from 1890.