Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio in E-flat major, Hob. XV:30
Clara Schumann: 3 Romances for Cello and Piano, Op. 22
Franz Schubert: Rondo for Violin and Piano, Op. 70
Claude Debussy: Piano Trio in G major, L. 5
Recent winner of the Adolfo Betti Prize, and Verdehr Trio Award, violinist Yip-Wai Chow is currently on the roster of Fermata Chamber Soloists and Musicus Soloist Hong Kong, and he is currently a candidate for the Advanced Diploma of the Eastman School of Music.
Yip-Wai has always been an avid chamber musician. He previously served as the violinist of the award-winning Cong Quartet (2020-2022), Montclaire String Quartet (2019 – 2020), and most recently the Klotski Trio of the Verdehr Trio Award Fellowship where he studied and performed selected pieces from the repertoire that the genre-setting Verdehr Trio commissioned.
Yip-Wai enjoys playing a diverse and ever-growing repertoire, ranging from Haydn string quartets to commissioned works by contemporary composers including Tod Machover, Caroline Shaw, and Kevin Puts. YipWai has also collaborated with artists from different genres to create cross-media performances – notable projects include Earshot (2021), Anti-playground (2021), and Shuffle Dimensions (2022).
Aside from Yip-Wai’s performing career, he also finds inspiration from sharing his musical journey as an Artist-in-Residence at universities, including the Chinese University of Hong Kong and West Virginia State University, where he had close interactions with students at a collegiate level, through chamber music masterclasses, collaborated performances, and also consultations on students’ compositions.
Besides pursuing chamber music, Yip-Wai also appeared as a soloist with the Eastman Philharmonia, Butler Philharmonic, and the Hong Kong Medical Association Orchestra. He has also served as a guest principal player in the Ohio Valley Symphony, Gustav Mahler Orchestra of Hong Kong, CODA Ensemble, and festival orchestras in Colorado College Music Festival, the Heifetz Institute, and Music Academy of the West.
Yip-Wai’s philosophy of music-making is heavily influenced by his present and former teachers, Robin Scott and Ayano Ninomiya, Charles Castleman members of Quatuor Danel, and Luc-Marie Aguera. His dedication to music is recognized and rewarded with prizes from numerous competitions including the Kreutzer Music Competition, French Music Competition, the MTNA National Competition, Brookline Concerto Competition, and the Japan-Hong Kong International Competition, awarded during his studies at the Netherlands String Quartet Academie (NSKA), and his pursuits of Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory and Bachelor’s degree at the Eastman School of Music.
Cellist Ayoun Alexandra Kim is a dynamic and captivating performer, renowned for her excellence in both chamber music and solo performances, all while actively promoting community engagement through her music.
In 2024, Kim took center stage alongside the Telegraph Quartet as a guest artist, performing the Fanny Mendelssohn String Quartet at the Rossmoor Creek Chamber Music Society’s 2024 season concert. She shared the stage with acclaimed artists Inon Banatan, Melissa White, and Julio Elizalde for the Chamber Music Tuesday series in 2023 in San Francisco. Notably, she collaborated with composer David Garner, a faculty member of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), to perform “Capriccio for Cello and Piano.”
Kim’s musicality has been recognized in esteemed competitions such as the Yamaha Young Performing Artist Competition, the Artist Presentation Society Competition, and the Musicians Club of Women Competition in 2022. She has been invited to perform at renowned music festivals worldwide, including the Norfolk Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Kneisel Hall, Orford Academy, Verão Classico, and Sommerakademie Mozarteum. Throughout her career, she has had the privilege of performing for esteemed musicians such as Laurence Lesser, Steven Doane, Myung-Wha Chung, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Maria Kliegel, Peter Ounjian, and the Brentano String Quartet.
In addition to her performance endeavors, Kim’s passion for community engagement and teaching led to her appointment to the junior faculty of the Vivace Music Foundation in 2022. She has also showcased her versatility as a principal cellist in the 2023 Spoleto Festival Orchestra.
Kim holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied under the mentorship of Natasha Brofsky and Astrid Schween. Currently, she is furthering her artistic journey by pursuing an Artist Diploma at the SFCM under the guidance of Jennifer Culp.
Pianist Jon Lee has thrilled audiences throughout the United States in venues including Symphony Hall in Boston, Bass Hall in Fort Worth, Abravanel Hall in Salt Lake City, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, and Shalin Liu Performance Center in Rockport, Massachusetts. He has performed as a soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony, Boston Pops Orchestra, and Utah Symphony.
A prizewinner of several competitions, Mr. Lee captured first prize at the Cliburn International Amateur Piano Competition, first prize at the San Diego International Piano Competition, first, audience, and best Liszt prizes at the Washington International Piano Artists Competition, second, audience, and best Baroque prizes at the Boston International Piano Competition, and gold medal, audience, and teacher prizes at the Seattle International Piano Competition.
Festival appearances include the Vivace! International Music Festival, AIM Paris, Amalfi Coast Piano Festival, PianoTexas, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet Chamber Music Seminar. Mr. Lee has worked with esteemed pedagogues Jerome Lowenthal, Leon Fleisher, Boris Slutsky, and Russell Sherman, and currently studies with Professor Yoshikazu Nagai.
Mr. Lee pursued a Master’s degree in computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after which he enjoyed a software engineering and management career. Recently he completed the Professional Studies Certificate program in Keyboard Performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Combining his interests in music and technology, Jon wrote MusicPodium, an app for iPad, to make piano score reading more portable.
