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American violist Matthew McDowell began music studies on the violin at age four. His teachers have included Ettore Causa, Gérard Caussé, and Ivan Vukčević. In 2021 he completed his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degrees in viola and violin at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music, graduating with the highest academic and artistic accolades. During this time, Matthew studied with Paul Coletti, Carol Rodland, Jeffrey Irvine, Csaba Erdelyi, Dr Susan Dubois, Sergiu Schwartz and Helen Callus. While studying at the International Menuhin Music Academy (Rolle), Matthew had the opportunity to play concerts across Europe. Matthew currently studies at the Yale School of Music.
Katie Liu is a Master of Musical Arts student at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Ettore Causa. She received her Master of Music degree at the Colburn School and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, concentrating in Operations Research and Financial Engineering with minors in Musical Performance and Computer Science. Katie picked up the viola and made her solo debut in 2019 with the Princeton University Orchestra. Aside from her musical pursuits, Katie has had corporate working experiences in asset management and fintech consulting and wrote her senior thesis on the intersection of classical music pattern recognition, machine learning, and neural networks. She is currently a section violist at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and was selected to compete in the Hindemith International Viola Competition (2021) and Tokyo International Viola Competition (2022).
Sumin Kim began playing the violin at age eight and made her solo debut at the Seoul Arts Center at age 11. Since then, she has performed many recitals and has won top prizes in several major national competitions including the Chunchu and Yewon Music Competitions (South Korea). She attended Yewon School and graduated with the highest honours in violin. She entered the Curtis Institute of Music as a Sandra G. and David G. Marshall Violin Fellow in 2017, where she studied with Aaron Rosand, Midori, Arnold Steinhardt and Shmuel Ashkenasi. As orchestral musicians, she has performed in the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, Symphony in C, and the New York String Orchestra under the direction of Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Osmo Vänska. Sumin is currently pursuing her master’s degree at the Juilliard School on the viola with Steven Tenenbom.
Claire Wells is the Mendelssohn-Prize First Prize and Commission Prize winner at the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Competition (2021). She was also a prizewinner at the Indianapolis and Mirecourt International Competitions, among others. Now studying at the Kronberg Academy with Mihaela Martin, Claire previously studied privately with Brian Lewis, Sandy Yamamoto and Emanuel Borok. In 2017, she attended the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she worked with Lutsia Ibragimova. Claire has performed with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Jalisco Philharmonic, the Shen Zhen Symphony Orchestra, the Nancy Lyric Symphony Orchestra and the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra, among others. A passionate chamber musician, she has worked alongside Nobuko Imai, Frans Helmerson, Christian Tetzlaff and Steven Isserlis, and has been coached by Ana Chumachenco, Boris Kuschnir, Andràs Schiff and Robert Levin. Claire Wells is an alumna of the Verbier Festival Academy (2023),
Mira Foron made her debut at age 14 at the Tonhalle Zürich, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto. She went on to represent Germany at the Eurovision Young Musicians competition in Edinburgh where she collaborated with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Thomas Dausgaard in the Finals. Mira has given recitals at the Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommerna and Copenhagen Summer Festival, and has performed at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus and Göteborgs Konserthus. Upon invitation of Anne Sophie Mutter, she joined ‘Mutter’s Virtuosi’ for performances at the Salzburger Festspiele and the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. Mira is a student of Julia Fischer at the Musikhochschule in Munich and holds a scholarship from the Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund and the Deutschen Stiftung Musikleben. Future engagements include concerts with the Dortmunder Philharmoniker and Staatsorchester Stuttgart.
Ilva Eigus started playing violin at age four with Liana Tretiakova at the Zakhar Bron School of Music in Zurich. She made her orchestral debut at age eight performing the Kabalevsky Violin Concerto. Since then, she has played as a soloist with Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Moscow Philharmonic and Novosibirsk Philharmonic, among others. She made her Tonhalle Zürich debut performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with the Prague Royal Philharmonic earlier this year. Other highlights include performances at the Trans-Siberian Art Festival, the Menton Music Festival, Septembre Musical in Montreux, at Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, and at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Ilva was awarded First Prize at the XXI International ‘Nutcracker’ Competition in Moscow (2020) and Second Prize at the Wieniawski-Lipinski Competition (Lublin) in 2021. She is a Pre-College student of the Zurich University of Arts and plays a 1707 Omobono Stradivari on generous loan from Stradivari Stiftung Habisreutinger.
Canadian violinist Gabrielle Després has garnered numerous awards, most recently winning First Prizes at the Juilliard Concerto Competition (2022) and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition (2020). She also earned Second Prize in the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, and the 2022 Washington International String Competition. As a soloist, Gabrielle has performed with the Juilliard Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Edmonton, and from 2021/22, has served as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music at Juilliard as a recipient of a Kovner Fellowship, where she studies with Catherine Cho and Donald Weilerstein. Her former teachers include Masao Kawasaki, Joseph Lin, Robert Uchida and James Keene. Gabrielle plays on a Zosimo Bergonzi violin, generously on loan from CANIMEX INC., Drummondville, Québec, Canada. She gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation in supporting her education and career development.
Hana Chang gave her first solo performance at the age seven with the New England Conservatory Baroque Chamber Orchestra and has recently appeared as a soloist with the Prague Radio Symphony, Czech Virtuosi, Hunan Symphony and Utah Symphony. She has performed at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Deer Valley Music Festival, Vevey Spring Classic Festival, Sion Festival, and International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, and is a laureate of the Yehudi Menuhin, Stuttgart, Stradivarius, and Prague Spring International Violin Competitions. Most recently, she was the youngest finalist and was awarded distinction at the Wieniawski International Violin Competition. Hana studies at the Kronberg Academy with Christian Tetzlaff, with the support of Nikolas Gruber-Patronat. She is also mentored by Ida Kavafian and Janine Jansen with whom she previously studied. Hana plays on a 1647 Nicolo Amati violin kindly on loan from the Rin Collection in Singapore.
In addition to winning First Prize and the Audience Award at the 2019 International Violin Competition of Leopold Mozart (Augsburg, Germany), Second Prize and Audience Award at the Cooper International Violin Competition (USA), and Gold Medals at both Fischoff and M-Prize Chamber Music Competitions (USA), Joshua Brown was a prizewinner at the 2022 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis. He has appeared with dozens of orchestras, including a performance with the Cleveland Orchestra which received glowing reviews, has performed in concert halls on three continents, and has been featured on both radio and television. Joshua earned his Bachelor of Music and is currently pursuing his Master of Music with Donald Weilerstein at New England Conservatory of Music. He previously studied with Almita and Roland Vamos. Joshua plays on a 1679 Pietro Guarneri violin on generous loan from the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Bangladeshi-American violinist Ayaan Ahmad began the violin at age four with Daniela Rubenstein. He has continued his studies with the late Jan Sloman at Cleveland Institute of Music, Ryan Meehan of the Calidore String Quartet, Donald Weilerstein and Li Lin. In 2021, Ayaan was accepted to the Perlman Music Program where he performed and worked with violinist Itzhak Perlman. A year later, at age 15, he made his orchestral debut with the Concord Orchestra (USA), playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Ayaan has gone on to perform as a soloist with numerous orchestras across New England, often a winner of young artist competitions, and was recently featured on National Public Radio (NPR)’s From the Top radio programme. He enjoys playing the guitar, ultimate frisbee, and is passionate about math and history.