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2024 Sejong Music Competition Judges

Violin
Final Round Judges: Salley Koo | Janet Orenstein | Corinne Stillwell
First Round Judges:: Mélanie Clapiès | Alex Gonzalez

Piano
Final Round Judges: Rieko Aizawa | Chi-Ho Han | Eric Zuber
First Round Judges - Senior Division: Cristina Valdes | Clara Yang  
First Round Judges - Junior Division: Miki Aoki | Andrew Staupe 
First Round Judges - Elementary Division: Rachel Yunkyung Choo | Lam Wong 

A violinist of great range and energy, Salley Koo has performed internationally as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. Recent performances include appearances at the Musikverein in Vienna, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, Central Park, Music from Salem, the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, the National Cathedral and National Gallery in Washington D.C., Columbia Museum of Art, the Harris Theater in Chicago, the Nasher Series in Dallas, the Peoples Symphony Concerts, the Ojai, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Skaneateles, and Caramoor Festivals, and on tour alongside artists ranging from Bela Fleck to Dawn Upshaw to Gil Shaham. Salley soloed with the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, and returned to Lebanon this past season for the third time as artist in residence with the IMAGINE Workshop and Concert Series at the Lebanese American University in Beirut, Lebanon. She is regularly invited as a guest artist with groups such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and the Knights.

Dr. Koo’s engagement with the chamber music community in particular has yielded collaborations with world-renowned musicians including Peter Frankl, Yo Yo Ma, and Colin Carr, as well as with members of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Peabody Trio, Emerson Quartet, and Takacs Quartet. Her expansive musical interests range from early music to contemporary compositions. In the former vein, she has performed in period groups and recorded for Centaur; in the latter, she has worked closely with composers like Julia Wolf, Mario Davidovsky, Steven Mackey, Osvoldo Golijov, as well as members of the So Percussion Quartet. Salley is also a familiar face at numerous festivals including the Silicon Valley Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, Taos School of Music, the Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival, and Thy Chamber Festival in Denmark.

Despite a performance itinerary that has covered North America, Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia, Dr. Koo has established a thriving teaching career. Previously, Dr. Koo has served on the faculties of Adelphi University in NY, Montclair State University in NJ, and as the violin professor and coordinator of chamber music at the University of Connecticut, in Storrs, CT. Other faculty appointments include the Green Lake Chamber Music Festival in WI, Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music in New Hampshire, Dwight-Englewood String Society in New Jersey, Vermont’s Young Artist Program at Yellow Barn, the Opus 118 We Want Music! program in East Harlem, New York, Elm City ChamberFest, and the Neighborhood Music School in New Haven, Connecticut.

Hailing from Chicago, where she studied with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Center of the North Shore (now Music Institute of Chicago), Salley then earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University in English and American Literature, continuing her violin studies with Lynn Chang. She subsequently received a Master of Music and pursued Artist Diploma work from the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Peter Oundjian. She completed her Doctor of Musical Arts in violin performance at Stony Brook University under Pamela Frank and Philip Setzer. Over the course of her extensive training, Dr. Koo has studied with numerous other luminaries, including David Taylor, Sylvie Koval, and Dorothy Kitchen.

Salley currently performs on a violin made for her by Mario Miralles. When she’s not playing the violin, she’s likely to be found cooking or planning where to eat next with her husband, Alex, or playing with their dogs.

 

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Violinist Janet Orenstein has enjoyed an active performing career as soloist, chamber musician and advocate of contemporary music. A two-time winner of the USIA Artistic Ambassador Competition and founding member of the Guild Trio with whom she played for over ten years, Orenstein has toured throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa and Australia. She has recorded for the CRI, Centaur and Innova labels, and she has taught at major universities including University of Virginia, Wake Forest University, and now UNCSA.

Upon returning from a long solo tour at age 32, Orenstein contracted focal dystonia, which made it nearly impossible for her to coordinate left-hand finger patterns. After 17 years she gave her first solo recital in 2013, having worked continuously during those years to recover coordinated movement.

As a violin professor at UNCSA she collaborates with her string colleagues as a founding member of the Reynolda Quartet, an ensemble that performs regularly at the Reynolda Museum of American Art. As a long-time yoga practitioner and soon-to-be certified yoga therapist, Janet also teaches a yoga therapy course at UNCSA.

 

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Violinist Corinne Stillwell has enjoyed an active career as a solo performer, chamber collaborator, orchestral leader, pedagogue, and arts advocate. She entered The Juilliard School at age ten, subsequently spending 15 years studying with Dorothy DeLay. After early successes winning numerous competitions, she has been featured more than 50 times as soloist with orchestras including the New Jersey Symphony, Nanjing Philharmonic in China, Amarillo Symphony, Greater Rochester Women’s Philharmonic, and on tour to Romania, Hungary, and Poland. She has given recitals in Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, and in Germany, Canada, and across the U.S. 

A devoted chamber musician, Ms. Stillwell has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today and has collaborated with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, violinist Mikhail Kopelman, and members of the Ying, Cavani, and Pro Arte quartets. She has also performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Rochester, Amarillo Chamber Music Society, and the American Festival of Microtonal Music.  Other festival appearances include Saarburg (Germany), Aspen, Norfolk, and Skaneateles. As a member of the Harrington String Quartet, she toured extensively across the Midwest, filmed a PBS documentary, gave TV and radio broadcasts, and collaborated with clarinetist David Shifrin, pianist Robert Levin, and guitarist Pepé Romero. Her mentors have included members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Amadeus, Tokyo, and Vermeer quartets, and she has recorded chamber music for Harmonia Mundi, Naxos, Navona, and MSR Classics.

Ms. Stillwell was appointed to the faculty at Florida State University in 2007 and is a dedicated teacher, empowering young musicians for various careers including professors, orchestral and chamber performers, private studio teachers, and teaching artists. She also taught at the Brevard Music Center from 2009-2022 and will be on the faculty at the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival for the second time in 2025. Previously, she served on the faculties of West Texas A&M University, Kinhaven Music School, Point CounterPoint, and the Hochstein School, where she was Director of Chamber Music.

With a passion for community engagement, Ms. Stillwell created Building Bridges in 2018, a multi-year performance project of the complete Beethoven Quartet Cycle in collaboration with advanced students. She also spearheaded a partnership with a regional orchestra to host a Quartet-in-Residence; for seven years, she has coached the Carriola Quartet for their educational performances across three counties. Additionally, she curates chamber concerts as Artistic Director of the Tallahassee chapter of Music For Food, a national musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our local communities.

Currently Concertmaster of the Tallahassee Symphony, Ms. Stillwell has been an orchestral leader for more than 25 years, having served as Associate Concertmaster of the Rochester Philharmonic and Victoria Bach Festival; Concertmaster of the Amarillo Symphony, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Janiec Opera Company, and the School of American Ballet; and Guest Concertmaster of the Nanjing Philharmonic in China. Since 2020, she has performed with Arizona MusicFest, an ensemble of musicians from major orchestras across the country.

 

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Born in Paris, Dr. Mélanie Clapiès is a multifaceted soloist and a dedicated chamber music player who enjoys an international career. She has been invited to festivals in the United States, France, the UK, Russia, Malta, Italy, Spain, and Algeria, including Yellow Barn, Colmar, Musique en roue libre, the Deauville’s Festival de Pâques and Août Musical, la Roque d’Anthéron, the Salon Romantique of the Palazzetto Bru Zane, “Suona Francese”, Portogruaro, and the Fondation Monteleon.

Her collaborators have included Anthony Marwood, Roger Tapping, John Myerscough, Pavel Vernikov, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Adam Laloum, Guillaume Vincent, and Patrick Hemmerlé. Dr. Clapiès’s wide ranging musical focuses include new and experimental music, as well as electronic music, which she explores through performing, improvising, and composing. As a part of her ongoing interest in researching and uplifting unusual repertoire, she recorded an album of duos for violin and cello with cellist Yan Levionnois (Pierrots Lunaires, Fondamenta/Sony, 2014).

Dr. Clapiès studied at the Conservatoires Nationaux Supérieurs de Musique in both Lyon and Paris. After having moved to the United States, she received her M.M. and A.D. from the Yale School of Music and completed a Doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music in the studio of Mark Steinberg.

A passionate educator, Dr. Clapiès joined Butler University as a Violin faculty in 2022. She previously taught at the Conservatories in Toulon and Bordeaux as well as at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. When she is not teaching or performing concerts, Dr. Clapiès splits her time between composing, painting, writing fiction, or hiking with her husband Matt Moldover.

www.melanieclapies.com

 

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Described by the Viborg Folkeblad as a "true virtuoso...that left the audience almost breathless,” violinist Alex Gonzalez enjoys a versatile career as a chamber musician, ensemble leader and educator. An active chamber musician, Gonzalez has enjoyed performances at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the National Gallery of Art, and the Aldeburgh Festival, Sitka Music Festival and both the Thy Chamber Music Festival and Autumn Tour.

His performances have been aired on BBC Radio 3, WQXR, and the SkyArts Television network. Recent solo appearances include performances at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Newport Classical Music Festival, and with the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra, and Britt Festival Orchestra.

Gonzalez is a member of The Knights, and has performed with the ensemble in a variety of roles including as soloist, chamber musician and within the ensemble on international tours and recordings. Gonzalez is also a member of the Sphinx Virtuosi where he currently plays as concertmaster and tours extensively with the group throughout the country and abroad. He can be heard on the ensemble’s debut album titled “Songs of Our Times,'' released in 2023 on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Gonzalez is a former member of the New World Symphony where he regularly served as concertmaster to Michael Tilson Thomas. He has also performed throughout the United Kingdom and Europe through collaborations with the Chineke! Foundation. Outside of these ensembles, Gonzalez has enjoyed past performances with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra among many others.

Gonzalez currently serves as Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Colorado Boulder College of Music. During the summer months, he is on the faculty of the Sphinx Performance Academy at both the Juilliard School and CUBoulder and has previously taught at Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra Program (NYO2) and the IberAcademy in Medellin, Colombia. He has also enjoyed giving master classes at institutions such as the University of Oregon, Montclair State University, North Carolina School of the Arts and Cleveland Institute of Music. Gonzalez is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Rice University and Carnegie Mellon University. His principal mentors include Shakeh Ghoukasian, Oleh Krysa, Paul Kantor and Cyrus Forough. Gonzalez is proud to perform on a violin made for him by Mario Miralles in 2017

 

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Praised by the NY Times for an “impressive musicality, a crisp touch and expressive phrasing,” Japanese pianist Rieko Aizawa has performed throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including at New York City’s Lincoln Center, Boston's Symphony Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and London’s Wigmore Hall.

At the age of thirteen, Ms. Aizawa was brought to the attention of conductor Alexander Schneider on the recommendation of the pianist Mitsuko Uchida. Schneider engaged Ms. Aizawa as soloist with his Brandenburg Ensemble at the opening concerts of Tokyo's Casals Hall. Later that year, Schneider presented her in U.S. début concerts at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall with his New York String Orchestra. She has since established her own unique musical voice.

Highlights have included acclaimed performances with the New Japan Philharmonic under Seiji Ozawa, the English Chamber Orchestra under Heinz Holliger, the Festival Strings Lucerne in Switzerland under Rudolf Baumgartner, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra under Hugh Wolff, the Curtis Institute Orchestra with Peter Oundjian, the St. Louis Symphony under David Loebel and a wonderfully received performance with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Aizawa also has a great interest in exploring unusual repertoire. The St. Paul Pioneer Press described her performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf "the Salieri Piano Concerto in C was played so splendidly by Rieko Aizawa. Hers was a graceful reading. .... Aizawa's performance lent the work a respect it rarely receives." In the same year, she received the Washington Award.

As a recitalist, Ms. Aizawa has been heard in many North American cities, including New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, St. Louis, Seattle, Boulder, Los Angeles, Houston, and Toronto; at the Caramoor International Festival; at Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival; Ravinia Festival, and the Gilmore Keyboard Festival. Following her all-Beethoven program recital in Dresden, Germany, a reviewer wrote: "Her listeners followed her playing -- full of details and delicate contrasts -- breathlessly." Ms. Aizawa gave her "Prism" series in Japan, with tributes to Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann, and specially commissioned works for each program by Akira Nishimura, Dan Coleman and Toshiro Saruya. She also had a project performing a Beethoven Piano Sonata cycle at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Ms. Aizawa performed a series of all- Mozart recitals, a project which was jointly presented by WFMT-Chicago and PianoForte Chicago. Ms. Aizawa’s solo debut recording of Scriabin’s and Shostakovich’s “24 Preludes” was released by Altus in Japan, and her second album of Messiaen's and Faure's preludes is coming out in the upcoming season.

Ms. Aizawa is also an active chamber musician. The youngest-ever participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, she has performed as a guest with string quartets such as the Guarneri Quartet and the Orion Quartet. She has appeared in numerous festivals, such as the Marlboro Music Festival; Bowdoin Festival; the Kammermusik Festival of Moritzburg, Germany; and the Evian Festival, France. She also has been a guest artist of Boston's, Philadelphia's and Seattle's Chamber Music Societies. She is a founding member of the prize-winning Duo Prism and of the Horszowski Trio, which honors the legacy of her teacher.

As a member of the Horszowski Trio, acclaimed as “the most compelling American group to come on the scene” by the New Yorker, Ms. Aizawa has recently made debuts at the 92nd St. Y in NYC, and at Wigmore Hall in London. The trio recorded the complete Robert Schumann piano trios on AVIE Records and the album was featured by Gramophone as an “exemplary performance.” Currently, they are celebrating their 10th Anniversary season with a project which takes inspiration from Schumann, commissioning three American composers from different generations: Paul Chihara, Derek Bermel and David Fulmer.

Ms. Aizawa was the last pupil of Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute and she also studied with Seymour Lipkin and Peter Serkin at the Juilliard School. She lives in New York City, and she is on the faculty at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and at Brooklyn College. She became artistic director of the Alpenglow Chamber Music Festival in Colorado in 2010.

Ms. Aizawa is a Steinway Artist.

 

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Korean concert pianist Chi-Ho Han is an artist with an unmistakable personal mark, embracing technical diversity, emotional realness and philosophical depth in all his unique recital programs.

Establishing a firm conviction in German arts at age 20, Han received top prizes at Beethoven Competitions respectively in Vienna and Bonn, and Schubert Competition in Dortmund. Earlier achievements also include 1st prize and Audience Award at International Kissinger KlavierOlympic Competition (Germany, 2013), 1st prize at Seoul International Music Competition (Korea, 2014), top prize at ARD International Music Competition (Germany, 2014) with additional Audience Award and Best Performance on Commissioned Work, Silver Medal at Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition (USA, 2014), and 4th prize at the Queen Elisabeth International Competition (Belgium, 2016). He was awarded 3rd prize and Isang Yun Prize at Orléans International Piano Competition (France, 2022) on contemporary art music.

Han has been Artist-in-Residence of Korean Cultural Centre in Budapest (2022-2023), and performed with critical acclaims at Seoul Arts Center Symphony Festival, Festival Internazionale di Musica da Camera di Cervo, International Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Kissinger Sommer International Music Festival, International Rheingau Music Festival, International Bodensee Music Festival, Lake Como Piano Festival, Musikdorf Ernen and Deer Valley Music Festival.

Han has performed worldwide complete Beethoven concertos, Romantic and Russian standards to contemporary commissions, collaborating with Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Lviv National Philharmonic, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra of Marseille, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra and Utah Symphony Orchestra. Seasonal highlights this year includes Beethoven’s nos. 2 and 4, Mozart’s K.466 and 467, Rachmaninoff no.2, Schumann’s A minor and Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques. A protégé of pianist-composer György Kurtág, and a former student of Prof. Arnulf von Arnim and Prof. Arie Vardi, Han is currently Associate Professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

https://chihohan.com/

 

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Hailed as an "irresistibly fluid" and "illuminating" pianist by the New York Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Eric Zuber has established himself as one of the leading American pianists of his generation. His recent debut album, The Young Chopin, featuring a collaboration with the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, has received critical acclaim, with Gramophone magazine praising his "comprehensive technical command... and bravura approach which is never garish or manipulative with careful voicing and subtle gradations of color."

During a period of just a few years, Dr. Zuber was a recipient of major prizes from twelve of the world's most prestigious international piano competitions including Arthur Rubinstein, Cleveland, Seoul, Sydney, Dublin, Hastings, Honens, and the Piano-e- Competition, and was named a Laureate of the American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Awards. He was also a Gold Medalist in both the Hilton Head and Böesendorfer International Piano Competitions. For these and many other remarkable achievements, he was given the Arthur Rubinstein Prize by The Juilliard School.

Dr. Zuber has made solo appearances at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, the Sydney Opera House, Severance Hall and for the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City. After making his orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, he has gone on to perform with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad including Cleveland, Israel, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Phoenix, Sydney, RTE National, and the Royal Philharmonic. His collaborations with internationally acclaimed artists include performances with Lewis Kaplan, Paul Huang, Amir Eldan, Charlie Neidich, Joseph Silverstein, Gerard Schwartz, Johannes Moser, and Amanda Roocroft.

In addition to a busy solo and collaborative career, Dr. Zuber is dedicated to helping the next generation of aspiring young artists. He is currently serving as Assistant Professor of Piano at the Michigan State University School of Music. Eric holds degrees from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University (B.M., A.D., D.M.A.), the Curtis Institute of Music (Diploma), and the Juilliard School (M.M) where he studied with Boris Slutsky, Leon Fleisher, Claude Franck, and Robert McDonald.

© 2024 by Eric Zuber

 

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Recently hailed by Fanfare Magazine as “excellent” and “clearly sensitive”, Cuban-American pianist Cristina Valdés is known for presenting innovative concerts with repertoire spanning over 300 years. A fierce advocate for new music, she has premiered countless works, including many written for her. She has performed across four continents and in venues such as Lincoln Center, Benaroya Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, Miller Theatre, Jordan Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Ms. Valdés has appeared both as a soloist and chamber musician at festivals worldwide including New Music in Miami, the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City, Brisbane Arts Festival, the Festival of Contemporary Music in El Salvador, Havana Contemporary Music Festival, and the Singapore Arts Festival.

An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Ms. Valdés has toured extensively with the Bang On a Can “All Stars”, and has performed with the Seattle Chamber Players, the Mabou Mines Theater Company, the Parsons Dance Company, and Antares. Her performances on both the Seattle Symphony’s Chamber Series and [UNTITLED] concerts have garnered critical acclaim, including her “knockout” (Seattle Times) performance of Bartok’s Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, and her “arrestingly eloquent performance” of Dutilleux’s Trois Preludes (Bernard Jacobson/MusicWeb International).

Cristina has appeared as concerto soloist with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Philharmonic, the Lake Union Civic Orchestra, Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, the Binghamton Philharmonic, NOCCO, Philharmonia Northwest, the Eastman BroadBand, and the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. In 2015 she performed the piano solo part of the Ives 4th Symphony with the Seattle Symphony under the direction of Ludovic Morlot, which was later released on CD to critical acclaim and made Gramophone’s list of Top 10 Ives Recordings. Other recent recordings include Orlando Garcia’s From Darkness to Luminosity with the Málaga Philharmonic on the Toccata Classics label, and the world premiere recording of Kotoka Suzuki’s Shimmer, Tree | In Memoriam Jonathan Harvey. She can also be heard on the Albany, Newport Classics, Urtext, and Ideologic Organ labels.

In recent seasons Cristina gave performances of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3, Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 3, the world-premiere performance of Carlos Sanchez-Guttierez’s Short Stories for piano and string orchestra with the Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and the US Premiere of Under Construction for solo piano and tape playback by Heiner Goebbels at Benaroya Hall. Last season included a wide variety of performances including Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the premiere of her own composition Sketches of an Anniversary Prelude for trumpet and piano, and the premiere of composer Jeremy Jolley’s (contro-)clessidra IV for piano and electronics written especially for Cristina.

Since 2006 she has made her home in Seattle where she has been an integral part of the new music scene. Cristina founded the SLAM Festival, a new music festival dedicated to the music of Latin-American composers, and is a core member of the Seattle Modern Orchestra - the only large chamber orchestra in the Pacific Northwest solely dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. With the Seattle Modern Orchestra, Cristina has premiered works by Anahita Abbasi, Darius Jones, Wang Lu, Kaley Eaton, Jeremy Jolley, and Yigit Kolat, amongst others.

Ms. Valdés received a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook. While at Stony Brook, she was a recipient of the Thayer Minority Fellowship, a member of the Stony Brook Graduate Piano Trio, and a winner of the Concerto Competition. Cristina is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the University of Washington, where she teaches piano and is the Director of the UW Modern Music Ensemble.

 

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Praised by critics for her sensitivity, intelligence, and excitement in her playing, Chinese-American pianist Clara Yang has performed in notable venues such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Forbidden City Concert Hall (Beijing), Auditorio Nacional de Música (Madrid), the Seymour Centre (Sydney), Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theater (Rochester), the Sunset Center (Carmel), and on major series such as Carolina Performing Arts, Dame Myra Hess series in the Chicago Cultural Center, and many others. She is currently Associate Professor of Piano and Head of Piano Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill. Equally at home with the traditional repertoire and new music, she has designed innovative, interdisciplinary and cross-genre projects, collaborating with celebrated artists such as pianist Aaron Diehl, new media artist Xuan, rock guitarist Yvette Young, and hip hop artist Suzi Analogue.

As a concerto soloist, she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Long Yu, Carl St. Clair, Josep Caballe Domenech, Grant Llewellyn, Tonu Kalam, Laura Jackson, Jeff Tyzik, and George Jackson. She has soloed with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Banda Sinfonica Municipal de Madrid, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, among others. In addition, she also frequently collaborates with living composers: She performed Glass etudes alongside Philip Glass, and she performed the world premiere of renowned composer Chen Yi’s piano concerto with the top orchestra in China, the China Philharmonic Orchestra (中国爱乐), in the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. Yang served on the artistic panel for New Music USA.

Her solo album Folding Time (Albany Records) won a Global Music Awards Gold Medal, and it was selected as one of the Best of 2016 by American Record Guide. Her album Mother Tales (Navona Records) with violinist Sunmi Chang and Grieg and Prokofiev (Albany) with cellist Helen Xiao-Dan Zheng Altenbach have received great reviews from the String Magazine, Pizzicato, and Fanfare. In addition, she has been interviewed by many distinguished publications in China. Her performances were broadcast on major radio stations in the US and abroad. She studied with Nelita True at the Eastman School of Music (DMA), Claude Frank at the Yale School of Music (MM, Artist Diploma), and John Perry at USC Thornton School of Music (BM). Her principal teachers in her pre-college years include Hans Boepple, Guangren Zhou (周广仁), and Huili Li.

https://www.clarayangpiano.com/

 

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Ms. Aoki records exclusively for German Label Hänssler Profil. Her debut album, comprised of the piano works of Zoltan Kodaly, was released in the fall of 2011 and won critical acclaim. Her second CD, ‘The Belyayev Project’, features fascinating compositions varying from solo piano works by Liadow, Glazunov and Blumenfeld to the expressive and rhapsodic piano Trio by Rimsky-Korsakov. It was released in 2013. The Fanfare Magazine praised ‘The Belyayev Project’ as a “graceful, expressive and transparent performance”, and The Ensemble Magazine (Germany) wrote, “...pianist Miki Aoki interprets magically.” Her third CD, ‘Mélancolie’, was released in May 2016 and was awarded a special prize by the Japanese music magazine “Record Geijutsu”. ‘Tokyo Story’, was released in 2018. This recording is a world-premiere, featuring music from the films of Yasujiro Ozu in their original piano manuscript versions and has enjoyed an especially enthusiastic reception from the Japanese media.

A frequent guest artist in prestigious concert series and festivals around the world, Ms. Aoki made her debut at age of 12 at the Royal Festival Hall in London's South Bank Centre as a soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Aoki has performed on the stages of Carnegie Hall in New York City, St. Martin-in-the Fields, St. John’s Smith Square, the Royal Festival Hall and the Purcell Room at South Bank Centre, the Barbican centre, Blackheath Halls (UK), Laeizhalle Hamburg, Gasteig München, Philharmonie Essen, Beethovenssal Hannover (Germany), Philia Hall, Munetsugu Hall (Japan), Wiener-Saal (Austria), St-Petersburg Philharmonic Hall (Russia) as well as in festivals such as Mecklenburg-Vorpommen, Salzburger Festspiele, Rheingau Festival (Germany), Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), International Chamber Music Festival Silver Lyre (Russia), Beaulieu-sur-la Mer (France), Valdres Festival (Norway), Copenhagen Summer Music Festival (Denmark), Steirisches Kammermusik Festival (Austria), Tertis International Viola Competition and Festival (Isle of Man), Tembi Festival (Indonesia), Phnom Penh International Music festival (Cambodia) and the International Classical Music Festival (Myanmar).

Ms. Aoki has performed as soloist with the National Symphony, London Soloist Chamber Orchestra, Hamburg Camerata, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Washington Sinfonietta and Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México. Her performances have been broadcasted on NDR-North German Radio, RBB- Radio Berlin, Brandenburg, BR Classics, WDR, Hessischer Rundfunk, Radio Suisse Romande, ORF Austria, Radio France, 98.7 WFMT Chicago, MPR Classic and ABC Classic FM Australia and BBC Radio 3.

As a collaborative pianist Ms. Aoki has been employed by the Heifetz International Music Institute, The Perlman Music Program, International Summer Academy Mozarteum Salzburg, Mattheiser Sommer-Akademie, and International Violin Masterclasses at Kronberg Academy. In 2021 she served as the official accompanist for the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in Germany. She served the same role for the Tokyo International Viola Competition in May 2022.

Ms. Aoki regularly plays for lessons and masterclasses of internationally renowned musicians including Yuri Bashmet, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Tetzlaff, Maxim Vengerov and Tabea Zimmermann. Since 2009 Ms. Aoki has been engaged by the prestigious Kronberg Academy in Germany where she works with exceptionally talented young performers.

Ms. Aoki started playing the piano at age 4 and moved to London at age 9 where she joined the Purcell School of Music. She holds degrees from SUNY Stony Brook University (DMA), Yale University (MM) and Indiana University (BM). She graduated with a distinction in the Konzertexamen degree at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. (Mit Auszeichnung). Ms. Aoki was a full-time Senior Lecturer at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz between 2012-2016.

Upon starting her new role as Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at Arizona State University for the 2022 fall semester, Ms. Aoki relocated from New York City where she spent five years under the tutelage of Gilbert Kalish and graduated with her DMA degree from SUNY Stony Brook in May of 2022.

Ms. Aoki held a teaching assistant position for the undergraduate piano department at SUNY since 2017 and a staff pianist position at the Juilliard School from 2019. During Winter term 2021-2022 she taught as a sabbatical replacement piano professor at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music.

During the pandemic, Ms. Aoki founded and launched the virtual concert series, ‘Musik in the Air’. All programs are woven together uniquely by Ms. Aoki, and each has a theme; each in addition to the mission of ‘Musik in the Air’ which is to bring a world-class concert experience to listeners wherever they may be.

 

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With a Piano Concerto repertoire spanning over 70 works, including three world premieres, Andrew has appeared as soloist with many of the top orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and South America, including the Baltimore Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, the George Enescu Philharmonic in Romania, the Orquestra Filarmónica de Bogotá in Colombia, and many others. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors Osmo Vänskä, Cristian Macelaru, Jahja Ling, Gerard Schwarz, Andrew Litton, Lucas Richman, David Danzmayr, Rossen Milanov, Josep-Caballé Domenech, Bob Bernhardt, Jeff Tyzik, and Philip Mann, among numerous others.

Andrew has performed recitals across the United States and extensively in Europe, appearing at Carnegie Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow, the Schumann Haus in Leipzig, and the Salle Cortot in Paris. The New York Concert Review raved that in his 2012 Carnegie Hall debut “Mr. Staupe gave a brilliant performance, handling the virtuosic demands with apparent ease…I was stunned- this was one of the most incredible performances of this masterpiece I have ever heard, live or recorded. I wanted to shout out to the audience, “Wake up! Don’t you realize you have had the privilege of hearing a once-in-a-lifetime performance!”

An avid chamber musician, Andrew is a founding member of the newly-formed Trio Magnoliana, with renowned violinist Mann-Wen Lo and cellist Eunghee Cho. In addition, he has jammed with legendary vocalist Bobby McFerrin, played Tangos with the Assad Brothers, and performed with violinists Jaime Laredo, Chee-Yun, and Martin Chalifour, cellists Bion Tsang, Desmond Hoebig, and Sharon Robinson, soprano Jessica Rivera Schafer, and many others throughout his career.

His debut recording on Naxos of the complete works for piano and violin of Carl Nielsen, with Danish violinist Hasse Borup, was released to critical acclaim in October 2020. He is currently producing a new album for Parma Records, featuring cellist Patrick Moore, set to be recorded in August 2024, as well as several upcoming recording projects. Andrew has a keen interest in performing new music and has collaborated with Academy-Award winning composer Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Lowell Liebermann, Mario Davidovsky, Augusta Read Thomas, Yehudi Wyner, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Libby Larsen, Pierre Jalbert, Richard Lavenda, Rob Smith, Christopher Goddard, Karl Blench, and Christopher Walczak. Other notable performances include concerts at Steinway Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center, and the Library of Congress in Washington DC. He has been a featured guest on American Public Media’s “Performance Today” with Fred Child, and appeared on Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” in 2004.

Deeply committed to teaching, Andrew is an Assistant Professor of Piano at the University of Houston, and formerly taught at the University of Utah. He is Artistic Director of the Young Artist World Piano Festival in Minnesota, and gives frequent master classes and lectures around the United States. A native of Saint Paul, Minnesota, he earned his Doctorate at Rice University with Jon Kimura Parker, and studied at the University of Minnesota with Lydia Artymiw.

 

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Pianist Rachel Yunkyung Choo has been praised for her artistry and musical sensitivity and enjoys an active career as a soloist and chamber musician. The New York Sun lauded her Lincoln Center debut as a “perfect” playing exhibited “a strong-handed air of confidence,” and The New York Times music critic James Oestreich wrote of her recent Carnegie Hall performance, “Rachel Choo stood out among the players.” Rachel made her U.S. debut at the Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center with the Juilliard Orchestra under maestro James Colon.

A native of Seoul, Korea, Rachel graduated from Yewon Middle School and the Seoul Arts High School where she studied with Hae-Jeon Lee and Choong Mo Kang. At the age of 12, Rachel gave her debut public solo recital at the Kum-ho Arts Hall as part of the Prodigy Concert series. Her performances have included solo recitals and chamber concerts at the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center, the Kumho Art Hall, the Seoul Arts Center, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, the Youngsan Art Hall, the Marc A. Scorca Hall, the Paul Hall at the Juilliard School, the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the LOTTE Concert Hall. Rachel has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, including Korean National University of Arts Orchestra, Gangnam Symphony Orchestra, Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, and TBC Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. The performances and interviews have been broadcast on Cleveland’s WCLV Radio, New Jersey’s WWFM, and Korea's KBS Classic FM Radio.

Rachel has received many international awards from esteemed competitions in South Korea and U.S. Rachel's ongoing project since 2018 includes performing and recording the entire L.V. Beethoven’s 10 sonatas for piano and violin with renowned violinist Todd Phillips, a member of the highly acclaimed Orion String Quartet. The recordings of the series have been distributed by numerous online platforms including The Violin Channel, Classic 107.3, Kirshbaum Associates, Purchase College, Bard Conservatory, Skillman Digital Concert Series, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Broadcast.

Rachel has completed her undergraduate and Master’s studies with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Matti Raekallio at the Juilliard School and Graduate Performance Diploma at the Peabody institute of The Johns Hopkins University with Yong Hi Moon. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance at the Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University.

An active chamber musician, Rachel is a member of piano ensemble At65.

Offstage, she currently holds a position as the coordinator of Undergraduate Piano Proficiency and Chamber Music Program, and is also a lecturer at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University. Rachel is a founder of a non-profit organization, gatchi where she focuses on promoting contemporary arts and fostering community enrichment through the arts.

 

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Pianist Lam Wong, acclaimed for his “great imagination and extraordinary musicality” (Shantou Daily), made his debut at just fourteen with Liszt’s 12 Études d’exécution transcendante. Since then, he has performed in various festivals and concert venues across Asia and North America, gaining recognition for his artistry. His performances have also garnered commendations for their “unique and insightful interpretation” (Jieyang Daily).

As a recitalist and avid chamber musician, Dr. Wong has appeared in prestigious festivals like the Aspen Music Festival and participated as a fellow at renowned chamber music festivals, including the Sarasota Music Festival, Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. His performances have reached a wider audience through appearances on WFMT 98.7 Music in Chicago. Recently, his recording was released under the New Focus Recordings label. Dr. Wong’s passion for contemporary music is reflected in his collaborations with notable composers such as Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Bailey Holland, and Ryan Lindveit.

Currently, he is a member of the Nova Linea Musica Trio in Residence, performing with his piano trio during the inaugural season of 2024-25. Dr. Wong has performed in masterclasses for many notable musicians and chamber groups, including Boris Berman, Philippe Bianconi, Richard Goode, Jeffrey Kahane, Robert Levin, Jon Nakamatsu, Adam Neiman, Anton Nel, Robert Shannon, Nelita True, and Arie Vardi, as well as David Aaron Carpenter, Ida Kavafian, the American String Quartet, and the Miró Quartet, among others.

He has won many competitions, including the Thaviu-Isaak Piano Competition, Lillian Fuchs Competition, and Dover Competition, and was also recognized as a finalist in the MTNA Chamber Music Competition.

Dr. Wong recently completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in piano performance and pedagogy at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music, graduating with program honors. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a master’s degree from the Yale School of Music. Among his distinctions, he received the Harold Bauer Award for outstanding accomplishments upon graduating from Manhattan.

His teachers include esteemed pianists and notable pedagogues: James Giles, Hung-Kuan Chen, Christopher Elton, Peter Frankl, and Marc Silverman. He has also had the privilege of working with Marcia Bosits, a highly respected figure in piano pedagogy. Throughout his studies, Dr. Wong has been honored with several scholarships, including the First Initiative Foundation Scholarship, Stephen & Denise Adams Scholarship and Fellowship, Harry B. Jepson Scholarship, Mary Clapp Howell Scholarship, and the Eckstein Fund.

 

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