A trio of acclaimed, award-winning pianists will delight the audience at this special house concert hosted by Eugene Lee. Joining him are Ken Iisaka and Maryam Farshadfar, who together curate a program of depth and nuance, offering an intimate and memorable musical experience.

ABOUT EUGENE LEE

Eugene Lee started piano lessons at the age of 4 and took lessons until graduating high school. He earned an A.B. in Physics and an Sc.B. in Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard, and an M.S. in Management from the Sloan School at MIT.  His professional career includes co-founding an email company, VP Marketing at Cisco and Adobe, CEO of Socialtext, and now Founder and CEO of Motiv8 Health.  He restarted piano lessons after a 32 year gap, studying with Temirzhan Yerzhanov, and performs regularly in events including California Concerto Festival, PianoTexas, Fortnightly Music Club, San Francisco Civic Music, and the Cliburn Amateur Festival.

ABOUT MARYAM FARSHADFAR

Maryam Farshadfar has pursued her passion for music since the age of six—a journey that has taken her around the world to perform and share her love of music. She has appeared in solo piano recitals and chamber ensembles at venues including Tehran’s Niavaran Hall in Iran, the Konzerthaus Freiburg in Germany, and the Grounds in the Netherlands.

Her PhD dissertation in ethnomusicology at the University of Montreal, The Practice of Persian Piano in Iran, was awarded the Bourses d’Études Supérieures. This research makes a groundbreaking contribution to world music scholarship by illuminating the distinctive tradition of Persian piano.

Maryam maintains an active career as both performer and scholar. She is currently a full-time faculty member at San Jose Evergreen Valley College, where she also serves as music director of the Evergreen Valley College Ensemble—an ensemble she founded over a decade ago. Beyond her professional life, she enjoys reading, sports, and spending time with her two children.

ABOUT KEN IISAKA

A native of Japan, Ken Iisaka began playing piano at age one, but he did not learn to play with his hands until 4. He once dreamed of becoming a concert pianist, but eventually followed his second love as a profession: computer programming. He obtained a degree in artificial intelligence, and has worked as a software engineer in international finance and technology.

Piano remains his passion, and has performed in Russia, Germany, Italy, Poland, Canada, Japan, China, as well as on both coasts of the US, championing lesser known composers such as Alkan and Medtner. He was thrice a finalist at the Cliburn Amateur, and a winner at competitions in Washington, DC, Cremona, Italy and St.Petersburg, Russia.

Iisaka lives near San Francisco with his partner, Yvonne Liu, surrounded by 4 pianos and Orpheus, a Bernedoodle.