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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.
In 2022, Hans Christian Aavik was awarded First Prize at the Carl Nielsen International Competition and was recipient of the Usedom Prize (Usedom Festival, Germany). Following his success at the Carl Nielsen, he was invited to record his first orchestral album with Orchid Classics. Earlier this year, he was also featured together with pianist Karolina Aavik in the new Deutsche Grammophon series ‘Rising Stars’ on STAGE+. Hans Christian has studied at the Tallinn Music High School, the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts with Erik Schumann and the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität der Stadt Wien, with Julian Rachlin. He now studies at the Kronberg Academy, with the support of Dr Ratjen-Patronat. Hans Christian was previously a member of the Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra.
Australian violist Isabella Bignasca is completing a master’s degree with Paul Neubauer and Heidi Castleman at The Juilliard School, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. Last year, she attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, was on the artist roster for Parlance Chamber Concerts, and was a substitute violist with the Florida Orchestra. She has collaborated and performed alongside Itzhak Perlman, the Borromeo Quartet and members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Isabella has taken part in Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Heifetz International Music Institute, where she later became part of the Heifetz on Tour series.
Vsevolod Zavidov began his musical training at age four and made his concert debut at the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory at 8. In 2016, at age 10, he made his solo recital debut in the United States at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. The following year he performed Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto with the Moscow Virtuosi Orchestra, and a year later performed solo recitals in Manchester and Vienna, and toured the Northeastern United States. Vsevolod was winner of the 54th Dvorak International Concertino Praga (2020), which enabled him to record a CD. The following year, he won First Prize at the Gina Bachauer International Junior Piano Competition (Salt Lake City). He took part in The Stars of the White Nights and Mariinsky International Piano Festival a year later and last fall awarded the Georges Leibenson Prize at the Concours de Genève. Vsevolod is invited by Japan Arts to perform in Japan during 2023. He is an alumnus of the Lieven Foundation.
Tony Yike Yang first rose to international acclaim at the age of 16 after becoming the youngest-ever laureate in the history of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, winning the Fifth Prize in 2015. Tony has also won prizes at the Van Cliburn, Gina Bachauer, Hilton Head and the Cooper International Piano Competitions. Recital highlights include performances at Koerner Hall (Toronto), Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Athenaeum in Bucharest, Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Seoul Arts Center, Esplanade Singapore and Dubai Millennium Amphitheatre. He has also appeared with prominent orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal. Tony is a recent graduate of Harvard University where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics. He is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Ingesund Piano Center in Sweden.
Ethan Loch began piano lessons at age 4 with his mother. He now studies with Fali Pavri at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Diagnosed completely blind since birth, Ethan already explored the piano for hours as a toddler, imitating his first inspiration, Rowlf the piano-playing dog from The Muppet Show. His other inspiration was a DVD of Horowitz in Vienna, which he played relentlessly. Today, in his spare time, he can be found in his music room composing and improvising for hours and hours. After winning the keyboard category of the BBC Young Musician in 2022, he went on to the grand final, where he performed Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto with the BBC Birmingham Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mark Wigglesworth.