2025 Artists

Classical guitarist Alex Aldridge is an educator, soloist, and chamber musician from West Des Moines, Iowa. He began his guitar studies at the age of 13 with instructor James Biehn, playing the music of Yes, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and other prominent rock bands. Alex first discovered his love for Classical guitar upon beginning his music studies at The University of Northern Iowa in 2010, with professor Robert Dunn. He graduated with a Bachelors in Music in 2015. In 2014 he attended “The Volterra Project” in Tuscany, Italy, a week-long summer guitar workshop hosted by Greek guitarist Antigoni Goni. This experience was life-changing and guided him to The Hartt School in Connecticut, where he earned his Master’s in Classical Guitar Performance with Richard Provost in 2019. Alex has performed internationally on a handful of occasions, and throughout the New England area. In addition to concertizing, he was an educator at several music studios in Connecticut from 2017-2021 before returning to Iowa. Alex has performed in master classes for internationally acclaimed guitarists Christopher Parkening, Antgoni Goni, Oscar Ghiglia, Scott Tennant, Thibaut Garcia, Andrew York, Jason Vieaux, Christopher Ladd, and several others. In 2018 Alex and his duo partner, flautist Sierra Schmeltzer, were awarded 2nd place in the annual Hartt School Chamber Music Competition. More recently, Alex performed on a promotional video for Luthier Toby Rzekpka which was featured during the 2020 Guitar Foundation of America’s online convention. He currently maintains a large studio at Grinnell College and resides in Ames.

Pianist Sean Botkin began studying the piano at age five with his mother, making his first orchestral appearance four years later with the Honolulu Symphony. He went on to study privately with Neal O’Doan at the University of Washington and, under his direction, performed with the Seattle Symphony, Spokane Symphony, and Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra. Sean has garnered prizes in an impressive list of international piano competitions, including Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Busoni International Piano Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, World Piano Competition in Cincinnati, Dong-A International Music Competition of Korea, International Music Competition of Japan and the Washington D.C. International Competition. A graduate of Stanford University, the Juilliard School, and Indiana University at South Bend, Sean has studied with eminent artists Adolph Baller, Martin Canin, and Alexander Toradze. Sean has performed extensively in the United States, Europe, Central and South America, Asia, and Russia. He made his New York debut at Alice Tully Hall in 1993 performing Bartók’s Concerto No. 2 with the Juilliard Symphony. Equally active in chamber music, Sean has performed with such artists as William Bennett, Helen Callus, Anibal Dos Santos, Mark Votapek, and members of the Maia Quartet. In 2012, sponsored by Alexander Rachmaninoff and the Rachmaninoff Foundation, he performed Rachmaninoff’s 4th Piano Concerto with the Chicago Symphony at Ravinia, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, and in 2013 with the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and guest conductor, Alexander Sladkovsky. Upcoming performances include a duo-piano recital with Korey Barrett on March 9 and a solo recital on March 20. Reactions to Sean’s performances typically are expressed with phrases such as “multidimensional talents”, “superb musicianship”, and “beautiful and rare musical experience”. He is currently Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Northern Iowa.

Violist Julia Bullard enjoys a diverse career as a performer, pedagogue, Alexander Technique teacher, and academic leader. She is the violist of Trio 826, whose first album, Mosaic, was released on the Blue Griffin label in 2016. She has performed as a guest with ensembles including the Bogotá Chamber Orchestra, UCS Orquestra – Caxias do Sul, Brazil, the Arianna String Quartet, and the Maia Quartet. A dedicated pedagogue, Dr. Bullard served as president of the Iowa String Teachers Association (ISTA) and received ISTA’s Leopold LaFosse Studio Teacher of the Year award in 2011. She has presented guest artist recitals and master classes across the US and abroad at institutions including University of Southern Mississippi, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, Ball State University, University of Iowa, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, Lawrence University, the State University of New York at Fredonia, the National University of Colombia, and Universidad Federal Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil. She has performed and taught at summer festivals including Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival, Wintergreen Music Festival and Academy, Madeline Island Music Festival, and Les Musicales au Fival (France). Dr. Bullard received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Temple University in Philadelphia, and the DMA degree from the University of Georgia. Her principal teachers included violists Joseph dePasquale, Emanuel Vardi, Sidney Curtiss, and Mark Cedel, and violinist Levon Ambartsumian. She completed her Alexander Technique teacher certification at the Minnesota Center for the Alexander Technique, and was recently elected to the board of the American Society for the Alexander Technique (AmSAT). From 2000-2022, Dr. Bullard served as viola professor at the University of Northern Iowa (UNI), and for 10 years was the Associate Director for Graduate Studies in the UNI School of Music. In August 2022, Dr. Bullard joined the faculty of Kennesaw State University (GA), teaching viola and Alexander Technique and serving in leadership roles as Assistant Director and Interim Director of the Bailey School of Music. She currently serves as Director of the School of Music at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA.

Hunter Capoccioni is Artistic Director and founder of Cedar Valley Chamber Music. For the past twenty years, Hunter has devoted his summers to curating programs that bring resident and native Iowa artists together to engage the Cedar Valley community through the portable nature of chamber music. A resident of Houston, Texas, Hunter performs regularly as a double bassist with the Houston Grand Opera, Houston Ballet Orchestras, and the Mercury Chamber Orchestra. He is formerly the double bass instructor at the University of Northern Iowa (2007-2014), Principal Double Bass of the WCF Symphony (2010-2014), Principal Double Bass of the Norske Opera Orchestra (2005-2006), and Principal Double Bass of the Norrlands Opera Orchestra of Sweden (2003-2005). When Hunter is not playing the bass or listening to chamber music, he serves as Administrator for the Rice Neuroengineering Initiative at Rice University, where he supports more than twenty scientists researching new ways to treat a variety of neurological disorders.

Evie Chen is currently on the string faculty at the University of Tennessee. She made her solo debut with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra at age 8 after winning the Nafisa Taghioff Award in the FSO’s 2000 Young Artists Competition. Since then, she has garnered accolades at numerous competitions, performing concertos and solo works with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, California Youth Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. A versatile violinist, Evie is deeply committed to education and chamber music. She is a familiar face at the Bay View Summer Institute and Kalmia Garden Music and Arts where she shares her expertise as an educator and a chamber musician. Her passion for musical collaboration is evident in her tours with her piano trio and frequent chamber music performances with friends and colleagues. Evie holds a DMA and MM from Rice University, where she studied with Paul Kantor. She attained a BM in violin performance and a BA in psychology from the University of Rochester and Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the Performer’s Certificate under the tutelage of Mikhail Kopelman.

Cellist Jamie Clark of Boulder, Colorado has been praised for her sensitive, imaginative, and colorful sense of artistry. She has concertized throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia as a recitalist and a chamber musician. She has performed solo and chamber music recitals in venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Eastman’s Kodak Hall, New York City’s American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Both an enthusiastic chamber musician and entrepreneur of collaborative outreach programs, Jamie is a Co-Founder and Artistic Director of the Flatirons Chamber Music Festival, a non- profit organization based in Colorado. The festival strives to cross cultural, geographic, and temporal divides between performers, composers, and audience members, inspiring dynamic interaction within the entire Festival community. Her commitment to community engagement has led to collaborations with the Music For Food initiative in Orlando, Deland, Boston, Denver, and Boulder. She also has served as a core artist for Open Scene, a vibrant orlando-based non-profit organization led by professional Latina women, championing multiculturalism and inclusion through artistic and humanistic programs. She is a founding member of the Parrish Cello Trio and Persimmon Ensemble, and regularly performs with Kinetic Ensemble, EnsembleNewSRQ and the Sarasota Orchestra. A passionate advocate for interdisciplinary collaboration between performer and scholar worlds, Jamie has written a series of scholarly papers, including The Art of Rehearsing: A Multidimensional Study in Rehearsing String Quartets and Schoenberg Quartet No. 2: Between the Twilight of Tonality and the Dawn of Early Expressionism. An engaged collaborative partner with contemporary composers, Jamie received a grant to fund “Hear Her Voice” in 2021. “Hear Her Voice” features seven solo cello commissions by outstanding female composers. Each piece offers a distinct perspective of isolation experienced in the context of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Jamie currently serves on the faculty of University of Iowa, University of Northern Iowa, and Western Illinois University. She previously served for five years at Stetson University as Assistant Professor of Cello and Coordinator of Chamber Music. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts Degree and Masters of Music Degree from the New England Conservatory with Laurence Lesser and Paul Katz. She received her Bachelors of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music with David Ying.

Cellist Nathan Cook has been praised for his “authoritative yet relaxed” playing, his “sweet and pliant” sound, and “the combination of vigor and beauty” in his interpretation (Houston Chronicle). Along with fellow MUN faculty member Dr. Michelle Cheramy, Dr. Cook is a founding member of the Trinitas Chamber Ensemble (www.trinitasmusic.com), which has performed across Canada, in Washington, DC, and in numerous venues across the U.S. Midwest. He is also the cellist of the Atlantic String Quartet and principal cellist of the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra (www.nsomusic.ca). Dr. Cook has championed both early music performance and the works of living composers. He was the cellist for and co-Artistic Director of the Hot Earth Ensemble, which from 2008-2015 enriched the music scene in St. John’s with more than 20 concerts of early music involving guest artists from both on and off the island of Newfoundland. Cook has co-commissioned and premiered new chamber works by Clifford Crawley, Andrew Staniland, Asha Srinivasan, Karim Al-Zand, Andrew MacDonald, and Andrew Noseworthy while also giving continued life to recent compositions by other living composers such as Dorothy Chang, Dinuk Wijeratne, David L. McIntyre, Yuko Uebayashi, and Asha Srinivasan. His solo, concerto, and chamber performances have been heard regionally and nationally in Canada on CBC Radio, and regionally in the United States on NPR stations in Buffalo, New York; Houston, Texas; and across Iowa. Dr. Cook hails from Appleton, Wisconsin and holds an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Grinnell College in Iowa as well as a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Colgate University in New York. He received his masters and doctoral degrees in music at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas where he studied with Norman Fischer. Cook’s other teachers have included Terry King, Evan Jones, Richard Eckert, Andre Emelianoff and Einar Holm.

Jinjoo Cho is a versatile classical virtuoso of the 21st century. First prize winner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and Concours musical international de Montréal in addition to Buenos Aires, Schoenfeld, and Stulberg Competitions, Jinjoo has toured on concert stages around the world since the age of 11. Today, she continues to perform at distinguished concert halls and festivals including the Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest (USA), Banff Centre, Festival de Lanaudière (Canada), La Seine Musicale, Aigues-Vives Music Festival (France), Kronberg Academy, Schwetzingen Festspiele, Herkulessaal (Germany), Teatro Colón (Argentina), and Seoul Arts Center (Korea). A charismatic soloist, Jinjoo has appeared with leading orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Ensemble Appassionato, Seoul Philharmonic, and the North Carolina, Phoenix, and Charlotte symphonies, collaborating with renowned conductors such as James Gaffigan, Kent Nagano, JoAnn Falletta, Mathieu Herzog, Peter Oundjian, Michael Stern, Tito Muñoz, Michael Francis, Moritz Gnann, Karina Canellakis, Shi-Yeon Sung, Pietari Inkinen, and Clemens Schuldt. Jinjoo has deep love and appreciation for the chamber music repertoire and cherishes sharing the stage with prominent artists of the globe such as Gary Hoffman, Andreas Ottensamer, Ray Chen, Itamar Golan, Roger Tapping, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Vadim Gluzman, and Clive Greensmith. In 2021, she formed Trio Seoul with pianist Kyu Yeon Kim and cellist and Bienen School alumnus Brannon Cho. In addition to being an active performer, Jinjoo is a dedicated teacher and an artistic director. She is currently the founding artistic director of ENCORE Chamber Music Institute, a 501(c)(3) non-profit. She has previously served as violin faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. Most recently, Jinjoo served on the official jury panel of international competitions such as the Indianapolis (USA, 2022) and Schoenfeld (China, 2024) competitions, and on the screening committee of the Montréal (Canada, 2019/2023) and Premio Paganini (Italy, 2023) competitions. Jinjoo’s dedication to nurturing the next generation of young musicians stems directly from the influence of her teachers Paul Kantor and Jaime Laredo. She holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Jinjoo is passionate about sharing her love of music, in whatever form that it takes. A consummate recording artist, she has thus far produced four albums: Saint-Saëns (Naïve Classique), La Capricieuse (SONY Classical), The Indianapolis Commissions (Azica), and Jinjoo Cho (Analekta). Described as “a delectable curtain-raiser” (Strad Magazine) and “finest silk thread of a violin tone” (Rondo Magazine), Jinjoo’s discography has garnered critical acclaim worldwide as well as commercial success. Her other creative explorations range from commissioning new works by composers Juri Seo and Andrew Rindfleisch to collaborating with artists of other disciplines such as dancer/choreographer Jinyeob Cha. In 2021, Jinjoo’s first book, Shine Someday, was listed as a best seller on major book platforms in Korea.

Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Gabriel is an active solo, chamber, orchestral and baroque performer. He has performed concerts and recitals in the United States, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Spain, Germany, Austria, Czechia, Slovenia, Croatia and England. He actively performs with various orchestras and chamber ensembles in the United States. During the last few years he has devoted much of his time to researching the music of Heinrich Biber, his Mystery (Rosary) Sonatas and their historically informed performance practice. As part of this research he prepared a complete transcription of these complete sonatas for viola and basso continuo, which he performs in its entirety in a single recital setting. Outside the classical setting Gabriel has played for shows alongside the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Celtic Woman, Danny Elfman, Rachel Barton Pine, Sandy Cameron and Ezinma, just to name a few. Gabriel, who currently serves as professor at the Wartburg College, completed his D.M.A. (viola performance) degree at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, his M.M. (viola performance) degree from the University of Northern Iowa and his B.M. (viola performance) degree from the Colombian National University. His principal professors included Anibal Dos Santos, Julia Bullard and Clark Potter.

Passionate and communicative, Max Geissler is a versatile cellist whose broad musical interests span multiple genres and disciplines. From performing in international chamber music series alongside distinguished artists, to premiering works by world-renowned composers with the new music ensemble Latitude 49, to historical performances on baroque cello with gut strings, Max’s artistic range is as diverse as it is dynamic. Currently, Max is the Assistant Professor of Cello at East Tennessee State University and spends his summers teaching and performing at ENCORE Chamber Music Institute. Kalmia Garden Music Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization Max founded and directs in Durham, CT, just celebrated its 12th season. Maintaining an active presence as a performer, Max has been presented by prestigious international organizations such as La Jolla ChamberFest, Taipei Music Academy & Festival, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Geneva Music Festival. He has shared the stage with celebrated musicians such as Lynn Harrell, Mathieu Herzog, Clive Greensmith, Mihaela Martin, Frans Helmerson, Jon Kimura Parker, Cho-Liang Lin, and Martin Beaver. Eager to expand the scope of the solo cello repertoire, Max enjoys collaborating with and commissioning visionary contemporary composers such as Theo Chandler, Hilary Purrington, Erberk Eryılmaz, Chen Yihan, and Andrew Rindfleisch. When serving as Co-Artistic Director of Latitude 49, Max premiered works by dozens of composers, bringing to life a diverse range of pieces from inspiring student compositions to collaborations with Juno and Pulitzer Prize-winning composers such as Joan Tower, Juri Seo, Christopher Cerrone, Mark Kilstofte, and Jared Miller. The ensemble continues to perform in major venues each season, including the Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago’s Ear Taxi Festival, Constellation Chicago, Princeton Sound Kitchen, Bowling Green State University’s New Music Festival, and New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s The Cube. With Latitude 49, Max has recorded and released five albums, including publications with New Amsterdam Records. The ensemble’s annual summer festival, Sound Atlas Sound Festival, presented at Contemporary Calgary, has been praised as “one of Calgary’s most exciting festivals to look out for.” Max is deeply committed to cultivating a studio of young cellists who are engaged collaborators in their communities. In addition to his studio teaching at ETSU, Max regularly teaches at various academies and festivals such as ENCORE Chamber Music Institute’s Summer Academy and the Tennessee Cello Workshop, alongside distinguished colleagues from Northwestern, Rice, Indiana, McGill University, Oberlin, and San Francisco Conservatory. Max is also in high demand for teaching and performing residencies at universities including Princeton University, Vanderbilt University, University of North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Tennessee, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Colorado State University, Baylor University, and SUNY-Fredonia. Max’s students have been accepted into top-tier festivals and degree programs, and have earned prestigious awards in national and international competitions, including the From The Top audition, the YoungArts Competition, the Stulberg International String Competition, and the Grand Prize Virtuoso Competition (Bonn, Germany). In 2024, Max received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. During his Master’s and Doctoral studies at Rice, he served as Desmond Hoebig’s teaching assistant and taught the university’s non-major cello studio. Max earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan under the mentorship of Richard Aaron and also spent a year in the Study Abroad program, taking lessons with Michel Strauss from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

A dual citizen from Toronto, Canada, Roslyn Green moved to Chicago to play with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2016-2019 and has since devoted herself to the orchestral and musical world of Chicago and the midwest. Roslyn’s Fellowship with the Civic Orchestra saw her implementing projects ranging from a chamber tour of CTA stops to writing songs with members of the community affected by gun violence through the Chicago Symphony’s Notes for Peace initiative. She continues to work regularly as a lead songwriter with Notes for Peace, which included a 2022 performance of one of her songs by Hilary Hahn at Chicago’s Symphony Center. Having trained on violin from a young age, in particular with the late Jacques Israelievitch, Roslyn completed a BAH in English and Drama at Queen’s University while working as a contract violinist with the Kingston Symphony. Upon graduation, she returned to Toronto and studied violin privately with iconic Canadian violin pedagogue David Zafer. She began viola studies with Yosef Tamir in 2013, and subsequently won a spot at the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory the following year. Roslyn completed her Artist Diploma on the Dean’s List in 2016 under the tutelage of renowned violist Steven Dann. She has played in masterclasses for artists including Kim Kashkashian, Ettore Causa, Geoff Nuttall, Kikuei Ikeda, and the Juilliard Quartet. As of 2022, Roslyn is the principal violist with the Des Moines Symphony and a regular substitute player with the Milwaukee Symphony. She previously served as associate principal with the Illinois Symphony, a section player Orchestra Iowa, and Director of the Chamber Music Institute of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra. She has appeared in the viola sections of the Chicago Symphony, the Windsor Symphony, the Hamilton Philharmonic, the Elgin Symphony, the Illinois Philharmonic, and the National Academy Orchestra of Canada. She currently plays in the Four Equals String Quartet, and teaches violin, viola, and piano privately.

Hannah is a violinist and teacher based in the Iowa City area. She received a BM in violin performance from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Mark Bjork, and MM in violin performance from the University of Northern Iowa, where she studied with Dr. Ross Winter and Dr. Julia Bullard (viola). An advocate for the Suzuki method, Hannah has studied Suzuki violin pedagogy with Mark Bjork, Joanne Melvin, and Martha Shackford. Currently, Hannah holds faculty positions at the UNI Suzuki School in Cedar Falls and the Preucil School of Music in Iowa City where she teaches violin and viola, leads group classes, and coaches chamber ensembles and recently joined Schultz Strings as Store and Educational Associate. She maintains an active schedule performing with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony, the Southeast Iowa Symphony, and freelancing throughout eastern Iowa with various other ensembles and theatre productions. While perhaps most at home in the classical music genre, Hannah has a great love of the versatility of string instruments and enjoys exploring and collaborating on projects within other genres. She recently recorded and released an album with her husband, violinist and guitarist, Austin Jacobs, and their folk trio band, “From Afar.”

Kenny Lee has established himself as an outstanding artist and leader both on the podium and as a cellist. Praised for his “lyricism, drive, tenderness, and passion” (The Times Argus), he has performed as a conductor, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Lee is Assistant Professor and Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Iowa, where he conducts the Orchestra and teaches graduate and doctoral conducting students. Additionally, he is the conductor of the prestigious Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent conducting highlights include collaborations with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Czech Chamber Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Moravská Filharmonie Olomouc, Lviv National Philharmonic, Gwinnett Chamber Orchestra, and Illinois All-State Orchestra. Prior to his appointment at Iowa, Lee was the orchestra director at Western Illinois University and led the WIU Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra with thrilling and adventurous programs. He travels frequently both as a guest conductor and a masterclass clinician. Lee’s musical journeys have led him to collaborations with several esteemed artists, including principal players of the Berlin Philharmonic, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Borromeo, and Ying Quartets. Festival appearances have included Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Thy Chamber Music Festival in Denmark, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Taos Chamber Music Festival, and Piatigorsky International Cello Festival. Lee is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Flatirons Chamber Music Festival, a non-profit organization in Boulder, Colorado. Additionally, Lee is a founding member of the Parrish Trio. Cello performance highlights include solo and concerto appearances in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Eastman Kodak Hall. He recently performed concerti by Dvorak, Haydn, Elgar, and Gulda and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta Sinfonia, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, Jordan Winds, and Eugene Symphony. He has collaborated as a soloist with conductors such as Giancarlo Guerro, Neil Varon, and William Drury. Lee is a top prize winner of several competitions, including the Seventeenth International Conductor’s Workshop and Competition, New York International Artists Competition, Hudson Valley String Competition, Borromeo Guest Artist Competition, Eastman Concerto Competition, and New England Conservatory Honors Chamber Music Competition as the founding member of the Gioviale Quartet. Born in Seoul, South Korea, Lee grew up in Oregon and began studying music at the age of 10. Lee’s primary conducting teachers included Steven Sloane, Catherine Larsen-Maguire, Carl St. Clair, and Charles Peltz. Lee studied cello with Laurence Lesser, Paul Katz, Steven Doane, and Steven Pologe. He has also worked extensively with Hans Jørgen Jensen, Pieter Wispelwey, Lluis Claret, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Frans Helmerson. Lee graduated from the Eastman School of Music as a recipient of the John Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music. He earned his Masters and Doctorate degrees from the New England Conservatory with honors.

Peter Miyamoto enjoys a brilliant international career, performing to great acclaim in recital and as soloist in Canada, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Switzerland, China, and Japan, and in major US cities such as Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. In 1990, Miyamoto was named the first Gilmore Young Artist. He won numerous other competitions, including the American Pianist Association National Fellowship Competition, the D’Angelo Competition, the San Francisco Symphony Competition and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Competition. Miyamoto has performed as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Chautauqua Symphony, Erie Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, and Knoxville Symphony, working with such conductors as Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, David Lockington, Raymond Harvey, Lawrence Leighton-Smith, William Henry Curry, and Kirk Trevor. A dedicated chamber musician, he has performed with Charles Castleman, Victor Danchenko, Joel Krosnick, Lara St. John, Anthony McGill, David Shifrin and Allan Vogel, singer Lucy Shelton, as well as members of the Blair, Borromeo, Euclid and Pacifica String Quartets. He is a former member of the August and Beaumont Trios, and was a founding member of the Quadrivium Players, the resident ensemble at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Dr. Miyamoto holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale University School of Music, Michigan State University, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. His teachers included Maria Curcio-Diamand, Leon Fleisher, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, Marek Jablonski, Aube Tzerko, and Ralph Votapek, as well as Szymon Goldberg, Felix Galimir and Lorand Fenyves for chamber music. Professor and Catherine P. Middlebush Chair of Piano at the University of Missouri, Peter Miyamoto formerly taught at Michigan State University, and the California Institute of the Arts. After serving as head of the piano faculty at the New York Summer Music Festival 2003-2015, co-founded the Odyssey Chamber Music Festival in Missouri, and in recent years has taught and performed at the Curtis Mentor Network and The Curtis Institute Young Artist Program in Philadelphia, PA, and at the PRIZM International Chamber Music Festival in Memphis, TN. Miyamoto has given master classes at major institutions throughout the United States as well as internationally in Canada, China, Greece, Japan and Serbia. Peter serves as Executive Director of the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and is Past President of the Missouri Music Teachers Association of MTNA. Peter Miyamoto’s solo CDs, The Chopin Ballades and Fantasies and A Schubert Recital, Brahms Works and A Piano Recital have received critical acclaim in Gramophone Magazine (April 2009), International Record Review (March 2009), American Record Guide (February 2009), Fanfare Magazine (2014) and Audiophile Audition (2014). More recently, Great Pianists As Composers: Piano Works of Artur Schnabel, Glenn Gould and Dinu Lipatti and C Minor Progression: Works by Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert were released in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and were reviewed in American Record Guide (January 2020). A CD of commissioned violin-piano duos with violinist Julie Rosenfeld and produced by ten-time GRAMMY Award Winner Judith Sherman was released on Albany Records in Spring 2018.

Hailed by the New York Times as possessing “rich tone and deft technique,” Hannah Porter Occeña is a versatile flutist and pedagogue equally comfortable performing music written 400 years or 40 minutes ago. The 2021 Mu Phi Epsilon International Competition Winner and 2012 Irene Burchard Prizewinner, her performance work ranges from intimate solo performances in the recording studio to sold-out orchestra festival concerts. She holds principal flute positions in the Topeka Symphony Orchestra (Topeka, KS) and Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra (Boulder, CO) and teaches a vibrant studio of undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA). As an orchestral player, chamber musician, and soloist, Dr. Occeña has worked to bring to life hundreds of new works. She gave the world premiere performances of flute concertos by Arturo Rodríguez and Joseph Kern, and the European premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s “The Light That We Can Hear.” She has privately commissioned several works, including the prizewinning work the whirring dusk by Lisa Bost-Sandberg (2018), and was a co-commissioner for Confluence by Zhou Long (2015), Giantess by Carter Pann (2018), Amazonia by Valerie Coleman (2020), Intuition by Samuel Zyman (2022), and Pathways of Desire by Reena Esmail (2024). Committed to reaching audiences around the world, Dr. Occeña is an active recording artist whose performances can be heard on major music streaming services. She specializes in recording recently published works as well as student-accessible works outside the standard canon, often in collaboration with her duo partner, pianist Emely Phelps. In addition to traditional venues and recorded performances, Dr. Occeña performs outreach concerts in schools, non-traditional venues such as nature preserves and state parks, and at events specifically designed for neurodiverse audience members. Some of her favorite concert experiences have been performances in association with Autism Speaks and at special education schools. Dr. Occeña is a frequent presenter at regional and national conventions, and her articles have been published in North American, British, and Dutch flute journals. She contributed to new editions of the Sonata in B minor by Amanda Maier and the Sonata op. 94 by Sergei Prokofiev, and she has researched and performed unpublished works by Undine Smith Moore and Gertrude Rivers Robinson from the composers’ manuscripts. Dr. Occeña is a 2018 DMA graduate of Stony Brook University, where she studied with Carol Wincenc. She holds a Master of Music Dip.RAM from the Royal Academy of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance. When not performing, Dr. Occeña enjoys distance running and spending time outdoors with her family. Dr. Occeña is a Miyazawa Artist and plays on a Miyazawa Elite.

Boston-based violinist Theo Ramsey enjoys a varied career as an orchestral violinist, chamber musician, and teacher. They perform frequently with such ensembles as Brooklyn-based orchestral collective The Knights, new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, and the Boston Lyric Opera. Theo is a member of the first violin section of the New Bedford Symphony and is violinist and violist of Ensemble Dal Niente. Originally from Cedar Falls, IA, Theo began playing the violin at the UNI Suzuki School. They hold degrees from Northwestern University and the Cleveland Institute of Music, where their primary teachers were Blair Milton and David Updegraff. Theo was co-concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and spent two years as a Fellow and frequent concertmaster of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, FL.

Dr. Erik Rohde maintains a diverse career as a conductor, violinist, and educator, and has performed in recitals and festivals across the United States and in Europe and Asia. He is the newly appointed Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Northern Iowa, the Music Director of the Winona Symphony Orchestra (MN), and the founding artistic director of the Salomon Chamber Orchestra, an orchestra dedicated to promoting the works of living composers and of Haydn and his contemporaries. Prior to his appointment at the University of Northern Iowa, Rohde served as the Director of String Activities and Orchestra at Indiana State University where he conducted the Indiana State University Symphony Orchestra and taught violin, chamber music, and Suzuki pedagogy. A committed advocate for contemporary music, he has premiered and commissioned many new works by both established and young composers, and is constantly seeking to discover new compositional voices. He is the violinist of the new music duo sonic apricity, which is dedicated to uncovering and commissioning new works by living composers for violin and viola. At Indiana State University he helped to host the annual Contemporary Music Festival – now running for over 50 years. He has worked with Joan Tower, Augusta Read Thomas, Libby Larsen, Meira Warshauer, Elliott Miles McKinley, Christopher Walczak, Michael-Thomas Foumai, Pierre Jalbert, James Dillon, David Dzubay, Marc Mellits, Carter Pann, Narong Prangcharoen and countless others. In the last year he has released two recordings with composer Elliott Miles McKinley, with whom he is currently working on a project for a new set of companion pieces written to be played with the Bach Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas. In his native Minnesota, Rohde has served as the Music Director of the Buffalo Community Orchestra, conductor and violinist for the Contemporary Music Workshop, Camarata Suzuki orchestra conductor for the MacPhail Center for Music, String Ensemble conductor at the Trinity School, and first violinist of the Cantiamo and Enkidu String Quartets. Rohde holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, where he studied with conductors Mark Russell Smith, Kathy Saltzman Romey, and Craig Kirchhoff and violin pedagogue Mark Bjork. He also holds degrees in Violin Performance and Biomedical Engineering. Rohde resides in Cedar Falls, IA with his wife Erin and their children.