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Dillon Scott attends the Curtis Institute of Music where he holds the Mark. E. Rubenstein Fellowship and studies with Edward Gazouleas and Roberto Diaz. Dillon was a finalist in both the junior and senior divisions of the Sphinx Competition and was awarded first place at the Nelly Berman Young Classical Virtuosos of Tomorrow. He was also featured on NPR’s From the Top. Dillon has performed as a soloist with the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra orchestras and as soloist at the Kimmel Center and Carnegie Hall. He performs frequently at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. As a supporter of contemporary and underrepresented voices, he has championed the Viola Concerto by Roberto Sierra and the Viola Sonata and String Quartet No.1 by George Walker. In past summers, he attended the Perlman Music Program, Kneisel Hall, the Sphinx Performance Academy, and the Dali Quartet International Music Festival.
Ayano Nakamura is currently earning a Master’s degree at the Yale School of Music where she studies with Ettore Causa. She recently received a Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory, studying with Martha Katz and Mai Motobuchi, and has attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop and Kneisel Hall Young Artist Chamber Music Program among others. She recently performed with A Far Cry Chamber Ensemble and Nobuko Imai’s celebration concert in Japan.
Laura Liu, a native of Miami, Florida, currently lives in New York City where she studies with Cynthia Phelps and Misha Amory. Last summer, she took part in the Olympic Music Festival Fellowship, Music@Menlo’s International Performer’s Program and Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Workshop. She previously attended Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, Music Academy of the West, and Heifetz International Music Institute. Laura made her Casals Forum debut, performing in recital at the Kronberg Festival Masterclasses. This past season she received an Honorary Mention and the Pirastro Prize for outstanding young talent at the Third Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition. She recently earned her Bachelor of Music, and is now pursuing her Master’s as a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School.
Angel S. Wang is a student at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, studying under Professor Natalia Trull. He recently achieved Second Prize and Silver Medal at the XVII International Tchaikovsky Competition, along with winning other international competitions such as the 63rd International Piano Competition ‘Premio Jaen’, the International Rachmaninoff Piano Competition, and the 21st International Piano Competition ‘Composers of Spain’. Angel has performed with orchestras including the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra, under conductors like Valery Gergiev and Alexey Rubin. He has performed at important venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, Musikverein, and in Moscow at both halls of the Moscow Conservatory, at the Mariinsky 2, and at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.
Swiss cellist Samuel Niederhauser was mentored by Matthias Walpen, Cliodhna Ni Aodain and Rebecca Firth before embarking on a bachelor’s degree at Zurich University of the Arts with Thomas Grossenbacher in 2016, graduating with honours in 2020. He then completed his training at the Musik-Akademie Basel with a soloist master’s degree under Thomas Demenga. Samuel receives further inspiration by regularly attending masterclasses with Frans Helmerson, David Geringas, Louise Hopkins, Jens-Peter Maintz and Troels Svane, among others. In addition to various First prizes at national and international competitions, he received the Guy Fallot Prize at the Concours de Genève in 2021, was laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2022 and won Third Prize at the Paulo Cello Competition in Helsinki in 2023. Samuel plays a cello by Carlo Giuseppe Testore from 1690 thanks to a generous loan.
Violist Ami-Louise Johnsson from Stockholm is currently studying at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with David Takeno, where she has been supported by the Anglo-Swedish Society since 2019. Ami-Louise won the 2020 Max and Peggy Morgan Viola Award at the Guildhall, was Second Prize and Special Award winner of the 2021 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition in Prague. She has also received a Junior award from the Hattori Foundation in London. Ami-Louise has attended chamber music festivals at Yellow Barn, IMS Prussia Cove, Festival Jong Talent Schiermonnikoog, and Valdres Sommersymfoni. Ami is a 2023 Drake Calleja Trust Scholar as well as being a recipient of the Countess of Munster Musical Trust. She was also awarded the Sigrid Paskell Scholarship 2023 in Performing Arts from SWEA International.
Dongyoung Jake Shim achieved international acclaim by winning top prizes at prestigious competitions, including the Stulberg International String Competition, International Mozart Competition, F. Kreisler International Violin Competition, and Irving M. Klein International String Competition. He was also recognised as a Laureate at the J.S. Bach Competition. With debut performances on three continents, Dongyoung has appeared at well-known venues like Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Alice Tully Hall. He has participated in chamber music festivals, including the Perlman Music Program and CMS of Lincoln Center’s Spring Festival, and has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. Currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the Curtis Institute of Music under the mentorship of Shmuel Ashkenasi and Ida Kavafian, Dongyoung plays the 1705 G. B. Rogeri violin on loan from the Sooyoung Art Trade. He previously studied with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory.
SongHa has performed as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including Lietuvos nacionalinis simfoninis orkestras, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, KBS Symphony, Daegu Symphony Orchestra, Gangnam Symphony Orchestras to name a few. She is a major prizewinner of international competitions, including the Montreal International Violin Competition, Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition, Premio Lipizer International Violin Competition, Berlin International Music Competition and Jeunesses Musicales International Violin Competition. This spring she was named Laureate of the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. SongHa has recently given solo performances at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, Maison Symphonique in Montreal, Seoul National Arts Center, and the Elbphilharmonie. She has also been featured in numerous live media, including BBC Radio 3, BBC Arts, Classic FM, and Medici.tv. She previously took part in the Verbier Festival Academy in 2018.
Maya Oganyan was born in Moscow and has lived and studied in Venice since 2011. She began studying the piano at age of 4 with Alexander Maykapar, professor at the Gnessin Music Academy in Moscow. In 2015 she entered the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, where she studied under the guidance of Massimo Somenzi. She has continued studies since 2022 in the class of Olaf John Laneri. The union of the Russian and Italian school are the key to Maya’s reading and interpretation of her repertoire. She is the winner of numerous national and international competitions and performs regularly as a soloist, chamber musician and with orchestras at important festivals.
Born in Moscow in 2003, Ekaterina Bonyushkina received her first piano lessons at the age of six. She has been
performing regularly as a soloist and in various chamber music formations since 2012.
In April 2014, at the age of 10, she won first prize at the 2nd International Youth Music Competition “CRESCENDO.GENEVE” in Geneva. A few weeks later, she played her first piano recital in Zürich. In the following years, she won prizes at multiple international competitions, notably, Jeune Chopin” competition in Valais, Geneva International Junior Piano Competition, Concours d’interprétation Musicale de Lausanne, the Grand Piano Competition in Moscow.
Ekaterina has performed with various orchestras: “Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra”, Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra, Ural Symphony Youth Orchestra, Svetlanov State Symphony Orchestra.
Her repertoire includes piano concertos by Tchaikovsky (No.1), Brahms (No.1,2), Beethoven (No.3,4,5), Rachmaninov (No.3), Saint-Saëns (No.2), Schumann, and others.
Ekaterina has been a guest in a number of international festivals: “Herbst in der Helferei”, where she performed as a soloist, with the festival orchestra, and in a duo with Gilad Karni (2015), Yuri Bashmet’s festival “Elba, Isola Musicale d’Europa” (2017), where she also received the “Prize of the year-2019”, Boris Berezovsky’s Festival in Tatarstan, Elabuga (2021), “Jeune Chopin” Festival in Cannes (2021), International A. Scriabin Festival in Moscow,(2022), “Aisa and friends” in Belgrade (2022), Puplinge Classique (2023) and “Primeurs musicales” in Geneva (2024).
In July 2024, Ekaterina was invited to take part in Verbier Festival’s Academy for emerging soloists, where she attended solo piano and chamber music masterclasses of J. Achucarro, K. Gerstein, N. Namoradze, A. Keller, and G. Takács-Nagy. She was there awarded the Tabor Foundation Award.
Apart from Verbier, at different times she has worked with Prof. Hamish Milne, Esther Yellin, Rena Shereshevskaya, Janina Fialkowska, Zlata Chochieva, Philippe Cassard.
Since 2014 Ekaterina has studied piano at the “Moscow Special Music School of Gnessin” with Evgeny Talisman and Boris Berezovsky. In September 2022, she enrolled at the Haute école de musique de Genève to complete the Bachelor piano course with Professor Nelson Goerner.