Artists

Pianist Yang Liu attracts worldwide audiences with her profound musicianship and extraordinary virtuosity. “Her performance was incredibly expressive… effortlessly moving from delicate flourishes to pounding intensity…” (Toronto Star). She has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, in prominent venues including the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Koerner Hall in Toronto, the Beijing Concert Hall, the Hong Kong City Hall, the Château de Fontainebleau in France, and many others. She has won many prestigious competitions, including the First Prize in the Toronto International Piano Competition, the Second Prize in the Serge & Olga Koussevitzky Young Artist Awards, and Fourth Prize in the International Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, among others. In 2014, she became a member of the Musicians Club of New York.

In 2022, Naxos Records released Ms. Liu's album “Schubert: German Dances, Ländlers, and Écossaises”, presenting Schubert's dances on both a Steinway grand piano and a fortepiano. This album includes world premiere recordings and a Ländler completed by Ms. Liu based on Schubert's fragment. Later in the same year, her album “Dancing on the Keys, Volume I” featuring waltzs by Chopin, Grünfeld/Johann Strauss Jr., Schubert/Richard Strauss, and Ravel, was released on QQ Music in China.

Hailing from Fuzhou, China, Ms. Liu received both Bachelor's and Master's of Music degrees from The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale School of Music with Dr. Melvin Chen, and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Peabody Institute - Johns Hopkins University with Prof. Yong Hi Moon. In addition, she has been studying at The Imola International Academy Foundation “Incontri con il Maestro” in Italy with Prof. Vovka Ashkenazy.

Ms. Liu is also a devoted educator. She has served as the teaching assistant of keyboard studies at the Peabody Institute and is on the piano faculty at Smith College while teaching actively in the New York region. Her students have won international competitions and got accepted into top conservatories including the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes School of Music, Peabody Institute, and Eastman School of Music.

Menghan Cao, Co-founder of The M Music Group, currently a piano faculty at Orange County Music and Dance. Ms.Cao originally from China, then moved to the United States for her high school education at Interlochen Arts Academy in 2010. Ms.Cao received her bachelor degree from Eastman School of Music in Piano Performance with Natalya Antonova. She graduated with a Master of Music and Graduate Certificate both at University of Southern California with Bernadene Blaha in 2021.

Ms.Cao has been teaching piano students on all levels and ages since 2014, and is capable of teaching in both English and Mandarin. Plenty of students here who have participated and performed at the competition. Many of her students have successfully acquired the ABRSM & CM Certifications. In 2017, she was invited to be a teaching assistant in both Cadenza Beijing W-town International Chamber Music Summer Camp, and also, Steinway International Piano Preparatory Academy, Orange County, CA in 2019.

As an experienced piano performer, Ms.Cao has given solo piano recitals in Los Angeles CA, Rochester NY, Beijing China and Yingkou China. She also participated in many partner's recitals such as piano trio, duo piano and piano quartets. In 2016, Ms. Cao toured with Interlochen Orchestra as an orchestral and choral pianist to many cities in the east coast of the U.S.

Ms. Cao has won many competitions, domestically and internationally. Including Michigan Music Teacher Association (MMTA) Concerto Competition, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT). Social Music Works, James Ramos International Video Competition, Hong Kong Asia Piano Open Competition in Mozart Sonata Group, Grieg Group, and the Winner of her age group, and Xinghai Cup Competition.

Described as a “striking interpreter” who gives a “committed and heartfelt performance” by Musical America and The New York Times, pianist Fanya Lin has entranced audiences worldwide with her charismatic and fiery performances. Lin's “mesmerizing performance” of Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini in UK was depicted as “a tornado had touched down through her body and lifted her, feathers fluttering, from the piano stool as she weighed into the keys.” Her orchestral reengagements include Utah Symphony, Savannah Philharmonic, The Jackson Symphony, Mississippi Valley Orchestra, and New Art Symphony.

An avid soloist, Fanya promotes classical music to the public by creating innovative concert programs and engages her audience by presenting interactive performances. Her solo recitals have been featured in numerous prestigious concert series, including the Schubert Club Musicians on the Rise, the Stecher and Horowitz Young Artist Series, and The Steinway Society of Western Pennsylvania. As a philanthropist, Fanya has collaborated with various non-profit organizations through fundraising galas and salon concerts to create access for education and promote mental illness awareness.

Fanya also dedicates herself to new music by performing with contemporary music organizations such as Focus and Axiom. Her recent projects include performance of Boulez Sur Incises for three harps, three pianos, and three percussionists, piano-duet concert featuring works by celebrated female composers Tania León, Gabriela Lena Frank, Chen Yi, and Kay He. Her work was featured in newly released albums Dan Asia: Ivory II and Metropolis: The Piano Music of Joshua Nichols by Summit Records.

As a chamber musician, Fanya has collaborated with world-class musicians including Noah Bendix-Balgley (concert master of the Berlin Philharmonic), Romie de Guise-Langlois (clarinetist of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society), and Ta'u Pupu'a (tenor in major opera productions including Metropolitan Opera and San Francisco Opera). In 2020, Fanya and her colleague Dr. Daniel Linder formed the Lin-Linder Piano Duo and has been praised for their “strong combination” and ability to “create a satisfying experience” (Fanfare). Fanya also performs regularly with her Saxophone colleague Dr. Edward Goodman. Their EPs On Walls by Greg Simon and Phil Woods Sonata are recently released by Soundset Recordings.

A native of Taipei, Taiwan, Fanya is a top prizewinner of the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition, Concours International de Piano France-Amériques, New York International Piano Competition, and Seattle International Piano Competition. Fanya earned her Doctoral Degree at the University of Minnesota under the guidance of Emerita Distinguished McKnight Professor Lydia Artymiw; her Master's Degree at The Juilliard School with Professor Hung-Kuan Chen and Jerome Lowenthal; and her Bachelor's Degree at Weber State University with Dr. Yu-Jane Yang. Currently, Dr. Fanya Lin is serving as the Associate Professor of Practice in Piano at the University of Arizona, where she teaches applied piano lessons, chamber music, piano literature, and Yoga for Musicians course.

Chinese-born pianist Zhao Wang is currently the Director of Accompanying at Central Michigan University School of Music. Dr. Wang has performed as a soloist in the cities of Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Japan, the United States, and China. As an avid chamber musician, she frequently collaborates in concerts and recordings with renowned faculty members at prestigious universities and orchestras. She is a founding member of Circulo Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano trio which has been a featured guest ensemble at Thailand International Composition Festival, received the Verdehr Trio endowment at Michigan State University, and presented multiple interdisciplinary musical works alongside traditional repertoire in concert tours in the recent years. In addition to the appearances with Circulo trio, Dr. Wang has also performed regularly at Henri Selmer Summer Academy, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Music Festival at Walnut Hill, Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp, and Chengjiang Chamber Music Series in China. As a dedicated educator, Dr. Wang is an active member of MTNA, and was invited to adjudicate the state final at MMTA in 2019 and 2023.

Dr. Wang received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Eastman School of Music, with a doctorate from Michigan State University, all in Piano Performance. She also received two additional master's degrees in Collaborative Piano and Piano Pedagogy from Michigan State University.

Dr. Ya-Ju Chuang is an active performer, appearing as a soloist, collaborative pianist, and music educator. As a performer, Chuang has been awarded numerous prizes and scholarships in Taiwan and the United States. She was a National Finalist at The American Prize in Piano Performance(concerto)- The Lorin Hollander Award in 2022, first prize winner at the Golden Classical Music Awards, Brussels Grand Prize Virtuoso International competition, and American Protégé International Competition. She was also a top prize winner in the National Taiwan Competition. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed with many artists such as Yevgeny Kutik, Scott Dixon, Patrick Williams, and Robert Spring. In addition, she worked as a collaborative pianist at Music Teachers National Association East Central Division competitions and National Association of Teachers of Singing competitions. As a pedagogue, Chuang presented in the MMTA State Conference, the MTNA Collegiate Chapter Piano Pedagogy Symposium, and MTNA Conference. Chuang received her D.M.A. in Piano Performance and M.M. in Piano Pedagogy from Michigan State University, M.M. in Piano Performance from Kent State University. Her primary teachers include Panayis Lyras, Derek Polischuk, Jerry Wong, Lin-Ju Ou, Juanelva Rose, and Ming-Jen Chuang. Chuang is a Collaborative Pianist at Interlochen Arts Academy.

Establishing herself as one of today's promising emerging artists, pianist Hanbo Ma has made appearances in solo recitals, as well as being featured with orchestras throughout Asia, Europe and North America. Her career began with her performance of Islamey by Balakirev at Severence Hall in Cleveland, Ohio at the age of 17, after which she received recognitions by winning the San Jose International Piano Competition, the St. Andrews International Piano Competition, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, as well as others, and was selected as the only recipient of the Cobos Piano Prize given by Eastman School of Music in 2015.

Dr. Ma has given numbers of concert tours such as an All-Liszt recital tour in North America and Europe sponsored by the Embassy of Hungary in Washington D.C, Liszt Memorial Museum in Budapest, Hungry and Hungarian Cultural center in London, England; a series of concerts and master classes on French and Russian Music at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, East Tennessee State University, Biola University and Wuhan Conservatory in China.

An active pianist, Dr. Ma not only performs solo recitals, but also enjoys performing with chamber groups and contemporary composers. In 2013, she was invited to be one of the twelve scholars at Heartland Chamber Music Festival, where her chamber performance was live-streamed on Kansas Public Radio. In 2017, Dr. Ma collaborated with string quintet from University of Southern California to perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 while conducting from the piano. Dr. Ma has premiered numbers of works, including a world premier of Ben Kwok's Sounds From the Lung Fields, Dr. Chih-long Hu's Formosa Caprices and Elizabeth Baker's Four Plane, which is a piece the composer dedicated to Dr. Ma. Dr. Ma's most recent project is in preparation of recording and premiering composer Michael Colina's Piano Concerto with The Florida Symphony.

Dr. Ma holds a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from the Eastman School of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music. Her primary teachers including Chih-long Hu, Rebecca Penneys and Daniel Pollack. During her time at USC, She also studied Composition and Orchestral Conducting with National medal of art recipient Morten Lauridsen and Maestro Larry Livingston. In 2023, Dr. Ma has been inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame, a prestigious designation recognizing the work of North America's most committed and passionate piano educators. Her latest CD From Schumann, With Love is now available on all major streaming platforms.

Dr Chang Tou Liang is a Singaporean family physician in private practice. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Artistic Director of the Singapore International Piano Festival. He has also been the classical music reviewer of The Straits Times (Singapore's national daily) since 1997. He is married to Janet, has a son Shan Ming, and keeps a household of eight cats.

Dr. Nicholas Ong is the first Malaysian to receive a Doctorate in Piano Performance from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. He is the recipient of many international prizes, including first prize at the Yvonne Lefébure International Piano Competition in France. The New York Times praised him for his “firm rubber-ball touch and bounce” and Le Figaro for his “astonishing virtuosity.” He has performed concerts in major halls across the United States, Europe and Asia. A fervent believer in contemporary music, Dr. Ong has performed with Ensemble 2e2m in France, New Juilliard Ensemble, Mimesis Ensemble, and was involved in the Soundbridge Contemporary Music Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, collaborating and premiering works by upcoming composers. Dr. Ong is in demand for masterclasses and a frequent guest faculty at the Asia International Piano Academy Festival (AIPAF) in South Korea. Currently, he is a senior lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Singapore and director of the KL Conservatory in Solaris Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur.

A prize winner of several national and international competitions, Donald Law is a solo and collaborative pianist. Donald was the 1 st prize winner of the 7 th Lucien Wang Piano Competition 2016. He has also been awarded 2 nd prize in the Artist (Piano) category in the 1 st Nanyang International Music Competition 2017. His other competition accolades were such as top 3 of Shingeru Kawai International Piano Competition 2017 (Singapore - Malaysia region), 5th prize in the Medan International Piano Competition 2015, and “Honorary Mention” in NAFA - Music Essentials Piano Concerto Competition 2011.

Over the past few years, Donald has been performing in London's Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall at the Royal College of Music, and in Singapore's leading performance venues, such as the Esplanade, the Arts House, Lee Foundation Theatre and Victoria Concert Hall. He has been invited to play in numerous public masterclasses by Dennis Lee, Huseyin Sermet, Noriko Ogawa, Dina Parakhina, Gordon Fergus Thompson and Dr. Robert Winter, to name a few. He has also played on four concerts as the soloist in Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17 in G K. 453 with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA) Wind Ensemble, directed by NAFA Head of Winds and Brass - Joost Flach. Donald has also been actively performing at summer music festivals and concerts across Europe in England, Germany, Italy, Serbia and Montenegro, playing solo and chamber music with international artists from Italy and Korea. In 2018, with the invitation of Musikschule Kirn-Meisenheim-Bad Sobemheim, Donald was invited as a piano accompanist and soloist to give performances in Ru Gao, China, as part of the school's cultural exchange programme. In 2006, under the invitation of Kerry Oils & Grains Co. Ltd., Donald performed a piano performance as part of their press conference to announce “Obtaining Suppliership for Cooking Oil for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games” in Beijing Kerry Center Hotel, China. He has also performed a piano recital as part of Tan Tock Seng (TTS) Hospital's “Art of Healing” Series at the TTS Hospital Atrium in Singapore.

Donald was a recipient of numerous education scholarships, such as the Overseas - Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) Undergraduate Scholarship, Ngee Ann Kongsi Merit Award and Tay Chay Bing Bursary, before havin graduated with a Diploma (with highest mark in graduation recital) from Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), and a First-Class Honours from Royal College of Music - Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts Bachelors of Music in Performance, under the tutelage of Lena Ching Kah Pick (NAFA Head of Piano) and concert pianist Boris Kraljevic. Donald was also a recipient of the Henry Wood Trust Fund during his studies at the Royal College of Music in London, where he graduated with a Masters of Music in Performance under the tutelage of Dina Parakhina, and the current deputy head of piano faculty at the Royal Northern College of Music, Ashley Wass. Donald has also studied with the Head of the Academy of the Performing Arts (HAMU), Ivan Klánsky (Prague, Czech Republic) and concert pianist Hüseyin Sermet (Paris, France). Recently, Donald joined KNS Classical, becoming their Artist and just completed recording his solo album under the KNS Classical label.

"Pianist who painted the best romantic moment" - Schwbbische Zeitung

"No one could help but fall in love with his provocative technique" - Daniel Pollack -

Dr. Kim was a winner of the 4th Siegfried-Weishaupt International Piano Competition held in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany in 2014. At that time, the judges commented on performance, "No one could help but fall in love with his provocative technique." She performed an invited recital in Ochsenhausen and Umendorf in Germany, and the German daily Newspaper Schẅbische Zeitung quoted her performance as "a pianist who painted the best romantic moment."

As an active pianist, she has performed as soloist with various orchestras including the Ukrainian Kiev Orchestra of Ukrain (Jangcheon Hall), the Northeast Philharmonic Orchestra (Kookmin University Concert Hall), and the Philharmonic Seoul Orchestra (Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall). She has performed solo recitals in such major center as Seoul Arts Center, Sejong Center and Kumho Art Hall, Ilshin Hall, Ceramic Palace Hall in South Korea.

Other career highlights include New Music Festival, Chamber Concert, Winner's Concert of Honors Competition in Boston, MA; numerous recitals such as "Russian Repertoires for Trumpet and Piano", lecture concert "Benjamin Lees' Piano Works" as well as solo recitals in Los Angeles, CA; 'Gala Concert', 'Baroque Concert at Dresden Castle' and 'Opening Concert of Dresdner Meisterkurs Musik' in Germany.

Additionally she has performed "Meeting Musicals and Classic", "Korean Peace Unification Concert", "Creative Piano Symphony II", "World Music Pilgrimage Series: America and Hungary", “250th Anniversary Concert of Beethoven", lecture concert “About Burgmuller", "Talk & Play; Age of Enchantment Series IV: Tragedy <Death and Destiny>, "Healing Concert with Gyeonggi-do".

An enthusiastic chamber music artist, Dr. Kim is a member of Rota Trio with Violinist Sohyun Park and Flutist Yeyoung Shin. She is also regularly performing 'Fly to the Music' series with the Ensemble Pianista as a member of 10 pianists.

Dr. Kim recently established the Seoul International Education Center of Culture and Arts in order to manage concerts and international competitions. She has been a performer and organizer of classical performance at major music hall in South Korea such as Seoul Arts Center, Sejong Center and Ilshin Hall. She has been also a Jury of the Singapore International Piano Competition, the Korea-China International Music Competition, the Yongin Branch Music Competition of the Music Education Newspaper.

She received a master's degree (MM) in piano at Boston Conservatory and a doctorate (DMA) at the University of Southern California (USC), studied with legendary pianist Daniel Pollack.

As a music educator, Dr. Kim has held faculty positions including Myongji University, Yewon University of Arts, Kookmin University, Korea Sungseo University, Sunhwa Arts School, Sunhwa Arts High School. Currently, she is on the faculty of the Namseoul University, Hyupsung University and Gachon University.

Transparent yet intricate, Cindy Cox's compositions synthesize old and new musical designs. The natural world and ecological concerns inspire many of the special harmonies and textural colorations in her works.

Cox is active as a pianist and has performed and recorded many of her own compositions, including the large-scale Hierosgamos and Sylvan Pieces. A number of her works feature technologies developed at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), such as Pianos and the Etudes for piano sampler keyboards. Her compositions with text such as Singing the lines, The Other Side of the World, and The Shape of the Shell evolved through collaboration with her husband, poet John Campion. Together they are currently collaborating on a musical theater project, The Road to Xibalba, based on the ancient Mayan myth of creation The Popol Vuh. Cox's recent commission from the Toulmin Foundation and the American League of Orchestras was for Dreaming a world's edge, premiered by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra in May 2022.

She has received awards and commissions from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Guggenheim Foundation, the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the Fulbright Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, and the Toulmin Foundation with the League of American Orchestras. She has been a Fellow at Tanglewood, Aspen, the MacDowell Colony, Civitella Ranieri, and Giardini La Mortella.

Recent performances have taken place at the Venice Biennale, the Festival de la Habana in Cuba, the American Academy in Rome, Carnegie and Merkin Halls in New York City, the National Gallery in Washington, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and the Biblioteca National in Buenos Aires. Her music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the National Symphony, the California Symphony, the Alexander Quartet, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, and the Eco Ensemble. There are five monograph recordings of Cox's music, and her scores are published by World a Tuning Fork Press (www.cacox.com).

Her music may also be accessed on https://soundcloud.com/cindy-cox. Cindy Cox is also a Professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

American pianist Jerome Lowenthal has been a Juilliard faculty member since 1991. He has received prizes in international competitions in Brussels, Bolzano, and Darmstadt, and has appeared with major orchestras in the U.S., including Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, National, Baltimore, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Minnesota. He has premiered solo music by Rochberg, Capanna, Reise, and Rorem's Piano Concerto No. 3. He has played duo recitals with Denis Brott, Itzhak Perlman, Ronit Amir, and Ursula Oppens.

Lowenthal is a regular participant in chamber music festivals in Sitka, Alaska; Montreal; and Santa Barbara's Music Academy of the West. He played the New York premiere of Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 3 with New York Philharmonic. Lowenthal has made numerous recordings of solo concerto and chamber music repertoire.

Lowenthal studied with Olga Samaroff, William Kapell, and at Juilliard with Edward Steuermann. He also studied with Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique on a Fulbright Grant.

Pianist Assaff Weisman's performances have taken him to some of the major venues in Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. These include appearances at London's Wigmore Hall, the Rudolfinum in Prague, Beethovenhalle in Bonn, Philips Hall in The Hague, and Lincoln Center in New York. As first prize winner in the 2006 Iowa International Piano Competition, he has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal), Sioux City Symphony, the American Chamber Orchestra, the Connecticut Valley Chamber Orchestra and the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional of Peru. His radio credits include WQXR's “Young Artist Showcase" and “The Voice of Music" in Israel, as well as multiple appearances on WGBH radio in Boston, where he has recorded repertoire ranging from Bach to André Previn. His 2002 release of an all-Schubert recording for Yamaha's “NYC Rising Star" series quickly became one of its best sellers. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Weisman has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Arcanto String Quartets, the Beaux Arts Trio, and has taken part in the Aspen Music Festival, Campos do Jordão (Brazil), Lima Chamber Music Festival (Peru), The Music Festival of the Hamptons, and Verbier (Switzerland). He is a founding member, and the Executive Director of the award-winning Israeli Chamber Project, with which he has toured since 2008. Mr. Weisman is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees as a student of Herbert Stessin, and where he is a member of the Extension Division piano faculty. Prior to his studies in New York, he studied with Professor Victor Derevianko in Israel where he was a winner of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarships. Mr. Weisman is a Yamaha Artist.

To be added.

Dr. Yi-Yang Chen shot onto the Global stage with back-to-back victories in the 2018 Sussex Global Piano Competition, 2017 Washington Global Competition, and the Waring Global Piano Competition. The Worthing Herald music critic Richard Amey praised his recent performance "flair for the unusual and his technical and artistic capacity to deliver," as well as his "musical and emotional intelligence, dexterity and virtuosity," listening to Chen as soloist in Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No.5 "Egyptian" with the Worthing Symphony Orchestra. His vibrant playing at the Pacific Global Piano Competition (Canada) was recognized by the judges, who selected him for the first prize ("…Yi-Yang showed an impressive breadth of emotional investment and natural affinity for the music he played. The informed individuality and command of his performance was immediately compelling to the judges. We feel this young man has a fine future as an artist. He seems to 'own' the piano as he plays, and this makes his performance extremely powerful" - Dr. Robin McCabe).

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Chen has been playing the piano since the age of 8. Yi-Yang completed his Doctor of Musical Arts And Bachelor's of Music at the Eastman School of Music with Douglas Humpherys, and his Master's degree at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald and Jerome Lowenthal. He also has solo/chamber masterclasses with Itzhak Perlman, Emanuel Ax, Daniel Pollack, Joseph Kalichstein, Glenn Dicterow, Thomas Sauer, and with members from the Cleveland, Shanghai, Borromeo, Brentano, Ying, and Guarneri String Quartets.

Yi-Yang has captivated audiences worldwide with his flamboyant playing. He has performed on five continents in acclaimed venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center in New York, Melbourne Recital Centre, National Concert Hall in Taipei, Banff Music Centre in Canada, ZK Matthews Great Hall in South Africa, and the Assembly Hall in Worthing, UK, with such orchestras as the Worthing Symphony Orchestra, Brevard Music Center Orchestra, Avanti Orchestra, Eastman Philharmonic Orchestra, National Chinese Orchestra, and the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. He has appeared at the Perlman Music Festival, Taos School of Music Summer Chamber Music Festival, Banff Music Centre, Music Academy of the West, Four Seasons Winter Workshop, and Brevard Music Center.

A wealth of experience enables Chen to become an outstanding teacher and performer. As the winner of the 2012 MTNA National Young Artist Piano Competition, Chen was given a Steinway piano and two concerts in Miami sponsored by the Chopin Foundation (USA) as his prize. In a review of his 2017 solo recital at Carnegie Weill Hall, New York Concert Review wrote, "He negotiated this difficult work with what appeared to be the greatest of ease. The passagework was sparkling, and the energy never flagging. Mr. Chen held the line and momentum throughout, challenges which many players struggle with in this work […]. It was a powerhouse performance. His bold, take-no- holds approach was all that one hopes for in this work. It is a high-risk proposition that demands a large technique, and Mr. Chen delivered. I've heard many performances of this sonata, and Mr. Chen's ranks among the best. "Chen also received top prizes at the Hilton Head Global Piano Competition, American Prize (Professional Division), UNISA Global Piano Competition (South Africa), Kerikeri Global Piano Competition (New Zealand), Seattle Global Piano competition, Thailand Global Piano Competition, San Jose Global Piano Competition, Roberto Melini Global Piano Competition (Italy), Five Towns Piano Competition, Schubert Club Competition, Thousand Islands Global Piano Competition, and Chopin Global Piano Competition in Hartford.

Yi-Yang Chen is a member of the Music Teachers National Association, College Music Society, and Mu Phi Epsilon. He enjoys swimming, biking, traveling, and composing. Yi-Yang is currently working on a recording project with Champs Hill label (UK); the release is scheduled for 2022-2023. Before joining KU, Yi-Yang has served on the faculty at East Tennessee State University and was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Appalachian Music Festival & Competition.

Dr. Gao was born in the city of Nanjing, China and made her solo recital debut at the age of seven. She was winners of Jiangsu Piano Competition, Gulangyu Piano Competition, NTDTV Global Piano Competition, Grand Prize Virtuoso Global Music Competition, New York “Golden Classical Music Awards" Global Competition. She has participated and performed in Shanghai Global Piano Festival, Prague Global Music Festival, Eastman “Music for All" program, the Chautauqua Global Music Festival with orchestra and the tribute to legendary Vladimir Horowitz Concert, etc. Also, Dr. Gao can be heard through the CD release of Czerny Exercises, etc. Her CD recordings include repertoires of Czerny-Piano Technique Practice, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert and Bartok, etc.

The First Prize winner and recipient of the Baroque Prize at the 2012 San Antonio International Piano Competition, Dr. Lo-An Lin, was born in Taipei, Taiwan. A pianist with “brilliance" and “thoughtfulness" (San Antonio Express), Lin has performed throughout the United States and abroad. She recently gave her debut recital at Carnegie, Weill Recital Hall as the recipient of Lowry Award at Eastman School of Music. Highlights of her solo performances include performances and recitals at the Seoul National Arts Center in Korea, National Recital Hall and Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, the Steinway Hall in New York City, and the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. Lin has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras, such as the San Antonio Symphony, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, the Queensland Orchestra in Australia, the Glenn Gould School Orchestra in Canada, the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra, Eastern Music Festival Orchestra, Suzhou National Orchestra, and the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra in Taipei, Taiwan.

Lo-An has received top prizes and acclaims from numerous international and national piano competitions. She was the recipient of the First Prize and the Baroque Performance Prize at the San Antonio International Piano Competition, First Prize at the collegiate division of MTNA Piano Competition in California and the First Prize at the National MTNA Senior division competition, Third Prize at the Corpus Christi International Piano Competition, Second Prize at the Lennox Young Artists International Competition, First Prize, and Audience prize, Concerto prize, and Best performance of an Australian work prize at the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, First Prize at the Viardo International Youth Piano Competition, Second Prize at the Missouri Southern International Piano Youth division, and Second Prize at the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Piano Competition.

A passionate teacher, Dr. Lin received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree majoring in Piano Performance with a minor in Piano Pedagogy at Eastman School of Music, where she served as a teaching assistant for class piano program, as well as a studio assistant for renown piano pedagogues Nelita True and Tony Caramia. In addition to her teaching assistantships, she has taught private and group lessons at Eastman Community Music School, served as a secondary piano lesson instructor at Yale School of Music and lecturer at the Nazareth School of Music. Lin has been invited to give recitals and masterclasses at many colleges and universities in America, including Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, Nazareth College in Rochester, New York, East Tennessee State University, Denison University, University of Alabama, and San Francisco Conservatory.

Her students have received top prizes in many national and international piano competitions, including Liszt Memorial Prize International Piano Open Competition, London Young Musician Competition, Santa Cecilia International Piano Competition, Steinway Piano Competition East China division, Shanghai International Piano Competition, etc.

As an avid chamber musician, Lin has appeared as a guest artist at the Cactus Pear Music Festival. She has also performed chamber music at festivals such as Music Academy of the West, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and collaborated with Calder Quartet in Piano Texas Music Festival. Lin has held position as a collaborative pianist at Nazareth College and Pittsford School district.

Lo-An received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music in 2019, where she also received Master of Music degree studying with Dr. Nelita True. While she was a student at the Yale School of music, she was selected twice to represent the piano department to perform in Kennedy Center and Steinway Hall. She received Artist Diploma at Yale in 2014, as the recipient of the George W. Miles Scholarship studying with internationally acclaimed pianist Professor Hung-Kuan Chen. She received her Bachelor of Music degree studying with Professor Yoshikazu Nagai at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Piano.

Lo-An is on the roster of OPUS Music Management in Taiwan and currently serves as an Assistant Professor at the Soochow University School of Music in Suzhou, China.

Polish-born pianist Igor Lipinski made his orchestra debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on NPR's Performance Today playing Paderewski's Piano Concerto under the baton of JoAnn Falletta. As an orchestra soloist, he has appeared with Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra, Butler County Symphony Orchestra, Woodstock Mozart Festival Orchestra, Lakes Area Music Festival Orchestra, Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Shreveport Symphony Orchestra, and Paderewski Symphony Orchestra at Chicago's Symphony Center.

He maintains an active concert career in the U.S. including a live broadcast recital at Chicago's premiere classical music station 98.7 WFMT and “33 Variations," an award-winning theater play based on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations.

Highlights of recent concert seasons include recitals at the San Francisco International Piano Festival, College of Charleston International Piano Series in Charleston, South Carolina, WNYC's Greene Space in New York City, Teatro Jordão at the European Piano Teachers Conference in Guimarães, Portugal, and Mozarthaus Museum's Bösendorfer Hall in Vienna, Austria.

At age 12, Lipinski won the Grand Prix and the First Prize at the Paderewski Competition for Young Pianists in Tuchów, Poland. At 17, he played the role of a pianist in Kazimierz Braun's theatre play "Paderewski's Children" at the University at Buffalo. A year later, he graduated from the Paderewski Music High School in Tarnów, Poland where he studied piano with Jaroslaw Iwaneczko.

Lipinski earned his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Musical Arts and Master of Music in Piano Performance and Literature from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester where he studied piano under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys. As a teaching assistant of Vincent Lenti and Tony Caramia, he received Eastman's Teaching Assistant Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Lipinski continued his graduate studies at Northwestern University Bienen School of Music earning his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance under the tutelage of Alan Chow. Upon graduation from Northwestern, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville as the Lecturer of Piano where he received the KMTA Teacher of the Year award. In Fall 2017, Lipinski joined the piano faculty at the University of Oklahoma as the Assistant Professor of Piano.

Lipinski's students have won multiple awards including the University of Oklahoma Concerto Competition and the Oklahoma MTNA Young Artist Piano Competition. Lipinski has been an adjudicator for many national piano competitions including Dallas International Piano Competition, Texas Music Teachers Association State Conference in Houston, and the Young Artist Piano Competition Finals of the 2020 MTNA National Conference in Chicago where he was also selected to present a conference session entitled “Reimagining The Piano Recital: Creative Ideas To Engage Your Audience."

Lipinski's research interests focus on the history of recital programming featured in his DMA dissertation “From Liszt to Victor Borge: A Legacy of Unique Piano Performances." Recognized for his own creative programming, Lipinski unified two of his lifelong passions, classical music and magic, in a unique recital program Piano Illusions. Originally developed for his honors senior thesis at Eastman, Lipinski collaborated on the program with Teller of Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller and won the WQXR Classical Comedy Contest at Caroline's on Broadway. In light of his success in New York, Lipinski presented “Piano Illusions" at renowned concert series and festivals including Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation in Salt Lake City and Musica del Cuore Concert Series in Hong Kong.

Passionate recording artist, Lipinski has released several albums under his own concept record label Vanishing Records including Alchemy, Ravel, Masterpieces, and Liszt, all available on Spotify and Apple Music. His latest release features an album of piano music by Czech composer Leoš Janáček.

Mark Demidovich started studying piano at age 7 and has been teaching others to play for more than 12 years. A native of Kostroma, Russia, who lives in Downtown Hollywood, Mark emigrated to the U.S. in 2011 to continue his education, which included The Long Island Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School in New York City, one of the world's leading music schools.

He has won many international music competitions, performed numerous solo recitals, and appeared as a guest soloist with orchestras in Russia, Bulgaria, Sweden and the U.S., where venues included the White House, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Lincoln Center.

Despite all of his accomplishments, Mark had a dream that went unfulfilled - until now. "From the moment I started teaching, it was always my dream to have my own music school," he said. "I want to have an impact on as many people as I can, to bring music into their lives, and having my own school allows me to do that."

Mark has taught students ranging in age from 4 to 75. And during this time, he honed his successful student-centered teaching method that combines the traditional method of learning an instrument with behavioral psychology and contemporary studies on how people learn.

A Kansas native, Jesse Henkensiefken performs regularly as a cellist and conductor. Currently he serves as the Director of Sacred Music at the University of Kansas's St. Lawrence Catholic Center, the Festival Conductor for Heartland Chamber Music, and as the Executive Director for the Mid-America Performing Arts Alliance. He was the Program Manager for Harmony Project KC from 2020-2022, and prior to that, was the Director of Orchestras & String Studies, String Division Director and International Music Festival Director at Kansas Wesleyan University from 2014-2019. He also served as the Salina Symphony Assistant Conductor and Principal Cellist during the same time. Henkensiefken has additional experience performing as the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Opera Ensemble Assistant Conductor (2012-2014), and was the Ars Viva Chamber Orchestra Music Director from 2009-14.

Henkensiefken has concertized throughout Asia, Latin America, and the United States, having performed alongside artists including Clive Greensmith, Steven Doane, Christina Bouey, Tatiana Tessman, and Mark O'Connor, to name a few. He has studied conducting at both the Manhattan School of Music in NYC and at the University of Kansas. In 2015, he had the privilege of traveling to the Tchaikovsky State Moscow Conservatory in Russia, where he had further training under the direction of Anatoly Levin. His other mentors include George Manahan, David Gilbert, Nikolai Uljanov, Paul Vermel, Leonard Slatkin and Kurt Masur.

As a cellist, Henkensiefken was a Sorbel Award Winner at the Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Competition in 2011, and has been principal cellist for orchestras including Ensemble du Monde (NYC), the Empire State Sinfonia (Brooklyn, NY) Kansas City Philharmonia (Parkville, MO), and the Salina Symphony (Salina, KS). In addition, Henkensiefken has made solo appearances with the Sine Nomine Chamber Orchestra, Lawrence Chamber Orchestra, West Coast Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Manheim Steamroller, Ensemble de Monde and the KWU String Orchestra. During the 2006-2007 season, he was a substitute cellist for the New World Symphony. In 2010, Henkensiefken completed his D.M.A. in Cello Performance at the University of Kansas.

Dr. Shun-Lin Chou has appeared internationally in concerto, solo, and chamber performances. Declared an artist of international stature (Taiwan Times), who shined at the piano ... effortlessly and flawlessly (Schwäbische Zeitung, Germany), he has performed to critical acclaim as soloist with over a dozen orchestras in such prestigious venues as the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, and the Eastman Theatre.

Dr. Chou has completed an around-the-world recital tour to Europe and Asia, with successful performances in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States. Recent appearances include concerto re-engagements with the Gala Festival Orchestra (Taiwan), Braddell Heights Symphony (Singapore), as well as the Antelope Valley Symphony, and the Long Beach Community Concert Association. An experienced chamber musician, Chou was a member of the Hawthorne Trio, the resident artist group at Missouri State University.

An active adjudicator and clinician, Shun-Lin Chou has adjudicated for Music Teachers National Association, Fite Young Artist Piano Festival, and the national Hellam Competition, among others, and has presented masterclasses and lecture recitals in colleges and universities in several countries. He was invited to serve a four-day residency in Kansas City, Missouri, as the KCMTA's 2002 master teacher. He has held a number of posts in music teachers organization, serving twice as Missouri Music Teachers Association's Convention Chair and is currently state chair of Honors Auditions for California Association of Professional Music Teachers. Dr. Shun-Lin Sam Chou was appointed Director of Keyboard Studies at California State University, Long Beach in August, 2003. Prior to joining the faculty at CSULB, he served as a tenured associate professor of piano at Missouri State University. An experienced teacher of students of all ages and levels, he has previously taught at Tunghai University summer music festival in Taiwan, the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, the Preparatory Piano Laboratory Program at the University of Michigan, and the Eastman School of Music. Chou earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree and the prestigious Performer's Certificate from the Eastman School of Music after being awarded a Graduate Fellowship, and received a Masters in Piano Pedagogy and Performance degree from the University of Michigan. His principal teachers include Nelita True, Louis Nagel and Reginald Gerig.

Zhou Yun graduated on scholarship in Royal College of Music with a First Class Masters. She performs in over twenty different countries, some including Spain, London, Hungary, Singapore, and China (Xia men, Shen Zhen, Guang Zhou, Shan Dong, Tian Ji, etc). Apart from performing. She is also a highly appointed judge of several worldwide international piano competitions, some includes Singapore international piano competition;France Vivace International Piano Competition;Steinway Youth Piano Competition ;Piano House international Competition at Carnegie Hall; 9th Asia Art Festival ; 12th ZhongSin international festival etc.

Antoinette Perry, born into a family of professional musicians, gave her first public performance at the age of four. Since then she has concertized extensively throughout the United States, Germany, France, England, and in over 15 cities of the People's Republic of China. She has been heard often on NPR and the Bravo! Channel, and has recorded for the Crystal, Harmonie, Pacific Rainbow, Pacific Serenades, Excelsior, and Navona/PARMA labels.

Praised for her "velvety mezzo" (operawire) Christina Casey is "home" in Kansas City, MO. While pursuing an Artist Certificate at UMKC Conservatory, Ms. Casey was seen in the roles of Ramiro in Mozart's La finta giardiniera, Hänsel from Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel as well as Maman/la tasse Chinoise/la libellule in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges.

Ms. Casey is the co-founder of Kansas City's newest opera company Landlocked Opera. Landlocked Opera is committed to serving the Kansas City community with quality performances, and serving KC area artists with quality opportunities. Our motto is "Opera for All"

Ms. Casey made her professional debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a chorister in their 2018 season. She has also sung professionally with Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre. In 2016 she was a recipient of an Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, in the Little Rock, AR district.

Ms. Casey completed her Master of Music in Vocal Performance with Dr. Lori Bade at Louisiana State University and her Bachelor of music in Vocal Performance from University of Missouri with Ann Harrell

Ms. Casey maintains a highly successful private voice studio, including students of all ages and experience. Many of her students have placed in national competitions, been accepted to top undergraduate and graduate vocal music programs, and performed leading roles on the opera and musical theatre stages.

Chinese soprano Zhengyingyue (Elaine) Huang is currently pursuing her DMA in Voice Performance at The University of Kansas under professor Joyce Castle. She has been an apprentice with the Russia International Art Festival in Moscow P. I. Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Russia, and San Miguel Institute of Bel Canto in Mexico. She also performed several roles in LAH-SOW Minneapolis opera, Crittenden Opera Workshop, and the Landlocked Opera in the U.S.A. Her past roles include Baba in The Medium, Cio-Cio-san in Madama Butterfly, 2nd Witch in Dido and Aeneas, Mutter in Hänsel und Gretel, the second lady in Die Zauberflöte, Mrs. Gobineau in The Medium, and the title role in Suor Angelica. A new music enthusiast, she has world premiered the chamber opera Snow Angel that explores rediscovery and reclamation of personal identity and agency following a sexual assault of the sole female protagonist. As a musician passionate about social justice and ethnic diversity, she founded the KU Asian Classical Music Initiative in 2021, an academic music conference designed to bring awareness to the world of AAAPI classical music composers through concerts and conferences. In addition to ACMI, she also serves on the board of Asian Opera Alliance, KU School of Music DEIB committees, and Friend of Lied Center.

Tonya Bibashka - graduated the National Music School Panaiot Pipkov Bulgaria with Professional Qualification in Viola Performance. Then she completed her degrees at the National Academy of Music 'Prof. Pancho Vladigerov', Sofia, Bulgaria and was successfully accepted to continue with her Artist Diploma Program in New York, USA. Her ability as a solo and chamber musician has been recognized by more than forty national and international competitions in Europe and the USA as she was the winner of numerous prizes including:

• First Prize and Scholarship - National Competition "Svetoslav Obertenov" - Provadia 2006
• First Prize and Special Prize "Veliko Penev"- National Competition for best performance of Bulgarian music - Burgas 2008
• First Prize and Scholarship - International Competition "German and Austrian Music 2007
• Second Prize - International Competition "Hopes, talants, masters" 2007
• Special Soloist Price - National Competition in Pleven 2007
• Second Prize for Chamber Music - International Competition "The Earth and The People" 2010
• First Prize - International Academy Competition for Chamber Music, 2010
• First Prize - International Competition for German and Austrian Misic "M.A.G.I.C" - Burgas, 2011
• First Prize - International Chamber Music Competiton New York Concert Artists - New York 2014

Tonya Bibashka was awarded by the Bulgarian Minister of Culture for her contribution to the Bulgarian Music and Arts and a five-time winner of their scholarship for future career developments. Tonya was a soloist of Philharmonic Orchestras and Chamber Orchestras such as Pleven Philcharmonic Orchestra, Sofia State Academy of Music Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra Long Island Conservatory New York.

Tonya participated in a variety of master classes and festivals such as Varna summer" where she won scholarship for outstanding Viola performer. She also was a Principal Violist, selected from audition by members of the Vienna Philharmonic, at International Orchestra with Conductor Sir Neville Marriner.

She is an acting principal violist of the New York Virtuosos, the CFO Chamber Orchestra NY and a member of a various string ensembles. She is also a jury member of Manolov International Competition NY.

Bulgaria-born pianist Veselin Ninov is a recording artist and the winner of numerous national and international competitions in the USA, Canada, Bulgaria, Russia, Sweden and Turkey. Mr. Ninov has performed with orchestras, judged international festivals and competitions, and has given master classes and solo and chamber music recitals in Merkin Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Kimmel Center, Steinway Hall, and others. Veselin is the Artistic Director of the Manolov International Competition and currently runs a private teaching studio in New York. In 2018 he received the prize for high pedagogical accomplishments awarded by Steinway & Sons.

American pianist Nicholas Dold has enjoyed an active career performing across the United States as both a solo and collaborative musician. He has been a featured artist for Minnesota Public Radio's "Performance Today", 91.9 Classical KC, Indiana Public Radio, the Duxbury Music Festival, the Orchestral Institute of Napa Valley, Chamber Music Silicon Valley, the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Opera San Jose, the Ladies Musical Club of Seattle, and the University of Alaska - Fairbanks.

Equally committed as an educator, he is recognized as a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) by the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA). He was appointed to the Keyboard Faculty at William Jewell College in 2022 and prior to that, served on the Collaborative Piano Faculty and Staff at Santa Clara University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His work in the area of developing chamber music and collaborative training curricula for pre-college musicians continues to be his major ongoing pedagogical endeavor as the founder and director of the Kansas City Young Chamber Musicians.

He regularly adjudicates and presents at both the state and local levels, most recently for the Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC), California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT), the Washington State Music Teachers Association (WSMTA), and the Kansas Music Teachers Association (KMTA).

He received his graduate and undergraduate degrees at Indiana University, where he studied piano performance with Reiko Shigeoka-Neriki, chamber music with Yael Weiss, and collaborative piano with Chih-Yi Chen. For more information, please visit www.nicholasdold.com

Fabio Bidini today is recognized as one of the most important pianists and pedagogues. Bernard Holland of the New York Times stated: "He is capable of an admirable simplicity…truly touching."

At the age of five he was given his first piano lessons and, a half year later, he had his first public performance. In the following years he won 11 of the most important Italian piano competitions, including always the Audience Prize as well as all the special prizes.

He made his final graduation as “Magna cum Laude" and was one of the youngest graduates ever of the prestigious “Conservatorio Santa Cecilia" in Rome. Pianists who made a significant contribution to his artistic development were Orazio Frugoni and Maria Tipo.

After winning top prizes in the most famous Global piano competitions, his sensational success at the Busoni and at the Van Cliburn Global Piano Competition opened him the door to a constantly growing Global career.

His outstanding piano playing that combines technical wizardry with poetic lyricism and his fascinating culture of the attack of the keyboard brought him to have a glowing London debut in the Barbican Center with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas in the presence of Sir Georg Solti. Shortly after, he performed at the United Nation as a soloist of the BBC Wales and had his highly acclaimed North American debut with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under Joel Levi.

Since then Mr. Bidini has been a frequent guest of the most prominent orchestras worldwide (San Francisco Sympony, Dallas Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, The Philharmonia Orchestra of London, BBC Orchestra Wales) playing in the world's most famous concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Kimmel Center Philadelphia, Kennedy-Center Washington, Royal Festival Hall, Davies Hall, Tonhalle Zürich, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Rudolfinum, Auditorio Nacionál-Madrid, Auditorio de Zaragoza, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, among others).

He has also collaborated with leading conductors of our time, including Michael Tilson Thomas, Ivan Fischer, Andrey Boreyko, Zoltan Kocsis, Eri Klas, GianAndrea Noseda, Barry Wordsworth, Yoel Levi, Pavel Kogan, Louis Lane, Tadaaki Otaka, Mathias Bamert, Jesus Lopez Cobos, JoAnn Falletta, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Max Valdes, Keri-Lynn Wilson, Michael Christie, Carlos Prieto, Rossen Milanov among others.

He has been repeatedly invited to perform at prestigious festivals, such as the Tuscan Sun Festival Cortona/ Napa, Festival Radio France Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, La Roque d'Anthéron Global Piano Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Global Piano Festival, Festival dei Due Mondi, Grant Park Festival Chicago.

Mr. Bidini is also greatly in demand as a chamber music partner. He has enjoyed artistic collaboration with the American String Quartet, the Janacek Quartet, the Brodsky Quartet, the Szymanowski Quartet, the Modigliani Quartet, Zoltan Kocsis, Nikolaj Znaider, Johannes Moser, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, Paula Robison, Corey Cerovsek, Wendy Warner, Eva Urbanova, Eva Mei, Nina Kotova, Alexis-Pia Gerlach, Maria Bachmann, Dimitri Ashkenazy e Sabrina-Vivian Höpcker. He has formed a formal duo with Ms. Hopcker, and, with the publication of their debut CD of sonatas of S.Prokofieff and R.Strauss, they have laid the foundations for extensive collaborations with the US American label True Sounds.

Mr. Bidini's discography comprises of 14 CDs of leading recording companies such as BMG, Naxos, Classichord, Musikstrasse, EPR, True Sounds, among others.

In 2005 Mr. Bidini accepted a professorship in the piano departement of the “Universität der Künste - Berlin". In 2009 he won one of the most important chairs for piano in Germany at the “Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler" in Berlin.

In 2015 the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles founded the Carol Colburn Grigor Piano Chair for Fabio Bidini and he currently serves as faculty at the prestigious conservatory. Additionally he serves as an artist in residence at the “Hochschule für Musik und Tanz" in Köln.
He is an official Steinway Artist.

A top prize winner of the Arthur Rubinstein Global Piano Competition in Tel Aviv.

Steven Lin is establishing himself as one of the most distinctive and original artists of his generation. He first made his debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of 12. Recently, he made a sensational Carnegie Hall debut playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 1, and has been hailed by the New York Times for playing that is “...immaculately voiced and enhanced by admirable subtleties of shading and dynamics."

His recent debuts include Kansas City Symphony Orchestra with Michael Stern, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras with Miguel Harth-Bedoya, National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico with Carlos Miguel Prieto, Western Australian Symphony Orchestra with Asher Fisch. He has also performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under Gerard Schwartz, Costa Rica National Symphony under John Nelson, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra under Asher Fisch, and Baltimore Symphony under Keith Lockhart. Recent Recital appearances include major cities across the Asia, US and Europe at venues such as Gasteig in Munich, Louvre in Paris, National concert hall of Dublin, National concert hall of Taipei, Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Hamarikyu Hall in Tokyo. In the 2021-2022 season, Steven will embark on his recital tour in the Basque region of Spain. Additional highlights include debut at the Berlin Philharmonie with Curtis on Tour and Karajan Academy and recitals across Europe, United States, and Asia. He has regular recital appearances in Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Washington Performing Arts, Sonoma State Green Center, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art in DC, University of Alabama, Pittsburg State University, Shenandoah University, and National Chopin Foundation in the USA. In the 2018-19 season, He made his debuts in Dubai and Bahrain Spring Festival in the Middle East. He also returned to Taiwan for a Three-city recital tour in spring 2019. A Frequent performer with summer festivals, he has appeared including the Bravo! Vail Valley Festival, the WQXR Beethoven Sonata Marathon, New Hampshire Music Festival, and DITTO music festival in Korea, Finca World Piano Festival in the Canary Islands, Aspen music festival, the Aspen Chamber Music Workshop, under the mentorship of David Finckel and Wu Han, and the La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest, curated by violinist Cho-Liang Lin. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with Gidon Kremer and Misha Maisky.

Steven Lin's artistry was clear from an early age when he was accepted by The Juilliard School on a full scholarship to study with Yoheved Kaplinsky at the age of ten, which in turn led to his debut with the New York Philharmonic in Avery Fisher Hall when he was only 12. He has appeared on radio broadcasts including NPR's From The Top and WQXR's Young Artists Showcase, and he is featured prominently in the Cliburn Competition documentary film, Virtuosity, which premiered on PBS in 2015.

Steven Lin completed the Artist Diploma program at the Curtis Institute of Music, under the guidance of Robert McDonald, and before that, he earned both Bachelor's and Master's Degrees at The Juilliard School, studying with Mr. McDonald and Matti Raekallio. When not making music, Steven describes himself as an ‘NBA basketball fanatic,' a source of great pride and commitment which began when he was eight years old.

Hailed by the London Times as "a pianist of powerful physical and imaginative muscle," Tanya Gabrielian has captivated audiences worldwide with her gripping performances. She has performed on four continents in acclaimed venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Sydney Opera House, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, and the Salle Cortot in Paris, with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and Boston Pops.

Tanya shot onto the Global stage at the age of twenty with back-to-back victories in the Scottish Global Piano Competition and Aram Khachaturyan Global Piano Competition. Since then, performance engagements have included Alice Tully Hall and the 92nd Street Y in New York, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, Edinburgh Global Festival, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and a return recital engagement at Wigmore Hall in London. Tanya's Southbank debut recital in the Purcell Room in London, presented by the Philharmonia Orchestra, was chosen as “Performance of the Year" by Seen and Heard Global. She has also been featured on the cover of the magazine Clavier.

In addition to the traditional concert stage, Tanya is passionate about inspiring new generations of musicians and music lovers in diverse settings, dedicated to community engagement, education, and activism through art. Projects have included collaborations with the National Alliance on Mental Illness in programs featuring composers with mental illnesses, highlighting the stigma around mental health issues; founding an interactive performance series for patients at the New York State Psychiatric Institute; an installation with the artist Fran Bull for the exhibit In Flanders Fields: A Meditation on War; and a multidisciplinary collaboration combining Haydn's Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross with final statements from executed death row inmates. For her work, Tanya was awarded the Pro Musicis Global Award, McGraw-Hill Robert Sherman Award for Music Education and Community Outreach, Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and the S&R Washington Award, and she has held Artist-in-Residencies at Guild Hall and 23Arts.

Tanya completed her Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the Royal Academy of Music in London, originally studying both piano and viola. She received the prize for the best final recital for all six years of study and received a DipRAM, the highest performance award given by the Royal Academy of Music. Tanya finished her studies at The Juilliard School as the only candidate accepted for the prestigious Artist Diploma, an extraordinarily selective post-graduate residency program. She has worked with Ursula Oppens, Matti Raekallio, Robert McDonald, Hamish Milne, and Alexander Satz.

Praised by the New York Times for his “revelatory" performances, and by the Toronto Star for his “technically flawless, poetically inspired and immensely assured playing," pianist Jiayan Sun has performed frequently with The Cleveland Orchestra, The Hallé Orchestra, the Chinese and RTÉ (Ireland) National Symphony Orchestras, the Fort Worth and Toledo Symphony Orchestras, the Toronto and Aspen Concert Orchestras, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has conducted from the keyboard the Meiningen Court Orchestra. His performances have been broadcast by the BBC, the RTÉ, China Central Television, and classical music radio stations in North America. He has performed at and participated in the Verbier Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, PianoTexas. Under the mentorship of Sir András Schiff, he was invited to give a number of solo recitals in Europe as part of Schiff's “Building Bridges" project for the 2017-2018 season.

Mr. Sun has been awarded prizes at many of the major Global piano competitions, including the third prize at the Leeds Global Piano Competition, the second prize at the Dublin Global Piano Competition, the fourth prize and the audience prize at the Cleveland Global Piano Competition, the first prize at the inaugural CCC Toronto Global Piano Competition, and others. Playing early keyboard instruments and studying historical performance practice has played a significant role in Mr. Sun's musical activities, with critically acclaimed appearances with the American Classical Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall.

Hailed from Yantai, China, he received the Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School. He continues his studies at Juilliard as a doctoral candidate under the tutelage of Yoheved Kaplinsky and Stephen Hough. His other mentors include pianists Malcolm Bilson, Richard Goode, Robert Levin, and harpsichordist Lionel Party. His devotion to the art of composition led him to study with the composer Philip Lasser. As the Iva Dee Hiatt Visiting Artist in Piano at Smith College, he is presenting Beethoven's complete piano sonatas chronologically in a series of eight recitals in the 2018-2019 season.

Silver medalist and audience prize winner of the 6th Sendai Global Competition in Japan, Taiwanese American pianist Evan Wong has appeared in recitals and concerts throughout North America, Europe and Asia in venues such as Carnegie's Weill Hall and Merkin Hall in New York, Jordan Hall and John Hancock Hall in Boston, Chicago Cultural Center and Pick-Staiger Hall in Chicago, Kirishima Concert Hall, Itzumity 21 Concert Hall and Hitachi Systems Hall in Japan, Daegu Concert House in South Korea, Flagey Studio 4 in Belgium, Richard Jakoby Saal in Hannover, Germany, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Spain, Music Centre in Helsinki, Finland and Taiwan National Concert Hall, Taichung Opera House and Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts in Taiwan.

He released his first solo album under the Acousence Label in Germany in 2020 and has also recorded for the MPR (Minnesota, USA), WFMT (Chicago, USA), KBS (South Korea), Shanghai Classical 94.7 (China), and the Taipei Classical, Radio Taiwan Global, National Education, Bravo 91.3 and Voice of Han (Taiwan) stations.

Mr. Wong has appeared as a soloist with orchestras including the Sendai Philharmonic, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes de México, Southern Illinois Festival Orchestra, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Century Symphony Orchestra, New Sendai Philharmonic, Saga Symphony Orchestra, World Civic Orchestra, Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra and the NEC Philharmonia Orchestra and conductors Pascal Verrot, Julian Kuerti, Victor Yampolsky, Daniela Candillari, Paul Meyer, Yuri Nitta, Edward Benyas, Kuokman Lio, Seitaro Ishikawa, Tung-Chieh Chuang, Gernot Schmalfuss and Ludwig Carrasco.

A frequent guest in several renowned festivals, Mr. Wong has performed at the Verbier, Lucerne, Ravinia, Aspen, Gilmore, Kneisel Hall festivals where he has worked and collaborated with musicians such as Itzak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Midori, Mihaela Martin, Pamela Frank, Franz Helmerson, Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian and members of the Cleveland, Takacs and Juilliard Quartets.

Mr. Wong holds degrees from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany (Konzertexamen), Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music (D.M.A), The Juilliard School (M.M) and the New England Conservatory (B.M). His teachers include Matti Raekallio, Jerome Lowenthal, Wha Kyung Byun, Boris Slutsky, Mengchieh Liu, Alan Chow, Ewa Kupiec and Rolf-Peter Wille.

Currently, Mr. Wong is a full-time piano faculty at Fu Jen University in Taiwan. He is also the distinguished professor at Harbin Conservatory of Music in China and serves on the faculty at the University of Taipei.

Described by the New York Times as having “especially eloquent playing," Ken Hamao is a dynamic musician renowned for his sensitive interpretation. He performs on the viola in addition to the violin, and is an avid proponent of contemporary music.

Ken is the newest member of the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet, the Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University's Department of Music. Prior to joining the Parker Quartet, he was a member of the Ensō String Quartet from 2014 to 2018. As a much sought-after chamber musician, he has collaborated with members of the Borromeo, Cavani, Daedalus, Guarneri, JACK, Momenta, and Verona Quartets, the Horszowski Trio, as well as former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

As part of the Parker Quartet, Ken is on the faculty at the Department of Music at Harvard University and Guest Artist-in-Residence at the University of South Carolina. He was also a guest lecturer in violin at Dartmouth College, and has previously taught at the Astoria Chamber Music Festival, Banff Centre, Interlochen Center for the Arts, Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival, and SoCal Chamber Music Workshop. He has given masterclasses at Arkansas State, Lawrence, San Jose State, Temple, Utah State, and Washington Adventist Universities, University of Auckland, University of Iowa, and Victoria University of Wellington.

Recent engagements as a soloist include concertos by Giya Kancheli, Kurt Rohde, and Tan Dun, the latter of which with the composer at the podium. He also appears frequently with Argento Chamber Ensemble, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, New York Classical Players, River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and Talea Ensemble. An active presence in contemporary music, he has worked in close collaboration with eminent composers of our time, including John Adams, Zosha di Castri, Chaya Czernowin, James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Beat Furrer, Georg Friedrich Haas, Vijay Iyer, Paul Moravec, Andrew Norman, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sean Shepherd, Hans Tutschku, and John Zorn.

Ken attended both Columbia University and the Juilliard School as part of the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange Program, and received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Juilliard School. His mentors include Zakhar Bron, Masao Kawasaki, Robert ¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬Lipsett, and Mark Steinberg.

Praised for her “first rate and thoroughly engaging" playing, Taiwanese violinist Li-Mei Liang's recent performance was described as a “powerhouse" by the Boston Musical Intelligencer. An active performer, Liang has appeared in renowned concert halls worldwide, including those in Belgium, China, Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea. Since 2013, she has served as the associate concertmaster of the Orchestra of Indian Hill. Recent highlights include performances in South Korea with the New York Classical Players, a 19-city tour in China with the Petrucci String Quartet, and regular appearances with the renowned East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO).

In addition to her performance schedule, Liang is a committed educator in both music theory and violin practice. She is a full-time music theory faculty at the New England Conservatory, as well as a theory and violin instructor at its Preparatory School. She also teaches private violin lessons at the Arlington Public Schools. In previous years, she has served as a Lecturer in Violin and Chamber Music at the University of California, Irvine, and a chamber music teacher for the Quad Chamber Music Program at Harvard University.

Liang graduated from the Affiliated High School of National Taiwan Normal University prior to completing her undergraduate and graduate studies at the New England Conservatory. She recently received her Doctorate of Musical Arts in violin performance, with a minor in music theory, at the same institution, writing an analytical thesis on Béla Bartók's Sonata for Solo Violin. Her mentors include Donald Weilerstein, Nicholas Kitchen, Stratis Minakakis and Cheng-Tu Su.

Virtuoso violinist Eric Silberger is a prize winner of the XIV Global Tchaikovsky Competition and the Michael Hill Global Violin Competition in 2011. His performances have been described by critics as “spine-tingling…astonishing" (The Guardian), “dazzling virtuoso playing" (The Washington Post), “impeccable level of playing, a wonderful musician" (Heather Kurzbauer, The Strad), and “ ….he has got everything in his favour, technique, composure and personality. We are on the eve of a great soloist" (El Pais, Spain).

Eric has performed as soloist, recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States and around the world, including solo performances with the San Francisco Symphony, Mariinsky Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonia, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Chamber Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, London Philharmonia, Danish National Symphony, Orquesta Sinfónica de México, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, among others. Conductor collaborations include Lorin Maazel, Valery Gergiev, Dimitri Kitajenko, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Donald Runnicles, Robin Ticciati, and others. He has appeared at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Louvre in Paris, the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia, The Moscow Global House of Music in Russia, Shanghai Grand Theatre in China, Royal Festival Hall in London, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, the National Arts Centre in Canada, and more. Among numerous television and radio appearances in the United States, Asia, and Europe, he was featured on Radio France, STV in China, KBS in Korea, and WQXR, WFYI, FOX 59, WISH-TV, and NPR, among others.

An avid chamber musician, Eric frequently performs chamber music Globally. He also has a special collaboration with bandoneonist and composer JP Jofre and the JP Jofre Hard Tango Chamber Band.

Eric received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. Mentors have included Glenn Dicterow, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Robert Mann, and Dorothy Delay, among others. He was also mentored by Maestro Lorin Maazel.

Eric plays on a rare J.B. Guadagnini violin from 1757 on generous loan from the Si-Yo Music Society Foundation Sau-Wing Lam collection.

Ms. Lo's virtuosic skills astounded…" — Stage and Cinema (February 2019)

Violinist Mann-Wen Lo has performed extensively throughout the world in the most prestigious venues as a soloist and chamber musician. Her solo debut came at age 10, performing Mozart's violin concerto No. 2 with the Academy of Taiwan Strings in the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Since then, she has been a recurring artist to perform at Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Walt Disney Hall, among others. Featured on radio and TV broadcasts in the United States, Taiwan, Japan and France, Ms. Lo has gained recognition at numerous competitions and auditions. She is the first prize winner of the 2020 USC Solo Bach Competition and a recipient of Taiwan Council for Cultural Affairs Sponsorship. As a chamber musician, Ms. Lo has been awarded the grand prize of the Global Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, and is a winner of the Beverly Hills National Audition and the Oneppo Chamber Music Competition. Ms. Lo received the strings department outstanding achievement award, upon her completion of Doctor of Musical Arts at USC Thornton School of Music.

Chamber music is at the core of Ms. Lo's musical passion. She has collaborated in concerts with members of some of the world's best string quartets including the Juilliard String Quartet, the Cleveland Quartet, and the Takacs Quartet. She has also performed with concertmasters of New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Danish Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Lo has been invited as a guest artist at Camera Lucida in San Diego, Sunset MusicFest, and Hawaii Chamber Music Festival, among others.

Ms. Lo has participated in music festivals including Yellow Barn, Menuhin Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and Saito Kinen Festival. In 2015, her string quartet was chosen as the American representative to perform at the Franco-American Chamber Music Festival.

Ms. Lo performs frequently with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Pasadena Symphony. She also collaborates with the directors at the American Contemporary Ballet as a soloist and in a chamber ensemble. She has been invited to perform as a guest concertmaster at the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra and the Pasadena Opera. Ms. Lo is a member of Delirium Musicum, a conductor-less chamber ensemble based in Los Angeles. The ensemble was recently awarded the San Francisco Classical Voice's Audience Choice Award in the category "Best Early Music/Baroque Performance" in 2020.

In addition to western classical music, Ms. Lo also enjoys jazz and bluegrass; she has performed with the Grammy Award-winning banjo player Béla Fleck, and is a member of the Kaleidoscope Trio - an innovative ensemble with violin, clarinet and guitar. The trio performs various genres from western classical music to jazz, Klezmer and pop. She has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and recorded for TV series such as Chef's Table and BBC's Planet Earth II, as well as the Vitamin String Quartet and dulcimer sensational Ted Yoder's album Shadowlight.

Ms. Lo received her Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory, her Master of Music from the Yale School of Music, and her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Ms. Lo has an academic minor in music teaching and learning, and elective fields in instrumental conducting and jazz studies. Her principal mentors include Masuko Ushioda, Syoko Aki, and Glenn Dicterow.

Ms. Lo plays on a 1925 Guiseppe Friorini violin on generous loan from the Chi Mei Culture Foundation in Taiwan.

Nina Scolnik, pianist, has concertized in the United States and abroad as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, chamber musician and collaborative pianist.

She has been a guest artist with the American, Angeles, Lydian, and Blaeu string quartets and has collaborated with principals of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Boston Symphony, and with distinguished cellists Nathaniel Rosen, Stephen Erdody, and the late Gerhard Mantel. Scolnik has also performed on important European venues such as the Rudolfinum in Prague and the Palais Auersperg in Vienna where she was a soloist with the Wiener Residenzorchester, as well as at celebrated music festivals in Vipiteno and Völs am Schlern, Italy; Festival Amaryllis in Mosnes, France; and the Ameropa International Chamber Music Festival in Prague, Czech Republic. She has also performed at the Williams International Piano Festival, Tulane University Keyboard Festival, Great Pianists at Stetson Series, and the Amherst, New World, and Aspen Music Festivals in the United States. Scolnik recorded Stravinsky's four-hand piano transcription of the Rite of Spring on two pianos with Lorna Griffitt for the Sacre Project, part of the Pacific Symphony's celebration of the 100th anniversary of the work's first performance.

Scolnik has distinguished herself internationally through her master classes, lectures, research, and clinical success in the rehabilitation of injured musicians. She has presented at music conferences, universities, conservatories, and festivals in the United States, Canada, France, Austria, Italy, and the Czech Republic, and is one of just a few specialists in the field who work with pianists afflicted with focal dystonia.

A Professor of Teaching in the Department of Music at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts, University of California, Irvine, Scolnik teaches piano performance, art song, chamber music, and pedagogy. For over three decades, Scolnik has groomed pianists for serious careers as performers, scholars, and teachers. Scolnik received the 2019 Excellence in Pedagogical Development Award from UCI's Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation and the 2019-2020 Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentorship from UROP's Division of Undergraduate Education. A DECADE Mentor for the Department of Music, Scolnik also serves on the Claire Trevor School of the Arts Climate Council.

Born in Lewiston, Maine, Scolnik is a graduate of both the Oberlin Conservatory and the Juilliard School of Music. Her principal teachers have included Edna Golandsky, Dorothy Taubman, Martin Canin, Joseph Schwartz, Artur Balsam, Lenore Engdahl and Natasha Chances.

Pianist Kevin Fitz-Gerald enjoys a versatile performing career as recitalist, orchestra soloist and chamber musician. His performances have garnered international acclaim and he has been recognized for his “hypnotically powerful and precise" pianism and “dynamic and distinguished" interpretations. His concert tours and performances have taken place in major concert halls, universities and concert organizations throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Mexico, South America, the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Notable venues include Carnegie Recital Hall (New York), The Mormon Tabernacle (Utah), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Roy Thompson Hall (Toronto), Place des Arts (Montreal), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Suntori Hall (Tokyo), National Gallery (Kingston) and Town Hall (Melbourne). He has appeared with several Canadian and American orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Canadian Chamber Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Los Angeles Cameratta, Utah Chamber Orchestra and the Mormon Tabernacle Orchestra at Temple Square. Recent orchestral performances have included concerti by Dvorak, Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Berg and Scharwenka.

Fitz-Gerald's concerts have frequently been recorded for local, national and international radio, and television networks in Canada, the U.S., South America, France, Japan, China, Korea and Australia. His CD recordings can be found on the Summit, Quatro Corde, AFCM, Centaur, GM, Yamaha PianoSoft and Ivory Classics records labels. In constant demand as a chamber musician, he has collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as: Hagai, Shaham, Patrick Gallois, Stephen Isserlis, Anne Akiko Meyers, Richard Stolzman, Alan Civil, Camilla Wicks, Midori, Eudice Shapiro, Milton Thomas, Karen Tuttle, Donald McInnes, Ronald Leonard, the Bartok, St. Petersburg and St. Lawrence String Quartets.

For many years, Fitz-Gerald was studio pianist in summer programs for some of the leading artist-teachers of our time, including William Primrose, Lillian Fuchs, Zara Nelsova, Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Zoltan Szekely, Lorand Fenyves and Marcel Moyse. He regularly performs two-piano and four-hand recitals with Bernadene Blaha, appearing at prestigious festivals, conventions, music teacher's symposiums and concert venues throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. The Blaha/Fitz-Gerald Duo has performed extensively throughout Canada under the auspices of the Piano Six program, the Canada Council Touring Office and the Cross Country Classics program.

Fitz-Gerald also enjoys an international reputation as a teacher, presenting masterclasses and lecture-symposiums throughout the world. His students have been prize-winners in many major piano and chamber music competitions, including: the Rubinstein International Piano Competition, Vilna International Piano Competition, IBLA International Piano Competition, American Orff-Schullwerke International Competition, ARD International Piano Competition, the Music Teacher's National Association national competition, Los Angeles Liszt International Piano Competition, Jean Francaix International Competition, Canadian National Music Competitions and the Colman National Chamber Music Competition.

Today his students can be found winning competitions, performing, recording and teaching at many of the finest conservatories and universities throughout the world. In addition to his position as Professor of Piano Performance and Collaborative Arts at USC Thornton, Fitz-Gerald is also a regular visiting artist-teacher at the Banff School of Fine Arts, a frequent masterclass teacher at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles, the Aria International Summer Institute in Indiana, as well as visiting faculty at many other national and international music festivals and institutions throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

Born in Kelowna, British Columbia, Fitz-Gerald was a full scholarship student at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, The Banff Centre School of Fine Arts and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where his principal teachers were Marek Jablonski, Robin Wood and Alma Brock-Smith. In addition, he has worked extensively with Menahem Pressler, John Perry, Gyorgy Sebok and Leon Fleisher. He has won several prestigious competitions, grants and awards, including the Du Maurier Search for the Stars, CBC National Radio Auditions and the Young Artists' National Piano Competition.

David Kaplan, pianist, has been called “excellent and adventurous" by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire" at the keyboard. He has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Britten Sinfonia and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. Known for diverse and creative recital programs, he has appeared at the Ravinia Festival, Washington's National Gallery, Strathmore, and Bargemusic. Kaplan's New Dances of the League of David, mixing Schumann with 16 new works, was cited in the “Best Classical Music of 2015" by The New York Times.

Kaplan has collaborated with the Attacca, Ariel, Enso, Hausman, and Tesla String Quartets, and is a core member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall. He has appeared at the Bard, Seattle Chamber Music, Mostly Mozart, and Chamber Music Northwest festivals, and is an alumnus of Tanglewood, Ravinia-Steans Institute, and the Perlman Music Program. Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Marquis Records, as well as with Timo Andres in the acclaimed disc, Shy and Mighty (2010), for Nonesuch. For 2021, he commissions renowned composers Anthony Cheung and Christopher Cerrone for two works based on music written by one another, to be programmed with fantasy-form works from L. Couperin to Elliott Carter.

Passionate about teaching, Kaplan was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in 2020. Kaplan's distinguished mentors over the years include the late Claude Frank, Walter Ponce, Miyoko Lotto, and Richard Goode. With a Fulbright Fellowship, he studied conducting at the Universität der Künste Berlin with Lutz Köhler, and received his DMA from Yale University in 2014. Preferring Yamaha and Bösendorfer pianos, David is proud to be a Yamaha Artist. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.