Saxophonist Justin Pierce to Perform Recital April 6

Saxophonist Justin Pierce will perform Monday, April 6, at 6 p.m. The recital will take place in Raley Chapel's Yarborough Auditorium on the campus of OBU in Shawnee. Pierce will be accompanied by Xiao Wang on piano and joined by Hao Miao on violin. The performance will include "Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No.1" by Brahms, "Concerto" by Tomasi and "Cantilène et Danse" by Eychenne. The event is free and open to the public.

Pierce has performed across the United States and internationally, studied both classical and jazz styles, and taught at the secondary and college levels. He currently serves as instructor of instrumental music at OBU and directs the Bison Jazz Orchestra in addition to teaching saxophone, clarinet and improvisation lessons. He holds a Master of Music in jazz studies from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor of Music in performance from McNeese State University. He is currently working toward a Doctor of Musical Arts in saxophone performance from the University of North Texas.

Pierce joined the OBU faculty in 2014. He served as the temporary woodwinds and jazz ensemble instructor at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma, from 2013-14, and as an adjunct instructor of woodwinds at Eastfield College, in Mesquite, Texas. He has served as an applied jazz saxophone instructor and lab band director at the University of North Texas in Denton and has 11 years of teaching experience.

In addition to teaching, Pierce leads a five-member ensemble, The Justin Pierce Jazz Group, which performs regularly in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. The group recently served as the featured performer at the Charlie Christian Jazz Festival and the Sherman Jazz Festival. As a freelance saxophonist and woodwind performer, Pierce has performed with The Temptations, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, Wayne Newton, and The Rat Pack Is Back, among others.

Pianist Xiao Wang will accompany Pierce during the recital. A doctoral student and teaching fellow at the University of North Texas, she was born in China and began her musical studies at the age of 4. She entered the Central Conservatory of Music in China at the age of 11. In 2006, she was admitted to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where she received her undergraduate and master's degrees. In 2002, she earned third prize in the 65th Steinway Piano Competition in China. In the summer of 2005, she was one of six finalists at the Seventh Eastman Young Artists International Piano Competition. During her first three years at UC-CCM, she twice won the McElroy Competition and the Cliburn Competition in the Undergraduate Scholarship category. She has performed in Australia as a representative of Chinese young pianists, and in 2006, she performed at International Piano Week of Belgium. She has also appeared in performances in the Wuhan Conservatory of Music, the Capital Teachers University in China, University of Michigan, Prague Piano Festival, Young Harris College and Lewisville Chamber Music Series.

Hao Miao will perform on violin during the recital. He was born in inner Mongolia and began playing violin at the age of four. He later moved to Shanghai, where he studied in the Shanghai Music School under the auspices of the Shanghai Conservatory from 2001-08. He then moved to Kharkov, Ukraine, to continue his studies at the Kharkov National University of Arts with professor L.A. Kholodenko. He performed several solo recitals every year in Kharkov, Kiev and other cities in Ukraine, as well as in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He won the Grand Prize at the "Zolotaya Lira" competition and received a silver medal at Kiev's "21st Century Art" competition. In the spring of 2013, he performed several recitals, one of which featured The 24 Caprices by Niccolo Paganini. In August 2013, he began his artist certificate studies at the University of North Texas, under the tutelage of Julia Bushkova.