About

Meet the AZRise Solar Storytellers! We are an electric piano trio that plugs into a solar powered golf cart designed and driven by Deanna Lewis. We have a vast repertoire of musical presentations for children aged 4 to 104 that includes original works, traditional fairy tales with a twist, and stories about solar energy. The trio also performs instrumental works ranging from classical to tango to jazz and popular.

Violinist Michael Fan is Concertmaster of the Tucson Pops Orchestra. He is also a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and a founding member of the Tucson Symphony Piano Trio. Besides classical, he performs in a wide variety of styles, including jazz, klezmer and tango. His first work with original story and music, “The Little Fiddle” was composed in 1991. Since then he has composed and authored over 20 children’s pieces, including commissions for brass quintet, and flute, viola and harp trio. In October, 2009, A Bright New Day, or Dr. Solara and the Fossil Fools was performed on the Mall in Washington D.C. by a solar-powered Trio to accompany the University of Arizona’s entry in the Solar House Decathalon. In 2011, he released his first CD, “New Kids Classics.”

Cellist Anne Gratz is a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and performs regularly with the Kingfisher Quartet, Artifact Dance Project (with whom she toured China in 2011), Tucson Chamber Artists, and Tucson Pops Orchestra. She has also performed with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and Texas Festival Orchestra. Anne is also active as a teacher in Tucson, working with local schools and music programs including Tucson Junior Strings, International School of Tucson, and BASIS Tucson. A native of Indiana, Anne graduated as valedictorian from Interlochen Arts Academy and received BM and MM degrees and an Orchestral Studies Diploma from Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Alan Harris.

Pianist Paula Fan has performed as soloist and chamber musician on five continents. She has recorded seventeen albums and has broadcast for the BBC, NPR, Radio Television China and other international stations. A Regents’ Professor of Music at the University of Arizona, where she has been on the faculty since 1976, she coordinates musical events at Biosphere 2 and is a founding member of the Solar Storytellers, a solar powered piano trio sponsored by the Arizona Research Institute for Solar Energy. When not teaching, performing chamber music or occupying her chair at the Tucson Symphony Orchestra where she is Principal Keyboardist, she can be found tracking animals for the Earthwatch Institute or collecting cats—she has 22!