Jurors 2025

Lina Bahn
USC Thornton School of Music
Lina Bahn is a violinist who has a keen interest in collaborative and innovative repertoire, and has been called “brilliant” and “lyrical” by the Washington Post. Her most recent publication of Axolotl for violin and electronics on Neuma Records was released with high acclaim, “proves not only her technical brilliance, but also her flair for innovative musical narratives”. Her first solo album, Mean Fiddle Summer on the Naxos Label was hailed by the ClevelandClassical.com, “From start to finish, the violinist demonstrates her adroit technical facility, kaleidoscope of colors, and consummate musical taste.”
As a committed educator, she was on the faculty at the University of Colorado-Boulder from 2008-2015, and has taught masterclasses and lessons throughout the world, including those at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, the Sydney Conservatory, Hong Kong University, Renmin University in Beijing, The Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music, among others. She was on the faculty of the Sierra Summer Academy of Music from 2001-2013, the Institute of the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, Italy, Green Mountain Chamber Music Summer Festival, the Borromeo Music Festival, the Mostly Modern Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. Currently, she teaches at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles
Intrigued by the relationship between art and social context, Bahn is one of four founding members of MoVE (Modern Violin Ensemble). MoVE is an innovative quartet of four violinists, committed to commissioning music and starting a canon of repertoire for this relatively unknown instrumentation. Along with MoVE, she has collaborated with cellist Matt Haimovitz to produce a program dedicated to ocean/water awareness at the National Gallery of Art.
Lina Bahn was a member of the award-winning Corigliano Quartet, which held prestigious residency posts at The Juilliard School, Indiana University and Dickinson College, as well as on summer faculty at Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival, Marrowstone, Canandaigua Chamber Festival, and the Chicago Suzuki Institute. The quartet’s performances have brought them to such venues as The Library of Congress, Alice Tully Hall, Ravinia Festival, Corcoran Gallery, Phillips Collection, Carnegie Hall, and the Library of Congress, and earned them the ASCAP/CMA Award for Adventurous Programming. In 2007, their Naxos Records recording of quartets by John Corigliano and Jefferson Friedman was selected by The New Yorker magazine as one of the year’s “Best 10 Recordings.” The Corigliano Quartet was lauded by the Strad Magazine for their “abundant commitment and mastery”, and praised as “musicians who seem to say ‘listen to this!'” by the New York Times. They have been broadcast on NPR’s Performance Today, All Things Considered, and Backstage Pass, Chicago’s WFMT’s Live From Studio One, and can be heard on the Albany, CRI, Naxos, and Bayer Labels.
Chamber music performances have included recitals and concerts in festivals such as the Oregon Bach Festival, the Costa Rican International Chamber Festival, the Sierra Summer Festival, the Grand Canyon Music Festival, the Garth Newel Music Series, and the Festival de Música de Cámara de San Miguel de Allende, and Music on the Hill in Rhode Island. In the spring of 2010, she was on tour with the Takacs Quartet, performing at Carnegie Hall, the Southbank Centre, Concertgebouw, and the Mariinsky Theater. From 1992-1994 she toured extensively throughout Chile with the Bahn-Mahave-Browne piano trio as a recipient of national grants to teach and perform. In 2005, their piano trio was selected to perform for the president of Chile and the King of Indonesia, in Kuala Lumpuur.
In Washington, D.C., Lina Bahn was the Executive Director and violinist with the VERGE Ensemble for fourteen years, while it was the resident ensemble of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. The VERGE Ensemble performed in Paris, New York, Cleveland, at the Livewire Festival (UMBC) and Third Practice Festival (Richmond), University of Virginia, and was the resident ensemble for the June in Buffalo Festival in 2009. They have performed at Le Poisson Rouge, The Issue Project Room, and the National Museum of American Indians. She is was a member of the National Gallery New Music Ensemble of the Smithsonian in 2010, which gave its inaugural performance in the East Wing, performing works of Xenakis, Antosca, and a premiere by Roger Reynolds. The National Gallery Ensemble participated in the 2012 Washington D.C. John Cage Centennial Festival, with performances at the East Wing, the NGA Auditorium, and at the Maison Française of the French Embassy. These included premieres of composers Christian Wolff, Beat Furrer, Robert Ashley, and George Lewis.
As a soloist, she has made appearances with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra, La Orquesta Sinfonica de la Serena (Chile), and the Malaysian National Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Collins Symphony, and Pro Musica Colorado Chamber Orchestra. Solo recitals include those at the Phillips Collection, The Stone, Issue Project Room, and at The Corcoran Gallery of Art. She has commissioned numerous new and arranged works including those by Benjamin Broening, Ken Ueno, Dan Visconti, Jeffrey Mumford, Adam Silverman, Steve Antosca, Keith Fitch, Daniel Wohl, Pamela Z, Morton Subotnick, Daniel Kellogg, among others.
Lina Bahn studied with Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School for her undergraduate degree. She completed her Masters degree as the recipient of the Jane Bryant Fellowship Award under the tutelage of Paul Kantor. Her Doctorate in Music is from Indiana University, where she was an Associate Instructor and studied with Miriam Fried and Paul Biss. Her early training in Chicago started with Lillian Schaber and she finished her high school years under the guidance of Roland and Almita Vamos.

Dennis Kim
Pacific Symphony Concertmaster
A citizen of the world, Dennis Kim was born in Korea, raised in Canada and educated in the United States. He has spent more than a decade leading orchestras in the United States, Europe and Asia. He was first appointed concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony at the age of 22. He then served as the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, before going on to lead the Seoul Philharmonic and the Tampere Philharmonic in Finland. Most recently, he was concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic in New York. As guest concertmaster, Mr. Kim has performed on four continents, leading the BBC Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Quatar Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, KBS Symphony, Montpelier Symphony, Malaysian Philharmonic, Western Australia Symphony and Symphony Orchestra of Navarra.
After making his solo debut at the age of 14 with the Toronto Philharmonic, Dennis Kim has gone on to perform as a soloist with all of the most important orchestras in Asia. Recent highlights include performing Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival and presenting the first concert featuring the music of John Williams in Havana, Cuba with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. During his tenure as concertmaster with the Buffalo Philharmonic and the Tampere Philharmonic, he was featured annually as a soloist. Over the last few seasons, he was a guest soloist with the Lebanon Philharmonic and the Orchestra NOW, with repertoire ranging from Mozart and Haydn to Glass and Penderecki.
A dedicated teacher, Dennis Kim serves on the faculty of the University of California Irvine and the Orange County School of the Arts. This summer, Kim joins the faculty of the Brevard Music Center. Previously he was on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Korean National University of the Arts, Yonsei University, Tampere Conservatory and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. In the summers, Kim has taught and performed at the the Interlochen Center for the Arts as Valade Concertmaster in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra summer program, Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the Atlantic Music Festival. His students have been accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, Colburn School, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory and the Queen Elizabeth College of Music. Former students play in orchestras around the world including the Seoul Philharmonic, KBS Symphony, Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, Orchestre National de Lille, and Pacific Symphony.
An active chamber musician, Dennis Kim can be heard regularly at the Cafe Ludwig series and is the violinist of Trio Barclay, the first Ensemble-in-Residence of the Irvine Barclay Theatre. Additionally he can be heard on the soundtracks of movies such as Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, Jumanji II, The Lego Movie 2 and It Chapter Two.
A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, Kim’s teachers include Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott. He plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius, on permanent loan from a generous donor.

YooJin Jang
Eastman School of Music
Applauded by The Strad for her “fiery virtuosity” and “consummate performances,” violinist YooJin Jang is a winner of the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Competition and First Prize winner of the 2016 Sendai International Music Competition. These successes have resulted in a busy itinerary of international recital and concerto engagements as well as the release of two new recordings. The dynamic young talent has been lauded by the Boston Musical Intelligencer as “a performer without fear or technical limitation.”
Her recent concerto performances include appearances with the symphony orchestras of Chautauqua, Dubuque, and Roswell. In recital, highlights include YooJin’s recent Carnegie Hall debut and concerts at Jordan Hall and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series in Chicago. A passionate chamber musician, YooJin has performed with Caramoor’s Rising Stars and toured with Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute and Musicians From Marlboro.
Internationally, YooJin has performed with the KBS Symphony Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with the Budapest Festival Orchestra led by Ivan Fischer, the Bulgaria National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and Spain’s Extremadura Orchestra. She has also given recitals in Japan at Sendai, Nagoya, and at Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo.
In 2017, YooJin released two albums: live performances of the Mendelssohn and Stravinsky Violin Concertos with the Sendai Philharmonic Orchestra and Junichi Hirokami and a recital disc featuring music of Mendelssohn, Stravinsky, Grieg, and Sibelius with pianist Kae Ozawa. Her first album, Korean Young Musicians, was released on the KBS (Korean Broadcast System) label, in cooperation with Aulos media & KBS Classic FM. She is also regularly heard on the radio, including a recent appearance on WQXR’s McGraw Hill Young Artists Showcase.
YooJin’s latest victories at CAG and Sendai continue a long line of international competition success. In 2013, she won Japan’s 4th International Munetsugu Violin Competition, which included the loan of the 1697 ‘Rainville’ Stradivari violin. She was also a top prize winner at the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, the Michael Hill International Violin Competition (including the Audience Prize and Best Performance of the New Zealand Commission Work), and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition.
YooJin is a co-founder of The Kallaci String Quartet, which made its international debut at the Kumho Art Hall in Seoul, Korea and the Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber Music. Recognized for her creative work in chamber music, she won the 2011 Borromeo String Quartet Guest Artist Award, and in 2009 she was awarded the Schloss Weikersheim Scholarship as part of the London String Quartet Competition. YooJin has also participated in the Marlboro and Ravinia Festivals, where she worked with artists such as Menahem Pressler, Dénes Várjon, and Peter Wiley.
YooJin holds a Bachelor of Music from The Korean National University of Arts, where she studied under Nam Yun Kim. She also earned a Master of Music, Graduate Diploma, Artist Diploma, and Doctor of Musical Arts from New England Conservatory, as a student of Miriam Fried. Since 2020 she has been an Assistant Professor of Violin on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music
YooJin Jang performs on the 1714 “May-Jacquet” Stradivari Violin on generous loan from the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.

Zenas Hsu
Preliminary Round Juror
With a sound palette ranging from a ‘commanding tone’ to ‘delicate sentiment’ (Calgary Herald), Taiwanese-American violinist Zenas Hsu enjoys a vibrant career filled with chamber music, orchestral leadership, and education. He is a member of A Far Cry, a Grammy nominated ensemble in Boston and second violin principal at the Boston Ballet. He has served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Brockton Symphony, Chorus pro Musica, and Monadnock Music Symphony Orchestra. Zenas also performs regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops and Esplanade, and as a tenured member of Boston Lyric Opera.
As a passionate chamber musician and educator, Zenas is a founding member of Chamber Music by the Bay, a California-based interactive music series designed for schools, libraries, and public spaces. He is a sectional coach at the New England Conservatory of Music, and coaches chamber music at Portland Summer Ensembles, Walnut Hill, and Rivers Conservatory. His appearances the past year include string quartet collaborations with the Royal Ballet at Jacob’s Pillow, solo performances with the Boston Ballet’s Fall Experience program, and chamber music concerts at Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Series, Craftsbury Chamber Players, Sarasa Ensemble, and with musicians of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
As an advocate of new music, Zenas has enjoyed personally working with composers such as Jorg Widmann, Carlos Simon, Philip Glass, and Lembit Beecher on commissioned or premiered works. He has premiered works also of Jungyoon Wie, Robert Honstein, Matthew Aucoin, and Jessie Montgomery.
A native of California, Zenas received his early training in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was accepted at age sixteen to the Curtis Institute of Music for his Bachelor of Music degree, and received his Master of Music and Graduate Diploma degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Wei He, Ida Kavafian, Nicholas Kitchen, and Donald Weilerstein.

Chloé Kiffer
Preliminary Round Juror
Franco-American violinist Chloé Kiffer has received enthusiastic praise by The New York Times for her “pure and beautiful tone” and The Greenwich Sentinel for being “…a star in every sense: performance, exquisite technique and beauty”.
Performing solo and orchestra engagements throughout Europe, North and South America, the Middle East, and Asia, Kiffer has appeared at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, Beethoven Hall in Bonn, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Hall, Tel Aviv Opera, and Beijing National Center. In October 2015, Kiffer made her Carnegie Hall debut performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in Stern Auditorium. Kiffer has collaborated with artists including Philippe Muller, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Timothy Eddy, the Emerson String Quartet, and pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine.
Kiffer is on the violin faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, and was previously a violin professor at the University of North Texas. Her students have won prizes at national and international competitions. She is a sought-after guest teacher and faculty member for conservatories and festivals around the world—the Heifetz International Music Institute, Miami Music Festival, Beijing International Music Festival and Academy, Chamber Music International in Texas, MusicFest Perugia in Italy, Paris International Music Academy and MusicAlps in France.
Kiffer is a laureate of the Bleustein-Blanchet Foundation. She graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and earned postgraduate degrees from the Manhattan School of Music under Patinka Kopec and Pinchas Zukerman. Kiffer received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Stony Brook University.
In 2019 Kiffer released an album of the Ravel violin sonatas on the Steinway & Sons label with pianist Alexandre Moutouzkine.
Chloé Kiffer performs on a violin that was made for her by luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz (Brooklyn, NY, 2023).

Gabriel Richard
Preliminary Round Juror
Gabriel Richard has been tenured first violin successively at the Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine, as violin solo at the Opéra de Lyon and at the Paris Orchestra as first violin, as well as the first violin of the Thymos String Quartet. He tours regularly in Japan, Korea, China, America, and Europe. With the Thymos Quartet, Richard has been invited to perform at the Paris International String Quartet Biennial four times and to tour Europe, the USA, Brazil, and Japan. He has recorded three CDs with the Thymos String Quartet, accompanied by the pianist and conductor Christoph Eschenbach. The Quartet’s recording of Dvorak with the label AVIE was awarded the Editor’s Choice by Gramophone in 2012. The Washington Post described the performance of the Thymos Quartet at the Kennedy Center as “detailed down to the last atom, and overflowing with human experience”. The last recording in 2020 on Schubert with the Trout Quintet was awarded Critic’s Choice of the review Gramophone and BBC Chamber Choice. Steve Reich declared Richard’s interpretation of his own Violin Phase at the Cité de la Musique “probably the best performance of the piece I have ever heard”. *
Gabriel Richard has been nominated as Associate Research Professor in the Romance Studies and Music Department at Duke University in the US.