An internationally acclaimed violinist, who for many years had a respected duo partnership with her sister, cellist Eleonore Schoenfeld, she taught at USC Thornton School of Music, California, for almost 60 years. She was also the founder of the Harbin Schoenfeld International String Competition and Schoenfeld International Music Society.

Born in 1921 in Yugoslavia, Alice Schoenfeld studied the violin in Berlin under Karl Klingler, a student of Joseph Joachim, and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic aged ten. In 1952 she and her family immigrated to the US, where in 1959 both she and Eleonore were invited to join the string faculty at USC. At first, they taught part-time while still maintaining their touring schedule, but eventually became full-time faculty members. Both Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky numbered among their colleagues at the school. Among Alice Schoenfeld’s students were Anne Akiko Meyers and Suli Xue.

The sisters received the USC’s Ramo Music Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the American String Teachers Association named them joint winners of the Artist Teacher Award in 1996.

In the 1980s both Alice and Eleonore were among the first internationally recognised musicians to visit communist China, after formal diplomatic relations had been established between the Chinese and American governments. On their recommendation, more than a hundred Chinese string students studying abroad received scholarship support.

One of the most outstanding Chinese-American violinists, Suli Xue enjoys an active career on today’s international music stage. He is a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, president of the Schoenfeld International Music Society, artistic director of the Schoenfeld International String Competition, artistic director of the Hong Kong International Music Festival, artist in residence at the Azusa Pacific University, artistic advisor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, former professor of violin at the USC Thornton School of Music, and former concertmaster of the China National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the winner of two Gold Medals of Global Music Awards. Xue has earned high acclaim around the world for his unique artistry. 

Xue graduated from USC Thornton School of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was a protégé of world-renowned violin professor Alice Schoenfeld. Xue has been frequently invited as a guest artist and faculty to teach and perform at International Music Festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also served as a juror for numerous international music competitions. He performed as a soloist with the YMF Debut Orchestra and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra for their New Year’s Concert Tour in China, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra for their Chinese New Year’s concert.

Recently, he has participated in many important performances as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Summer Music Festival, and others. In 2014, Xue introduced the Schoenfeld International String Competition to Harbin. In 2017, the competition joined the United Nations ESCO “World Federation of International Music Competitions,” fortifying and promoting music cultural exchange internationally. In August 2017, Mr. Suli Xue collaborated with maestro Zubin Mehta as a soloist and concertmaster to perform in the gala symphony concert at the Harbin China-Russia Cultural and Arts Festival. Maestro Mehta described Xue as “a brilliant violinist and outstanding leader that performs with virtuosic musicality.”

International critics have compared Augustin Dumay to the great violinists of the 20th century, describing him as a "great classical stylist", a reputation underscored by his outstanding recordings for Deutsche Grammophon: Beethoven’s complete sonatas with Maria João Pires, a set that "surely ranks with Grumiaux/Haskil, Menuhin/Kempff, or Perlman/Ashkenazy" (International Piano), Brahms’ trios in which "the Milstein legacy in Dumay’s playing is wonderfully apparent" (Gramophone), and Mozart’s concertos with the Camerata Salzburg, "without exaggeration one of the finest Mozart violin concerto discs ever made" (Classic CD), in which he "confirms that he is an exceptional interpreter of Mozart as were Stern or Grumiaux before him" (Classica).

Augustin Dumay was first discovered by the public thanks to his meeting with Herbert von Karajan, his concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker and his recordings for Warner (Concertos by Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Saint-Saëns and Lalo). Since then, he has gone on to perform with Europe’s best orchestras – Berliner Philharmoniker Bayerischer Rundfunk, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tonhalle Zürich, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Mahler Chamber, Camerata Salzburg – and with the Orpheus Chamber, New Japan Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Seiji Ozawa, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Andrew Davis, David Zinman, Yuri Temirkanov, Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Kurt Sanderling, Iván Fischer, Yu Long, as well as with the leading conductors of a new generation such as Daniel Harding, Alan Gilbert, Robin Ticciati and Maxim Emelyanychev.

In parallel to his international career as a violinist, Augustin Dumay has also become very active as a conductor, both on stage and on disc. He is regularly invited to conduct orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia and New Japan Philharmonic. Since 2011 he has been Musical director of the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra (Osaka, Japan).

Since 2004 he has been a Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Brussels) where he teaches highly talented young violinists, most of them laureates of prestigious international competitions.His next recordings will be devoted to Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas. Augustin Dumay plays a 1743 Guarnerius del Gesù, which was the violin of Leonid Kogan.

Arto Noras, one of Finland's best-known performers, enjoys the reputation of a world-class cellist. Praising his impeccable, natural, seemingly effortless virtuosity, critics have also commented on the powerful expressiveness of Noras' playing. His immense enthusiasm and consummate musicianship also extend to chamber music and teaching. Among his many musical projects is the Naantali Music Festival, which has developed into one of Finland's great musical institutions. Born in 1942, Noras first studied cello with Yrjo Selin at the Sibelius Academy. He later went to Paris to study with Paul Tortelier, graduating from the Paris Conservatory in 1964. Two years later, Noras won second prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, gaining international recognition and launching a concert career. Following tours in North and South America, Noras became professor of cello at the Sibelius Academy in 1970. A highly regarded teacher, Noras also found time for chamber music, notably as member of the Sibelius Academy Quartet. In 1980, Noras founded the Naantali Chamber Music Festival, also initiating the International Paulo Cello Competition 11 years later. Having mastered the traditional cello repertoire, Noras has played and recorded many works by distinguished contemporary composers, including concertos by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Henri Dutilleux, Leif Segerstam, and Erik Bergman.

An internationally acclaimed violinist, who for many years had a respected duo partnership with her sister, cellist Eleonore Schoenfeld, she taught at USC Thornton School of Music, California, for almost 60 years. She was also the founder of the Harbin Schoenfeld International String Competition and Schoenfeld International Music Society.

Born in 1921 in Yugoslavia, Alice Schoenfeld studied the violin in Berlin under Karl Klingler, a student of Joseph Joachim, and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic aged ten. In 1952 she and her family immigrated to the US, where in 1959 both she and Eleonore were invited to join the string faculty at USC. At first, they taught part-time while still maintaining their touring schedule, but eventually became full-time faculty members. Both Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky numbered among their colleagues at the school. Among Alice Schoenfeld’s students were Anne Akiko Meyers and Suli Xue.

The sisters received the USC’s Ramo Music Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the American String Teachers Association named them joint winners of the Artist Teacher Award in 1996.

In the 1980s both Alice and Eleonore were among the first internationally recognised musicians to visit communist China, after formal diplomatic relations had been established between the Chinese and American governments. On their recommendation, more than a hundred Chinese string students studying abroad received scholarship support.

One of the most outstanding Chinese-American violinists, Suli Xue enjoys an active career on today’s international music stage. He is a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, president of the Schoenfeld International Music Society, artistic director of the Schoenfeld International String Competition, artistic director of the Hong Kong International Music Festival, artist in residence at the Azusa Pacific University, artistic advisor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, former professor of violin at the USC Thornton School of Music, and former concertmaster of the China National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the winner of two Gold Medals of Global Music Awards. Xue has earned high acclaim around the world for his unique artistry. 

Xue graduated from USC Thornton School of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was a protégé of world-renowned violin professor Alice Schoenfeld. Xue has been frequently invited as a guest artist and faculty to teach and perform at International Music Festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also served as a juror for numerous international music competitions. He performed as a soloist with the YMF Debut Orchestra and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra for their New Year’s Concert Tour in China, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra for their Chinese New Year’s concert.

Recently, he has participated in many important performances as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Summer Music Festival, and others. In 2014, Xue introduced the Schoenfeld International String Competition to Harbin. In 2017, the competition joined the United Nations ESCO “World Federation of International Music Competitions,” fortifying and promoting music cultural exchange internationally. In August 2017, Mr. Suli Xue collaborated with maestro Zubin Mehta as a soloist and concertmaster to perform in the gala symphony concert at the Harbin China-Russia Cultural and Arts Festival. Maestro Mehta described Xue as “a brilliant violinist and outstanding leader that performs with virtuosic musicality.”

Arto Noras, one of Finland's best-known performers, enjoys the reputation of a world-class cellist. Praising his impeccable, natural, seemingly effortless virtuosity, critics have also commented on the powerful expressiveness of Noras' playing. His immense enthusiasm and consummate musicianship also extend to chamber music and teaching. Among his many musical projects is the Naantali Music Festival, which has developed into one of Finland's great musical institutions. Born in 1942, Noras first studied cello with Yrjo Selin at the Sibelius Academy. He later went to Paris to study with Paul Tortelier, graduating from the Paris Conservatory in 1964. Two years later, Noras won second prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, gaining international recognition and launching a concert career. Following tours in North and South America, Noras became professor of cello at the Sibelius Academy in 1970. A highly regarded teacher, Noras also found time for chamber music, notably as member of the Sibelius Academy Quartet. In 1980, Noras founded the Naantali Chamber Music Festival, also initiating the International Paulo Cello Competition 11 years later. Having mastered the traditional cello repertoire, Noras has played and recorded many works by distinguished contemporary composers, including concertos by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Henri Dutilleux, Leif Segerstam, and Erik Bergman.

Gerardo Ribeiro has appeared throughout the world as featured soloist with major orchestras including the Philadelphia and Gulbenkian Orchestras, the Montreal, Dallas, Lucerne, Lisbon, Porto, Barcelona, Cali and Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestras, the Zagreb, Antwerp and Lisbon Philharmonics, the Taiwan, Beijing, Belgian and Portuguese National Orchestras, the radio orchestras of Paris (O.R.T.F.), Lisbon, Hilversum (Holland) and North Germany (Hannover), and other leading ensembles. With acclaimed recitals at New York City’s most prestigious venues – Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall and the Metropolitan Museum – Mr. Ribeiro has also appeared at Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and is well known in major European, South American and Far Eastern concert halls. Recent appearances include the performance of the Walton Violin Concerto with the National Orchestra of Portugal in Lisbon, and the Qingdao Symphony Orchestra in China.

Also an active chamber musician, he has served as Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Institute in Munich and has collaborated with distinguished musicians at the Marlboro and Lucerne Music Festivals, as well as with members of the Vermeer Quartet and the Dorian Wind Quintet. Between 2003 and 2008 he toured as a member of The Meadowmount Trio.

Beginning violin studies at an early age, Mr. Ribeiro went on to earn soloist diplomas with honors at both the Porto and Lucerne Conservatories, later attending The Julliard School where he studied with Ivan Galamian, Paul Makanovitzky and Felix Galimir. His numerous awards in prestigious international competitions such as the Paganini and Montreal, include first prizes at the Vanna da Motta in Lisbon, and the Maria Canals in Barcelona.

Mr. Ribeiro records for the EMA and RCA labels, having released several concerto CDs; his RCA recordings include the Brahms Violin Concerto and Double Concerto, the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Radio Orchestras of Hannover and Berlin, as well as the violin sonatas of Beethoven and Brahms.

Guillaume Sutre was only eighteen years old when he won the Alberto Curci International Violin Competition in Naples, Italy and the International Piano Trio ARD Competition in Munich. The list quickly fills out with a first prize at the European Chamber Music Competition FNAPEC (1989), first prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition (USA 1990), winner of the Prix de la Fondation Charles Oulmont (1989), first prize at the Lily Laskine Competition (1991) and winner of the Prix Georges Enesco de la SACEM (1994). In 1999, he was named Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government.

Mr. Sutre was attracted to chamber music early in his career. In 1986, he founded the Trio Wanderer; ten years later he became the first violinist of the Ysaÿe Quartet, a post he held for almost twenty years until their farewell concert in 2014 in Paris’ Cité de la Musique. His vast repertoire of over 600 works features all the string chamber music of Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, all Mozart Violin sonatas and all 68 Haydn quartets. He has performed at many of the most prestigious venues around the world, Carnegie Hall in New York, Philadelphia PCMS, Washington Library of Congress, Jerusalem YMCA, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, La Roque d'Anthéron, Les Grandes Heures in Saint-Emilion, Berlin Philharmonie, Herkulessaal in München, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Wigmore Hall in London, Musikverein in Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro della Pergola in Florence, Milano Società del Quartetto, Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli, Lisbon Gulbenkian Foundation, Bilbao Sociedad Filarmónica, Zurich Tonhalle, Addis Abeba Music School, Amazon Theatre in Manaus, Hanoi Opera House, with such performers as Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, Gérard Caussé, Ana Chumachenco, Valentin Erben, Nelson Freire, Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Leonidas Kavakos, Martin Lovett, Yo-Yo Ma, Sabine Meyer, Enrico Pace, Jean-Claude Pennetier, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Michel Portal, Pascal Rogé, Janos Starker. With his wife Kyunghee Kim-Sutre, they form a violin and harp duo and continue to explore and enrich the existing repertoire for this group, conducting extensive research in music libraries around the world while commissioning works from young composers.

In addition to his activity as a chamber musician, he also plays as a soloist with the Sinfonia Varsovia, Berlin RIAS Orchestra, Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, RAI Orchestra in Napoli, Franz Liszt Orchestra of Budapest, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Orchestre National d'Auvergne, Orchestre National de Bretagne, Orchestre Philharmonique Royal (Liège) and with conductors such as Christophe Coin, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Sir Yehudi Menuhin, Sheldon Morgenstern, David Robertson, Stefan Sanderling, Arie Van Beek. His recordings for Sony Classical, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Aeon, Ysaÿe Records, Hortus and Sonarti have received the highest distinctions in France and internationally. His live recording of the complete duets of Haydn and Mozart with violist Miguel da Silva has been hailed by critics as definitive, his CD featuring the quartets of A. Boucourechliev was awarded the Charles Cros Academy’s Grand Prix du Disque, and his two recent albums, J. Woelfl: The Paris Years (Sonarti) and Pensés Intimes (Hortus / WWI), received the 5 of Diapason. 

Invited by the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal, he will be professor of violin and chamber music in 2021. Previously, he was professor of a string quartet class at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, professor of violin and director of chamber music for strings at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in Los Angeles, and was part of the inaugural faculty of The Tianjin Juilliard School in China. He has taught master classes at Juilliard, IU Bloomington Jacobs School of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of South California, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, McGill Schulich School of Music, Jerusalem Music Center, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Aldeburgh Britten-Pears Foundation, Zeister Muziekdagen, Festival Internacional de Inverno in Campos do Jordão, Seoul National University, Villecroze Musical Academy.

Mr. Sutre is passionately committed to imparting his knowledge upon musicians of younger generations. He regularly performs with his students and in 2014 he co-produced the Calidore Quartet's debut CD. He regularly serves on juries of prestigious competitions, such as the Long-Thibaud International Violin Competition in Paris, the A. Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy and the International String Quartet Competition in Bordeaux. Guillaume Sutre began his studies in Douai, France; he then entered the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at age fourteen with Gérard Poulet and Jean-Claude Pennetier. After finishing his studies in France, he attended Indiana University at Bloomington to study with Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli, Menahem Pressler and Janos Starker. He subsequently studied in Cologne with the Amadeus Quartet.

Silvia Marcovici, born in Romania is one of the most renowned and highly regarded violinist of our times.

A student of Professor Stefan Gheorghiu at the conservatory in Bucharest, she made her professional debut at the age of sixteen with the Residentie Orkest of The Hague under Bruno Maderna. A few years later she won first prize in the Marguerite Long/Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris, the special prize of Prince Rainier of Monaco for the intepretation of a contemporary work; and first prize in the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest.

Since then, Ms. Marcovici's perfomances have brought her to the leading orchestras throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, North and  South America, appearing with the most celebrated conductors including Leopold Stokowski, Claudio Abbado, Erich Leinsdorf, Bernard Haitink, Kurt Masur, Eugene Ormandy, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Rattle, Eliahu Inbal, Zubin Mehta, David Zinman, Mstislav Rostropovich, André Previn, Riccardo Muti, Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Michael Gilen, Herbert Blomstedt and many others. She has been soloist with most of the world's great orchestras such as London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philarmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra della Scala di Milano, New York Philarmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philarmonic, Chicago Symphony, Israel Philarmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra etc.

A multifaceted musician and fascinating stage presence, she maintained a rich involvement in chamber music as well. She appeared frequently with such pianists as Evgeny Kissin, Boris Berezovsky, Pascal Rogé, Valentin Gheorghiu; and cellists David Geringas, Lynn Harrell, Antonio Meneses, Boris Pergamenscikov.

Silvia Marcovici has numerous critically acclaimed recordings including the live performance of the Glazunov Violin Concerto with London Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski, the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi, the Nielsen Violin Concerto with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montpellier under Yoël Levi and the Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin with Valentin Gheorghiu. The Canadian record company DOREMI has released several CDs and DVDs in its «Legendary Treasures» series of live performances by Silvia Marcovici.

Silvia Marcovici is a passionate and active teacher , now in Academia Perosi, Biella Italy. Also,she is currently giving masterclasses all over the world and she is in jury of famous competitions.

Internationally celebrated violinist Alexander Markov has been hailed as one of the world’s most captivating and versatile musicians. 

Lord Yehudi Menuhin has written, “He is without doubt one of the most brilliant and musical of violinists… Alexander MARKOV will certainly leave his mark on the music lovers of the world and in the annals of the violin virtuosi of our day.” Awarded a prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 1987, Markov made his New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 1983. A Gold Medal winner at the Paganini International Violin Competition, he has appeared as a soloist with some of the world's most celebrated orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the BBC Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, the Montreal Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. 

Markov 's musical journey goes beyond his work as a classical violin soloist. While attending high school he discovered and fell in love with rock music – a love affair that merged with his first love, classical music, when he has co-written The Rock Concerto with James V. Remington who also custom-designed Markov’s gold, 6-string electric violin. The new, patented electric violin is one-of-a-kind in the world and has a unique sound capable of creating the most extreme contrasts from the soft and sweet to the most powerful and dramatic. 

Alexander Markov was born in Moscow and studied violin with his father, concert violinist Albert Markov. By the time he was eight years old, he was already appearing as a soloist with orchestras and in double concertos with his father. The father and son team still perform together in duo-program repertoire in concert halls worldwide. Markov emigrated to the U.S. with his parents and received his United States citizenship in 1982.

Violinist Jinjoo Cho is an artist model of the 21st-century. Since her concert debut at age 7, she has been numerously recognized as the winner of world’s most prestigious competitions such as the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Montreal International Musical Competition, Buenos Aires International Violin Competition, Alice Schoenfeld International String Competition, and a laureate of 2011 Isang Yun International Music Competition. As a charismatic female solo artist, a vibrant and engaging chamber musician, a devoted teacher, an innovative artistic director, and a published writer, Jinjoo is redefining what it means to be a consummate classical artist in the modern society.

Jinjoo can be found performing in distinguished international venues and festivals alike Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, La Jolla Music Society, the Herkulessaal of Munich, Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele, Seoul Arts Center, and Teatro Colón of Buenos Aires, with world’s leading orchestras and musicians as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Seoul Philharmonic, Orquesta Clasica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Phoenix Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, James Gaffigan, Michael Stern, Kent Nagano, Peter Oundjian, Tan Dun, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Tito Muñoz, Mathieu Herzog, Itamar Golan, and Roger Tapping. She regularly tours with creative programs that include works of living composers and lesser-known repertoire.

A passionate teacher, Jinjoo is on the violin faculty at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University and has previously taught at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. She is also the Founder/Artistic Director of ENCORE Chamber Music, an intensive summer training program for talented young performers in Cleveland, and regularly gives master classes worldwide.

Jinjoo is an alumna of Cleveland Institute of Music (BM, MM, PS) where she studied with Paul Kantor and Jaime Laredo. She also received training at the Curtis Institute of Music, Kronberg Academy, Aspen Music Festival and School, Perlman Music Program, New York String Orchestra Seminar, Music@Menlo, and Banff Centre’s Chamber Music Residency Program. Jinjoo’s artistic personality was greatly influenced by the Cavani String Quartet, members of the Cleveland Quartet, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, and conductor David Zinman. Jinjoo now lives in Montreal with her toy poodle, Miso, and enjoys visiting art galleries, collecting kitchen magnets and stationeries, and listening to Indie Rock in her spare time.

The accomplished Chinese violinist Lina Yu gained instant acclaim when, at the age of 18, she premiered the ‘Butterfly Lovers’ Violin Concerto. Since then she has recorded this concerto many times with orchestras such as the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Russian Philharmonic, and the Shanghai Symphony.

Since her first rise to attention, Lina Yu has been sought out to premiere many work by various composers and has won numerous awards for her outstanding performances. Led by her, the earliest Chinese string quartet participated and won a prize at Berlin’s 2nd Schumann International Competition in 1960. She appears frequently in recitals and as soloist with orchestras in the United States, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Australia, and China.

In 1962 Lina Yu was appointed to the faculty of the Shanghai Conservatory of Music where she is currently chairwoman of the Violin and Viola Department and professor of violin. Many of her students are top prize winners at the Paganini, Menuhin, Tchaikovsky, Wieniawski, Sendai, Lipizer, and Sibelius International Violin Competitions.

Professor Yu has made frequent guest appearances at major television and radio stations throughout the world. She starred in several documentary films, including ‘Passion for Life, Yu Lina’, a three-hour documentary film about her life made in 2001.

Professor Yu regularly teaches master classes throughout United States, Canada, Israel, Australia, Japan, and China. Professor Yu has served on the jury panel of many prestigious international violin competitions, including the 1998 and 2007 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Russia; the 2006 Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poznań, Poland, the 2012 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition, Hannover, Germany, as well as many international competitions in Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, and her native China.

Professor Yu founded the Yu Lina Violin Foundation in 1993, in order to promote talented young violinists.

Tisa Ho was Executive Director of the Hong Kong Arts Festival 2006 -2022, during which she increased both scale and scope of the organisation; established a programme of producing and co-producing original work and touring this work; introduced free, large scale work for the community; and launched an annual project focusing on inclusion and sharing the arts with persons of different abilities. On the 50th Anniversary of the Festival in 2022, she helped to establish a Festival Foundation targeting major gifts and donations. Throughout her tenure she worked to enhance the organisation’s international reputation and visibility to support the Hong Kong SAR’s position as an international hub for cultural exchange.

Previous leadership in the performing arts includes supervision of government owned venues in Singapore; and management of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Victoria Concert Hall. Special achievements included establishing the Singapore International Piano Festival, setting up the Alliance of Asia Pacific Orchestras, and building the first Shaw Foundation Concert Stage at Symphony Lake, Botanic Gardens. In her community work she was President of the Association of Women for Action and Research, Chair of the Council of Women’s organisations, represented the NGO sector in UN meetings on the Convention to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women, and was active in the ASEAN Women’s Network as well as the International Women’s Forum.

In Hong Kong, Tisa has served on the Board of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival, and numerous advisory committees in education and in the arts. During her term as Chair of the Hong Kong Arts Administrators Association, she re-invigorated and professionalised the organisation, initiated the annual Cultural Leadership Summit and started a series of professional training activities.

Internationally, Tisa is the first Chinese to Chair (2019-2022) the Board of the International Society for Performing Arts headquartered in New York, USA. She has chaired the International Advisory Committee of the Tongyeong Concert Hall, South Korea, and is an honorary citizen of that city. She is on the International Advisory Committee of the Busoni-Mahler Foundation in Italy where she is also on the International Faculty of the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan; and the Advisory Board of the International Association of Theatre Leaders.
Tisa was voted Master of The Arts by the American Chambers of Commerce in Hong Kong in 2020, and elected member of the Hong Kong branch of the All China Literature and Arts Association in 2022. She also received a Merit Award from the Government of Hong Kong for services to the arts in 2021. She is recipient of the Degree of Doctor of the University from the Griffith University in Australia in 2019, and an Honorary Doctorate from the Baptist University of Hong Kong in 2022.

British cellist Josephine Knight is among the most sought-after performers of her generation. Since her sell-out debut at London`s Wigmore Hall, British cellist Josephine Knight has gone on to a highly acclaimed international career spanning over 25 years. As a soloist Josephine has performed with major orchestras in the U.K. and abroad working with such distinguished conductors as Sir Colin Davis, Edward Gardner, Richard Hickox, Jac van Steen and Vasily Petrenko. In 2005 Josephine made her BBC Proms concerto debut at the Royal Albert Hall. She has recorded for EMI Classics, Deutsche Grammophon, Chandos and Dutton Epoch. Her recording of John Tavener’s ‘The Protecting Veil’ received public and critical acclaim and reached the Top Ten in the Classical Music Charts. Other more diverse collaborations have included recordings with Nigel Kennedy, Paul McCartney and Madonna. Josephine has collaborated as a soloist and chamber musician with many leading international performers, including Daniel Hope, Maxim Vengerov, Lisa Batiashvili, Wu Han, Menahem Pressler, Melvyn Tan, Michael Tree from the legendary Guarneri Quartet, Pinchas Zukerman and the Emerson and Takács Quartets. As a founding member of the Pizarro Trio, formed in 2005, they performed in many of the most renowned concert halls and venues worldwide, including numerous appearances at Wigmore Hall, Aldeburgh (where the trio were Artists in Residence), the Petworth, Newbury and Stavanger International Chamber Music festivals, Casa da Música in Porto and the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf.

As an independent artist Josephine has appeared at some of the world’s most prominent festivals, including Bath, Beethoven, Cheltenham, Echternach, Gstaad, Mecklenburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Salzburg, Schloss Elmau and Savannah, as well as the BBC Proms festival. In acknowledgement of her success as an international cellist, in 2008 Josephine was awarded a Fellowship to Wells Cathedral School (one of four major specialist music schools in the U.K.) and in 2009 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.Savannah, as well as the BBC Proms festival.

Young-Chang Cho was born in Seoul in 1958. He started cello lessons at the age of eight. In 1971 he began to study in the United States with David Soyer at the Curtis Institute of Music of Philadelphia, and later with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. In 1980, he continued his studies with Siegfried Palm and Mstislav Rostropovich.

In 1981 he won a prize at the Concours de violoncelle Rostropovitch in Paris and was repeatedly invited to serve in its jury. He also received prizes at the International Cello Competition Pablo Casals in Budapest and at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich.

As a chamber musician he formed the Cho Piano Trio with his sisters Young-Mi Cho (violin) and Young-Bang Cho (piano), receiving prizes at the Geneva International Music Competition in 1977 and at the ARD competition in 1980. 

As a soloist he performed with the Washington National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Rostropovitch and in Tokyo, Sofia and Bologna, among others. He was invited for solo recitals and master classes to international music festivals as Academie Internationale de Musique de Montpellier or the Kronberg Academy (1993 in memory of Pablo Casals, 1995 in memory of Emanuel Feuermann and Jacqueline du Pré, 1997 celebrating the 70th birthday of Rostropovitch). He was a juror there for the first International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in 2000 and the second in 2004. 

Since 1987 he has been teaching violoncello at the Folkwang Hochschule, since 2010 Folkwang University.  His students have included Saerom Park and Graham Waterhouse.

Chinese-Australian cellist Li-Wei Qin appears world-wide as a soloist and chamber musician. Twice a soloist at the BBC Proms in London’s Royal Albert Hall, Li-Wei performs with many of the world’s great orchestras and chamber orchestras including the BBC symphony orchestras, the Los Angeles, London, Hong Kong, Osaka, China and NDR Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestras, Berlin Radio Symphony and Konzerthaus Orchestra, La Verdi Orchestra Milan, ORF Vienna Radio Orchestra, the Prague, Sydney and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, and Kremerata Baltika, Sinfonia Vasovia, the Munich, Manchester, Zurich and Australian Chamber Orchestras. Leading conductors with whom he has worked include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Andrew Davis, Marek Janowski, Jaap Van Zweden, Gianandrea Noseda, Jan Pascal Tortelier, Tan Dun, and the late Marcello Viotti, Jiri Belohlavek and Lord Menuhin

He has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, the Jerusalem, Rheingau and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festivals, at the Lincoln Centre Chamber Music Society New York and his recordings on Universal Music/Decca include the complete Beethoven Sonatas, Dvořàk Concerto (Singapore Symphony Orchestra), Elgar and Walton Concerti (London Philharmonic Orchestra), and a live performance with the Shanghai Symphony and Yu Long on Sony Classical.

He teaches at the YST Conservatory, Singapore and is guest professor at Shanghai and Central Conservatory of Music, China and visiting professor, Chamber music, at the Royal Northern College of Music. Li-Wei plays a 1780 Joseph Guadagnini cello, generously loaned by Dr and Mrs Wilson Goh.

Polish-born cellist Marek Szpakiewicz has been described by Yo-Yo Ma as an artist whose “energy, motivation, earnestness and generosity of spirit are evident through his work.” Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano stated, “(Szpakiewicz’s) performance of my ‘Fancy on a Bach Air’ is absolutely gorgeous.”

Szpakiewicz has drawn praise from critics in Europe, the United States and Japan, describing him as “a gifted player,” “with expansive vision and immense authority,” “no technical limitation,” and “a rare performer who internalizes a profound musical world within.” Polish and American radio stations have broadcasted his live performances, including the one-hour special program dedicated solely to his music on KUSC-Los Angeles, the largest non-profit classical music station in the country. Strad Magazine comments on Szpakiewicz’s live recording of Ernest Bloch’s Schelomo as “remarkably accurate realisation of the score.”

He began cello lessons at the age of six in Lublin, Poland. In his early years, he studied with Ryszard Losakiewicz and Stanislaw Firlej. He later studied with Stephen Kates at the Peabody Conservatory. Szpakiewicz completed his doctorate degree under the tutelage of Eleonore Schoenfeld at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He also studied with such distinguished cellists as Daniil Shafran, Lynn Harrell, and Siegfried Palm.

Szpakiewicz currently teaches cello and chamber music at Azusa Pacific University, where he serves as Director of String Studies and Chamber Music. He is also on the faculties of Idyllwild Arts Academy Summer Program and Montecito International Music Festival. His students have won top prizes at numerous international and national competitions, including International Cello Competition in Chile, the American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition, among others. In addition, his former students have been accepted by such schools as Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and USC Thornton School of Music.

He has also contributed his talent to film orchestration as a collaborator with Polish composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek. Among the scores he has worked on, the music for the critically acclaimed movie “Finding Neverland,” received the 77th Academy Award for Best Original Score in 2005.

In 2008, Szpakiewicz earned permanent residency from the U.S. government as an “Extraordinary Ability Artist.” The title means that he has “sustained national or international acclaim and the achievements have been recognized” in his field, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

In 2011, Szpakiewicz received recognition from Los Angeles County Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael Antonovich for organizing a musical event to raise relief funds for the March 11 earthquake and tsunami victims in Japan. Szpakiewicz has been supporting the Soma Children’s Orchestra in Fukushima, Japan, organized by El Sistema Japan, since its inception in 2012 through various charity concerts. He also visited the orchestra in 2014 for musical guidance. He donated portions of his debut recital in Tokyo in 2015 and his return appearance in Tokyo in the following year to the Soma Children’s Orchestra in a form of a 1/2-sized cello and a 3/4-sized cello respectively. These gifts have been encouraging younger children to join the cello section of the orchestra.

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL is Associate Professor and Chair of the Music Performance department at Azusa Pacific University (APU) in Southern California. He is conductor of the APU Symphony Orchestra and leads their graduate instrumental conducting program. The Los Angeles Times called him “a forcefully dramatic conductor with a strong technique”.  Guest conducting appearances include the MasterWorks Festival in Ohio and Indiana, the Orquestra Sinfônica Heliópolis in São Paulo, Brazil, and orchestras in China including the Harbin Symphony, the Shenzhen City Philharmonic, and Zhengzhou’s Yellow River Symphony.  He has also conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and famous concert halls in London, Vienna, Prague, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg.  He has lectured and judged festivals in other Chinese cities including Beijing, Dalian, Hong Kong, and Qingdao. A new music advocate, Russell has conducted numerous premieres including the first U.S. performances of works by Tansy Davies, Brett Dean, Jonathan Harvey, Anders Hillborg, Tristan Keuris, Magnus Lindberg, Per Nørgård, Kaija Saariaho, and Éric Tanguy.  In 2008, he conducted the U.S. premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Stockholm Diary for string orchestra with the APU Symphony. 

Russell’s musical interest also extends to performing rarely-heard older music including the U.S. or California premieres of many works from the early and mid-20^th century including music by Havergal Brian, Rued Langgaard, Bohuslav Martinu, and Allan Pettersson. An advocate for conducting American music abroad, he conducted the Australian and Brazilian premieres of Ives’ 2^nd Symphony, the Austrian and Slovak premiere of Ives’ Decoration Day, and Russian premiere of Peter Mennin’s Symphony No. 5.  Russell conducted the world premiere of the Symphony in A composed in 1878 by Leopold Damrosch with the APU Symphony which they recorded for the British record label Toccata Classics. For over 20 years until 2019, he conducted the Orange County School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra where he regularly received accolades for the orchestra’s quality and adventurous programming. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers has awarded him their prestigious Award for Programming of Contemporary Music for youth orchestras on ten occasions.  Seven of those times, he was awarded first place in the United States.

Johnny Poon stands at the vanguard of classical music and interdisciplinary research as a conductor and visionary academic leader.  

Poon has led orchestras across the world's most prestigious stages, appearing regularly in concert halls and festivals including Isaac Stern Auditorium, Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall; Glinka Cappella Hall, Novgorod Philharmonic Hall, and Gnessin Institute of Arts in Russia; National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing, China; Operafestival di Roma in Italy, Harlaxton International Music Festival, Manhattan-Hong Kong Music Festival, and Hong Kong Arts Festival. He has conducted such ensembles as Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Capella Orchestra, Sudestdeutsche Philharmonie, Kammarkoren Svenska Roster, Kammerchor Stuttgart, Slezske Divadlo Opava, Opera Hong Kong Orchestra, Sinfonica dell’ international Chamber Ensemble, New England Symphonic Ensemble, Taiwan Baroque Camerata, Xiamen Philharmonic Orchestra, Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. Poon has collaborated with artists, including Anne Akiko Meyers, Ryu Goto, Mengla Huang, Dan Zhu, Simone Lamsma, Nicole Cabell, Liping Zhang, Valentina Lisitsa, Andrew von Oeyen, Bart van Oort, Petra Somlai,  Carole Cerasi, Mahan Esfahani, and Melvyn Tan. In addition, Poon directs the esteemed chamber ensemble Collegium Musicum Hong Kong. Praised for its imaginative programming and flair, the group has earned acclaim as one of Hong Kong's most dynamic chamber orchestras. Its artistry stems from Poon's creative approach, deftly blending traditional 17th and 18th century works with new cross-cultural compositions. 

Beyond conducting, Poon champions ground-breaking research transcending traditional boundaries. Currently Associate Vice-President (Interdisciplinary Research) at Hong Kong Baptist University, he oversees six pioneering research labs investigating new frontiers in science, technology and the arts. His own work focuses on inventive interdisciplinary projects that expand the future of creative practice. One major contribution was his rediscovery and modern adaptation of an 18th-century opera by Antonio Caldara, Le Cinesi, delivering the first performance edition since its 1735 premiere. Poon further reimagined this centuries-old work through an innovative performance model incorporating dance, theater, visual media and artificial intelligence. As co-founder of the pioneering Turing AI Orchestra, Poon spearheads radical human-AI collaboration in the arts. This singular ensemble leverages science and technology to advance creative artificial intelligence in the arts to new heights. 

With his commitment to musical excellence and interdisciplinary innovation, Poon has established himself as an influential conductor, researcher and academic leader. His dedication to pushing boundaries, whether on stage or in the laboratory, expands the landscape of classical music and creative practice as a whole. Poon's leadership and collaborations continue to shape the future of arts research and performance. 

Wei He currently teaches at The Tianjin Juilliard School. As an active violinist, He has performed with many renowned artists and ensembles including members of Juilliard, Concord, Shanghai String Quartet; Francesco Piano Trio; and San Francisco Symphony, among others. These performances have taken him to some of the most prestigious concert venues throughout the world including Carnegie Hall in New York; Kennedy Center in Washington D. C.; Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco; Royal Albert Hall in London; The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Seoul Arts Center in Korea; National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing; and Shanghai Symphony Hall among others.

He taught at San Francisco Conservatory of Music for 17 years and served as Chair of the Strings Department. He has students at almost all top music schools in the United States, who have won numerous prizes and awards at various international competitions. Many of them are working for some of the world’s leading Symphony Orchestras. He frequently gives violin master classes at top music conservatories and universities in the States, Europe and Asia, and has also served as a Fulbright Senior Specialist.

He received his early music training at the middle school of Sichuan Conservatory of Music. He came to the US for his undergraduate studies at University of Texas at Austin and finished his graduate studies in Chamber Music at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He founded the award-winning New China Trio while in college. He joined the first violin section of the San Francisco Symphony shortly after graduating. He then co-founded Bridge Chamber Virtuosi with principle players of San Francisco Symphony. After nearly thirty years of settlement in the States, He returned to China in 2017 at the invitation of Juilliard to participate in establishing The Tianjin Juilliard School, and served as the inaugural artistic director and dean. He currently serves as CEO and artistic director of The Tianjin Juilliard School.

An internationally acclaimed violinist, who for many years had a respected duo partnership with her sister, cellist Eleonore Schoenfeld, she taught at USC Thornton School of Music, California, for almost 60 years. She was also the founder of the Harbin Schoenfeld International String Competition and Schoenfeld International Music Society.

Born in 1921 in Yugoslavia, Alice Schoenfeld studied the violin in Berlin under Karl Klingler, a student of Joseph Joachim, and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic aged ten. In 1952 she and her family immigrated to the US, where in 1959 both she and Eleonore were invited to join the string faculty at USC. At first, they taught part-time while still maintaining their touring schedule, but eventually became full-time faculty members. Both Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky numbered among their colleagues at the school. Among Alice Schoenfeld’s students were Anne Akiko Meyers and Suli Xue.

The sisters received the USC’s Ramo Music Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the American String Teachers Association named them joint winners of the Artist Teacher Award in 1996.

In the 1980s both Alice and Eleonore were among the first internationally recognised musicians to visit communist China, after formal diplomatic relations had been established between the Chinese and American governments. On their recommendation, more than a hundred Chinese string students studying abroad received scholarship support.

One of the most outstanding Chinese-American violinists, Suli Xue enjoys an active career on today’s international music stage. He is a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, president of the Schoenfeld International Music Society, artistic director of the Schoenfeld International String Competition, artistic director of the Hong Kong International Music Festival, artist in residence at the Azusa Pacific University, artistic advisor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, former professor of violin at the USC Thornton School of Music, and former concertmaster of the China National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the winner of two Gold Medals of Global Music Awards. Xue has earned high acclaim around the world for his unique artistry. 

Xue graduated from USC Thornton School of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was a protégé of world-renowned violin professor Alice Schoenfeld. Xue has been frequently invited as a guest artist and faculty to teach and perform at International Music Festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also served as a juror for numerous international music competitions. He performed as a soloist with the YMF Debut Orchestra and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra for their New Year’s Concert Tour in China, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra for their Chinese New Year’s concert.

Recently, he has participated in many important performances as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Summer Music Festival, and others. In 2014, Xue introduced the Schoenfeld International String Competition to Harbin. In 2017, the competition joined the United Nations ESCO “World Federation of International Music Competitions,” fortifying and promoting music cultural exchange internationally. In August 2017, Mr. Suli Xue collaborated with maestro Zubin Mehta as a soloist and concertmaster to perform in the gala symphony concert at the Harbin China-Russia Cultural and Arts Festival. Maestro Mehta described Xue as “a brilliant violinist and outstanding leader that performs with virtuosic musicality.”

Of Russian heritage, French-born Jean-Jacques Kantorow received all his training as a violinist in the Franco-Belgian tradition at the Conservatoires of Nice and Paris: his teacher at Paris was René Benedetti, who had learnt at the École César Franck. This is reflected in his discography of over 130 recordings, which leans strongly towards the virtuoso repertoire often favored by French and Italian players throughout history. Within five years of graduating with a premier prix aged thirteen, Kantorow started winning prizes at major international competitions, including the London Carl Flesch, Genoa Paganini and Geneva International.

Combining the careers of soloist and conductor does not always work especially well. Kantorow appears to be one of the exceptions and has appeared to critical acclaim in both roles at all the major musical centres of Europe, North America, India, the Far East and Africa. He has held residencies with the Orchestre de l’Auvergne, the Helsinki Chamber Orchestra, the Ensemble Orchestrale de Paris, the Tapiola Sinfonietta and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, and made guest appearances with ensembles including the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre de Lyon, the Hallé Orchestra and the Bamberg Symphony. Teaching (notably in Paris and Rotterdam) is another important activity for Kantorow, along with chamber music, in which he has perhaps given his most successful performances in a piano trio with pianist Jacques Rouvier and cellist Philippe Muller.

Whilst there are, certainly, more accurate violinists in this modern age of astonishingly high technical standards, there are few who communicate more powerfully and directly (whether or not the stylistic decisions suit everybody). Kantorow is a fiery and impassioned player, truly in the spirit of the best of violin virtuosity.

The Lithuanian cellist and conductor David Geringas belongs to the musical elite of today. An unusually broad repertoire from the early Baroque to the contemporary is testament to the flexibility and curiosity of the artist. His intellectual rigor, his stylistic versatility, his melodic feeling, and the sensuousness of his tone have brought him praise the world over.

The Rostropovich pupil and gold-medal winner of the 1970 Tchaikovsky Competition can now look back on a career that has spanned decades. David Geringas has performed world-wide with some of the leading orchestras, and important conductors of our time. His discography, which now approaches 100 CDs, includes many that have been honored with important prizes, including the Grand Prix du Disque, Diapason d’Or d’Année, Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and “Echo Klassik”. Well-known contemporary composers such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Ned Rorem, Peteris Vasks and Erkki-Sven Tür have dedicated cello concertos to him. He has premiered many works of the Russian and Lithuanian avant-garde in the West. As conductor, David Geringas appears regularly in Germany and abroad, and appears frequently in a dual role as cellist and conductor. 

Besides the invitations from the citadels of West and East European music centers, from Asia and the USA, David Geringas has for decades taught a world-famous cello class.  For his championing of Lithuanian music and composers, David Geringas has won the highest awards of his homeland. He was awarded the Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse of Germany for his achievements as musician and cultural ambassador for the country on the international musical scene. David Geringas is honorary professor at the Moscow Conservatory, St. Petersburg Rimski-Korsakov Conservatory and at the Central Conservatory in Beijing, as well as having received an honorary doctorate from the Lithuanian Music and Theater Academy.

In 1990 Ole Bøhn gave the world premiere of Elliott Carter's violin concerto with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He has performed this concerto, which was written for and dedicated to him, with the leading orchestras in Europe and the United States. In 1994, this record won the prestigious "Grammy Award" in the category "Best Contemporary Composition".

Since his debut in 1969, Ole Bøhn has performed regularly with orchestras in Europe, USA and South America. In 1983 he toured the People's Republic of China. He has collaborated with conductors such as Moshe Atzmon, Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Lukas Foss, Michael Gielen, Marek Janowski, Franz Welser-Möst, and Oliver Knussen.

Ole Bøhn is professor of violin at the Sydney Conservatory of music. He also holds position of concertmaster of the Norwegian National Opera. He has previously held a similar position with the Copenhagen Symphony Orchestra, and worked for shorter periods as concertmaster of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Teatro del Fenice in Venice, Theatro Municipal, Rio de Janeiro, the Residentie Orchestra in Den Haag and the Hamburg State Opera.In addition to his busy life as a performing musician Ole Bøhn is artistic coordinator of The summer concerts at the Vigeland Museum in Oslo. He is a Commander of the Order of the Norwegian Artists' Association and was awarded by King Harald V the King’s Order of Merit Medal in Gold.

Ole Bøhn uses a violin made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in 1766 which was acquired for his use by Nordea Bank of Norway.

Recognized worldwide as a musical phenomenon, Grammy-nominated Andrés Cárdenes parlays his myriad talents into one of classical music’s most versatile careers. An intensely passionate and personally charismatic artist, Cuban-born Cárdenes has garnered international acclaim from critics and audiences alike for his compelling performances as a violinist, conductor, violist, chamber musician, concertmaster, and recording artist.

Since capturing Second Prize in the 1982 Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in Moscow, Mr. Cárdenes has appeared as a soloist on four continents with over 100 orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Moscow Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Sinfonica Nacional de Caracas, Sinfonica de Barcelona, and the Bavarian Radio Orchestra. He has collaborated with many of the world’s greatest conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Mariss Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir André Previn, Leonard Slatkin, Jaap van Zweden, David Zinman and Manfred Honeck.

As an ambassador for music of our time, Mr. CÁRDENES has commissioned and premiered over 70 works by American, Turkish and Latin American composers such as David Stock, Mike Garson, Erberk Eryilmaz, Leonardo Balada, Ricardo Thomas. His concerto repertoire includes over 100 works, ranging from the Baroque era to the present.

Mr. Cárdenes has thrice served as President of the Jury of the Stradivarius International Violin Competition and in 2011 joined the jury of the Tchaikovsky International Violin Competition in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Mr. Cárdenes was appointed Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra by Maestro Lorin Mazzel in 1989 and departed after the 2010 season to concentrate on his conducting, solo and chamber music careers.

Kun HU is a legendary violinist, conductor and pedagogue. He has been described already in the 80s as “a great artist” (Le Monde), as having “Undoubted power” (The Times), as “HU Kun... Chinese musicians, especially violinist, are establishing an increasingly high profile on the Western concert scene.” (The New York Times/ International Herald Tribune), and as “One of the most individual string players to burst on to the scene... the fines to the younger generation of violinist.” (The Strad).

Kun has studied violin with his father Professor Hu Weimin and Professor Lin Yaoji, piano with his mother Professor Peng Shijun and conducting with Professor Xu Xin. Kun gained his first soloist post at age of thirteen in the Chinese Radio Symphony. He was the first mainland Chinese violinist ever to establish a solo career on the international stage after winning the fifth prize at the Sibelius Violin Competition at just seventeen years old in Helsinki 1980, raising Chinese flag on the international violin competition stage. 

He has toured around world, became the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin’s only private student for 15 years.  Kun has taking up conducting under the personal direction of late Sir. Colin DAVIS for 10 years and founded his own orchestra HUKUN and Friends in London. 

Kun currently enjoys touring as a conductor, a Professor/ Hon RAM at the Royal Academy of Music, giving masterclass at music festivals, chairing and serving as jury member at the world’s major violin competitions and building bridges for East and West cultural exchanges. There have also been a number of films and TV documentaries about his pioneering musical career.

“Virtuosity is so natural to him, in each tone, in each phrase, that he truly musically creates, he sings and lights up a myriad of colours.”

– NZZ Zürich 

One of Jascha Heifetz's last pupils (LA, 1978 to 1981) and first leader of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (until 1999), Dutch violinist Rudolf Koelman teaches at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and is frequently invited as a juror and guest professor at international violin competitions and master courses around the world.

Rudolf KOELMAN regularly performs worldwide as a soloist with numerous internationally renowned orchestras, such as KBS Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, WDR Radio Orchestra, the Dutch Radio Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra, Combattimento Consort and many others. He has also made numerous TV-, radio- and CD recordings among them a live recording of all 24 Paganini’s Capricci. In 2010, he performed in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and recorded live both Violin Concertos No. 1 & 2 by Paganini. These performances were released on Challenge Records and won the prestigious Edison Award 2010 in the Netherlands.

Koelman plays the "Woolhouse" Stradivari 1720 and a Pressenda 1829.

Grzegorz KOTOW founded “Liu-Kotow International Management & Promotion” with Shannen Liu in Hannover, Germany after 20 years of successful performing career as a violinist.  As the artist manager he works with an extensive roster of top performing artists like Midori, Pinchas Zukerman, Giuliano Carmignola, Nemanja Radulović, Isabelle Faust, Rudolf Buchbinder, Igor Levit to name a few.

His intense desire is to help young artists, using his experience, to develop their performing career, like recently the Korean violinist Bomsori KIM.  Before dedicating his life to the field of artist management, as a founding member of the Szymanowski Quartet, Mr. Kotow performed at world’s prestigious concert halls - New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Philharmonie de Paris and he regularly appeared at international festivals like BBC Proms, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein, Schwetzingen, Schubertiade, Lockenhaus, Bath and Cheltenham.

In the early years he won top prizes in many competitions including Melbourne, Osaka, Florence, Munich and Weimar.  Mr. Kotow studied violin and chamber music at “Hochschule für Musik und Theater” in Hannover with Krzysztof Wegrzyn and Hatto Beyerle and further musical development was sparked by pivotal encounters with such eminent musicians like Isaac Stern, Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer and the members of Amadeus, Guarneri and Juilliard Quartets.

Mr. Kotow can be heard on the recordings for Decca, Hyperion, Hänssler, SWR Classics, Avie labels.

He has been artistic director and advisor to the music festivals and concert series in Germany, Austria and Poland. In 2006, he was awarded with Medal of Honor for services to Polish culture.

Anne Gastinel took up the cello at the age of four. At just eleven years of age she entered the Lyon Conservatoire (CNSM). After being awarded her Premier Prix there in 1986, she went on to postgraduate studies at the Paris Conservatoire (CNSM). Her teachers there, Yo-Yo Ma, János Starker and Paul Tortelier, had a profound influence on her personal and musical development, and already recognized in her the maturity of an exceptional artist. She won numerous prizes in major international competitions (Scheveningen, Prague, Rostropovich) and began to appear all over Europe, making a lasting impact on the general public in the 1990 Eurovision Competition.

Her career now takes her to the leading venues in Europe, as well as Japan, China, South Africa, Brazil, Indonesia, Canada, and the United States. She has appeared there with such great masters as Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Kurt Sanderling. During her travels she enjoys exchanging ideas and experiences with many distinguished musicians and composers, including Henri Dutilleux, Emmanuel Krivine, Josep Pons, Vladimir Spivakov, Pinchas Steinberg, Krzysztof Penderecki, Edmon Colomer, Michel Plasson, Yuri Bashmet, Tan Dun, and Michael Schønwandt. 

For nearly fifteen years now, her recordings have received the highest distinctions. In 2006, Anne Gastinel was awarded the Victoire de la Musique in the category ‘Soloist of the Year’ (after ‘Young Talent’ & ‘Best Recording’). Unanimously recognised as the ambassador of the French cello school, she was selected to play for one year the legendary Matteo Gofriller cello that once belonged to Pablo Casals. She now performs her programmes on a Testore instrument of 1690, combining the standard repertoire with regular performances of new works.

Praised internationally for his performances of the contemporary cello repertoire, Jakob Kullberg, is one of the most established and diverse Danish instrumentalists.  Top prize winner at international solo and chamber music competitions, Jakob was artist in residence at the International Carl Nielsen Competition and New Music Orchestra, Poland with which he enjoys a close and continued collaboration. In 2017 he was in residence with the 29^th International Krakow Composers’ Festival and at the Tivoli Garden Concert Hall in Copenhagen.

Jakob is halfway through a large-scale recording project with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with whom he will release five concertos on two CDs. He is twice winner of the Danish Grammy, most recently in 2013 for his concerto CD ’Momentum’. This CD was also nominated for the Gramophone Award and Album of the Week with Q2 Music, New York.  Other high profile orchestras that he regularly appears with include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, Ensemble Intercontemporain, as well as the Danish symphony orchestras and Sinfoniettas to mention a few.

Jakob enjoys a unique working relationship with the Danish composer Per Nørgård, who has composed and dedicated numerous works for him. The two have developed a rare dialogical collaboration facilitating the cellist as co-creator. Similarly Jakob is also a notable interpreter and collaborator of Bent Sørensen and Kaija Saariaho, who have both composed for him.

Professor of Cello at the Royal College of Music, London and Associate Professor and Head of Strings at the University of Stavanger, Norway, for a decade he taught at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. Between 2004 – 2015 he was artistic director of the Open Strings Academy, and has given numerous masterclasses throughout Europe and the USA. 

From the United States to Europe to the Middle East and Asia, Israeli cellist Amit Peled, a musician of profound artistry and charismatic stage presence, is acclaimed as one of the most exciting instrumentalists on the concert stage today. 

During the 2017/18 season, Mr. Peled will continue to share with audiences around the globe the sound of the historic cello of Pablo Casals. Mrs. Marta Casals Istomin, the widow of Maestro Casals, personally handed him this historic instrument, a Goffriler ca. 1733.  Mr. Peled has performed as a soloist with many orchestras and in the world’s major concert halls such as: Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall, New York; Salle Gaveau, Paris; Wigmore Hall, London; Konzerthaus, Berlin; and Tel Aviv’s Mann Auditorium. 

As an active chamber musician, Peled is a founding member of the famed Tempest Trio with pianist, Alon Goldstein and violinist, Ilya Kaler. Mr. Peled is also a frequent guest artist, performing and giving master classes at prestigious summer music festivals such as the Marlboro Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Schleswig Holstein and Euro Arts Festivals in Germany, Gotland Festival in Sweden, Prussia Cove Festival in England, The Violoncello Forum in Spain, and Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, among others. 

One of the most sought-after cello pedagogues, Mr. Peled is a Professor at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of the Johns Hopkins University. A promising basketball player, at 6’5, Mr. Peled had to make a tough choice between the basketball arenas and the concert halls. As difficult as it was to leave the professional basketball behind, he enjoys following fanatically the NBA league and playing hoops with his kids.

The cellist, James Tennant, has enjoyed a wonderfully varied and fruitful career spanning over 35 years. He has performed concerts as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor in over 25 countries, and has made many recordings from Motown’s Michael Jackson to more recently award-winning CD’s of Russian and New Zealand music. 

As a conductor, he has collaborated with many distinguished orchestras and international artists such as Piers Lane, Wolfgang Schmidt, Li-Wei Qin, Julian Lloyd Weber and Daniel Blumenthal, and has conducted the world premieres of 5 operas by David Griffiths. Mr. Tennant has also been the principal cellist of many orchestras including: the Auckland Philharmonia, the Sinfonica Nacional de Colombia, the Michigan Opera Theatre, and has been a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

For the past 18 years James has devoted himself to teaching at the University of Waikato and giving master classes and workshops around New Zealand, China, Singapore, USA, England, Australia and Colombia. At the University, James created a unique Soloist programme designed specifically for extremely talented cellists to be groomed in media training, languages, the history of cellists and composers of cello music, while giving over 30 performances each year with New Zealand’s leading pianist Katherine AUSTIN, to prepare for competitions and a concert career. He has taught many wonderful cellists in this programme including Santiago Canon Valencia, who aged 13 in 2010 received the equal top prize in the Beijing International Cello Competition and more recently 3rd prize in the Queen Elizabeth 2017 Cello Competition.  James has also been at the forefront of musical development in New Zealand for over 30 years having been a founder of the Adams Festival of Chamber Music, the Waikato International Cello Fest, the Wallace International Cello Competition, the Millennium International Chamber Music Festival, Cellophonics and the Belle Celli.

Raphael Wallfisch is one of the most celebrated cellists performing on the international stage. At an early age, Raphael was greatly inspired by hearing Zara Nelsova play, and, guided by a succession of fine teachers including Amaryllis Fleming, Amadeo Baldovino and Derek Simpson, it became apparent that the cello was to be his life’s work. While studying with the great Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky in California, he was chosen to perform chamber music with Jascha Heifetz in the informal recitals that Piatigorsky held at his home.

At the age of twenty-four he won the Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Florence. Since then he has enjoyed a world-wide career playing with such orchestras as the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, English Chamber Orchestra, Hallé, City of Birmingham Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Symphony, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic and many others. He is regularly invited to play at major festivals such as the BBC Proms, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Spoleto, Prades, Oslo and Schleswig Holstein.  Teaching is one of Raphael’s passions. He is in demand as a teacher all over the world and holds the position of professor of cello in Switzerland at the Zürich Hochschule der Kunst.

Britain’s leading composers have worked closely with Raphael, many having written works especially for him. These include Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Kenneth Leighton, James Macmillan, John Metcalf, Paul Patterson, Robert Simpson, Robert Saxton, Roger Smalley, Giles Swayne, John Tavener and Adrian Williams.

Raphael plays a 1760 Gennaro Gagliano, the 1733 Montagnana “Ex-Romberg” and an exquisite modern cello built for Raphael by Patrick Robin.

Raimund Trenkler was born and raised in Berlin. After completing his cello studies at Basel Music Academy (with Distinction), he continued his education at Folkwang University of the Arts and ultimately gained a diploma in solo performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In 1991 he took up the position of first solo cellist with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra until he founded the “Cellissimo” ensemble of five cellists in Frankfurt am Main, with which he performed in international festivals worldwide.

In February 1993, Raimund Trenkler founded Kronberg Academy together with private sponsors following an idea he had developed together with Marta Casals Istomin, the widow of Pablo Casals, and Mstislav Rostropovich, of celebrating Pablo Casals and his message of universal humanity by bringing together musicians of all generations from across the globe in Kronberg to make music together and learn from one another. From the outset, its aim was to support and train highly talented young musicians from all over the world. In autumn of the same year, Raimund TRENKLER directed Kronberg’s first Cello Festival with Marta Casals Istomin and Mstislav Rostropovich as patrons.

Today at Kronberg Academy, the most renowned teachers in their fields train gifted young artists to become soloists in the disciplines of violin, viola and cello.  Raimund Trenkler is Chairman of the Board of Directors and Artistic Director of the Kronberg Academy Foundation, as well as Chair of the Rostropovich Cello Foundation and the Gidon Kremer Stiftung.

He has regularly served on juries, and continues to do so, for several international music competitions, such as the International Pablo Casals Cello Competition in Kronberg and Frankfurt, the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris, the Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition in Moscow, the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann in Berlin, the Beijing International Music Competition, the Isang Yun Cello Competition in Korea, the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition Sion Valais and the Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition in Augsburg.

An internationally acclaimed violinist, who for many years had a respected duo partnership with her sister, cellist Eleonore Schoenfeld, she taught at USC Thornton School of Music, California, for almost 60 years. She was also the founder of the Harbin Schoenfeld International String Competition and Schoenfeld International Music Society.

Born in 1921 in Yugoslavia, Alice Schoenfeld studied the violin in Berlin under Karl Klingler, a student of Joseph Joachim, and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic aged ten. In 1952 she and her family immigrated to the US, where in 1959 both she and Eleonore were invited to join the string faculty at USC. At first, they taught part-time while still maintaining their touring schedule, but eventually became full-time faculty members. Both Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky numbered among their colleagues at the school. Among Alice Schoenfeld’s students were Anne Akiko Meyers and Suli Xue.

The sisters received the USC’s Ramo Music Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the American String Teachers Association named them joint winners of the Artist Teacher Award in 1996.

In the 1980s both Alice and Eleonore were among the first internationally recognised musicians to visit communist China, after formal diplomatic relations had been established between the Chinese and American governments. On their recommendation, more than a hundred Chinese string students studying abroad received scholarship support.

One of the most outstanding Chinese-American violinists, Suli Xue enjoys an active career on today’s international music stage. He is a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, president of the Schoenfeld International Music Society, artistic director of the Schoenfeld International String Competition, artistic director of the Hong Kong International Music Festival, artist in residence at the Azusa Pacific University, artistic advisor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, former professor of violin at the USC Thornton School of Music, and former concertmaster of the China National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the winner of two Gold Medals of Global Music Awards. Xue has earned high acclaim around the world for his unique artistry. 

Xue graduated from USC Thornton School of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was a protégé of world-renowned violin professor Alice Schoenfeld. Xue has been frequently invited as a guest artist and faculty to teach and perform at International Music Festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also served as a juror for numerous international music competitions. He performed as a soloist with the YMF Debut Orchestra and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra for their New Year’s Concert Tour in China, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra for their Chinese New Year’s concert.

Recently, he has participated in many important performances as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Summer Music Festival, and others. In 2014, Xue introduced the Schoenfeld International String Competition to Harbin. In 2017, the competition joined the United Nations ESCO “World Federation of International Music Competitions,” fortifying and promoting music cultural exchange internationally. In August 2017, Mr. Suli Xue collaborated with maestro Zubin Mehta as a soloist and concertmaster to perform in the gala symphony concert at the Harbin China-Russia Cultural and Arts Festival. Maestro Mehta described Xue as “a brilliant violinist and outstanding leader that performs with virtuosic musicality.”

Shlomo Mintz is considered by colleagues, audiences, and critics one of the foremost violinists of our time, esteemed for his impeccable musicianship, stylistic versatility, and commanding technique. He has long been acclaimed as a celebrated guest artist with many of the great orchestras and conductors on the international stage and continues to enchant audiences with his playing.

Awarded with many prestigious international prizes including the Premio Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana, the Diapason D’Or, the Grand Prix du Disque, the Gramophone Award, the Edison Award and the Cremona Music Award, in 2006 he received an Honorary Degree from the Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba (Israel).

Born in Moscow and immigrated when he was 2 to Israel, he studied with Ilona Feher who introduced Mintz to Isaac Stern becoming this his mentor. He was also a student of Dorothy DeLay in New York.

On stage from an early age and along his career, he has collaborated with such a famous artists like Isaac Stern,  Mstislav Rostropovich, Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Muti, Yuri Temirkanov, Ida Haendel and Ivry Gitlis, among many others, and played with the best orchestras in the world as the Berlin, Vienna, Concertgebouw, Chicago, Los Angeles,  Philadelphia and New York Philharmonic 

At 18 years old, Mintz launched a parallel career as a conductor, and has since led acclaimed orchestras worldwide including the Royal Philharmonic (United Kingdom), the NHK Symphony (Japan), and the Israel Philharmonic.

Regularly invited by the most prestigious international competitions, Mintz has served as a jury member of the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in Brussels and the International Henryk Wieniawski Competition in Poznań, Poland. He was also invited to be jury president of the Munetsugu Angel Violin Competition in Japan, for several years.  From 2002 to 2011, he was jury president of the Sion Valais-International Violin Competition in Switzerland and from 2012 to 2018, the Artistic Director of Crans-Montana Classics, a high-level violin Mastercourse and Festival, also in Switzerland.

Currently, he is the Mentor and President of the Jury of the International Violin Competition Buenos Aires in Argentina, President of Jury and Artistic Director of Tucuman (Argentina) Festival and National Violin Competition, as well as the president of the Ilona Fehér Budapest Violin Competition in Hungary.

Cellist Lynn Harrell, one of the finest and most prominent American classical musicians of his generation, has died. He was 76 years old.

His death was initially announced by his wife, violinist Helen Nightengale, on social media. She did not disclose the cause of his death. In a statement provided Wednesday by Columbia Artists, the company that managed Harrell, Nightengale said that the cellist's death was unexpected.

Over the course of his wide-ranging career, Harrell performed as a soloist with just about every major orchestra in the U.S. and Europe. Within the classical music world, Harrell was also widely beloved as a generous chamber music colleague, a respected teacher and a musician's musician.

When he made his debut at Carnegie Recital Hall (now Weill Recital Hall) at age 20 in 1964, the New York Times enthused: "He has music in his bones, plus a technique that a cellist two or three times his age can envy."

Harrell was born Jan. 30, 1944, in New York City. He was the son of two notable musicians: baritone Mack Harrell, a regular presence at the Metropolitan Opera for many years, and violinist Marjorie McAlister Fulton. His godfather was the revered choral conductor Robert Shaw. When he was 12, the family moved to Dallas, but spent summers in Aspen, Colo., while Mack Harrell taught and performed at the Aspen Music Festival and School. Throughout his own career, Lynn Harrell maintained a deep relationship with the Aspen festival as well.

.

.

.

。

。

.

。

.

.

.

Celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2016. Founded  by students of the Ferenc Liszt Academy, Budapest,  the quartet took on the name of the  Hungarian  composer  Zoltán Kodály in 1972.

They have been  ambassadors of  Hungarian string quartet culture both  domestically  and  internationally. In the last few decades they have toured with great success in almost every European country, as well as in the United States, Japan, China, India, Australia and  New Zealand.

„The Kodaly’s rich tone was assured….the playingwas so elegant… a brilliant lesson in the string quartet’s first quartercentury… intelligent ensemble”  The Washington Post

„Immensely satisfying”  The Strad

International critics have been full of praisefor the Kodály Quartet’s numerous (some 70) recordings, including the monumental undertaking of the complete cycles of Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert for Naxos.  The interpretation of Haydn’s Op. 64 was called by  Classic CD Magazine „ Best chamber music release of 1993”, Vol. VI of  the Beethoven series was  BBC Music Magazine’s “Pick of the Month” and gave it five stars for both performance and sound, calling it an “extraordinary achievement.”

 „The Kodaly’s playing throughout the last of the Rasumovsky trilogy, op.59/3 in C, is spellbinding. There is an Olympian breadth and intensity here… Op.127 is a triumph for these players.” BBC Music Magazine on the Quartet’s rendering of Beethoven Octets of Bruch and Mendelssohn received  “10 out of 10” for both artistic and recording quality from ClassicsToday.com.

In addition to its standard classical repertoire the Kodály Quartet regularly includes in its programmes works by Hungarian composers –  Kodály, Bartók, Dohnányi and others.

An internationally acclaimed violinist, who for many years had a respected duo partnership with her sister, cellist Eleonore Schoenfeld, she taught at USC Thornton School of Music, California, for almost 60 years. She was also the founder of the Harbin Schoenfeld International String Competition and Schoenfeld International Music Society.

Born in 1921 in Yugoslavia, Alice Schoenfeld studied the violin in Berlin under Karl Klingler, a student of Joseph Joachim, and made her debut with the Berlin Philharmonic aged ten. In 1952 she and her family immigrated to the US, where in 1959 both she and Eleonore were invited to join the string faculty at USC. At first, they taught part-time while still maintaining their touring schedule, but eventually became full-time faculty members. Both Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky numbered among their colleagues at the school. Among Alice Schoenfeld’s students were Anne Akiko Meyers and Suli Xue.

The sisters received the USC’s Ramo Music Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the American String Teachers Association named them joint winners of the Artist Teacher Award in 1996.

In the 1980s both Alice and Eleonore were among the first internationally recognised musicians to visit communist China, after formal diplomatic relations had been established between the Chinese and American governments. On their recommendation, more than a hundred Chinese string students studying abroad received scholarship support.

One of the most outstanding Chinese-American violinists, Suli Xue enjoys an active career on today’s international music stage. He is a member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, president of the Schoenfeld International Music Society, artistic director of the Schoenfeld International String Competition, artistic director of the Hong Kong International Music Festival, artist in residence at the Azusa Pacific University, artistic advisor of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra, former professor of violin at the USC Thornton School of Music, and former concertmaster of the China National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the winner of two Gold Medals of Global Music Awards. Xue has earned high acclaim around the world for his unique artistry. 

Xue graduated from USC Thornton School of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. He was a protégé of world-renowned violin professor Alice Schoenfeld. Xue has been frequently invited as a guest artist and faculty to teach and perform at International Music Festivals in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He has also served as a juror for numerous international music competitions. He performed as a soloist with the YMF Debut Orchestra and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra for their New Year’s Concert Tour in China, and Pacific Symphony Orchestra for their Chinese New Year’s concert.

Recently, he has participated in many important performances as a soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Harbin Summer Music Festival, and others. In 2014, Xue introduced the Schoenfeld International String Competition to Harbin. In 2017, the competition joined the United Nations ESCO “World Federation of International Music Competitions,” fortifying and promoting music cultural exchange internationally. In August 2017, Mr. Suli Xue collaborated with maestro Zubin Mehta as a soloist and concertmaster to perform in the gala symphony concert at the Harbin China-Russia Cultural and Arts Festival. Maestro Mehta described Xue as “a brilliant violinist and outstanding leader that performs with virtuosic musicality.”

..

.

.

.

。

.

.

.

.

。

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

。

。

.

。

。

.

.

.