New Faculty Pianist to Present Recital Feb. 5

Tuyen Tonnu, a new School of Music faculty member at Illinois State University, will present her first local recital at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, in the Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall.  Admission is $6 for the general public, $5 for ISU faculty and staff and $4 for students and senior citizens.

Tonnu, a native of Vietnam, is a spring 2007 doctoral graduate of Stony Brook University in New York State.  She received her bachelor’s degree from Pacific Lutheran University, master’s degree from the Eastman School of Music and an Artist Diploma from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her doctoral studies were completed at Stony Brook University.

Performing both solo and chamber music, Tonnu has presented recitals throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Asia, presenting and premiering works by Hans Otte, Jeffrey Mumford, Akin Euba, Libby Larsen, Sheila Silver, Lukas Ligeti and others.  Since the 1990s, Tonnu has been the foremost interpreter of the piano music of Halim El-Dabh, presenting the premiere performances of many of his works.

In 2002, Tonnu was one of 10 musicians selected from the U.S. to perform in Alexandria, Egypt, for the opening of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the Library of Alexandria).  In 2005, she presented a two-hour concert at the Opera House in Hanoi, Vietnam, performing for a group of world ambassadors.

A recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, Tonnu was named "Vietnamese Woman of the Year" in 1993, as listed in Women Magazine in Hanoi, Vietnam.