The silence is deafening, as all eyes focus on the young man poised at the front, violin in hand.  Eager anticipation fills the air, awaiting that first sweet note, and the others that follow it.  The young man is Eric Tsai, and many consider him a prodigy.  The place is the Pell City Library, and the crowd has turned out in record numbers. Word has gotten out, back in February of 2005, and the concert . . . is phenomenal.  On Wednesday, December 21st at noon, Eric Tsai will return to the Pell City Library for a concert of classical music for the library’s Wild and Wonderful Wednesday series.  He will be accompanied by his father, Dr. Jason Tsai, on the keyboard.

    14-year old Eric Tsai, began to study the violin at age 4, in Sacramento, California, and continued his studies in Birmingham when his family moved there in 2002.  He has received instruction from Jeffrey Flaniken, at Samford University, and from Sergiu Schwartz.  He has had many opportunities to perform in and around the Birmingham area, and has appeared as soloist with the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra and the Gadsden Symphony Orchestra.  Eric won First Prize in the Eunice Hoffmeister Competition and the Alabama chapter of American String Teacher’s Association Competition.  He has also won top prizes in the Lois Pickard Scholarship Competition for the past two years.  At the 2011 Cooper International Violin Competition he was a semi-finalist.  In February, 2011, he was afforded the opportunity to appear on National Public Radio’s “From the Top,” a weekly nationally syndicated program featuring America’s top young musicians. He currently resides in Birmingham with his family, and is the oldest of his parents’ five children.

His father, Dr. Jason Tsai is a nephrologist with Nephrology Associates PC in Birmingham.  He is an accomplished pianist, who began his musical studies at the age of 6, in Taiwan, before moving to America with his family at the age of 12.  While in high school, he took an interest in chamber music, continuing his piano studies and performances in solo piano and chamber music throughout college and medical school.  He graduated from the University of California in San Diego, and completed his medical training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham School of Medicine.  Dr. Tsai will accompany his son, Eric at the keyboard during Wednesday’s concert.    

The concert of classical music will begin at noon on Wednesday, December 21st at the Pell City Library.  Come early!  This will be one of the finest performances of the season, and will be a concert that you will not want to miss.  It is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served afterwards in the library.