The presents ChamberFest 2020

Monday, January 13, 2019, 7:30pm Peter Jay Sharp Theater

PHILLIP HOUGHTON The Light on the Edge

Ziggy Johnston Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Ziggy Johnston is in first year of his Master of Music at Juilliard studying classical guitar under Sharon Isbin. He has won major awards in competitions across Australia, including the Melbourne Recital Centre’s (MRC) Great Romantics Competition, MRC’s Bach Competition, and Melbourne Guitar Festival’s International Artist Competition. He studied for his bachelor’s at Monash University and completed his honors year at the University of Melbourne, where he received the highest grade of any guitarist in 2018. He has performed as a soloist with the Monash Sinfonia, Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, and Melbourne Mandolin Orchestra. As a duo with his brother Miles, he has won awards in competitions in Australia and the U.S. and are the youngest musicians to perform in MRC’s Local Heroes concert series. He is a McCabe Fellow and Augustine Foundation Fellow. • Michael Kevin Burke Scholarship

Miles Johnston From Melbourne, Australia, Miles Johnston is in the first year of his Master of Music degree at Juilliard, majoring in classical guitar under the tutelage of Sharon Isbin. He has received first prizes from Australia's most prestigious music competitions, including Melbourne Recital Centre’s multi-instrument Great Romantics Competition and the Adelaide International Classical Guitar Competition. These awards led to solo concerts at the Peninsula Summer Music Festival and Adelaide Guitar Festival as well as a nomination for the Freedman Classical Fellowship. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2018 from Monash University, where he won the Monash Australian music award, and was featured as a soloist with the Monash Sinfonia. Along with his brother Ziggy, he has won prizes in competitions in Australia and the U.S. and has toured across Australia and New Zealand. He is a McCabe Fellow and an Augustine Foundation Fellow. • Michael Kevin Burke Scholarship

Tiffany Wong Originally from the Bay Area, harpist Tiffany Wong is a first-year bachelor’s student at Juilliard studying with Nancy Allen. She has won prizes at the Korea International Harp Competition, American Harp Society National Competition, and Young Artist’s Harp Competition. Last summer, she toured as a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in Europe, performing at the Berliner Philharmonie and Wiener Musikverein. Wong was accepted at age 14 to the HarpMasters Academy summer intensive in Switzerland, where she studied with Milda Agazarian and Irina Zingg. In her spare time, she enjoys playing Runescape, singing Disney songs, and watching Lucifer on Netflix.

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Joshua Williams Hailing from Atlanta, multi-instrumentalist Joshua Williams began playing tuba at age 11 and soon picked up the bass. He was a member of the talent development program of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) from 2014 to 2018. Under the direction of ASO principal tubist Michael Moore, Williams became a national young arts finalist, performing Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto with the Georgia Symphony, and was a finalist in the Presidents Own Marine Band Concerto Competition. He was also a member of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Rialto Jazz Youth Orchestra before taking his talents to Juilliard, where he studies with Alan Baer. • Kovner Fellowship

Paris Myers At Juilliard, Paris Myers (BM ’18, double bass) earned his bachelor’s studying with Eugene Levinson and is pursuing his master’s with Timothy Cobb. He began his studies with Dan Swaim at age 7. Having attended prestigious summer festivals such as Pacific Music Festival and National Repertory Orchestra, Myers has a deep passion for orchestral music. He has been a finalist in the Phoenix Symphony principal bass audition and a semi-finalist in National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony auditions. Myers has also appeared as a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players. Myers is a Music Advancement Program fellow as well as a Gluck fellow. • Kovner Fellowship

Mizuki Morimoto Percussionist Mizuki Morimoto is a second-year master’s student at Juilliard. She also plays percussion as a freelancer in orchestras such as Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, and Izumi Sinfonietta Osaka. • Ute Krayenbuehl Scholarship, Ruth Katzman Scholarship, Edward Jàbes Scholarship

Nicole Cloutier Nicole Cloutier is an American collaborative pianist who specializes in vocal repertoire. Past engagements include music director for Michigan Opera Theater’s operetta workshop, an appearance with the Toledo Symphony Orchestra as first prizewinner of its young artist concerto competition, studies with Martin Katz and Kathy Kelly at the Collaborative Piano Institute, and a pianist/coach fellowship at Musica Nelle Marche opera program in Urbino, Italy. Cloutier studies collaborative piano with Lydia Brown and Jonathan Feldman at Juilliard, where she also serves as a staff pianist. She holds a BM in piano performance from Michigan State University’s College of Music, where she was awarded the Spencer and Eleanor Maurer Memorial Scholarship for Piano to study with artist in residence Panayis Lyras. She graduated with highest honors, and received the Trustee Board award for outstanding academic achievement. • Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship, Eileen Hayes Ludlam Memorial Scholarship

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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES

Pablo O’Connell Pablo O’Connell is an -based oboist, composer, and improviser pursuing his bachelor’s at Juilliard. He is a proponent of contemporary music and performs regularly with the SEM Ensemble, AXIOM, and New Juilliard Ensemble. O’Connell specializes in electroacoustic music and worked as a composer and sound designer for the multimedia theater piece Canaries in Juilliard’s 2019 InterArts Festival. He is interested in the development of political art in service of social movements which seek to secure dignity and freedom for all people. He is on the organizing committee of the Sing in Solidarity Chorus, a project of the NYC Democratic Socialists of America. • Mack Harrell Memorial Scholarship, Rita and Herbert Z. Gold Woodwind Scholarship

Jonathan Miron A graduate of Juilliard, Jonathan Miron (Pre-College ’10; BM ’14, MM ’18, violin) enjoys connecting with audiences of all cultures has inspired and taken him on an expansive journey to broaden his artistic palate—from collaborating with members of the Silkroad Ensemble to appearing with Tony and Grammy winner Ben Platt at Clive Davis’ famed pre-Grammy party to pop-up performances at the Met Breuer’s first commissioned sound-based installation, Oliver Beer’s Vessel Orchestra. He is the founder and codirector of Global Perspectives, an educational world music program piloted at Juilliard. Passionate about arts management, Miron is the program administrator for the Center for Arts Learning and Leadership at the 92nd Street Y, serving over 16,000 students and educators throughout the tristate area. ARKAI is Miron’s latest endeavor, partnering with cellist Philip Sheegog to create genre-bending compositions and arrangements that explore diverse sound worlds.

Yoonsoo Cha Yoonsoo Cha is a sophomore at Juilliard. While she began musical studies on the violin, she had a chance to play the viola in a quartet during high school and found that she loved the deeper sound and its unique role within the quartet. Soon she decided to focus on the viola and since then her love of the instrument has grown even more under the tutelage of Jay Liu and her current teacher Paul Neubauer. Cha has won numerous competitions for both violin and viola, including the Korean-American Music Supporters’ Association, United States International Music Competition (USIMC), Pacific Musical Society Competition, Silicon Valley Youth Music Competition, and Korea Times Music Competition, and for the past two years she has attended the Gonggeng/Tanggong Music Festival in Suichang, China. • C.V. Starr Scholarship, Frederick Raymond Heward Scholarship

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Philip Sheegog Philip Sheegog (BM ’17, MM ’19, cello) is a dynamic collaborative artist who maneuvers within a diverse array of musical personas with ease. Drawing from roots influenced by a myriad of musical styles, Sheegog has been sought out for projects from all ends of the musical spectrum, from Juilliard’s contemporary ensemble AXIOM to the Met Breuer’s first commissioned sound-based installation, Oliver Beer’s Vessel Orchestra. A passionate advocate for collaboration and commissioning, Sheegog has premiered over 70 new works by living artists and performed with groups from the New York hip-hop/classical collective ShoutHouse to the International Contemporary Ensemble to the Steve Miller Band. At Juilliard, Sheegog was a recipient of the 2017 John Erskine Prize and a Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant.

Markus Lang Starting on cello and electric bass, Markus Lang is well-versed in a wide range of music from rock to classical. He was most recently a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy Alumni program where he performed contemporary orchestral works under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. As a student at Juilliard, he has performed with several of the school’s primary orchestras including the New Juilliard Ensemble, AXIOM, and Juilliard 415. As a chamber musician, Lang plays concerts throughout New York City and has worked with such groups as the New York Classical Players. He has performed with the New Jersey Symphony as principal bass and spent two consecutive summers at the Music Academy of the West. Other festivals he has attended include the Wabass Institute, Domaine Forget, and the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. After two years studying with Joseph Conyers at Temple University as a Garrigues Scholar, Lang now studies at Juilliard with Albert Laszlo. • Constance and Homer Mensch Scholarship, Elsie and Walter W. Naumburg Scholarship

Bolai Cao Bolai Cao is pursuing his master’s at Juilliard under Robert McDonald and Yoheved Kaplinsky. Cao began performing internationally at age 15. He performed at several music festivals including the Portland Piano Festival and Salt Lake City Piano Festival. He also released two solo CDs of piano works in 2010. Cao received his bachelor’s in piano and certificate in improvisation from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019 after studying there for eight years. He studied under Eleanor Sokoloff, MengCheih Liu, Gary Graffman, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn at Curtis. Since age 12, Cao often traveled to Europe to participate in summer academies and festivals, including the Paderewski Piano Academy in Bydgoszcsz, Piano Academy Eppan in Italy, International Piano Academy Lake Como in Italy and Salzburg Mozarteum Summer Festival. • Morton B. Knafel Scholarship, The Thoba Scholarship, Natalie and Bernard Selinger Scholarship

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Euijin Jung A native of South Korea, Euijin Jung started playing a drum set to relieve stress. After moving to the U.S., he gained interest in percussion after receiving a flyer from a youth orchestra in Dallas. He began musical training at age 14 with Chulmin Lee, graduate of Kyunghee University in Korea. Jung is a prizewinner of the New York International Percussion Competition, Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra Wind Ensemble Concerto Competition, and North Texas Marimba Competition. He attended Colorado College Summer Music Festival and the National Orchestral Institute the past two summers. Starting his junior year in high school, Jung attended the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he began working with Keith Aleo. He is pursuing his bachelor’s at Juilliard under the guidance of Greg Zuber. • Jean and Louis Dreyfus Foundation Scholarship, Cara and Hiram Lewine Scholarship

Simon Herron A native of Hanover, New Hampshire, percussionist Simon Herron is a sophomore at Juilliard in the studios of Markus Rhoten and Daniel Druckman. Herron started out on piano but switched to marimba, studying with Doug Perkins of Dartmouth College. Herron studied at New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School with Kyle Brightwell, Matthew McKay, and Daniel Bauch. He also spent two years studying in Berlin with David Punto and Jens Hilse, attending the Julius-Stern Institute of the Berlin University of the Arts. He played for two seasons with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, including tours to Latin America and East Asia. Herron made his solo orchestral debut in 2016, premiering a marimba concerto composed by his brother Felix. He won second place at the 2016 Great Plains International Marimba Competition. • Al Howard Scholarship, Paul Louis Berlin Scholarship, Edward John Noble Foundation Scholarship

STEVE REICH Six Pianos

Derek Wang Derek Wang presents the solo and chamber music literature with energy and joy in the belief that genuine musical experiences can foster practices of committed listening in social and public life today. Wang is entering his fourth year of undergraduate study with Veda Kaplinsky at Juilliard. His wide-ranging activities at Juilliard have included performing excerpts from a solo piano version of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring with a solo dancer, working with Steve Reich and Kaija Saariaho as a member of the AXIOM ensemble, and performing Mozart in a master class for Murray Perahia and Liszt for Marc-André Hamelin. Last summer, he served as pianist in the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music Festival, collaborating with jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer and violinist Robert McDuffie. Wang grew up near Boston and is a baseball fan and lover of literature. • Kovner Fellowship

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Tengku Irfan Malaysian pianist, composer, and conductor Tengku Irfan made his debut at age 11 performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto, WoO4, improvising his own cadenzas with Claus Peter Flor and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed as soloist with orchestras worldwide under conductors Neeme Järvi, David Robertson, Robert Spano, George Stelluto, and Jeffrey Milarsky, among others. He won the 2013 Aspen Music Festival Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 Competition and served four consecutive years as pianist for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble. Irfan received the ASCAP Charlotte Bergen Award in 2012 and the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2012, 2014, and 2017. His compositions have been premiered by the , MDR Sinfonieorchester, New York Virtuoso Singers, MusicaNova, Malaysian Philharmonic, and Peoria and Singapore Symphony orchestras. Irfan made his conducting debut with the MusicaNova Orchestra in 2015, and recently conducted the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra for its 20th anniversary gala. At Juilliard he is a double major in piano and composition under Veda Kaplinsky and Robert Beaser, and studies conducting with George Stelluto and Jeffrey Milarsky. Irfan was recently appointed youth ambassador of the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. • Kovner Fellowship

Adria Ye Adria Ye is a pianist from New York who made her debut at age 7, first performed with an orchestra at age 9, and has since performed as a soloist with multiple ensembles. She has appeared three times on NPR’s From the Top and was a featured artist on American Public Media’s Performance Today with Fred Child. Ye has performed in national and international music festivals and concert series in China, New York, San Francisco, Washington, Florida, and Oregon in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, Harris Hall, Jordan Hall, Arlene Schnitzer Hall, and Benaroya Hall. Her master class teachers include Wu Han, Hans Boepple, Arnaldo Cohen, Anne-Marie McDermott, Anton Nel, and John O’Conor. She is pursuing her BM at Juilliard with Yoheved Kaplinsky.

Huan Li Huan Li was born in China and is pursuing her bachelor’s with Hung-Kuan Chen at Juilliard. She started studying piano at age 5 and moved to New York to attend Juilliard Pre-College when she was 15. After coming to America, Li studied with Choong Mo Kang and Yonghi Moon. As a soloist, she has performed with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Salzburg Chamber Soloists, and Juilliard Chamber Orchestra. She was a prizewinner in the first Zhuhai International Mozart Competition, among others. She also won the 2018 Gina Bachauer Piano Competition at Juilliard, for which she was awarded a full scholarship and a nationally broadcast radio concert. As a chamber musician, she has performed throughout the U.S. playing repertoire including Amberg, Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Piazzolla, and Poulenc. • Lolita Cabrera Gainsborg Scholarship, Josef and Rosina Lhevinne Scholarship

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Umi Garrett Umi Garrett’s performances include a solo recital at Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin to raise funds for the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War; nine-concert tour with Symphonia Boca Raton; debut with the Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, led by Kazuyoshi Akiyama; and a solo recital tour in Japan. She has spoken at TEDxOC and TEDxHarkerSchool and has toured nearly 60 cities in the U.S. in the 2013-14 and the 2014-15 seasons. Her previous orchestral engagements include Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra with Michael Francis, Pasadena Symphony and Pops with Nicholas McGegan, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra with Alexander Mikelthwate, Wuhan Symphony Orchestra, and Liepaja Symphony Orchestra. Garrett is pursuing her bachelor’s at Juilliard, studying with Matti Raekallio and Hung-Kuan Chen. In 2019 she was a winner of Juilliard’s concerto competition. She is a Young Steinway Artist. • Kamiya Sisters Piano Scholarship, Richard R. Levien Scholarship, LCU Foundation Grant

Theo Rockas New York-based pianist Theo Rockas maintains a close appreciation of contemporary music. Rockas has given many premieres, including British composer Michael Finnissy’s solo piano work “Could I sing with angels” in Carnegie Hall. He has also performed at the Gardner Museum, Kimmel Center, and Tanglewood as well as throughout New York City. He has attended many summer festivals and received a fellowship to study at the Art of the Piano in Cincinnati. Most recently he enjoyed attending Stephen Drury’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice in Boston and the Aspen Music Festival and School.

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