ARTISTS

FOUNDER & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

  • Grammy Award recipient Caitlin Lynch’s vibrant musical career has led her to perform across the globe in collaboration with artists ranging from Itzhak Perlman to Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. She is violist of the Aeolus String Quartet and the Grammy-nominated conductorless chamber orchestra, A Far Cry. Ms. Lynch has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, with members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Juilliard, Guarneri, and Cavani Quartets, and members of the Weilerstein Trio. An advocate of contemporary music, she is a member of the critically acclaimed American Contemporary Music Ensemble. She has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, whose tours have featured her concerti performances across North America and Europe. Ms. Lynch has performed in fourteen countries across five continents, from Carnegie Hall to the Sydney Opera House to the United Nations. Passionate about collaborations with other art forms, she enjoys performing with dancers (Mark Morris Dance Group, Wendy Whelan), musicians from other genres (Bjork, Ryn Weaver, Emily Wells), and on film (Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!). Ms. Lynch is the Artistic Director, founder, and violist of Project Chamber Music: Willamette Valley. She was Artist in Residence at Cleveland’s Judson Manor senior living community from 2010-2012, an intergenerational relationship that continues today and has been lauded by CBS and NBC News, The Plain Dealer, and the New York Times. Recent and upcoming season highlights include Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series and the Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center with the Aeolus Quartet, the Lincoln Center Festival, and BAM’s Next Wave Festival. Ms. Lynch performs on an 18th century viola made by English luthier William Forster and, thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, a viola by Samuel Zygmuntowicz.

“Caitlin Lynch is such a powerful example of a dream realized. The Salem-Keizer School District is proud to call her one of our own not only because of the success she has achieved, but also for the role model she has become to our  students.”

— Mary Lou Boderman, Coordinator of Music and Drama, Salem Keizer Public Schools 2011-2020

  • Self-Conducted Chamber Orchestra - Boston, MA

    “A refreshing corrective to classical music’s rigid hierarchies” (WBUR), A Far Cry delivers innovative and compelling programs that feel “perpetually fresh with every performance” (The Boston Globe). Founded in 2007 on the belief that every voice deserves to be heard, A Far Cry features a collective of musicians (“Criers”) who curate programming and concertizing through a democratic process that is the group’s north star. As the nation’s premier self-conducted chamber orchestra with inherently wide-ranging skills and tastes, A Far Cry has collaborated with such diverse artists as Yo-Yo Ma, Simone Dinnerstein, Dinuk Wijeratne, Davóne Tines, Roomful of Teeth, the Silk Road Ensemble, Vijay Iyer, and David Krakauer, to name a few. A Far Cry has risen to the top of Billboard’s Traditional Classical Chart and garnered multiple Grammy nominations for albums that include “The Blue Hour” (New Amsterdam and Nonesuch Records) - named a Top 10 Album of the year by NPR, “Stillpoint” (New Amsterdam Records), and “A Gentleman of Istanbul” (Crier Records) which San Francisco Classical Voice called a “dazzling multicultural symphony.” New commissioning projects include Philip Glass’ third piano concerto with soloist Simone Dinnerstein, and The Blue Hour, “a gorgeous and remarkably unified work” (Washington Post) written by a collaborative of five leading female composers – Rachel Grimes, Angélica Negrón, Shara Nova, Caroline Shaw, and Sarah Kirkland Snider. A Far Cry’s Crier Records launched auspiciously in 2014 with the Grammy-nominated album “Dreams and Prayers.” The label’s second release, Law of Mosaics, was included on many top 10 lists, notably from the New Yorker’s Alex Ross and WQXR, which named A Far Cry as one of the "Imagination-Grabbing, Trailblazing Artists of 2014.” The 2018 release, Visions and Variations, received two Grammy nominations, including one for Best Chamber Music Performance. The Criers are proud to call Boston home, and maintain strong roots in the city, rehearsing at their storefront music center in Jamaica Plain. The group recently celebrated the conclusion of a 10-year residency at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and collaborates with local students through educational partnerships with the New England Conservatory and Project STEP.

  • With performances acclaimed for both “high-octane” excitement (Strad) and “dusky lyricism” (New York Times), the Aeolus Quartet has been awarded prizes at nearly every major competition in the United States and performed across the globe with showings "worthy of a major-league quartet" (Dallas Morning News). Formed in 2008, the Quartet is comprised of violinists Nicholas Tavani and Rachel Shapiro, violist Caitlin Lynch, and cellist Jia Kim. Mark Satola of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes, “The quartet has a rich and warm tone combined with precise ensemble playing (that managed also to come across as fluid and natural), and an impressive musical intelligence guided every technical and dramatic turn.” The Aeolus Quartet has performed in venues ranging from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Lincoln Center's Great Performers Series to Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, to Dupont Underground, a subterranean streetcar station in DC's Dupont Circle. They were the 2013-2015 Graduate Resident String Quartet at the Juilliard School and are currently Quartet-in-Residence at Musica Viva NY.

    The Aeolus Quartet has released two critically acclaimed albums of classical and contemporary works through the Longhorn/Naxos label which are available on iTunes, Amazon, and major retailers worldwide. Part of an ongoing series entitled Many-Sided Music, these albums promote the diversity and breadth of works by American composers. The next album in the Many-Sided Music series is slated for release in Spring 2021. 

    The Aeolus Quartet’s numerous honors include Grand Prize at both the Plowman Chamber Music Competition and the Chamber Music Yellow Springs Competition, as well as First Prize at the Coleman International Chamber Ensemble Competition. They were also prizewinners at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition and the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition in New England. The Austin Critics' Table named the Aeolus Quartet their 2016-17 "Best Touring Performance” for Rambunctious, a collaboration with Spectrum Dance Theater. 

    The Quartet has performed across North America, Europe, and Asia in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Reinberger Recital Hall at Severance Hall, The Library of Congress, Renwick Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and the Shanghai Oriental Arts Center. In addition, the quartet was recently featured on the hit Netflix show The Defenders.

    Dedicated to sharing the joy of chamber music with audiences new to classical music, the Aeolus Quartet has been widely recognized for their highly creative and engaging educational programs. In the 2015-2016 season, the Quartet was the recipient of a CMA Residency Partnership Grant. In recognition of the Aeolus Quartet’s artistic achievement, CMA awarded the project with the title of “Guarneri Quartet Residency” for 2016. The residency promoted engagement with multiple interactive performances at Duke Ellington School for the Arts, the Sitar Arts Center, and George Washington University. The Fischoff National Chamber Music Association awarded the Quartet their 2013 Educator Award in acknowledgment of the positive impact their educational efforts have had in diverse communities. Additionally, they were awarded the 2012 Lad Prize which culminated in large-scale community engagement work, performing in the Stanford area, and a masterclass residency at Stanford University.  The Aeolus Quartet has also served as teaching faculty at Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), the Austin Chamber Music Workshop, Point CounterPoint, and the Chloe Trevor Music Academy.  Working in collaboration with the University of Texas through the Rural Chamber Music Outreach Initiative, the Quartet has presented educational programs and performances in communities throughout the state of Texas. Through their multiple residencies with the Chamber Music Society of Detroit alone, the Aeolus Quartet has reached over 18,000 students in the greater Detroit metro area.

    The Aeolus Quartet has been fortunate to collaborate with many of today’s leading artists, including Renee Fleming, Ida Kavafian, Joel Krosnick, Peter Wiley, Michael Tree, and Paul Neubauer. They studied extensively with the Juilliard, Guarneri, St. Lawrence, Cavani, and Miró Quartets. Other mentors include Peter Salaff, Donald Weilerstein, Itzhak Perlman, and Mark Steinberg. Members of the Quartet hold degrees from the Juilliard School, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University of Maryland, and the University of Texas at Austin.

    Thanks to the generosity of the Five Partners Foundation, the four members play on a set of instruments by famed Brooklyn luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz. The Quartet is named for the Greek god Aeolus, who governed the four winds. This idea of a single spirit uniting four individual forces serves as an inspiration to the members of the Aeolus Quartet as they pursue their craft.

  • Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by the The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters.  The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR in 2020. Chien studied extensively at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.

  • Soprano Katharine Dain performs opera, chamber music, and orchestral repertoire on international stages and is a probing curator and collaborator on many kinds of creative projects. Highlights of recent seasons include being named Artist-in-Residence with Finland’s Tapiola Sinfonietta; ongoing collaborations with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Netherlands Chamber Orchestra; Mozart Don Giovanni (Donna Anna), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Konstanze), and Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi) in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Hungary, and Ecuador; and projects with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and BBC Scottish and Welsh Symphony Orchestras. Dain’s recent album Regards sur l’Infini with pianist Sam Armstrong, featuring Messiaen Poèmes pour Mi and songs by Debussy, Delbos, Dutilleux, and Saariaho, won the 2021 Edison Klassiek for Best Debut and was widely praised in the press (“an extraordinarily polished and thought-through disc … glowing” —The Guardian).

    A passionate advocate for music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Dain first appeared with the Dutch National Opera in Claude Vivier Kopernikus and recently was both singer and co-creator on the new production I Have Missed You Forever for the same company and Amsterdam’s Opera Forward Festival. Her repertoire interests in song and chamber music are especially broad, from Baroque to the present day (including many pieces commissioned for her), and she is a frequent guest at innovative European festivals including Aldeburgh, the Holland Festival, West Cork, International Lied Festival Zeist, and Wonderfeel.

    Dain is equally at home in oratorio; some favorite past performances include Bach Matthäus-Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music and the Choir of King’s College Cambridge, Handel Messiah in Carnegie Hall, Stravinsky Les Noces with the New York City Ballet, and Mozart Requiem and Beethoven Ninth Symphony with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Cappella Amsterdam.

    Dain holds degrees from Harvard University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Mannes College of Music. A dual citizen of the Netherlands and the United States, she currently lives in Rotterdam.

  • Praised as a musician of "compelling artistry and power" by the Seattle Times, the gifted American pianist Julio Elizalde is a multifaceted artist who enjoys a versatile career as soloist, chamber musician, artistic administrator, educator, and curator. He has performed in many of the major music centers throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to popular and critical acclaim. Since 2014, he has served as the artistic director of the Olympic Music Festival near Seattle, Washington.

    Julio Elizalde has appeared with many of the leading artists of our time. He tours internationally with world-renowned violinists Sarah Chang and Ray Chen and has performed alongside conductors Itzhak Perlman, Teddy Abrams, and Anne Manson. He has collaborated with artists such as cellists Pablo Ferrández and Kian Soltani, violinist Pamela Frank, composers Osvaldo Golijov and Stephen Hough, baritone William Sharp, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Takács, Kronos, and Brentano string quartets.

    Julio is a founding member of the New Trio with violinist Andrew Wan, co-concertmaster of the Montréal Symphony and Patrick Jee, cellist of the New York Philharmonic. The New Trio was the winner of both the Fischoff and Coleman National Chamber Music Competitions and is the recipient of the Harvard Musical Association's prestigious Arthur W. Foote Prize. As part of the New Trio, Julio has performed for leading American politicians such as President Bill Clinton, Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger, and the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy. He was a featured performer on the soundtrack of the 2013 film Jimmy P, composed by Academy Award-winner Howard Shore.

    Julio is a passionately active educator. In 2013, he served as a visiting professor of piano at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington and has given piano and chamber music masterclasses throughout the United States at major conservatories and universities. He has also appeared at various summer music festivals including Yellow Barn, Taos, Caramoor, Bowdoin, Kneisel Hall, and the Music Academy of the West. In 2012, Julio was the youngest juror ever selected at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition held at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.

    Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Julio received a bachelor of music degree with honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Paul Hersh. He holds master’s and doctor of musical arts degrees from the Juilliard School in New York City, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal, Joseph Kalichstein, and Robert McDonald. He currently serves on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

  • Proclaimed "a phenomenon" by the Los Angeles Times and "one of the best pianists of his generation" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.

    Last year, Orchid Classics released Mr. Goodyear's recording of his suite for piano and orchestra, "Callaloo" and his piano sonata. His recent commissions include a Piano Quintet for the Penderecki String Quartet, and a piano work for the Honens Piano Competition.

    Mr. Goodyear's discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg and Rachmaninov, an album of Ravel piano works, and an album, entitled "For Glenn Gould", which combines repertoire from Mr. Gould's US and Montreal debuts. His Rachmaninov recording received a Juno nomination for Best Classical Album for Soloist and Large Ensemble Accompaniment. Mr. Goodyear's recording of his own transcription of Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker (Complete Ballet)", was chosen by the New York Times as one of the best classical music recordings of 2015. His discography is released on the Marquis Classics, Orchid Classics, Bright Shiny Things and Steinway and Sons labels. His newest recording, Adolphus Hailstork's Piano Concerto with the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falletta, was released in March 2023 on the Naxos label. His composition for solo cello and piano, "The Kapok" was recorded by Inbal Negev and Mr. Goodyear on Avie Records, and his suite for solo violin, "Solo", was commissioned and recorded by Miranda Cuskson for the Urlicht Audiovisual label.

    Highlights for the 2023-24 season are his performances at Summer for the City (Lincoln Center, NY), Southbank Centre (UK), Schleswig-Holstein Festival, his recital debut at Wigmore Hall, his debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and his return with the Milwaukee Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and his Carnegie Hall debut with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra.

  • Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute’s powerfully and intricately crafted performances have earned her critical acclaim throughout North America and Europe. Possessing “subtle, complex, almost impossibly detailed and riveting in every way” (The Washington Post), Jokubaviciute is “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” (The New York Times). A much sought after chamber musician and collaborator, Ieva regularly tours and appears at international music festivals including: Marlboro; Ravinia; Bard; Caramoor; Chesapeake Chamber Music; Prussia Cove in Cornwall, England; and Festival de la musique de chambre at La Lointaine in France. Her piano trio, Trio Cavatina, won the 2009 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition. She is a mentoring artist at the Marlboro Music Festival in Marlboro, VT and in 2006, was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

  • Siwoo Kim is an “incisive” and “compelling” (Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times) violinist who plays with “stylistic sensitivity and generous tonal nuance” (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune). Siwoo performs as soloist and chamber musician, and he is the co-founding artistic director of VIVO Music Festival in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

    Siwoo gave the world premiere performance of Samuel Adler’s violin concerto which was written for him. He recorded the work on Linn Records to commemorate the composer’s 90th birthday, and the BBC Music Magazine praised his “notable fire & impassioned playing.” Siwoo made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut in Stern Auditorium with the Juilliard Orchestra. He has since performed with orchestras around the world including the Staatsorchester Brandenburgisches Frankfurt, Columbus Symphony, Gangneung Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic, Orchestre Royal de Chambre, Seongnam Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, and Tulsa Symphony in venues such as Walt Disney Concert Hall and Lotte Concert Hall.

    As a chamber musician, Siwoo formed the “whip-smart” (Alex Ross, The New Yorker) Quartet Senza Misura, which performed at the Phillips Collection, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center and more during their three years together. He has had the honor of collaborating with artists such as Dénes Várjon, Itzhak Perlman, Jeremy Denk, Joyce DiDonato, Mitsuko Uchida and members of the Guarneri, Juilliard and Takács Quartets. Siwoo spent numerous summers at the Marlboro Music Festival, and he has been featured internationally as guest artist at the Tivoli Festival in Denmark, the Bergen International Festival in Norway, the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa, the Fundación Juan March in Spain and with Ensemble DITTO in South Korea.

    Siwoo was named the recipient of the 2012 King Award for Young Artists. He took second place at the 2010 Corpus Christi International Competition for Piano and Strings, where he was also awarded special prizes for the best performance of solo Bach and violin performance. He has also been named top prizewinner in the California, Chengdu, Crescendo, Hellam, Ima Hogg, Juilliard, NFAA youngARTS, Schadt, Sejong, and WAMSO competitions.

    Siwoo received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied under Robert Mann and Donald Weilerstein with full scholarship. He went on to complete a two-year fellowship with Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. Prior to college, Siwoo studied under Roland and Almita Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago.

    Siwoo performs on a 1753 “ex-Birgkit” Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin on generous loan through Rare Violins In Consortium.

  • Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season.  When he was 20 years old Mr. Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition.  He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet.  Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices, and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works to be released in 2022.

    Soovin Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont.  In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin.  The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an honorary doctorate upon him in 2015.  In 2020 he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became Artistic Directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon.  Mr. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

  • Praised by The Cleveland Classical Review for his “astonishingly confident technique” and The New York Times for “thrilling [and] triumphant” performances, pianist Henry Kramer is developing a reputation as a musician of rare sensitivity who combines stylish programming with insightful and exuberant interpretations.  In 2016, he garnered international recognition with a Second Prize win in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Most recently, he was awarded a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant by Lincoln Center – one of the most coveted honors bestowed on young American soloists.

    Kramer began playing piano at the relatively late age of 11 in his hometown of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. One day, he found himself entranced by the sound of film melodies as a friend played them on the piano, inspiring him to teach himself on his family’s old upright. His parents enrolled him in lessons shortly thereafter, and within weeks, he was playing Chopin and Mozart.

    Henry emerged as a winner in the National Chopin Competition in 2010, the Montreal International Competition in 2011 and the China Shanghai International Piano Competition in 2012.  In 2014 he was added to the roster of Astral Artists, an organization that annually selects a handful of rising stars among strings, piano, woodwinds and voice candidates.  The following year, he earned a top prize in the Honens International Piano Competition.  

    Kramer has performed “stunning” solo recital debuts, most notably at Alice Tully Hall as the recipient of the Juilliard School’s William Petschek Award, as well as at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.  At his Philadelphia debut, Peter Dobrin of The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked, “the 31-year-old pianist personalized interpretations to such a degree that works emerged anew. He is a big personality.”  

    A versatile performer, Kramer has soloed in concertos with the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, among many others, collaborating with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Stéphane Denève, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Hans Graf. Upcoming performances in the 2019-20 season include a return engagement with the National Orchestra of Belgium performing Beethoven’s Concerto No. 4, as well as debuts with the Columbus and Hartford Symphony Orchestras playing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3.

    His love for the chamber music repertoire began early in his studies while a young teenager.  A sought-after collaborator, he has appeared in recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest.  His recording with violinist Jiyoon Lee on the Champs Hill label received four stars from BBC Music Magazine. This year, Gramophone UK praised Kramer’s performance on a recording collaboration (Cedille Records) with violist Matthew Lipman for “exemplary flexible partnership.”  Henry has also performed alongside Emmanuel Pahud, the Calidore and Pacifica Quartets, Miriam Fried, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s.  

    Teaching ranks among his greatest joys.  Since 2018, Kramer has held the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia.  Throughout his multifaceted career, he has also had positions at Smith College and the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Dance and Music.

    Kramer graduated from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Julian Martin and Robert McDonald. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman.  His teachers trace a pedagogical lineage extending back to Beethoven, Chopin and Busoni.  Kramer is a Steinway Artist.

  • A consistently exciting artist, renowned globally for her spectacular technique, sumptuous sound, deeply probing musicianship, and “irresistible panache” (Chicago Tribune), violinist RACHEL LEE PRIDAY has appeared as soloist with major international orchestras, among them the Chicago, Houston, National, Pacific, St. Louis and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, Boston Pops Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Germany’s Staatskapelle Berlin. Her distinguished recital appearances have brought her to eminent venues, including Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ Mostly Mozart Festival, Chicago’s Ravinia Festival and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Series, Paris’s Musée du Louvre, Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and Switzerland’s Verbier Festival.

    Passionately committed to new music and creating enriching community and global connections, Rachel Lee Priday’s wide-ranging repertoire and multidisciplinary collaborations reflect a deep fascination with literary and cultural narratives. Her work as soloist with the Asia / America New Music Institute promoted cultural exchange between Asia and the Americas, combining premiere performances with educational outreach in the US, China, and Vietnam. She has premiered and commissioned works by composers including Matthew Aucoin, Christopher Cerrone, Gabriella Smith, Timo Andres, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Cristina Spinei, Melia Watras, and Paul Wiancko. In 2022, she premiered a new Violin Concerto, “Kuyén,” written for her by Miguel Farías, which depicts the Moon in Mapuche mythology, with the UC Davis Symphony at the Mondavi Center.

    Recent season highlights have included a duo recital with composer/pianist Timo Andres in Seattle and for the Phillips Collection, exploring the through-lines of American twentieth and twenty-first century violin and piano works, and a third tour of South Africa, where she appeared in recital and performed the José White Lafitte Concerto with the Johannesburg and Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonics. Upcoming and recent concerto engagements include the Portland Symphony, Springfield (MO) Symphony, Pensacola Symphony, Symphony San Jose, South Carolina Philharmonic, and Bangor Symphony.

    Since making her orchestral debut at the Aspen Music Festival in 1997, Rachel has performed with numerous orchestras across the United States, including the Colorado Symphony, Alabama, Knoxville, Rockford, Annapolis, and New York Youth Symphonies. In Europe and in Asia, she has appeared at the Moritzburg Festival in Germany and with orchestras in Graz, Austria, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea, where she performed with the KBS Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic and Russian State Symphony Orchestra on tour. She has toured South Africa extensively, and has given recitals in the United Kingdom at the Universities of Birmingham and Cambridge.

    Rachel Lee Priday began her violin studies at the age of four in Chicago, after she saw the sheep puppet Lamb Chop pretend to play the violin in “Lamb Chop’s Play-Along.” Shortly thereafter, she moved to New York City to study with the iconic pedagogue Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School. Her teachers and mentors include Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Won-Bin Yim, Robert Mann, and Miriam Fried. She holds a B.A. degree in English from Harvard University and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory. Since 2019, she serves on the faculty of University of Washington School of Music in Seattle as Assistant Professor of Violin.

    Rachel Lee Priday has been profiled in The New Yorker, The Strad, Los Angeles Times and Family Circle. Her performances have been broadcast on major media outlets in the United States, Germany, Korea, South Africa and Brazil, including a televised concert in Rio de Janeiro, numerous appearances on Chicago’s WFMT and American Public Media’s “Performance Today.” She has also been featured on BBC Radio 3, the Disney Channel, “Fiddling for the Future” and “American Masters” on PBS, and the Grammy Awards.

    She performs on a Giuseppe Guarneri violin (“filius Andreae”).

  • Charles Noble has been Assistant principal viola of the Oregon Symphony since 1995. He holds degrees from the University of Puget Sound, the University of Maryland, and the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where his primary teachers were Joyce Ramée, Joseph de Pasquale, Michael Tree, and Roberto Díaz. As a member of the Oregon Symphony he as appeared as soloist in works of Mozart, Bach, Castaldo, and Bruch. Charles has also appeared as soloist with the Tacoma Youth Symphony, Vermont Youth Orchestra, Olympia Symphony, Sunriver Festival Orchestra, and the Rose City Chamber Orchestra.

    In addition to his orchestral work, Charles is an active chamber musician, performing as a member the Pyxis string quartet, 45th Parallel Universe, and the Oregon Symphony Players’ Classical Up Close concert series. 

    During the summer months Charles performs with the Oregon Bach Festival and the Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival. He has performed at the 2002, 2004, and 2006 International Viola Congress recitals, and was a participant in the 2015 Bang on a Can Marathon in New York City.

    Away from the viola Charles can be found riding his bike, reading, enjoying Oregon craft beer and wines, and cooking with his wife Stephanie and their two cats. 

    He plays on a 1997 viola by Gabrielle Kundert and a 2018 Darrell Hanks bow.

  • Violinist and composer Michelle Ross is unique as both a solo artist and collaborative visionary. Michelle is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, collaborator, and guest concertmaster all around the world. Her debut album Discovering Bach: Complete Sonatas and Partitas of J.S. Bach was recently released by Albany Records. In 2015, Michelle performed the complete Bach Sonatas and Partitas for 33 days in public spaces all around NYC, and her contemporaneous blog was featured by Alex Ross of the New Yorker. Michelle is the recipient of the 2012 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund. Michelle is currently Artist-in-Residence at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

    Michelle began the 2018-19 season performing Bach Double Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, and her lifelong teacher, Itzhak Perlman. Michelle had her Carnegie Hall debut with Harry Bicket in 2012, and highlights include play/directing Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, soloist with the Westchester Philharmonic, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and winner of Juilliard’s Stravinsky Concerto Competition.

    A dedicated chamber musician and curator, Michelle has toured extensively with Musicians from Marlboro and Itzhak Perlman. Michelle was an artist at the Marlboro Music Festival from 2011-2014, where she collaborated with Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Várjon, as well as members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Cleveland String Quartets. In 2016, she launched Chamber Music at Eleventh Street Arts, in close collaboration with visual artists at the Grand Central Atelier in NYC.

    Festival appearances include Bravo!Vail, MostlyMozart Festival, Diaghilev Festival in Perm, Russia, Krzyzowa Music Festival in Poland, Twickenham Fest, Methow Valley Festival, Music@Menlo. Michelle is a member of Manhattan Chamber Players, and alumni of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. A passionate proponent of contemporary music, Michelle is a member of NYC-based sinfonietta Ensemble Échappé, and a guest player with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Teodor Currentzis’ MusicAeterna.

    As guest concertmaster, Michelle recently led the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the inaugural Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra tour, with Riccardo Chailly, in Switzerland and Germany. Past work includes leading the Mahler Chamber Orchestra throughout Europe and Israel, play/directing the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with soloist Yuja Wang in Frankfurt; multiple appearances leading the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with Tugan Sokhiev, the Orchestre de Chambre d’Auvergne, Teodor Currentzis’ MusicAeterna, the Princeton Symphony, and leading Ensemble Connect in Carnegie Hall.

    As a composer, Michelle has worked extensively creating multi-media works with dancers, electronics, and visual art installations. Michelle was awarded a New Music USA grant in 2016, and the Emerging Composer Award in 2007. An improviser on both the violin and piano, Michelle also creates live immersive works with electronics, and frequently collaborates with other genres. Her work toured with the Aspen Sante Fe Ballet for three seasons, and Michelle has had multimedia premieres in Baryshnikov Arts Center, Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center's Beyond the Machine Festival; internationally, in Berlin and the Philippines.

    Michelle holds a M.M. from the Juilliard School and a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Teachers include Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho and Ronald Copes. Michelle studied composition with Dr. Samuel Adler, Dr. Kendall Briggs, and Dr. Andrew Thomas.

  • Cellist Bion Tsang has been internationally recognized as one of the outstanding instrumentalists of his generation: among his many honors are an Avery Fisher Career Grant, an MEF Career Grant and the Bronze Medal in the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition. Mr. Tsang earned a Grammy nomination for his performance on the PBS special A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert (Harmonia Mundi).

    Mr. Tsang has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the New York, Mexico City, Moscow, Busan and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestras, the National, American, Pacific, Delaware and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, the Saint Paul and Stuttgart Chamber Orchestras, the Louisville Orchestra and the Taiwan National Orchestra. Other highlights include making his solo debuts at Orchestra Hall in Chicago with Zubin Mehta and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and at the Esplanade in Boston with the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. He also gave the U.S. premiere of the Enescu Symphonie Concertante, Op. 8 with the American Symphony Orchestra in Avery Fisher Hall and the U.S. premiere of Tan Dun’s Crouching Tiger Concerto for Cello Solo and Chamber Orchestra at Atlanta’s Symphony Hall.

    As a chamber musician, Mr. Tsang has collaborated with such artists as violinists James Ehnes, Pamela Frank, Nai-Yuan Hu, Jaime Laredo, Cho-Liang Lin, Anne Akiko Meyers and Chee Yun, violist Michael Tree, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bassist Gary Karr and pianist Leon Fleisher. He has been a frequent guest artist of the Boston Chamber Music Society, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Chamber Music International of Dallas, Fort Worth Chamber Music Society, Da Camera of Houston, Camerata Pacifica of Los Angeles and Bargemusic in New York and performed at such festivals as Marlboro Music Festival, the Cape Cod, Tucson, Portland and Seattle Chamber Music Festivals, the Bard Festival, Bravo! Colorado, Music in the Vineyards and the Laurel Festival of the Arts, where he served as Artistic Director for ten years.

    Mr. Tsang’s discography includes three live concert recordings, each captured at Jordan Hall in Boston: Beethoven: Sonatas and Variations for Cello and Piano (Artek), Brahms: Cello Sonatas and Four Hungarian Dances (Artek), and Bion Tsang & Adam Neiman: Live at Jordan Hall (BHM). In 2017, Tsang released The Blue Rock Sessions (BHM), featuring eighteen virtuoso miniatures for cello and piano, with accompanying individual videos shot by Rodanti Films at the Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio in Wimberly, TX. In 2019, he released Dvorak/Enescu Cello Concertos (SONY Classical) with conductor Scott Yoo and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. In 2021, Tsang released Bach Cello Suites (SONY Classical), recorded at Bastyr Chapel in Seattle, WA, on the 1713 “Bass of Spain” Antonio Stradivari cello from the Fulton Collection. His latest album, Cantabile (Universal Music Group), with Yoo and the RSNO, was released in 2023.

    A versatile collaborator, Mr. Tsang was featured on the soundtrack to Recapturing Cuba: An Artists Journey, a PBS documentary by Trinity Films, winning two Gold Medals—Director’s Choice and Artistic Excellence—at the Park City Film Music Festival, coincident to the Sundance Film Festival. He was a featured guest artist on the KLRU-TV and PBS television production, A Company of Voices: Conspirare in Concert, filmed in Dell Hall at the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, and aired nationally on PBS stations during their March 2009 pledge drives. Tsang has also been featured on KLRU-TV’s In Context recorded in the Austin City Limits studio, the first time classical musicians appeared in that space. A frequent collaborator with the Hong Kong City Contemporary Dance Company, he has performed solo cello onstage alongside the dancers in productions of There, After... (Kodaly Op. 8 Solo Sonata) and Plaza X (Bach Solo Suites). Tsang has been featured twice on the PBS Great Performances television docuseries Now Hear This in episodes “Beethoven’s Ghost” (2021) and “Schumann: Genius and Madness” (2023), which includes music and video footage from the making of Cantabile in Glasgow, Scotland.

    Mr. Tsang made his professional debut at age eleven in two concerts with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic. That same year he returned to perform two more concerts with Mehta and the Philharmonic. One of these performances was broadcast worldwide on the CBS Festival of Lively Arts television series. While still in his teens, he became the youngest cellist ever to receive a Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Prize and the youngest recipient ever of an Artists International Award. He was also chosen as a Finalist of the NFAA’s Arts Recognition and Talent Search and subsequently as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. At age nineteen, Tsang became the youngest cellist to win a prize in the VIII International Tchaikovsky Competition. He has been featured on America Online as CultureFinder’s “Star Find of the Week,” on the Internet Cello Society as “Artist of the Month,” and most recently in print in the book 21st-Century Cellists.

    Born in Michigan of Chinese parents, Bion Tsang began piano studies at age six and cello at age seven. The following year, he entered The Juilliard School. Tsang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University and his Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, where he studied with Aldo Parisot. His other principal cello teachers have included Ardyth Alton, Luis Garcia-Renart, William Pleeth, Channing Robbins, and Leonard Rose.

    Mr. Tsang resides in Austin, TX, where he is Division Head of Strings and holds the Joe R. & Teresa Lozano Long Chair in Cello at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin. He was the recipient of the Texas Exes Teaching Award after just his first year of service and soon after was named “Instrumentalist of the Year” by the Austin Critics Table. He has also served as visiting professor at Indiana University in Bloomington. In his spare time, Bion helps his family run the Paul J. Tsang Foundation, a nonprofit organization named in honor of Bion's father and formed to help facilitate educational or career opportunities for promising students and professionals in the arts and sciences. Most of all, he enjoys spending time with his three children: Bailey, Henry and Maia.

    Mr. Tsang plays on a Wayne Burak workbench series cello made in April 2011.

  • Cellist Alice Yoo has been warmly hailed for her sensitive musicianship, expressive nuance, and passionate commitment to teaching. She has performed extensively throughout the United States and abroad as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician.

    Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of the Denver Chamber Music Festival, she and cellist Matthew Zalkind have created a new chamber music festival in Denver, Colorado that features the world’s most sought-after chamber musicians in world-class chamber music summer concerts all around the city of Denver.

    A sought after chamber musician, Yoo has performed with distinguished artists including Itzhak Perlman, Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Varjon, Donald Weilerstein, Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Midori Goto, Kim Kashkashian, Jonathan Biss, and members of the Cleveland, Guarneri, Takacs, and Juilliard Quartets. Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music Festival, Moab Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, Caramoor Evnin Rising Stars, Perlman Music Program, VIVO Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, and IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music. Yoo regularly appears on tour with Musicians from Marlboro and performs with premiere ensembles including the New York Classical Players, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Hallé Orchestra, and The Knights.

    Yoo is currently on the string and chamber music faculty at the University of Denver's Lamont School of Music. She previously held the post of guest cello professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder during the 2018-2019 and 2022 school years. She currently holds teaching posts at the Green Mountain Music Festival, Lamont Summer Academy, and Boulder Cello Festival. Previous teaching posts include Guest Artist at the 2019 and 2021 Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, faculty of cello and chamber music at Bard College’s Preparatory Division, Colorado State University, and masterclasses and residencies across the United States including Skidmore College, North Dakota State University, and more. From 2012-2014, Yoo was a member of Ensemble Connect (ACJW), a program of Carnegie Hall, the Juilliard School of Music, and the Weill Music Institute in partnership with the New York City Department of Education. 

    Yoo is a top prize winner in several competitions, including the Holland-America Music Society Competition, Schadt International String Competition, National Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition, and Klein International String Competition. Solo appearances with orchestra include the USC Chamber Orchestra, Longmont Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic, New York Classical Players, Billings Symphony, and the Bozeman Symphony. Her performances have been featured and broadcasted on Colorado Public Radio, Chicago’s WFMT, and Boston’s WGBH.

    Passionate for new music, Yoo has worked closely with the esteemed composers Sophia Gubaidulina, Jennifer Hidgon, György Kurtág, Paul Wiankco, and John Harbison. She has given world premieres of acclaimed composers Samuel Carl Adams and Andy Akiho at Carnegie Hall. Recent recordings include Pierre Jalbert’s String Trio for Music at Copland House, music of the Tonight Show band The Roots, and works by Andy Akiho and Derek Bermel with Grammy award-winning producer Judith Sherman.

    A native of Bozeman, Montana, Yoo’s teachers include Ralph Kirshbaum, Dr. Ilse-Mari Lee, Richard Aaron, and Paul Katz. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England, and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. 

    Yoo currently resides in Denver, Colorado with her husband, cellist Matthew Zalkind, and plays on a cello made in 2018 by Ryan Soltis.

    More information can be found at Aliceyoocello.com and Denverchambermusicfestival.org

    Michelle began the 2018-19 season performing Bach Double Violin Concerto with the San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas, and her lifelong teacher, Itzhak Perlman. Michelle had her Carnegie Hall debut with Harry Bicket in 2012, and highlights include play/directing Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, soloist with the Westchester Philharmonic, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, and winner of Juilliard’s Stravinsky Concerto Competition.

    A dedicated chamber musician and curator, Michelle has toured extensively with Musicians from Marlboro and Itzhak Perlman. Michelle was an artist at the Marlboro Music Festival from 2011-2014, where she collaborated with Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Várjon, as well as members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, and Cleveland String Quartets. In 2016, she launched Chamber Music at Eleventh Street Arts, in close collaboration with visual artists at the Grand Central Atelier in NYC.

    Festival appearances include Bravo!Vail, MostlyMozart Festival, Diaghilev Festival in Perm, Russia, Krzyzowa Music Festival in Poland, Twickenham Fest, Methow Valley Festival, Music@Menlo. Michelle is a member of Manhattan Chamber Players, and alumni of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. A passionate proponent of contemporary music, Michelle is a member of NYC-based sinfonietta Ensemble Échappé, and a guest player with the International Contemporary Ensemble and Teodor Currentzis’ MusicAeterna.

    As guest concertmaster, Michelle recently led the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the inaugural Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra tour, with Riccardo Chailly, in Switzerland and Germany. Past work includes leading the Mahler Chamber Orchestra throughout Europe and Israel, play/directing the Mahler Chamber Orchestra with soloist Yuja Wang in Frankfurt; multiple appearances leading the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with Tugan Sokhiev, the Orchestre de Chambre d’Auvergne, Teodor Currentzis’ MusicAeterna, the Princeton Symphony, and leading Ensemble Connect in Carnegie Hall.

    As a composer, Michelle has worked extensively creating multi-media works with dancers, electronics, and visual art installations. Michelle was awarded a New Music USA grant in 2016, and the Emerging Composer Award in 2007. An improviser on both the violin and piano, Michelle also creates live immersive works with electronics, and frequently collaborates with other genres. Her work toured with the Aspen Sante Fe Ballet for three seasons, and Michelle has had multimedia premieres in Baryshnikov Arts Center, Joyce Theater, Lincoln Center's Beyond the Machine Festival; internationally, in Berlin and the Philippines.

    Michelle holds a M.M. from the Juilliard School and a B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Teachers include Dorothy DeLay, Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho and Ronald Copes. Michelle studied composition with Dr. Samuel Adler, Dr. Kendall Briggs, and Dr. Andrew Thomas.