Andrew Wan

Andrew Wan was named concertmaster of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal (OSM) in 2008. As soloist, he has performed worldwide under conductors such as Rafael Payare, Kent Nagano, Maxim Vengerov, Vasily Petrenko, Bernard Labadie, Carlo Rizzi, Peter Oundjian, Xian Zhang, Michael Stern and James DePreist. He has played chamber music with artists such as the Juilliard Quartet, Vadim Repin, Marc-André Hamelin, Daniil Trifonov, Menahem Pressler, Jörg Widmann, Emanuel Ax, Johannes Moser, Arabella Steinbacher, James Ehnes, and Gil Shaham as a frequent artist at the Seattle Chamber Music, La Jolla Summerfest, Ottawa Chamberfest, Toronto Summer Music, Orford Musique, St. Prex, Colorado College and Olympic festivals. Wan performs regularly as guest concertmaster for the Pittsburgh, Houston, Indianapolis, National Arts Centre, Toronto and Vancouver Symphony orchestras.

Wan’s discography includes Grammy-nominated and Juno, Felix and Opus award-winning releases on the Analekta, Onyx, Bridge, and Naxos labels with the Seattle Chamber Music Society, New York’s Metropolis Ensemble, Charles Richard-Hamelin and the New Orford String Quartet. In the fall of 2015, he released a live recording of all three Saint-Saëns violin concerti with the OSM and Kent Nagano under the Analekta label to wide critical acclaim. His recent live album of works for violin and orchestra by Bernstein, Moussa and Ginastera with Nagano and the OSM won the 2021 Juno award for Best Classical Recording for Large Ensemble.

Wan enjoys a deep collaborative relationship with Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, silver medalist of the 17th Chopin International Piano Competition, with whom he has recorded all ten Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin.  Their second album of Beethoven's 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th Sonatas garnered the 2022 Juno award for Best Classical Recording for Small Ensemble.  Their next recording will feature the sonatas for violin and piano by Robert Schumann, to be released in the fall of 2022.

Wan graduated from The Juilliard School with Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees and is currently a member of the New Orford String Quartet, Associate Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University, Artistic Director of the Prince Edward County Chamber Music Festival and for the 2017-18 season was Artistic Partner of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he won the Part-Time Teaching Award at the Schulich School of Music. (www.andrewviolin.com)

Andrew Wan performs on a 1744 Michel'Angelo Bergonzi violin, and gratefully acknowledges its loan from the David Sela Collection. He also enjoys the use of an 1860 Dominique Peccatte bow from Canimex. 

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Annie Rabbat

An avid chamber musician, violinist Annie Rabbat has participated in the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute, IMS Prussia Cove's Open Chamber Music, and Caramoor's Rising Stars Series, as well as the Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals. She toured with Musicians from Ravinia's Steans Institute in 2005, giving performances in Washington, D.C.'s Library of Congress and Boston's Gardner Museum. Her chamber music collaborations have included performances with Roger Tapping, Gary Hoffman, Menahem Pressler, Timothy Eddy, Ani Kavafian, Anthony Marwood, and Stephen Stirling.

Ms. Rabbat's recent engagements have included a solo recital at the Caramoor Center for the Performing Arts and chamber music performances at the Virginia Arts Festival, Concord Chamber Music Society, and throughout the Boston area. She is a member of the Laurel Quartet, Concertmaster of the Gardner Museum Chamber Orchestra, and also plays with Walden Chamber Players and A Far Cry.

Ms. Rabbat completed her Bachelor of Music degree at Indiana University and holds a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School. She now resides in Boston where she studies at the New England Conservatory with Miriam Fried and Donald Weilerstein. Her mentors have also included Robert Mann, Nicholas Mann, Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian and Phil Setzer.

Wayne Lin

Wayne Lin, a native of Green Bay, WI, received his Bachelor's degree from the Juilliard School, studying violin with Glenn Dicterow, and most recently completed his Master's degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music, under the tutelage of Peter Oundjian. His music has led him to performances on four continents, and he has appeared as soloist with the symphonies of Green Bay, Fox Valley, Milwaukee, the Martinu and Hradec Kralove Philharmonics in the Czech Republic, the Sudecka Philharmonic in Poland, the Chengdu Symphony in China, and chamber music performances in Bangkok, Thailand and throughout Argentina. Mr. Lin has served as concertmaster with the Juilliard Symphony, the Yale Philharmonia, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and is also a member of the New Haven Symphony and will be serving as concertmaster this up-coming season. An avid chamber musician, he is also a member of the Sebastian Chamber Players and the Hindemith Ensemble, and has participated in the Taos and Kneisel Hall Chamber Music festivals, Music Academy of the West, and the Tanglewood and Aspen Music Festivals. Mr. Lin plays on a 1779 G.B . Guadagnini violin.

Jessica Lee

Violinist Jessica Lee, the First Prize Winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, was featured in the "Launch Pad" column of The Strad (June 2007), as the magazine's "pick of up-and-coming musicians" for that month. Describing a recent performance with her hometown orchestra, the Richmond Symphony, the Richmond Times-Dispatch said: "Her performance was flawless."

Current highlights for Ms. Lee include her debut recitals at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium and on the Ravinia Festival's Rising Stars series as well as engagements with the Chamber Music Society of Little Rock and Patrons for Young Artists (NY). Her 2006 concerto debut at Alice Tully Hall, performing Beethoven's Violin Concerto with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony was broadcast twice on WQXR-FM. Other recent engagements include Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall on the CAG/Winners Series, as well as recitals at the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, Caramoor Festival in New York, Asociacion National de Conciertos in Panama and Purdue University.

Ms. Lee is an active chamber musician and became a member of the Johannes String Quartet in 2006. She has toured frequently with 'Musicians from Marlboro,' including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston's Gardner Museum. She is also a member of the conductor-less string ensemble ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), with which she has performed at Town Hall and the Kennedy Center.

Ms. Lee has also appeared on the Concerti di Mezzogiorno Recital Series at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, the Festival de Musica de Camera in Lima, Peru, and the FOCUS! Festival in New York. She has also performed as guest soloist with such orchestras as the American Chamber Orchestra, the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Richmond Symphony, Hampton Youth Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. She has been a participant at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival as well as at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.

A native of Virginia, Jessica Lee began playing the violin at age three and quickly captured national attention with a feature article in LIFE magazine. Following studies with Weigang Li of the Shanghai Quartet, she was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree under the tutelage of Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. In May 2003, she completed her studies with Robert Mann for a Master of Music Degree at the Juilliard School and currently resides in New York.

Jung-min Amy Lee

Violinist Amy Lee has performed extensively throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Amy made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age fifteen at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia. Three years later, she appeared as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra again at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia. Following her debut, she has performed with orchestras including Germany's Baden-Baden Philharmonic, Curtis Chamber Orchestra, National Gallery Orchestra (Washington DC), Peninsula Symphony(San Francisco), Kennett Square Symphony(PA), Lower Merion Symphony(PA), Temple University Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra(NM) among many others, and was heard in a concert broadcast on Philadelphia public radio as both soloist and concertmaster with the Temple Youth Chamber Orchestra. Amy has achieved notable success at competitions both in America and abroad, most recently capturing first prize at San Francisco's prestigious Irving M. Klein International String Competition and at Corpus Christi International Competition for piano and strings.

In addition to her solo career, Amy has received widespread critical acclaim as a chamber musician, performing frequently on both violin and viola. She serves as first violinist in the Koryo String Quartet, an ensemble formed with three fellow Curtis students in 2001 which has performed to enthusiastic audiences across the country, has been featured at Music from Angel Fire (NM), and most recently was signed to the roster of Astral Artistic Services, Philadelphia's premiere artist management company. As both a chamber and orchestral musician, Amy has traveled the world, participating in celebrated music festivals and programs including the Marlboro Music Festival (VT), Aspen Music Festival (CO), Kneisel Hall (ME), Sarasota Festival (FL), Verbier Academy (Switzerland), the Library of Congress Juilliard Quartet Seminar (Washington DC), Carl Flesch Akademie (Germany), Mozarteum Summer Academy (Salzburg), and Jaime Laredo's New York String Orchestra Seminar.

She served as concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and, in 2004, toured Japan's Hyogo prefecture as soloist with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra, led by Joseph Silverstein. In addition to performing, Amy has participated in masterclasses in America and Europe, has studied with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, including Yumi Scott and Choong Jin Chang (principal violist).

Amy graduated in May 2005 with a Bachelor's degree in violin from Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with renowned violinist Ida Kavafian. She is currently studying at The Juilliard School as a Maters of Music candidate under Ronald Copes and Donald Weilerstein.

Yvonne Lam

Violinist Yvonne Lam has captivated audiences worldwide with her intelligent and sincere musicianship, having appeared as soloist with such renowned orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the Auckland Philharmonia, and the American Youth Symphony. Ms. Lam possesses a rare combination of thoughtful sensitivity and formidable technical prowess and was praised by the New Zealand Herald as a performer with the "subtlest of nuancing."

Winner of the silver medal at the 2005 Michael Hill World Violin Competition, Ms. Lam has also earned top prizes at the Liana Issakadze International Competition and the Holland-America Music Society Competition, Grand Prize in the Pasadena Instrumental Competition, First Prize in the Bronislaw Kaper Awards, the Arts Recognition and Talent Search festival (sponsored by the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts), and First Prize at the Donna Reed Foundation Competition. Furthermore, she won prizes for the Best Performance of a Commissioned Work at both the Irving M. Klein International String Competition and at the Michael Hill World Violin Competition.

A truly versatile artist, Ms. Lam is equally accomplished as a chamber musician, having performed with such distinguished chamber musicians such as Paul Katz, Roger Tapping, Anthony Marwood, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Gil Kalish, and Fred Sherry. She performed the New York premiere of Gabriela Ortiz's quintet El Aguila bicefala in Juilliard's Focus! Festival 2006, and presented a program of new chamber works at Juilliard and Harvard with the Juilliard Pierrot Ensemble in collaboration with Altavoz, a group of young Latin-American composers. She has toured Israel with her quartet, the Colburn Quartet, in which she was both first violinist and pianist, and has performed in chamber music festivals such as Music From Angel Fire, Ravinia Music Festival, Yellow Barn Music Festival, and Taos Music Festival.

A native of Los Angeles, Ms. Lam studied both piano and violin at the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Her violin teachers in Los Angeles included Alexander Treger, Laura Schmieder, Alice Schoenfeld, and Linda Rose; her piano teachers were Yohsuke Suga and Dr. Louise Lepley. She earned her Bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2005, where she studied with Victor Danchenko. Currently, she is pursuing a Master's degree in violin performance at the Juilliard School, where she is studying with Robert Mann.

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Frank Huang

Since winning the first prize of the 2003 Walter W. Naumburg Foundation's Violin Competition and the 2000 Hannover International Violin Competition, Frank Huang has developed a major career as a violin virtuoso. At the age of eleven, he performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in a nationally broadcast concert and has since performed with orchestras throughout the world, including the Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, NDR-Radio Philharmonic Orchestra of Hannover, Amadeus Chamber Orchestra and the Genoa Orchestra. He has performed on NPR's Performance Today, Good Morning America and CNN's American Morning with Paula Zahn. Mr. Huang's first commercial recording, comprised of Fantasies by Schubert, Ernst, Schoenberg and Waxman, was released to critical acclaim on Naxos in the fall of 2003.

He has had great success in competitions since the age of fifteen with top prize awards in the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition and the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. He received Gold Medal Awards in the Kingsville International Competition, the Irving M. Klein International Competition and the D'Angelo International Competition. In addition to his solo career, Mr. Huang is deeply committed to chamber music. He has attended the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia's Steans Institute, The Seattle Chamber Music festival, and the the Caramoor Festival, and also been a member of the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's CMSII program. He is also the leader and concertmaster of the Sejong Soloists, a conductorless string ensemble based in New York City. Recent performances include concerts in Wigmore Hall, (London) Salle Cortot, (Paris) Kennedy Center, (Washington) and Alice Tully Hall (new York), where he gave the world premiere of Donald Martino's Sonata for Solo Violin. Mr. Huang studied with Robert Mann at The Juilliard School, Donald Weilerstein at the Cleveland Institue of Music, and with Fredell Lack.

Noah Geller

Violinist Noah Geller, winner of numerous competitions and prizes, has given lauded performances throughout the United States and abroad. A laureate of the 2007 Michael Hill International Violin Competition, Mr. Geller recently performed recitals in Queenstown, New Zealand and chamber music with the New Zealand Trio in Auckland. Previously he received top prizes in the 2006 Corpus Christi International String Competition, the Skokie Valley Symphony Young Artists' Competition and Wisconsin Public Radio's Neale-Silva Young Artists' Competition in Madison, Wisconsin. Mr. Geller has also won competitions at the Music Academy of the West (Santa Barbara) and the Chicago Youth Symphony, resulting in solo performances with those orchestras. Following performances at the Tanglewood Music Center, he was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize.

In recital, Mr. Geller has appeared at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago as part of the Chicago Youth Symphony's Distinguished Alumni Recital series. He has also performed in a live Wisconsin Public Radio broadcast at the Elvehjem Museum of Art in Madison. Through the Merit School of Music in Chicago, Mr. Geller performed the world premiere of Eugene O'Brien's Two Inventions for Violin and Cello, broadcast on WFMT radio. As a chamber musician, Mr. Geller has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, Alice Tully Hall, Sejong Center, and the Taos School of Music in New Mexico.

As an orchestral musician, Mr. Geller has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and has served in concertmaster and principal positions for the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Juilliard Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra under James Levine. Mr. Geller recently joined the first violin section of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

A previous student of Jennifer Cappelli and Hyo Kang, Mr. Geller is currently completing his Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School where he studies with Donald Weilerstein and Cho-Liang Lin. Mr. Geller plays a violin made in 1783 by Nicolo Gagliano II on loan from an enthusiastic benefactor.

Sharon Cohen

Born in 1983, Israeli violinist Sharon Cohen has been living in Boston now for over two years. She received her Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, Boston, this past Spring, and decided to stay in the area for the newly formed chamber orchestra, 'A Far Cry'. Her other plans this year include substituting with the Israeli Philharmonic whenever possible.

Among these orchestras and others in the Boston area, Sharon is also a member of the West Eastern Divan Orchestra which brings together Israelis, Europeans and Arabs from all over the Middle East under the baton of Maestro Daniel Barenboim. A regular member of this orchestra since 2003, Sharon has toured with the orchestra in Europe, South and North America, Morocco and in the Middle East. She is a recipient of the Barenboim-Said Foundation Scholarship.

Before coming to Boston she had studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance for her Bachelor's degree, and has served in the Israeli Defence Force as part of the Musicians Unit.

David Auerbach

Violist David Auerbach will graduate this fall with a performance Doctorate from Stony Brook University, where he has been a scholarship student of Katherine Murdock for the past three years. Previously, he earned a Masters Degree at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Samuel Rhodes, and a Bachelor of Science Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with majors in both Music Performance and Molecular Biology.

As a soloist, Mr. Auerbach has given numerous recitals in both New England and the Midwest. His vital involvement in chamber music includes participation in the music festivals of Ravinia, Kneisel Hall, and Norfolk, and he has performed several times in Carnegie's Weill and Zankel Recital Halls. In addition to maintaining an active performing career, Mr. Auerbach teaches in a wide variety of contexts, including giving individual instruction to pre-college students at Juilliard, teaching beginning string players in elementary schools in Vermont, and coaching chamber music at Dartmouth College.

Lily Francis

Lily Francis is an up-and-coming chamber musician, sought after both as a violinist and a violist. She is a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two, the residency program for distinguished young artists. As part of CMS Two, she regularly peforms at Lincoln Center, in the Rose Studio and Alice Tully Hall. She received her Bachelor's degree from Curtis, studying with Joseph Silverstein, and is now pursuing her Master's degree at New England Conservatory, studying violin with Miriam Fried. Her other teachers have included Teri Einfeldt, Brian Lewis, and Philip Setzer. In addition, she began viola studies in the fall of 2005, with Steven Tenenbom.

Ms. Francis made her debut with the Farmington Valley Symphony Orchestra, and has since soloed with the Hartford Symphony Orchestra on their Masterworks Series, the Connecticut Virtuosi, the Brockton Symphony Orchestra, and the New Britain Symphony. In addition, she has been top prizewinner in several competitions, including the Hartford Symphony Young Artist’s Concerto Competition, the Paderewski Competition, and she received the Howard Beebe String Award for Solo Bach Performance at the Corpus Christi International Competition.

Ms. Francis is the violist of the Vertigo String Quartet, which has performed throughout the Philadelphia area, and in Ischia, Italy, at the home of Lady Walton, widow of Sir William Walton. The Vertigos also traveled to Atri, Italy, where they took First Prize in Chamber Music at the 2nd Competition of the Duchi D'Acquaviva. They recorded the soundscape for Michael Hollinger's award-winning play "Opus", and received a Barrymore Award for their unique collaboration. They have appeared at Music From Angel Fire, New Mexico and have performed numerous times at BargeMusic in Brooklyn, where they will begin a year-long residency this fall.

Ms. Francis has attended several summer festivals, including Marlboro, Aspen, Greenwood, and Yellow Barn. She has been privileged to play alongside such distinguished artists as Richard Goode, Gilbert Kalish, Kim Kashkashian, Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, Mitsuko Uchida and Peter Wiley. She recently appeared on Caramoor's Rising Stars series in Katonah, Mostly Music series with Carter Brey, and with Musicians from Marlboro on their east coast tours of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington D.C. and points in between. Her plans include concerts at Caramoor, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, and in Ischia and Austria.

Arnaud Sussmann

Twenty-two year old violinist Arnaud Sussmann is quickly establishing a reputation as a multi-faceted and compelling artist, earning the highest praise from both critics and audiences alike. He has performed as a soloist throughout the United States, Central America, Europe, and Asia at many renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Smithsonian Museum and the Louvre Museum. Mr. Sussmann has recently appeared with the Cannes Orchestra, the Monaco Chamber Orchestra, the Nice Orchestra, the Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, the El Salvador National Symphony Orchestra and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and presented recitals in numerous cities around the world including New York, Memphis, Chicago, Panama City, San Salvador, London, Paris, St Petersburg, and Shanghai among others.

In addition to his solo career, Mr. Sussmann is also a dedicated chamber musician. He was recently accepted into the prestigious Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two program for the 2006-2009 seasons and will appear in numerous performances at Lincoln Center in New York as well as on tour throughout the United States. He has performed with many of the today’s leading artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Kalichstein, Miriam Fried, Ani Kavafian, Paul Neubauer, Fred Sherry, and Andre-Michel Schub.

Mr. Sussmann is a winner of several International Competitions and awards including the Andrea Postacchini Competition in Fermo, Italy and the Vatelot/Rampal Competition in Paris, France. In 2003, the Tanglewood Music Center awarded him the David Gritz Violin Award for his extraordinary commitment of talent and energy. Most recently the New York Salon de Virtuosi concert series awarded him with their fellowship grant, resulting in a live concert broadcast on WQXR’s “Young Artists Showcase” radio show. In the summer of 2006, he was chosen to perform on the Dame Myra Hess concert series in Chicago which was broadcast live on television and on WFMT radio.

Highlights of the 2006-07 season include a performance of the Brahms G Major sextet with Itzhak Perlman, concerto and recital appearances in Houston, Santa Fe, New York, London, El Salvador, and a tour of the United States with violinist Miriam Fried and musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute. Other upcoming engagements include chamber music concerts with Menahem Pressler, Gary Hoffman and Ida Kavafian. In April 2006, Mr. Sussmann recorded a live CD of chamber works by Dvorak and Beethoven with David Finckel and Wu Han. Mr. Sussmann is also featured as the leader of the Suedama ensemble on a recording of Mozart piano concertos being released on the Vanguard Classics label in the summer of 2006. Mr. Sussmann’s past summer festival appearances include Strings in the Mountains, Giverny Music Festival, Virginia Arts Festival, Ravinia, Tanglewood, and the Perlman Music Program.

Mr. Sussmann holds a Bachelor of Music Degree from The Juilliard School and is currently working towards his Master of Music degree with Itzhak Perlman, who chose him to be a Starling Fellow, an honor qualifying him as his teaching assistant for the next two years. His previous teachers include Daniel Lagarde and Boris Garlitsky. He has also studied chamber music with Jerome Lowenthal, Pamela and Claude Frank, the Juilliard String Quartet, Miriam Fried, and Donald Weilerstein.

Mr. Sussmann plays on a fine Franciscus Celoniatus violin from Turin, 1732.

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