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).

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.

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.

Violinist John Haspel Gilbert is Professor of Violin at the Texas Tech University School of Music in Lubbock, TX. He is the recipient of the 2015 TexASTA Phyllis Young Outstanding Studio Teacher Award, and the TTU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Praised by legendary performers such as the late Josef Gingold (“I have great admiration for this superb violinist”), Glenn Dicterow (“Obviously we are dealing with a very high level of artistry”), Camilla Wicks, Arnold Steinhardt and the late Joseph Fuchs, he is an active soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator, regularly performing throughout the United States, having appeared from coast to coast in prestigious venues from Weill Recital Hall in New York City, to Abravanel Hall in Santa Barbara (CA). Recent international engagements have included performances in Brazil, France, Iceland, Italy, and the United Kingdom. A sought after clinician and adjudicator, he has been heard in concert in every major city in Texas. His former students perform in major orchestras, hold university positions, and are public school educators, throughout the US, Brazil, and Russia.

Gilbert served as concertmaster of the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra for 13 seasons. With the LSO he appeared as soloist in the concerti of Beethoven, Brahms, Corigliano, and Sibelius. He previously held this position with the Baton Rouge Symphony and Knoxville Symphony and has been a member of the faculty at the SMU Meadows School of Music, University of Memphis, and Hope College. Gilbert was the teaching assistant to Sally O’Reilly at both the University of Minnesota and Louisiana State University. A former member of the artist faculty member of the Green Mountain (Vermont) Chamber Music Festival, his other summer festival appearances have been at the Madeline Island (WI) Chamber Festival, Schlern (Italy) International Festival, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, BRAVO! Summer String Institute, Eastern Music Festival, Heidelberg Castle Festival, Killington Music Festival, and the Spoleto Festival.

Gilbert’s principal studies were under the tutelage of Sally O’Reilly and Charles Castleman. He holds degrees from the University of Minnesota, the Yale University School of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, and has held fellowships at the Aspen Music School in both chamber music and orchestral performance. His chamber music studies were with current or former members of the Julliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, Fine Arts and Yale string quartets, and the Eastman and Rafael trios.

Mr. Gilbert may be heard on the Centaur, Naxos and Innova labels. His most recent recording, of the Sonatas of Samuel Barber and Richard Strauss, will be released on the Fleur de Son label in 2016. His recording of the Kurt Weill Concerto and the Alban Berg Kammerkonzert with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra was released on the Sono Luminus labelin September of 2012 (Sono Luminus 92161).

FANFARE 2013

“…pure-toned John Gilbert’s interweaving with his colleagues in the Weill is especially impressive…”

GRAMOPHONE January, 2013

“The masterpiece here…is the Berg, which sounds as impassioned, conflicted and intricately layered as ever. Nothing appears to cause anxiety for the Baton Rouge musicians, who dispatch the score’s rhythmic and expressive challenges with handsome aplomb. Violinist John Gilbert and pianist Dmitri Shteinberg are vibrant soloists and the winds perform with cohesive and precise assurance under conductor Timothy Muffitt.”

Dr. Kirsten Yon is Associate Professor of Violin and Head of the String Division at the University of Houston Moores School of Music.  Her active solo career includes recital engagements and masterclasses throughout the United States (including Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall), Brazil, Czech Republic, England, South Korea, Honduras, Mexico, Germany, France, Iceland, and Norway.  Previously on the faculty of Texas Tech University, Yon additionally taught for many years at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, the International Music Academy Pilsen (Czech Republic), the Nathan Schwartzman String Festival (Uberlândia, Brazil), and the Cambridge International String Academy (England). She toured Brazil with the Botticelli String Quartet and pianist Cristina Capparelli Gerling, traveling to Curitiba, Florianopolis, and performing several concerti with the Orquestra de Câmara Theatro São Pedro in Porto Alegre (Brazil). The winner of multiple competitions, Yon received outstanding accolades for her performances as a concert soloist, chamber musician, and for her concerto appearances.

A versatile orchestral musician, Professor Yon held concertmaster chairs with the Bayou City Chamber Orchestra, the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, the Caprock Pro Musica Sinfonietta, Ballet Lubbock, and the Cypress Symphony, as well as performing with diverse ensembles that include the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra (ROCO), Aperio, the baroque ensemble Ars Lyrica, and the contemporary Musiqa ensemble. Currently she serves as concertmaster of the Shreveport Symphony (Louisiana) under the baton of Michael Butterman. As a lauded chamber musician, Yon founded the Champlain Piano Trio, the Archiano Ensemble, the Karlin Trio, and the Botticelli String Quartet. Additional chamber performances with Rohan Da Silva, Kyung Sun Lee, Norman Fischer, and Lucie Robert.

Dedicated to musical outreach at both the community and international levels, Yon is founder and Artistic Director of Encuentro de Cuerdas, a long-term pedagogical outreach program in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.  Since the beginning of her professional teaching career, students from both her college and pre-college studios have won numerous solo competitions and awards.  In her early years at Texas Tech University, she was honored with a Texas Tech University Alumni Association New Faculty Award for her work at the School of Music and was elected to the Texas Tech Teaching Academy, a distinct honor within the university. The Violin Faculty Affiliate for the Community Arts Academy at UH, Dr. Yon has also served as the president of the South Plains Suzuki Strings Foundation and is a passionate advocate for string music education. 

A frequent masterclass clinician across the world, Dr. Yon spent recent summers teaching and performing at the Texas Music Festival, ARIA International Summer Academy (Massachusetts), Cedar Valley Chamber Music (Iowa), the Naolinco International Music Festival (Mexico), and the Liberec International Violin Academy (Czech Republic). A graduate of the University of Michigan, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Rice University, her major teachers included Kathleen Winkler, David Updegraff, William Preucil, and Raphael Fliegel.  Her debut recording on Centaur Records with cellist Jeffrey Lastrapes was released in 2015. Apart from teaching and playing the violin, she loves cooking, reading, and spending time with her two rescue puppies Bella and Jasper!

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.

Described by her legendary mentor Josef Gingold as “one of the greatest talents that I have ever taught. Her great technique, inborn musicianship, sense of style and virtuosity are unequalled”. Patricia has also been privileged to study with Rostislav Dubinsky, Sandor Vegh, Denes Zsigmondy and Lise Elson.

Patricia’s virtuosity and artistry has made her one of the most versatile musicians available to leading classical music groups. She has performed as soloist in some of the world’s great venues including the Carnegie Hall in New York, Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, Wigmore Hall in London, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, Liszt Akademy Hall in Budapest, and the Roy Thompson in Toronto amongst many others, and has received rave reviews for her magnificent performances often comparing her to some of the great violinists of the past.

Patricia’s significant international concert career under the mentorship of Rostislav Dubinsky (Borodin Quartet) and on his introduction to his personal manager Mariedi Anders Artists Management, has toured internationally both as recitalist and as soloist with many leading orchestras including the Royal Philharmonic, the Halle Orchestra, the Orchestra Bretagne, the Toronto Symphony, the Mexico National Symphony, the Singapore Symphony and the Polish National Radio Orchestra.

At an early age, Patricia won the Grand Prize at both the CIBC National Music Competition in Canada and the Seattle Young Artists Competition in the USA. Patricia also received the highest honour amongst all instrumentalists for three consecutive years in the 4,000 person entrant Canadian Music Competition, a feat that was never achieved by anyone since.

By the age of 14, Patricia became a pupil of the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana University. In less than a year, she made a highly acclaimed debut at New York’s Carnegie Hall playing the Wieniawski Concerto No.1, a concert arranged especially for her by Prof. Gingold.

As the youngest finalist at the age of 15, Patricia received a Special Prize at the International Wieniawski Competition in Poland and was a laureate at the International Kreisler Competition in Vienna. She was also awarded the International Sommerakademie Mozarteum prize in Salzburg, Austria and in her native Canada, was honoured with the prestigious Sylva Gelber Foundation Award for the most outstanding Canadian musician under age 30.

As the much applauded first violinist of the Borealis String Quartet, Shih and the quartet has toured worldwide at major venues, and also in Europe and Asia where they have been sponsored by Chimei Culture Foundation in Taiwan. Their performance for the Prime Minister of Canada was viewed by over 75,000 people while performing at Parliament Hill in Ottawa and consequently, performed special concerts for the Chief Justice of Canada, Beverly MacLachlin and for His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama. Patricia was recently honoured as a “Distinguished Fellow of BC” for the applauded presentations and lectures given as a Visiting Scholar at Green College@ UBC. The Borealis is endorsed by Pirastro Strings and are ambassadors for the famed string company.

On the Biography Channel, “Patricia Shih, a half hour documentary” was aired across North America.

Patricia plays on a 1740 Paolo Antonio Testore made in Milan and is Associate Professor of Violin at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

While she is not practicing the violin, Patricia can be found practicing her cooking skills, biking and hiking in the nature trails wherever she travels.

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.

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.