Dr. Jihye Chang Sung enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, collaborator, educator, scholar, and advocate for new music in the United States and abroad. Her performances focus on the creative process of collaborating with living composers, curating programs that connect to various audiences, and giving context to contemporary works.

She is a recipient of the first prize of the Mikhashoff International Pianist-Composer Competition, the Henry Kohn Award from the Tanglewood Music Center, an Honorary Fellowship from the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Aaron Copland Recording Grant. She has appeared as a soloist with the Brevard Music Center Sinfonietta, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Wonjoo Philharmonic Orchestra (South Korea), Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife (Brazil), among others. She recently premiered Igerthi, a piano concerto written for her by Sungji Hong, with Intersection Music in Nashville.

Since 2016 she has led a collaborative project called “Continuum 88,” in which she focuses each concert season on a different genre of the piano repertoire such as sonatas, etudes, and variations, programming masterworks of the literature alongside newly commissioned works by younger composers in the same genres. 9 new works have been created by composers of diverse backgrounds and styles, and she has led more than 20 performances in venues across the United States, South Korea, and Taiwan. 2023 was a replay season of miniatures, etudes, variations, and fantasies and 2024 – 2025 will be the final year focusing on sonatas.

Piano etudes have been an important part of her projects, and she has given recitals and lectures on this topic at various institutions and festivals. She launched a hugely successful collaboration with the Brevard composition area in 2016 called “BMC Etude Project.” Her most recent etude-related project is “Boston Etudes,” which started during the pandemic year in 2020 with 8 composers based in Boston. 8 new etudes were written for Dr. Sung and she premiered them in live stream performances on her YouTube Channel throughout 2021. She went on to record them in 2022 and they will be released in 2024 on New Focus Recordings.

Other research interests include music by living women composers and Korean composers, which she has brought to venues at UC Berkeley, Boston Conservatory, and C4NM San Francisco. Since 2022, Dr. Sung has presented several lectures focusing on music as means to understand Korean culture at Seoul National University Alumni Association’s 2022 Summit, University of Cincinnati College of Music, University of North Texas, and University of East Maine.

As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with musicians from across the states including Cheeyun, Jordan Bak, Frank Cohen, Andrés Diaz, Inbal Segev, and Richard Young, and has appeared at the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Blue Candlelight Music Series in Dallas, Broman Series at Mary Baldwin University, Parker Concert Series in Brevard, and Artists Series of Tallahassee. She also specializes in working with young composers in academic settings and has recently led residencies both in person and online at Indiana University, UCLA, Tufts University, Rutgers University, Seoul National University, Texas Christian University, and Tulane University.

Dr. Sung graduated summa cum laude from Seoul National University and earned her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, under the tutelage of the late György Sebök, Edward Auer, and Reiko Neriki. She is thrilled to join the piano faculty at Boston University as a Senior Lecturer, after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Florida State University. Dr. Sung is also a faculty member at the Brevard Music Center and the director of Piano Intensive Bulgaria. You can visit https://instagram.com/jihyechangpiano to see her passion for espresso and listen to her online premieres and other performances at https://www.youtube.com/jihyechangpiano. Dr. Sung’s recordings can be found on Albany, Centaur, Parma, and Sony Korea. 

Pianist Michael Chertock has fashioned a successful career as an orchestral soloist, collaborating with conductors such as James Conlon, Jaime Laredo, Keith Lockhart, Erich Kunzel and Andrew Litton. His many orchestral appearances include solo performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Montreal, the Toronto Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Chattanooga Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony and the Cincinnati Symphony. He recently completed a Florida tour with the Boston Pops Orchestra.

Chertock performs frequently overseas, most recently playing and conducting a Gershwin program with the State Symphony Orchestra of Russia. In 2014, Chertock recorded a concerto by John Alden Carpenter with Keith Lockhart and the BBC Orchestra at the famed Dutton Epoch recording studio in London, England.

Claude Gingras of La Presse, Montreal, said of pianist Michael Chertock: “Chertock revealed himself as a first-rate pianist and an interpreter of noticeable interest through the freshness that he brought to these familiar scores….(he) displayed the sensitivity of a Chopin interpreter.” The Boston Globe has called his playing “unmannered, zestful, and lovely.” The Cincinnati Enquirer has described the Virginia native as “intelligent and disciplined…noble…finely finished…expressive and well-controlled.” The Salt Lake City Deseret News said “Chertock… is a musical performer with an immense technical command of the piano.” His 2003 performance on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Petrouchka with Paavo Järvi turned in rave reviews in Gramophone and American Record Guide.

Chertock made his debut at the age of 17, performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Andrew Litton conducting. In 1994, Chertock released his first CD on the Telarc label, a collection of his original arrangements of music from movies entitled Cinematic Piano. American Record Guide said “(Chertock) plays beautifully, and Telarc’s lush sonics bathe the listener in an intoxicating wash of piano sonorities.” Cincinnati Enquirer critic Janelle Gelfand cited his “elegant techniques…just the right poetic tone.” Since then, he has recorded three more discs with Telarc: Palace of the Winds, Christmas at the Movies and Love At the Movies, which have been praised for their lush, original arrangements and exquisite technical facility.

Chertock began conducting in 2001 when he stepped in for Maestro Carmon De Leone in performances of Cincinnati Ballet’s The Nutcracker. Chertock is the conductor of the Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony, located in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio, and he frequently composes and arranges music for the orchestra’s concerts. In 2008, he conducted the Columbus Symphony (Ohio) in performances of The Nutcracker with Ballet Met Columbus. In 2012, Michael conducted the Cincinnati Symphony and Cincinnati Pops.

Chertock serves as chair of the keyboard division at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, where he received his Master’s Degree. He has garnered numerous awards at major competitions, among them the top prize in the 1989 Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition (Brahms Division,) and the grand prize in the 1993 St. Charles International Piano Competition. He also shared the silver medal in the 1991 World Piano Competition of the American Music Scholarship Association. He received the Rildia B. O’Bryon Cliburn Scholarship in 1986.

Chertock makes his home in Cincinnati with his wife Maaike, son Joshua and daughters Maria and Janneke. Most Sundays you can find him playing piano and organ for services at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church.

Pianist Jihea Hong-Park enjoys a versatile and vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist. She has performed at major venues across the United States, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Merkin Hall, The DiMenna Center, The Kosciuszko Foundation, Brevard Music Center’s Parker Concert Hall, the Bar Harbor Music Festival, and the Caramoor Summer Music Festival. Her international performances have taken her to distinguished concert halls and festivals throughout Europe and Asia, including the International Symposium and Festival of the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts at the University of Cambridge (England); Seoul Arts Center and Namhansansung Arts Hall (South Korea); Yun I-Sang Concert Hall (North Korea); Komae Ecorma Hall and Niigata Performing Arts Center (Japan); Stockholm Cathedral (Sweden); Maarja-Magdaleena Lutheran Church (Estonia); and Riga Dome Cathedral (Latvia).

Hong-Park has also performed at academic institutions including Seoul National University, Yonsei University, Chuncheon National University of Education, Tokyo College of Music, the University of North Texas, UCLA, the University of Southern California, William & Mary, Rutgers University, and the University of Central Florida. As a concerto soloist, she has appeared with ensembles such as the BYU Wind Symphony, Pyongyang University’s Music and Dance Orchestra, Dallas Asian Winds, Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra, and Ureuk Symphony Orchestra, among others. Most recently, her solo and chamber performances at the DMZ Open International Music Festival were broadcast on Orfeo TV, Korea’s premier classical music channel. A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Hong-Park has premiered works by internationally acclaimed composers, including Sophia Serghi, Jean Ahn, Hee Yun Kim, Steven Ricks, Gui Sook Lee, and Eric Sessler. In 2028, she will give the world premiere of a new work for two pianos and two percussionists by Robin Haigh, winner of the 2026 Barlow Prize, as a member of the Riot Picnic.

Hong-Park currently serves as Professor of Piano at Brigham Young University. She received her B.M. and M.M. degrees from The Juilliard School and pursued five years of postgraduate studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Upon her graduation from Juilliard, she received the school’s highest award, the William Schuman Commencement Prize, for her exceptional achievement, leadership, and service in music. She subsequently served on the faculty of The Juilliard School for fourteen years and currently serves on the artist faculty at Brevard Music Center in North Carolina during the summers, one of the country’s premier summer festivals for gifted young musicians.

At BYU, her collegiate and pre-college students have earned numerous awards in international, national, and regional competitions. Her students have received first-place prizes at competitions and festivals including the Utah Symphony’s Salute to Youth Concerto Competition, San Francisco International Piano Competition, Walgreens National Concerto Competition, International Keyboard Odyssiad & Festival Competition, Radda Rise International Piano Competition, Bay Area International Piano Competition, Emory Young Artist Piano Competition, Utah Music Teachers Association (UMTA) Concerto Competition, University of Utah’s Liszt Festival Piano Competition, BYU Concerto Competition, and Young Collaborative Pianists Competition. Her students have also distinguished themselves in the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Piano Competition at the Southwest Division, advancing to the National Finals multiple times.

Many of these accomplishments have led to student concerto performances with the Utah Symphony, BYU Philharmonic Orchestra, BYU Symphony Orchestra, Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra, Utah Philharmonic Orchestra, American Fork Symphony, and American West Symphony. Hong-Park’s commitment to mentorship extends beyond performance, as she encourages her students to pursue scholarly interests alongside their musical development. Under her mentorship, students have presented their academic research at the MTNA National Conference, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, MTNA National Collegiate Symposium, and College Music Society Regional Conference.

A highly regarded masterclass clinician and guest lecturer, Hong-Park has worked with students and musicians at institutions around the world, including Showa University, Kobe College, Osaka University of the Arts, Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, McGill University, Hansei University, Boston University, the University of Southern California, the University of Oregon, Ohio University, Missouri State University, Grand Valley State University, Loyola University New Orleans, Eastern Mennonite University, Wharton Institute for the Performing Arts, the Gifted Music School, and Gitameit Music Institute.

Her commitment to teaching and artistic mentorship extends into her scholarly work. An avid researcher, Hong-Park has presented her research at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s International Arts Symposium, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the College Music Society National Conferences, the MTNA National Conference, and the International Teaching Artist Conference. She is also a frequent guest speaker for organizations and institutions including the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Palmetto International Piano Festival, the Peace & Life Zone (PLZ) Music Festival @ DMZ Korea, the Socially Engaged Musicians Network Forum of Korea, the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the New York City Department of Education. In 2023, she delivered the keynote address at the UMTA Annual State Conference. Her interdisciplinary scholarship explores career development for musicians, entrepreneurship and leadership in the performing arts, interdisciplinary arts collaboration, Asian American studies in classical music, the music of women and composers of color, and social consciousness, activism, and advocacy for the arts.

Hong-Park has served as a juror for numerous competitions and festivals. Her professional service includes current appointments on the Gina Bachauer International Piano Foundation’s University Advisory Board, the 2027 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy International Committee, and Korea’s Socially Engaged Musicians Network Advisory Board. Her contributions to the profession have been recognized with the 2025 BYU Class of 1949 Young Faculty Award, the 2024 BYU Faculty Women’s Association Award in Excellence in Creative Works, and the 2023 Utah Valley Magazine Fab40 Award.

She lives in Alpine, UT with her husband, Jun, and their three children. Outside of her professional life, she finds great joy in cheering on her children at their football and cheerleading events and unwinding with K-Dramas on Netflix.

Norman Krieger is professor of piano at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

A native of Los Angeles, he is one of the most acclaimed pianists of his generation and is highly regarded as an artist of depth, sensitivity, and virtuosic flair. He previously served as professor of keyboard studies at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music since 1997.

Zubin Mehta, Marin Alsop, Myung-Whun Chung, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, JoAnn Falletta, Jeffrey Kahane, Donald Runnicles, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Keith Lockhart, Jaap van Zweden, and Carl St. Clair are just a few of the conductors with whom Krieger has collaborated.

Krieger regularly appears with the major orchestras of North America, among them the New York, Los Angeles, Buffalo, Dayton and Rochester philharmonics, the Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, National Symphony, Pacific Symphony, and the symphony orchestras of Austin, Baltimore, California, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, El Paso, Florida, Grand Rapids, Hartford, Honolulu, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Long Beach, Milwaukee, New Haven, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Richmond, Saint Louis, San Antonio, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Fe, Santa Rosa, Spokane, Stockton, Syracuse, and Virginia, among others, as well as Mexico’s Orquesta Filarmónica de la Ciudad de México and Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa.

Abroad, he has been guest soloist with Germany’s Philharmonisches Orchester Augsburg, Holland’s Orkest van het Oosten, Prague’s Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Turkey’s Presidential Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand’s Auckland Philharmonia, Taiwan’s National Symphony Orchestra, the Shanghai Symphony, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. In September 2014, he recorded the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Philip Ryan Mann.

In recital, Krieger has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Mexico, and Asia, while chamber music collaborations have included appearances with sopranos Beverly Hoch and Sheri Greenawald, cellists Jian Wang and Zuill Bailey, and the Tokyo and Manhattan string quartets. His debut at New York City’s prestigious Carnegie Hall and Mostly Mozart Festival earned him an immediate invitation to Lincoln Center’s 2005-06 Great Performers Series.

In 1987, Krieger made headlines by being named the Gold Medal Winner of the first Palm Beach Invitational Piano Competition. Earlier, in 1984, he earned selection to the distinguished roster of Affiliate Artists, where he participated in the Xerox Pianists Program from 1984 to 1986. He is also the recipient of the Paderewski Foundation Award, Bruce Hungerford Memorial Prize, Victor Herbert Memorial Prize, Buffalo Philharmonic Young Artists Competition Prize, and Saint Louis Symphony Prize.

Krieger’s first piano teacher was his uncle, Rudy Hadda. Later training began in Los Angeles under the tutelage of Esther Lipton. At age 15, he became a full-scholarship student of Adele Marcus at The Juilliard School, at which he earned both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Subsequently, he studied with Alfred Brendel and Maria Curcio in London and earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he worked with Russell Sherman.

A champion of contemporary music, he features the music of John Adams, Leonard Bernstein, John Corigliano, Daniel Brewbaker, Donald Crockett, Judith St. Croix, Lukas Foss, and Lowell Liebermann among his active repertoire.

Krieger’s solo recordings include five albums available on the Artisie 4 label: Norman Krieger: Transformations, comprised of Liszt’s two piano concertos and his Totentanz, with the Prague Radio Orchestra; Gershwin in Prague, including “Rhapsody in Blue” and Concerto in F, with the Prague National Symphony Orchestra, and Tomas Svoboda: Piano Concertos with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, both under the baton of Neal Gittleman; Norman Krieger: Piano Recital, with music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin; and American Piano Concertos, featuring works by MacDowell and David Wiley with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra conducted by Wiley.

Krieger’s chamber music collaborations include Raising the Roof, an album of chamber music by Haydn, Bloch, Bruch, and Martin&#367 (Artisie 4); The Prince Albert Chamber Music Festival, including works by Barber, Beethoven, Bizet, Chopin, Schubert, and Tchaikovsky (Artisie 4); Voices Through Time, works of Brahms and Schubert with flutist Emily Skala (Summit); and Summerdays, music of Barber, Berg, Bernstein, Gershwin, Glazunov, Lehár, and Mozart, from the Musical Masterworks Festival at Old Lyme (Well-Tempered).

In 2013, he performed Gershwin’s Piano Concerto with the New West Symphony, Beethoven’s Concertos Nos. 4 and 5 with the Dayton Philharmonic and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. He regularly gives master classes around the world.

Krieger is the founding artistic director of The Prince Albert Music Festival in Hawaii. Since 2008, he has served on the summer faculty at the Brevard music festival in North Carolina.

Steinway artist Donna Lee made her solo debut in 1990 with the National Symphony Orchestra.  She has since appeared as a soloist and collaborative artist at Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall and Terrace Theater in Washington, DC and Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York City.  She has concertized in Asia, Europe and throughout the US, with performances in Shenyang, China, Brno, Czech Republic and Maui, Hawaii.  Donna made her solo recording debut on the Azica label, with a program entitled Scenes from Childhood with works by Schumann, del Tredici, Medtner, and Prokofieff.  In 2011, she released a recording on the Blue Griffin label of Felix Mendelssohn’s Complete works for cello and piano with cellist Keith Robinson.  Fanfare Magazine called the disc,” …quite simply, amazing”.

Critics have described Donna Lee’s performances as elegant and refined (Il Fronimo, Italy), engaging (WCLV-Cleveland) and brilliant (Iwate Daily News, Japan).  As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at the Ameri-China Festival in China, Gotland Chamber Music Festival in Sweden, Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, Interlochen Arts Center in Michigan, Kent Blossom Music Festival in Ohio, Maui Classical Music in Hawaii, Music-on-the-Hill in Rhode Island and Classical Tahoe in Nevada.  A frequent collaborator with clarinetist Daniel Gilbert, the husband-wife duo has performed in recital throughout the United States, including recent performances in Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Michigan, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina and Washington as well as in Chengdu, China.

A highly respected pedagogue, Donna Lee has received accolades for her teaching.  In October of 2021, she was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame, a prestigious designation recognizing the work of North America’s most committed and passionate piano teachers.  In the same year, she received a Distinguished Teaching Award from Kent State University, the institution’s highest honor, where she serves on the faculty as Professor and Coordinator of Piano.  During the summers, Donna is also artist-faculty at Brevard Music Center in North Carolina.

A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Donna Lee earned her doctorate from Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University, Masters from The Juilliard School, and Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied with prominent artist-teachers Julian Martin, the late Rudolf Firkušný, and Thomas Schumacher, respectively.

Deloise Chagas Lima, collaborative pianist, was born in Curitiba, Brazil. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Piano, Organ, and Music Education at the School of Music and Fine Arts of Parana.

A sought-after accompanist and chamber musician, she has performed extensively throughout Brazil with many recognized singers and instrumentalists. She was also the pianist of the Minas Gerais Symphony for two seasons, and was a soloist with that orchestra and the Curitiba Chamber Orchestra. Her performances as an accompanist have taken her to Europe, the United States, and South America.

She has a Performance Certificate in piano from Trinity College of Music, London, and is also an Associate of the Royal College of Music in organ performance.
She received her Master of Music degree in piano performance and Literature at the University of Notre Dame, and the Doctor of Music degree in Piano Accompanying from the Florida State University.

In Brazil, Dr. Lima was on the faculty of the School of Music and Fine Arts of Parana for over twenty years. She has been on the faculty at Florida State University since 2005 and was appointed principal keyboard with the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra in 2015. Lima has been a member of the faculty at the Brevard Music Center since the summer of 2008 and in 2013 she implemented the new collaborative piano program at BMC.

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez has a reputation for the lyricism of her playing, her compelling interpretations, and her elegant stage presence.  Her playing has been described as “magical… a remarkable pianist, with a cool determination, a tone full of glowing color and a seemingly effortless technique” (LA Times) and “…versatile, daring and insightful” (New York Times).

Gabriela made her orchestral debut at age 6, and since then has performed with over 100 orchestras including the San Francisco, Chicago, Houston, San Diego, Grand Rapids, New Jersey, Tucson, Pacific, and Fort Worth symphonies, Buffalo Philharmonic; Germany’s Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nurnberger Philharmoniker; Canada’s Victoria Symphony Orchestra; the Costa Rica National Symphony, and the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra in Venezuela. She has performed with Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, James Conlon, JoAnn Falleta, Michael Francis, Marcelo Lehninger, and Guillermo Figueroa, among many others.

Gabriela is passionate about new music, and has premiered works by many composers including Mason Bates, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Paola Prestini, Jessica Meyer, and Dan Visconti.  Gabriela’s debut album, Amplified Soul, was released on the Delos label, and was recognized with a GRAMMY Award for Producer of the Year, David Frost.

She has performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Merkin Hall, and Alice Tully Hall in New York City; San Diego’s The Rady Shell, Canada’s Glenn Gould Studio; Salzburg’s Grosses Festspielhaus; Dresden’s Semperoper; Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens; and Paris’s Palace of Versailles.  She has performed at festivals such as the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Colorado, and Rockport festivals in the United States; Germany’s Dresden Music Festival; Italy’s Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto); Switzerland’s Verbier Festival and Snow and Symphony Festival; the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier; and Japan’s Tokyo International Music Festival.   Her performances have been featured on National Public Radio, CNN, PBS, 60 Minutes, ABC, From the Top, Radio France, WQXR and WNYC (New York), MDR Kultur and Deutsche Welle (Germany), NHK (Japan), RAI (Italy), and on numerous television and radio stations in Venezuela.

Gabriela was the First Prize winner of the Anton G. Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Dresden, and a semifinalist at the 12th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where she also received the Jury Discretionary Award.  She is a 5th generation female pianist, and began her piano studies in Caracas with her mother, Alicia Gaggioni.  She then attended The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as a full scholarship student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. Ms. Martinez was a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s The Academy, and a member of Ensemble Connect, concurrently working on her doctoral studies with Marco Antonio de Almeida in Halle, Germany.

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Stepanova is in demand as a soloist, collaborator and educator. In 2025 and 2026, she performs and teaches at Brevard, Adamant and Bowdoin festivals, as a guest artist at universities including CU Boulder, Ohio State, James Madison and Vanderbilt, and continues to tour with the Lysander Piano Trio at series nationwide, including Rockefeller Concerts in New York City, Music at Kohl Mansion in San Francisco, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.

Stepanova has performed extensively in Europe, including as a soloist with the Southwest-German Philharmonic and in chamber music performances at the Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments, at the Copenhagen Music Festival and in Belgrade’s Kolarac Hall. In the United States, she has appeared in Weill and Zankel Recital Halls at Carnegie; Alice Tully Hall, Merkin and Steinway halls in New York City; at the Kennedy Center and The Smithsonian in Washington, DC; and live on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and WETA Washington. Stepanova was twice featured as a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra led by James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and was a top prizewinner at the Liszt-Garrison, Juilliard Concerto, Steinway and Ettlingen competitions. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has been invited to international festivals at Castleton, La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, Copenhagen (Denmark) and Davos (Switzerland), where she had opportunities to collaborate with leading artists including violinist Cho-Liang Lin, violist James Dunham, clarinetist Charles Neidich, soprano Lucy Shelton, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and members of the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony. Deeply committed to new music, she has premiered works by Jennifer Higdon and Libby Larsen and worked with composers William Bolcom, Gabriela Lena Frank and John Harbison.

Stepanova’s recent, second solo album “E Pluribus Unum” (Navona Records) celebrated contemporary American composers with an immigrant background. The CD, which features a commission and three world-premiere recordings, received universal acclaim with reviews in the top three British classical music journals: Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine and International Piano, as well as The Whole Note in Canada and Piano Magazine in the US. The album was broadcast widely on national and international radio including “Album of the Week” on Canada’s public radio, several plays in Australia and across the US. Following the release, Stepanova was profiled as Musical America Worldwide‘s “New Artist of the Month,” a distinction celebrating her body of work to date. Stepanova’s debut solo album “Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art” (CAG Records, 2018), recorded in New York City with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, brought together music from Bach to Ligeti that was inspired by visual art. This record was also praised in international media and continues to be regularly played on American Public Media’s Performance Today, including multiple features as a headliner.

As a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, Stepanova won the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and received top prizes at the Coleman and Fischoff Chamber Music Competitions. The ensemble recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with a new album “Mirrors” (First Hand Records, UK) dedicated to works the group either commissioned or premiered, including a world-premiere recording of a work by Jennifer Higdon. Lysander has performed at all major venues in New York City including Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival to enthusiastic reviews in The New York Times and The Washington Post. Highlights of Lysander’s recent tours include the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; Purdue University’s Convocations Series, Los Angeles’ Clark Memorial Library at UCLA and the Da Camera Society; Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Concert series and Rockford Coronado Concerts; San Francisco’s Music at Kohl Mansion; and Juneau Jazz and Classics (AK). Stepanova also enjoys performing art song repertoire, trained with Wolfram Rieger in Berlin and and was further mentored by the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau in his month-long Berlin master classes and at the Hugo-Wolf-Tage festival in Austria.

A dedicated teacher and mentor, Stepanova’s students have been invited to the Aspen, Bowdoin, Brevard, Chautauqua and Salzburg Mozarteum summer programs and received scholarships to elite graduate programs. Recent student successes include top awards at the national round of the MTNA Competition, YoungArts, Odin, Charleston, WPTA Finland, Liszt-Ohio, and the Wideman, Ruth Kern, and Samuel Fordis concerto competitions. Students have also secured internships with the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Institute, released commercial CD projects, and presented and performed at national conferences of MTNA and NCKP as well as abroad in Ireland and Serbia. Alumni of Stepanova’s studio teach and perform nationally and internationally, collaborate with composers in creation of new music, and have established new schools and concert series.In Georgia, she founded and directed the biennial Chamber Music Athens festival and academy, featuring acclaimed international artists performing and teaching alongside UGA musicians. In 2024, she hosted and directed the American Liszt Society national festival.

Stepanova received her DMA from The Juilliard School with a Richard F. French Award for outstanding doctoral work. Previously a graduate of the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin, Germany, she studied with Joseph Kalichstein, Seymour Lipkin, Jerome Lowenthal and George Sava, and performed in master classes for Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, and András Schiff. Following teaching positions at The Juilliard School and Smith College, she spent a decade on the faculty at the University of Georgia, where she is completing her tenure as the Despy Karlas Professor in Piano and Piano Area Chair this spring. She is looking forward to joining the faculty at Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music this fall.

Updated April 2026

Yu-Lien The has appeared throughout the US, Europe, and Southeast-Asia, as a soloist with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Kammerorchester Hannover, and the Baroque Orchestra L’Arco. As a recitalist and chamber musician, she has performed at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival and venues such as Detroit Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall. A prizewinner of the 12th International Piano Competition Viotti-Valsesia (Italy) and the Deutsche Musikwettbewerb, she was admitted to the National Concert Podium for Young Artists (Germany), which led to several concert tours with violinist Tomo Keller. Dr. The has been involved in many commissions and world premieres. She frequently collaborates with saxophonist Joe Lulloff and champions new works by composers such as Dorothy Chang, Stacy Garrop, and Carter Pann. 

Born in the Netherlands, Yu-Lien The received most of her musical training in Germany, where she obtained degrees in both piano and recorder performance and pedagogy from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover. She has earned an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik Detmold as well as a D.M.A. in piano performance from Michigan State University. Her principal piano teachers were Arie Vardi, Anatol Ugorski, and Deborah Moriarty. 

A dedicated piano pedagogue and sought-after clinician, Yu-Lien The also engages in discourse of diversity, equity, and inclusion and has given talks on racial and cultural biases in today’s classical music world. She currently is an Assistant Professor of Keyboard Studies at Western Michigan University and has previously served on the faculties at Bowling Green State University and Valparaiso University.

Acclaimed by the Baltimore Sun as “…one of the biggest pianistic talents to have emerged in this country in the last 25 years” pianist Terrence Wilson has appeared as soloist with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington, DC (National Symphony), San Francisco, St. Louis, and with the orchestras of Cleveland, Minnesota, and Philadelphia and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked include Christoph Eschenbach, Alan Gilbert, Neeme Järvi, Jesús López-Cobos, Lawrence Renes, Robert Spano, Yuri Temirkanov, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Gunther Herbig and Michael Morgan.

Abroad, Terrence Wilson has played concerti with such ensembles as the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, the Malaysian Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfonica do Estado de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He has toured with orchestras in the US and abroad, including a tour of the US with the Sofia Festival Orchestra (Bulgaria) and in Europe with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov.

An active recitalist, Terrence Wilson made his New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y, and his Washington, DC recital debut at the Kennedy Center. In Europe he has given recitals at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland, the Lourvre in Paris, and countless other major venues. In the US he has given recitals at Lincoln Center in New York City (both Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall), the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, NY, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and for the La Jolla Chamber Music Society. An avid chamber musician, he performs regularly with the Ritz Chamber Players. Festival appearances include Aspen, Blossom, Grant Park, Tanglewood and Wolf Trap.

In the last couple seasons, Wilson performed as soloist with the Symphony Orchestras of Anchorage, Brevard (FL), Greensboro, Harrisburg, Memphis, Portland (ME), Raleigh and Wichita to name a few. He also appeared as soloist with the Madison Symphony in their gala season-opening concert in September 2023. Other highlights included a multi-city chamber music tour with Imani Winds with performances at such venues as the Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston and the 92nd Street Y in New York City, a recital tour culminating in a recital at the prestigious Ravinia Festival – 25 years since his debut, and a return as soloist with the Grant Park Orchestra in Chicago with performances of Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero. Wilson also performed with Symphony Tacoma as well as the Symphony Orchestras of Roanoke and Toledo among others. He also made a recital appearance in Brookings, OR and performed chamber music with the Escher Quartet in New Orleans.

In 2025-2026, Wilson performs with the Folsom and Stockton Symphonies (Beethoven piano concertos 3 and 4 respectively). He will also perform with ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, OH and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York City with The Orchestra Now (TŌN) – Bard College’s graduate training orchestra – in Saint-Saëns’ 2nd and 5th piano concertos respectively. The season will see Wilson in recitals at Boston Conservatory’s (at Berklee) Piano Masters Series, and in Washington, DC at the Bender Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington. Other highlights of the season include a tour with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges and the Catalyst Quartet with performances in San Francisco and at the Library of Congress, as well as a performance in Montréal at Fondation Arte Musica with the Escher Quartet.

Committed to education, Wilson serves as a member of the piano faculty at the Brevard Music Center (BMC) Institute and Festival in Brevard, NC for six weeks each summer. In July 2024, he was featured as faculty soloist with the Brevard Chamber Symphony at Whittington-Pfohl Auditorium at BMC. He is also a frequent guest teacher, lecturer and adjudicator in numerous international piano competitions. In 2025, Terrence Wilson was a pre-screening juror in the junior division of the Palm Springs International Piano Competition and adjudicated in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. In April 2026, Wilson will perform a joint faculty recital at Bard Conservatory with Raman Ramakrishnan, in a program including the cello sonatas of Frank Bridge and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Terrence Wilson has received several awards and prizes, including the SONY ES Award for Musical Excellence, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Juilliard Petschek Award. He has also been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, including NPR’s “Performance Today,” WQXR radio in New York, and programs on the BRAVO Network, the Arts & Entertainment Network, public television, and as a guest on late night network television. In 2011, Wilson was nominated for a Grammy in the category of “Best Instrumental Soloist With an Orchestra” for his (world premiere) recording with the Nashville Symphony conducted by Giancarlo Guerrero of Michael Daugherty’s Deus ex Machina for piano and orchestra – written for Wilson in 2007.

Terrence Wilson is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky. He has also enjoyed the invaluable mentorship of the Romanian pianist and teacher Zitta Zohar, as well as that of Maria Clodes-Jaguaribe. A native of the Bronx, he resides in Montclair, New Jersey. In March 2021, Wilson was appointed to the piano faculty at Bard College Conservatory of Music.