Meet our Faculty & Artists
Violin
Faculty&Artists
arranged in the alphabetical order
Jinjoo Cho
Violin
“An undeniable charisma and depth…— TIMES ARGUS
intense lyricism and heartfelt tenderness
sent shivers up the spine”
Violinist Jinjoo Cho is an artist model of the 21st-century. Since her concert debut at age 7, she has been numerously recognized as the winner of world’s most prestigious competitions such as the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Montreal International Musical Competition, Buenos Aires International Violin Competition, Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition, and a laureate of 2011 Isang Yun International Music Competition. As a charismatic female solo artist, a vibrant and engaging chamber musician, a devoted teacher, an innovative artistic director, and a published writer, Jinjoo is redefining what it means to be a consummate classical artist in the modern society.
Jinjoo can be found performing in distinguished international venues and festivals alike Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society, the Herkulessaal of Munich, Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele, Seoul Arts Center, and Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, with world’s leading orchestras and musicians as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Phoenix Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, James Gaffigan, Michael Stern, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Tan Dun, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Tito Muñoz, Mathieu Herzog, Itamar Golan, and Roger Tapping. She regularly tours with creative programs that include works of living composers and lesser-known repertoire.
A passionate teacher, Jinjoo is on the violin faculty at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and has previously taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. She is also the Founder/Artistic Director of ENCORE Chamber Music, an intensive summer training program for talented young performers in Cleveland, and regularly gives master classes worldwide.
Jinjoo is an alumna of Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM, PS) where she studied with Paul Kantor and Jaime Laredo. She also received training at the Curtis Institute of Music, Kronberg Academy, Aspen Music Festival and School, Perlman Music Program, New York String Orchestra Seminar, Music@Menlo, and Banff Centre’s Chamber Music Residency Program. Jinjoo’s artistic personality was greatly influenced by the Cavani String Quartet, members of the Cleveland Quartet, and the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio. Jinjoo now lives in Montreal with her toy poodle, Miso, and enjoys visiting art galleries, collecting kitchen magnets and stationeries, and listening to Indie Rock in her spare time.
Diana Cohen
Violin
Founder and Co-Artistic Director of ChamberFest Cleveland, violinist Diana Cohen has a multifaceted career as a concertmaster, chamber musician and soloist. Concertmaster of the Calgary Philharmonic since 2012 and founding member of Trio Terzetto, Ms. Cohen has previously served as concertmaster and appeared as soloist with the symphonies of Richmond, Charleston, and Kalamazoo, the National Repertory Orchestra, Iris Orchestra and Red {an orchestra}. As soloist, Ms. Cohen has also appeared with numerous orchestras including the Holland Symphony, Rochester Symphony, Lansing and Grand Rapids. She regularly performs with the Grammy-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and East Coast Chamber Orchestra and has appeared with the Sejong Soloists, The Knights, and with the the Cleveland Orchestra and New York Philharmonic.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Cohen has performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, The Ravinia Festival, Aspen, Chamber Music Festival of Giverny, Great Lakes Festival and Banff, among many others. She has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Miró, Cleveland and Parker Quartets, and with renowned artists including Mitsuko Uchida, Garrick Ohlsson and Jonathan Biss. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, she was a recipient of the Jerome Gross Prize and winner of the Milhaud competition. Her major studies were with Donald Weilerstein.
Ms. Cohen is from a musical family. Her father is lauded clarinetist and ChamberFest co-founder Franklin Cohen, her brother Alexander is principal timpanist of the Calgary Philharmonic and her husband Roman Rabinovich is a concert pianist, composer and artist. Her late mother, Lynette Diers Cohen was an esteemed bassoonist.
Sojin Kim
Violin
Violinist So Jin Kim has been hailed by critics and audiences alike for her musical lyricism, technical brilliance, and lush tone. Following her successful solo debut with the Juilliard Orchestra in Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall in 2006, she has performed throughout North America, Europe and Asia in halls such as the Carnegie Hall in New York, Vienna's Musikverein Golden Hall, KKL Luzern in Switzerland, Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the Philharmonie in Berlin. She has appeared as a soloist with ensembles such as the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, I Musici de Montreal, Seoul Chamber Ensemble, and the Budpapest Symphony Orchestra.
As an active chamber musician, Ms. Kim has been invited to perform in Festival dei Due Mondi in Italy, Kissinger Sommer in Germany, MoMA Summergarden Concert Series, La Jolla Summerfest, and Sangat Chamber Music Festival in India, collaborating with artists such as Cho Liang Lin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Lynn Harrell, and Roberto Diaz. She is also the founder and artistic director of Yeosu International Music Festival & Ensemble in South Korea since 2017.
At the age of 24, Ms. Kim was appointed as a concertmaster of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland, where she played until 2013, and has been a guest concertmaster with Bern Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, and as guest associate concertmaster with Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra SWR, the Munich Radio Orchestra.
Ms. Kim was born in Yeosu, South Korea and spent her childhood and educational years in America. She was accepted to the Juilliard School at the age of 16 to the Bachelor of Music Degree Program, and has received both Bachelor and Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School with Cho-Liang Lin and Naoko Tanaka. She has also worked with Hyo Kang and Donald Weilerstein. In May 2016, she received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and has also worked with Krzysztof Wegrzyn at Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover as part of the prestigious Solo Klasse program. In 2014 she joined the faculty of Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover.
Her Debut CD recorded in Leipzig Gewandhaus was released worldwide in 2018 under Genuin Classics to critical acclaim.
Wayne Lin
Violin
Chinese-American violinist, Wayne Lin, is the Associate Concertmaster of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and has been acting as Concertmaster since 2016. As a member of the SPO since 2008, he has performed multiple tours throughout Europe, Asia, and America, and made successful recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon label. On top of his duties with the SPO, Mr. Lin has also received recognition for his work as a soloist and chamber musician. In addition to regular solo performances with the SPO, Mr. Lin has garnered acclaim as a soloist with the orchestras of Milwaukee, Green Bay, and Fox Valley in America, as well as the Chengdu Symphony in China, the Sudecka Philharmonic in Poland, and the Martinu and Hradec Králové Philharmonics in the Czech Republic. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Lin has performed frequently on the SPO’s chamber music series, and is a member of the Seoul String Quartet, Felix Trio, and the chamber ensemble, PACE. He has also been a performing artist at the Pyeongchang Music Festival and the Seoul Spring Festival. When he’s not performing, Mr. Lin greatly enjoys teaching and has been an instructor at the Korea National University of the Arts, teaching orchestral studies and chamber music.Prior to his arrival in Seoul, Mr. Lin served as Concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony during the 2007-2008 season and was also a member of the well-renowned Sejong Soloists. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the Juilliard School, as a student of Glenn Dicterow, and then went on to complete his Master's degree and Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music, under the tutelage of Peter Oundjian. During his studies at Juilliard and Yale, he frequently served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and Yale Philharmonia, as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. Other teachers he has studied with include, Ani Kavafian, Frank Almond, Michael Gilbert, and Soovin Kim. Mr. Lin plays on a 1779 J.B. Guadagnini violin.
Shih-Kai Lin
Artistic Director, Tonebank International Music Academy and Festival
Violin
“His interpretation was notable for a keen understanding of the emotional and structural shape of the music… His playing breathed with intensity, drama and solitude.” Houston Chronicle
Shih-Kai Lin is a multi-faceted violinist constantly seeking ways to communicate with audiences through music. Mr. Lin’s desire to extend the borders of classical music has allowed him to explore music that speaks to his heart and to share his music with audiences in various settings.
As an active performer, Mr. Lin has toured internationally as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral member, and has presented recitals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, and the United States. Among the most recent engagements as a soloist, Mr. Lin has performed at the Taiwan Presidential Concert, and appeared with the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony, Houston Symphony, Quincy Symphony, and the World Civic Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Lin has collaborated with such renowned artists as Paul Biss, Martha Katz, Cho-Liang Lin, Jacques Loussier, and the International Sejong Soloists. Mr. Lin has also participated and performed at prestigious festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival, and the La Jolla SummerFest.
In addition to performing standard classical music repertoire, Mr. Lin also enjoys creative collaborations with performers and musicians of other genres. Mr. Lin has performed with Jazz pianist Jacques Loussier and the modern dance company Rioult. He can also be heard on the movie sound tracks of Stand Up(2009) and Jump Ashin(2011). Most recently, Mr. Lin joined forces with contemporary improvisation musicians to produce a concert at Jordan Hall in Boston.
Shih-Kai Lin is a firm believer in music education and is committed to bringing music to venues outside of traditional concert halls. To that end, Mr. Lin has organized programs that regularly brings virtuoso musicians like himself to public schools, senior centers, and hospitals where they perform and offer master classes.
Mr. Lin attended Walnut Hill School of the Arts in Natick, Massachusetts, where he studied with Marylou Speaker Churchill. He graduated from Walnut Hill School with honors and was the recipient of the Frances B. Lanier award for the most outstanding senior performer from the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School. In 2006 Mr. Lin was the first prize and the audience choice award winner of the Houston Symphony’s International Ima Hogg Competition.
Mr. Lin was born in Taiwan and started his musical studies at the age of four. He holds both Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied under Naoko Tanaka and Cho-Liang Lin. While studying at the Juilliard School, he served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra. Shih-Kai Lin holds a doctoral degree of Musical Arts from the New England Conservatory where he studied with Miriam Fried. During the summer, he has taught at the Atlantic Music Festival and Muse and Youth International Music Festival.
Mr. Lin is the artistic director of the Tonebank International Music Academy and Festival, and he is currently on the violin faculty at the University of Taipei and National Taiwan Normal University.
Giora Schmidt
Violin
Praised by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as "impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm," violinist Giora Schmidt has appeared as soloist with many prominent symphony orchestras around the globe including Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Canada’s National Arts Centre, Toronto, Vancouver and the Israel Philharmonic.
In recital and chamber music, Giora has performed at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, San Francisco Performances, the Louvre Museum in Paris, and Tokyo's Musashino Cultural Hall. Festival appearances include the Ravinia Festival, the Santa Fe and Montreal Chamber Music Festivals, Bard Music Festival, Scotia Festival of Music and Music Academy of the West. He has collaborated with eminent musicians including Yefim Bronfman, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Ralph Kirshbaum and Michael Tree.
Born in Philadelphia to professional musicians from Israel, Giora began playing the violin at the age of four. A graduate of the Juilliard School, his teachers have included Geoffrey Michaels, Patinka Kopec, Dorothy DeLay and Itzhak Perlman; with additional guidance from Pinchas Zukerman. Committed to education and sharing his passion for music, Giora was on the faculty of the Juilliard School, the Perlman Music Program and recently appointed Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. Through technology and social media, he continues to find new ways of reaching young violinists and music lovers around the world.
He is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, The Classical Recording Foundation's Samuel Sanders award, and was a Starling Fellow at the Juilliard School.Giora plays a c. 1830 violin by Giuseppe Rocca and strings kindly sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld, Vienna.
Piano
Faculty&Artists
arranged in the alphabetical order
ANDREI BAUMANN
Piano
An active soloist, chamber musician, Andrei Baumann has performed extensively in the USA, Europe, Canada and Venezuela. As winner of the 2009 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, he performed with the quartet in Jordan Hall on January 29th, 2009. His Carnegie Hall debut at Weill Recital Hall occurred in May 2008 with violinist Lily Francis as part of the Distinctive Debuts series. Other notable performances include a solo recital on the Sundays Live Concert Series at Los Angeles County Arts Museum which was broadcast by KCSN, 88.5 FM, solo recitals at the Crocker Art Museum Classical Music Series in California, performances at Caramoor Festival and with Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program. Andrei has performed in masterclasses for such distinguished artists as Elisso Wirssaladze, Pavel Gililov, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank and Marc Durand. Among the numerous festivals he has participated in are Corsi in Sermoneta, Italy; Ost-West Musikfest in Krems, Austria; Internationaler Kammermusikkurs in Böhlen, Germany; Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland; Banff Centre for the Arts and Orford Arts Centre in Canada; and in the USA, Aspen Music Festival, Perlman Music Program.
Recent performances have included a Mothers Day performance (2017) of the Grieg Piano Concerto with Peter Jaffe and the Auburn Symphony, and numerous chamber music performances with cellist Susan Lamb Cook and friends. Mr. Baumann is a frequent performer at the Mondavi Center, Harris Center, Crocker Art Museum and others venues in Northern California. He also recently released a second album Miroirs, which includes works by Bach, Debussy and Ravel.
Mr. Baumann has a Masters of Music in Piano Performance from New England Conservatory in Boston, a Künstlerischer Ausbildung Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany, and a Bachelor of Music degree at the Glenn Gould School of The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. His most influential teachers have been Andre Laplante, Jamie Saltman and Vivian Hornik Weilerstein.
Mr. Baumann has been a piano faculty member at the Rivers School Conservatory in Weston, MA. He is also Head of the Piano Department at Camp Encore/Coda in Sweden, Maine, and piano faculty at the Sacramento Youth Symphony Summer Chamber Music Workshop. Additionally, he has been a jury member at the A. Ramon Rivera Piano Competition at Rivers School Conservatory in Weston.
Zsolt Bognar
Piano
Pianist, host, and author Zsolt Bognár holds a meteoric, multi-dimensional career that re-defines what it means to be a musician in the 21st century.
Known to many around the globe in musical and cultural circles, Mr. Bognár is host of the award-winning film series Living the Classical Life. As concert pianist, he frequently gives inspiring performances in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Zsolt Bognár’s acclaimed work for Living the Classical Lifeseeks to highlight the inner world, artistic output, and vigorous process of famous performers and musical personalities including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Joyce DiDonato, Yuja Wang, Yefim Bronfman, Daniil Trifonov, Joshua Bell, John Corigliano, Susan Graham, and many more. With over 60 episodes, the show continues to grow and feature more outstanding artists discussing the rarely heard stories of how they became who they are today.
A protégé of Deutsche Grammophon recording artist and distinguished teacher Sergei Babayan, Mr. Bognár has toured as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. He has appeared at New York’s Lincoln Center and 92nd Street Y, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. With notable performances in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Chicago, and Los Angeles, he has appeared on many NPR programs including full-length recital programs, interviews, poetry readings, and discussions of historical recordings and performers.
Zsolt Bognár’s debut album Franz & Franzwas recorded in Berlin with Grammy-winning producer Philipp Nedel. It has been heralded by international press for the benchmark status in solo works by Schubert and Liszt.
Especially praised for his concert work in Germanic, Russian, and Romantic repertoire, he often chooses to highlight lesser-known masterpieces by the great composers with themed programs exploring links between composers and aesthetic trends, often giving his own pre-concert lectures.
Mr. Bognár’s speaking engagementsexploring music and the lives of the composers seek to reach new audiences. His two-time TEDMED presentations in San Francisco were broadcast live in 164 countries to 172,000 people.
Zsolt Bognár won the prestigious Artist Presentation Society Auditions (2009) and was later featured in two appearances at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago. In 2012, he made his Berlin sold-out debut at Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt for the Young Euro Classic festival. The recipient of an International Festival Society Grant, his work as performer and author have been featured in International Piano, The Examiner, The Washington Post, and on his blog where he wrote a multi-part, behind-the-scenes portrait of Martha Argerich and Sergei Babayan.
Liang Fang, Chang
PIANO
Pianist Liang-Fang Chang has appeared in numerous solo recitals in the United States, Thailand, and her homeland Taiwan.
During the years of her doctoral studies at the University of Iowa, she was the recipient of the UI Graduate College Iowa Performance Fellowship and won the UI Concerto Competition with Robert Schumann's Piano Concerto. In addition to being a piano teaching assistant at the University, Dr. Chang also served as a research assistant at the UI prestigious and well-known Center for New Music. As an active pianist in this position she recorded many contemporary works for the Center, and the CD was internationally released in 2007 on the Albany label commemorating the Center’s 40th Anniversary.
In addition to being a successful solo pianist, Chang's musicianship has also been deeply enhanced by extensive experiences as a chamber musician. Her chamber music concerts have brought her performing throughout Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Connecticut. As the pianist for the Taipei Success Children's Choir, she has performed in major cities, such as Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing, Tianjing, Linz, Los Angeles, and Taipei.
A native of Taiwan, Chang began to study piano at the age of four. She earned her Bachelor of Music with the highest honors from the Fu-Jen University (Taiwan) and her Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Iowa. Her Doctoral Dissertation The Orchestral Elements in Franz Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy-with implications for piano performance was published by the University of Iowa Press in 2011. Dr. Chang is also an honorary member of The Phi Tau Phi Scholastic Honor Society. Her teachers have included Sheau-Ping Hu, Daniel Shapiro, and Uriel Tsachor.
Dr. Chang is also a successful private studio teacher. Recent success of two of her students led them to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York in March 2019.
Currently, Dr. Chang lives with her family in Weston, Connecticut. She is an adjunct faculty in both the Department of Music and Kathwari Honors Program at Western Connecticut State University.
Hitomi Koyama
Piano
Born in Tokyo, Japan, Hitomi Koyama has won prizes in consecutive years at Dichler Competition held in Vienna, Austria and also has received Leni Fe Bland Music Awards. As a recitalist and a chamber musician, she has performed in the US, Austria, Czech Republic, and Japan.
Along with her passion for performance, she is an active teacher at both collegiate and preparatory institutions. She served as Adjunct Professor of Piano at CCM, Wittenberg University and piano faculty at CCM Preparatory Department. She gave recitals and master classes at Ohio Northern University, Ohio University, Providence College, Western Kentucky University and Wright State University. Her students have won scholarships, national and international competitions and have been pursuing further performance studies at major conservatories and universities in the U.S. She is a guest artist faculty at Atlantic Music Festival in Maine and a piano faculty at Shinshu Art Camp in Nagano, Japan. She is currently teaching at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and New Amsterdam Conservatory in New York.
Koyama has earned degrees from the Juilliard School, Mannes College, and University for Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Currently, she is pursuing her doctoral degree at College-Conservatory of Music University of Cincinnati. Her significant mentors include Martin Canin, Victor Rosenbaum, Peter Efler, and Eugene Pridonoff.
Denys Proshayev
Piano
“Sound magician”, “brilliant virtuoso of the highest level” and “Russian Eusebius” are some of the attributes the music critics like to describe Denys Proshayev’s piano playing.
Born in Brest, he studied with Prof. Vladimir Krainev, one of the best students of Heinrich Neuhaus, at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. He also worked as Mr. Krainev’s assistant over a decade while undertaking conducting studies with Prof. Eiji Oue.
After extensive success in international competitions, among them Clara Haskil in Vevey, “Vladimir Horowitz in Memoriam” in Kiev, European Piano Competition in Bremen, his international breakthrough came with the win of the first prize at the International Competition ARD in Munich in 2002. Some additional prizes went on confirming the remarkable value of the artist. Among them the coveted Soloist Prize of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern International Festival, just as Julia Fisher, Daniel Müller- Schott and Daniel Hope.
Proshayev has collaborated with numerous wellknown orchestras, such as the Munich and Czech Philharmonic, Danish National Radio Orchestra, Radio Orchestras of Munich, Berlin, Cologne, Leipzig, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hannover, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orquestra Sinfonica de Barcelona, St. Petersburg and Osaka Philharmonic. The pianist performed with a number of internationaly reknown conductors, among them Gerd Albrecht, John Neal Axelrod, Daniel Inbal, Alexander Dmitriev, Christopher Hogwood, Marek Janowski, Kirill Karabyts, Roman Kofman, Andrea Marcon, Eiji Oue, Michael Sanderling, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Stefan Solyom, Osmo Vänskä and appeares regularly in major concerts venues such as the Herkulessaal in Munich, Salzburger Mozarteum, Konzerthaus Berlin, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Baden-Badener Festspielhaus, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Mercatorhalle Duisburg, in Philharmonic Halls of Cologne, Warsaw, St. Petersburg and Kiev.
Proshayev is a dedicated chamber musician and versatile artist, working on new forms and projects connecting different fields of Art. Some of his chamber music partners were Veronika Eberle, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott and the Quarteto Casals. In 2011, following the invitation of Martin Schläpfer, he became part of the highly acclaimed project “b. 10” of the Ballet am Rhein in Düsseldorf, performing Alfred Schnittke’s concerto for piano and strings. A highly successful collaboration with Martin Schläpfer and the Ballett am Rhein continued in recent productions on piano works of J.S. Bach, L. van Beethoven, F. Liszt and A.N. Scriabin, including performances in Düsseldorf, Duisburg and at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele.
Besides, Denys Proshayev devotes himself passionately to conducting, appearing as guest conductor with the Prussian Chamber Orchestra and the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra of Berlin, Osnabrücker Sinfonieorchester, National Philharmonic of Ukraine and Macedonian Philharmonic orchestras. Between 2011 and 2015 he held a position of the Lviv’s Philharmonic Orchestra Principal Guest Conductor. Proshayev‘s operatic repertoire includes W.A.Mozart‘s „The magic flute“, P.I.Tchaikovsky‘s „Pique Dame“, R.Wagner‘s „Lohengrin“, R.Strauss‘s „Elektra“, G.Verdi‘s „Rigoletto“ and „Simon Boccanegra“.
His recording of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s keyboard works, released in 2006 by Sony/BMG and highly praised by the press and public, was chosen by “Die Zeit” Edition as one of the best classic CDs, next to Evgeny Kissin, Midori and Mariss Janson. In 2013 Proshayev released his first recording by Piano Classics dedicated to Robert Schumann with “Papillons “, “Davidsbündlertänze” and “Arabeske” followed by the recording in 2014 dedicated to Alfred Schnittke with Concerto for piano and strings, “5 Aphorisms” and “Gogol Suite” for two pianos with Nadia Mokhtari which were warmly acclaimed a.o. by “The Guardian”, „Süddeutsche Zeitung” and Bayerischer Rundfunk. In 2019 the new recording will be released, including the world premiered „Suite in old style“ by Alfred Schnittke in a transcription for piano four hands by Alexander Shchetynsky with young french pianist Nadia Mokhtari, wich has been published by Hans Sikorski Edition in Hamburg at the end of 2017.
Among artist’s recent highlights and upcoming exciting projects are appearances with Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Kiev Chamber Orchestra, Staatsorchester Mainz, Ensemble Resonanz, Duisburger Philharmoniker, Züricher Kammerorchester, Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Ukrainian National Philharmonic, a number of recitals in Europe, among others in Berlin, St.Petersburg, Moscow, Vienna, München, Lyon and Kiev.
2018 Denys Proshayev became an artistic director of the Musikfest Wasserschloss Gesmold, the first and only international piano festival in Lower Saxony (Germany) and started his collaboration with the Royal Conservatoire The Hague as a visiting professor.
Hsuan Lara Lo
Artistic Administrator
PIANO
Hailed by The China Times for her eloquent musicianship, and by the world-renowned pianist and educator Dmitri Bashkirov as “an exuberant pianist with impeccable technique.” Pianist Hsuan Lara Lo is a highly acclaimed international soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. Born into a musical family in Taiwan, Ms. Lo began studying the piano with her mother at the age of 3. She subsequently went on to study at the Hannover University of Music, Drama, and Media in Germany, graduating with a Masters degree in both piano performance and music education. Ms. Lo has studied with Joan Lin, Alexander Song, and Einar Steen-Nokleberg and has performed in masterclasses for Boris Berman, Dmitri Bashkirov, Andrzej Jasinski, Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, Hans Leygraf, Vitaly Margulis, Hiroko Nakamura, Sergio Perticaroli, Jacques Rouvier, Paul Badura-Skoda, and Oxana Yablonskaya.
Ms. Lo is the recipient of several awards from several international competitions, including the International Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition and the Taiwan National Piano Competitions; and she has been invited to perform at esteemed music festivals all over the world such as The International Salzburg Music Festival, The International Shanghai Piano Festival, and The 9th Hamamatsu International Piano Academy.
In addition to performing, Ms. Lo is an accomplished educator with a special interest in the relationship between music education and the brain's potential. She published her master's thesis, Mental Training for Musicians, under the guidance of renowned German Neurologist Dr. Eckart Altenmüller; and she is an expert in Steiner-Waldorf Education, a form of pedagogy that sees creativity and the development of imagination as integral to each child's learning.
Ms. Lo was a teacher at the highly regarded music school Braunschweig Melodia in Germany . In 2011, she returned to Taiwan where she curently resides and teaches.
Cello
Faculty&Artists
arranged in the alphabetical order
Yves Dharamraj
Cello
Captivating his audiences with a “primer of technical feats” (New York Sun), and his warm, lush tone
“that might be described as something akin to rich old wood” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), YVES DHARAMRAJ has earned a worldwide reputation as a dynamic cellist who blends an immaculate command of the instrument with deep musical understanding to express his fresh and elegant interpretations.
As soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and teaching artist, the Franco-American cellist enjoys a multifaceted career that takes him to the major stages of the United States and abroad, including appearances at Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center (New York); the Kennedy Center (DC); Orchestra Hall, Ravinia Festival, and Chicago Cultural Center (Chicago); Disney Hall (LA); National Arts Center (Ottawa); Berliner Festspiele; Téatro Nacional (Dominican Republic); Panama Jazz Festival; and the Thailand National Cultural Center (Bangkok).
A top prize winner in the Ima Hogg, Irving M. Klein, Florida Orchestra, Juilliard, and ASTA competitions,
Dharamraj has appeared with the orchestras of Houston, Green Bay, Edmonton, Florida, Dominican Republic, and Juilliard, with which he performed William Schuman’s A Song of Orpheus at David Geffen (Avery Fisher) Hall as part of the Juilliard School’s Centennial Celebration.
Dharamraj is equally in demand as a chamber musician and has collaborated with artists including Sir Simon Rattle, Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Christian Tetzlaff, Cho-Liang Lin, Gilbert Kalish, Ralph Kirshbaum, Mischa Dichter, Isabel Leonard, and members of the Emerson, Cleveland, Guarneri, and Orion Quartets.
As an artist also dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, Dharamraj is a founding member of the genre-defying Bohemian Trio and indulges in the avant-garde as cellist of Ne(x)tworks. He followed his passion for teaching artistry, arts advocacy, and engaging new audiences as a fellow of Ensemble Connect (formerly ACJW), a musical initiative between Carnegie Hall, Juilliard, the Weill Music Institute, and the New York City Department of Education. He continues community engagement as a member of Decoda, the official affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall, and co-founded New Docta International Music Festival in Cordoba, Argentina in 2013 to mentor and nurture Latin American talent.
Dr. Dharamraj joined the faculty of Vassar College in 2018. He was a pupil of Aldo Parisot at Yale University where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History (Medieval Mediterranean Studies), a Master of Music, and an Artist Diploma. He further studied in Joel Krosnick and Darrett Adkins’s studio at the Juilliard School where he earned his Doctor of Musical Arts degree and served as teaching assistant to Mr. Krosnick from 2006 to 2009. He has also worked with Paul Katz at the New England Conservatory. He plays an 1842 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume cello. In his leisure time, he loves to learn about and taste the great wines of Burgundy and Bordeaux, and is a zealous supporter of the Chicago Cubs, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and Arsenal FC.
Adrienne Taylor
Cello
Adrienne Taylor has performed internationally as well as in major U.S. concert halls, including the New World Center in Miami Beach, the Harris Theatre in Chicago and Carnegie Hall. Formerly assistant principal cello of Portugal’s Orquestra do Norte, Adrienne has also performed as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe and in Japan. Adrienne was cellist of the Boston Public Quartet (2010-2012), and has collaborated in performances with innovative chamber ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, the Sphinx Virtuosi, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, and with artists Emanuel Ax, Johnny Gandelsman, Roger Tapping, and others. Adrienne draws inspiration from collaboration with other artists, including work with composers and singer-songwriters as well as work in film, theater and dance. Recent collaborations include Festival Ballet Providence, Island Moving Company and Trinity Repertory Company. She performs with and is Musical Director of Doppelgänger Dance Collective, a contemporary dance company co-founded and directed by Danielle Davidson and Shura Baryshnikov. Adrienne is featured on the album Kilimanjaro, a collection of music by singer-songwriter Benvindo Cruz, who was nominated for best composer by the Cape Verde Music Awards for that album. Adrienne particularly enjoys working with composers, and has premiered chamber music works by Jessie Montgomery, Kareem Roustom and Ken Ueno. Adrienne also writes her own music for solo cello, and she released her debut album, SoLa, in 2018.
Adrienne holds a Bachelor of Music degree and Performer Diploma from Indiana University, where she studied with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and János Starker, and she earned a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University as a student of Hans Jørgen Jensen. Adrienne was one of 50 musicians worldwide selected to be a Sistema Fellow at New England Conservatory, where she studied Venezuela’s renowned youth orchestra and social action program, El Sistema. Adrienne went on to start the Daily Orchestra Program at Community MusicWorks, which combines core principles of Community MusicWorks with ideas and practices from El Sistema.
Adrienne is currently a Resident Musician and Director of the Daily Orchestra Program at Community MusicWorks, Rhode Island’s acclaimed urban chamber music residency program, where she teaches cello and performs as a member of the MusicWorks Collective.
Matthew Zalkind
Cello
Praised for his “impressive refinement, eloquent phrasing, and singing tone” by The New York Times, American cellist Matthew Zalkind has performed throughout the United States and abroad as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician.
As a soloist, Mr. Zalkind has performed concerti with such organizations as the, the Albany Symphony, the Hongzhou Philharmonic, Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the Utah Symphony, the Tongyeong International Music Festival Orchestra, the Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra and the Juilliard Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Zalkind has performed concerti with conductors Ludovic Morlot, Thierry Fischer, Giancarlo Guerrero, David Alan Miller and several others.
Mr. Zalkind has given recitals at many notable locations around the US and abroad, including the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Gardner Hall in Salt Lake City, UT, the Moscow Conservatory in Moscow, Russia, The Dame Myra Hess series in Chicago, The Juilliard School in New York, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, DC and the Beijing Concert Hall in Beijing, China.
An active chamber musician, Mr. Zalkind has participated in numerous music festivals, including Marlboro and “Musicians from Marlboro” tours, Music from Angel Fire, Olympic Music Festival, Innsbrook Institute, Twickenham Festival, and Ravinia’s “Steans Institute.” Mr. Zalkind has performed chamber music at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, New York’s Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As a former member of the acclaimed Harlem String Quartet, Mr. Zalkind toured internationally with jazz legends Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea and Gary Burton.
Mr. Zalkind is the Co-Artistic Director of the Denver Chamber Music Festival with his partner Alice Yoo. The inaugural festival will take place in 2019. For more information please visit denverchambermusicfestival.org.
Mr. Zalkind was awarded First Prize in the Washington International Competition, as well as top prizes in the Beijing International Cello Competition, Korea’s Isang Yun Gyeongnam International Competition and the Juilliard School Competition. He was one of the eight concerto semi-finalists in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Mr. Zalkind has a strong interest in teaching and outreach. He was awarded a Gluck Community Service Fellowship at The Juilliard School for four years, performing concerts at treatment facilities throughout the five boroughs of New York City. Mr. Zalkind holds a teaching position at the University of Denver’s Lamont School of Music.
A Salt Lake City native, Mr. Zalkind’s primary mentors included Richard Hoyt, Pegsoon Whang, Timothy Eddy, Richard Aaron, Lawrence Lesser, and Hans Jørgen Jensen. Mr. Zalkind has Bachelors and Masters degrees from Juilliard, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Michigan. Mr. Zalkind plays on a rare Italian cello made by Florentine Maker Luigi Piatellini in 1760, and a bow by John Dodd.
Alexander Technique
Faculty
Lori Schiff
Professor of The Alexander Technique
at The Juilliard School
Ms. Schiff is a full time professor of The Alexander Technique at The Juilliard School and a guest teaching artist for various schools and organizations nationally and internationally. She has been a faculty member of the Juilliard School since 1991 and was in residence at The Aspen Music Festival and School from 1993 - 2015.
Beginning in September of 2018, Ms. Schiff begins an additional role as Associate Director of Teacher Training at The Riverside Initiative for the Alexander Technique in New York City. She joined the Teacher Training Faculty in September of 2017 and continues currently as a Senior Faculty member.
Ms. Schiff qualified as a Teacher of the Alexander Technique at ACAT-New York in 1987 and did postgraduate training with Walter and Dilys Carrington at the Constructive Teaching Centre in London.
She is a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music in Trumpet Performance and has her Masters degree in Music from the Manhattan School of Music.
She served as the Alexander Technique Teacher for the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program, and at the 92nd Street Y in New York City. She also served on the senior faculty of the American Center for the Alexander Technique's Teacher Certification Program.
She has been a guest teaching artist at institutions including the University of Maryland Opera Studio, The New World Symphony, The U.S. Army Field Band and the U.S. Army Soldier's Chorus, The U.S. Military Academy Band at West Point, The San Diego Symphony, and The Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, Germany, and the National Youth Orchestra of China.
She has presented Master Classes at institutions including The Metropolitan Opera, The Juilliard School, Opera America, The Academy (ACJW) at Carnegie Hall, Manhattan School of Music, Fort Meade, West Point, The Special Music School in New York, Maryland Classic Youth Orchestras, The National Orchestral Institute, The Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra and The New York Youth Symphony, Theater Aspen, The Aspen Club, and The American Center for the Alexander Technique.
In 2013, she assisted in organizing and taught the Alexander Technique for Anna Deavere Smith's Acting and Empathy course in San Francisco. She returned to San Francisco in 2014 to work with Ms. Smith's course, Personal Narratives: Global Identities.
Ms. Schiff is a recognized senior teacher of the Alexander Technique by the American Society for the Alexander Technique and has presented master classes at the AmSAT Annual Meetings in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, Las Vegas , New York City Boston and Minneapolis. She produced AmSAT's 25th Anniversary Annual Meeting in New York, the largest and most successful gathering of Alexander Technique Teachers in its history.
In 2011 she was a guest lecturer on teaching the Alexander Technique in schools of music for The International Congress for the Alexander Technique in Lugano, Switzerland.
Ms. Schiff served on the Board of Directors of the Aspen Music Festival and School as Chair of the Music Committee for nine years and was President and Chairman of the Board of The American Center for the Alexander Technique for five years.
She is currently serving on the Board of Directors of The American Society for the Alexander Technique.
Ms. Schiff has a private Alexander Technique practice in NYC. She is the founding director of Flight Feather Productions, LLC.,an organization for creating and supporting uplifting educational experiences for performers and those who perform. With composer Lance Horne, she is the Co –Director of Creativity Lab, a program for inspiring community and collaboration through collective creativity.
As a committed recreational runner, she has completed four marathons, several half marathons, and countless 10ks, 5 Milers, 4 Milers, and 5ks.
Bandoneon
Tango Chamber
Faculty&Artists
arranged in the alphabetical order
Juanjo Mosalini
Bandoneon
Juanjo Mosalini is an internationally renowned bandoneon performer, composer, and professor. After first learning to play the bandoneon from his father, the Argentinian Tango music legend, Juan Jose Mosalini, Mr. Mosalini studied with piano and harmony teacher Gustav Beytelmann, before launching his own international career at the age of 18. One of the few bandoneon players in the world who performs regularly as a soloist, Mr. Mosalini has appeared with the Paris Philharmonic, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Rotterdam Philharmonic and in distinguished international venues like the Barbican Centre of London, the Teatro Massimo of Palermo, the Giuseppe Verdi auditorium in Milan, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the ancient theaters of Athens and the Roman Theater of Orange, the Mozart-Saal in Vienna, and the Salle Gaveau in Paris. He has also worked with other artists including Toots Thielemans, Mino Cinelu, Gotan Project, the Cirque du Soleil, Catherine Lara, Julien Clerc, Eli Medeiros, Juliette, I Mouvrini, and Julia Miguenes. As a performer or composer or both, Mr. Mosalini has contributed to various films scores like Wings of Courage, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud; Léon, directed by Luc Besson; and Jeanne and the Perfect Guy, directed by Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau.
During a career spanning three decades, Mr. Mosalini has created, performed and recorded with several ensembles. With guitarist Vincente Bögeholz, Mr. Mosalini founded the Bögeholz Mosalini Duo that fused together the digital world, electronic music, and the music of jazz bassist Olivier Sens. Mr. Mosalini also founded the Mosalini Teruggi Cuarteto with bass player and composer Leonardo Teruggi, pianist Romain Descharmes and violinist Sébastien Surel.
Mr. Mosalini currently teaches and heads Europe’s largest bandoneon program at Regional Conservatory of Gennevilliers outside of Paris. He is regularly invited to be an artist-in-residence or to teach master classes in locations as varied as Seoul, Korea and Sardinia, Italy. Mr. Mosalini is a prolific recording artist, his most recent albums include Delta y Mar (Bögeholz Mosalini, 2016), Discrete Time (Duo Mosalini Senso, 2015), and Tango Hoy (Mosalini Teruggi Cuarteto, 2014)
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