Performers

One of today's leading oboists, GRAMMY Award winner Alex Klein was Principal Oboe with the Chicago Symphony for nine years under Barenboim. Klein won top prizes at the international competitions in Geneva, Tokyo, New York, and Prague.

Santiago Kodela is an award-winning Classical Guitarist & Composer working in the areas of concert, solo instrument, chamber, and choral music. His works explore various aspects of sound and harmony, adventuring intensely into the areas of iso-rhythms, metric modulation, and chord harmonization. In 2022 the album PINNACLE VOL. 2 was awarded the 2nd Prize Silver Medal by North-American Global Music Awards in the classical category. Furthermore, his piece Delicate Soliloquies was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2nd Composition Competition by the Dutch Guitar Foundation by a jury integrated by Steve Goss, JacobTV, and Nikita Koshkin.

Hailed for the "awesome purity of his playing" (New York Concert Review) and described as a "prodigiously skilled protagonist", Bulgarian cellist Lachezar Kostov has performed as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician in USA, Japan and Europe. In 2006 Mr. Kostov was the National Winner at the MTNA competition. Lachezar Kostov gave his Carnegie Hall debut in 2009 together with his longtime friend and chamber music collaborator pianist Viktor Valkov.

The conductor, composer, and pianist Jan Kučera is one of the most versatile Czech artists. At the National Theatre in Prague, he has conducted the productions of Lukáš Hurník’s opera The Angels, Shostakovich’s Antiformalist Rayok / Orango, Rossini´s La Cenerentola, and of his own comic opera Red Mary.

Described as “alluringly exotic” (The New York Times), and “hauntingly attractive” (San Francisco Chronicle), the music of Bun-Ching Lam has been performed worldwide by such ensembles as the Macao Orchestra, American Composer’s Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, The Vienna Radio Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Albany Symphony. Born in Macao, Lam served as the composer-in-residence of the Macao Orchestra from 2008-2016. She began her piano study in her native city, then further pursued her music education in Hong Kong and the United States.

In 2008, Lande was appointed principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg State Symphony, and in 2011 he led the orchestra on a 24-concert "Tour of the Americas” including New York’s Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall, Philadelphia’s KimmelCenter, Baltimore’s Meyerhoff Hall, and the Society of the Performing Arts in Houston, as well as the most prestigious venues in Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay.

Dr. Sang-Hie Lee, Professor of Music at the University of South Florida, is an active teacher, pianist, researcher, author, and cross-disciplinary administrator. As the founder of Ars Nostra, she performs piano duo music by significant living composers: her music is featured in six albums by Ravello, Centaur, Capstone, and Albany labels. Lee is the principal author of Scholarly Research for Musicians: A Comprehensive Strategy (Learning Solutions Division, The McGraw-Hill, 2012, 2013 and Routledge 2017), and Scholarly Research in Music: Shared and Disciplinary-Specific Practices, 2nd Edition (Routledge 2022). She is the primary editor of Perspectives in Performing Arts Medicine: A Multidisciplinary Approach (Springer 2020) and was the founding editor of the Cultural Expressions in Music Monographs Series (College Music Society 2008-2014).

A South Korean native, Koeun Grace Lee is an avid performer of contemporary piano repertoire. Chicago Classical Review praised Lee’s performance of selected variations of Robert Gross’s Variations on a Theme by Stefan Wolpe, the central work of this album: “Lee brought technical precision and thoughtful shaping to each movement, with particular care given to the childlike second variation, ‘Easily,’ and the third, ‘Like a Baroque Prelude,’ whose rhythmic figurations gesture winkingly to Bach’s Prelude in C Major.”

Acclaimed violinist Moonkyung Lee, described by ResMusica as “one to follow,” has delighted audiences across Europe, the United States and Korea with her expressive performances. She has collaborated with many world-class ensembles, conductors, and performers, and is celebrated as an “expressive soloist” (Fanfare Magazine).

American violinist Jae Cosmos Lee, who’s performances have been acclaimed as “Delicate and beautiful,” (Syracuse Post-Standard) and “Bursting with color,”(Boston Globe) is Concertmaster of the Cape Symphony in Cape Cod MA, and co-founder of A Far Cry, the GRAMMY nominated, resident chamber orchestra of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He is also Curator & Director of the Nth Degree Chamber Music Series based in Falmouth MA, first violinist of the Boston-based Pedroia String Quartet, and the Associate Concertmaster of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

Jonathan Rhodes Lee is Associate Professor of Music at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He studied harpsichord with Laurette Goldberg, Joscelyn Godwin, Davitt Moroney, and Jacques Ogg. He holds degrees from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of California, Berkeley, and he was a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague, Netherlands. Lee’s work as a musicologist focuses on 18th-century repertoires and film music, and his recordings can be heard on the MSR, Equilibrium, and Navona labels.

As Director of the Division of Wind Band Studies and Professor of Conducting, Thomas G. Leslie has earned recognition for high-quality performances of the UNLV Bands. During his tenure at UNLV, his bands have received critical acclaim from fellow musicians internationally, from Grammy Award-winning recording artists to decorated members of the United States Marine Band, Air Force Band, Navy Band, and esteemed educators. Recognized for a fresh, interpretative style among collegiate wind orchestras, Leslie and the UNLV Wind Orchestra excel in their commitment to commission new works by the next generation of the world’s finest young composers.

Brooklyn-based pianist Beth Levin is celebrated as a bold interpreter of challenging works, from the Romantic canon to leading modernist composers. The New York Times praised her “fire and originality,” while The New Yorker called her playing “revelatory.” Debuting as a child prodigy with the Philadelphia Orchestra at age twelve, Levin was subsequently taught and guided by legendary pianists such as Rudolf Serkin, Leonard Shure and Dorothy Taubman, Another of her teachers, Paul Badura-Skoda, praised Levin as a pianist of rare qualities and the highest professional caliber.

Mark Lieb, clarinetist, is the Founder and Artistic Director of the Phoenix Ensemble. He is a graduate of Northwestern University and The Juilliard School, where he studied clarinet performance with Robert Marcellus, former Principal clarinet with the Cleveland Orchestra, and David Shifrin, clarinet soloist and former Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has been an active professional freelance musician since 1991, performing with many orchestras, opera companies, chamber ensembles, and new music groups in New York City.

Described as a “striking interpreter” who gives a “committed and heartfelt performance” by Musical America and The New York Times, pianist Fanya Lin has entranced audiences worldwide with her charismatic and fiery performances. Lin’s “mesmerizing performance” of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in the United Kingdom was depicted as “a tornado had touched down through her body and lifted her, feathers fluttering, from the piano stool as she weighed into the keys.” Her orchestral appearances include the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Toruń Symphony, Utah Symphony, Savannah Philharmonic, The Jackson Symphony, Mississippi Valley Orchestra, and New Art Symphony, among others.

Lucia Lin currently enjoys a multi-faceted career of solo engagements, chamber music performances, orchestral concerts with the BSO, and teaching at Boston University’s College of Fine Arts. Lin made her debut at age 11, performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony, then went on to be a prizewinner of numerous competitions, including the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. She joined the BSO at the age of 22, and has also held positions as acting concertmaster with the Milwaukee Symphony and for two years, concertmaster with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Cellist Samuel Magill has had a rich and varied career as soloist, chamber musician, and enjoyed a highly successful orchestral career. His first Naxos CD of the Cello Concerto by Vernon Duke was hailed as "flat-out magnificent" by the American Record Guide, while The Strad wrote of his world premier recording of Franco Alfano's Cello Sonata "Magill's husky, dark timbre matches the Cello Sonata's yearning intensity to perfection".

Andrew Malloy, a New Hampshire native, attended the University of Massachusetts graduating magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music Education degree. He continued his education at The Juilliard School where he received a Master of Music in Performance. He lived in Los Angeles where he worked as an active freelance musician for 40 years. As a studio player he recorded hundreds of film scores as well as TV shows and commercials. He performed as a regular member of the Pasadena, Santa Barbara, and New West Symphonies and The Crown City Brass Quintet.

Ovidiu Marinescu, a native of Romania, is active as a cellist, conductor, composer, and educator. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Rachmaninov Hall, Holywell Room in Oxford, Oriental Art Center in Shanghai, and many other venues around the world. He has appeared as a soloist with the New York Chamber Symphony, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, Moscow Chamber Orchestra, Helena and Newark Symphonies, Southeastern Pennsylvania Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Philharmonic, Limeira Symphony in Brazil, Orquesta de Extremadura in Spain, and most orchestras in Romania.

Kristina Marinova has been described as a virtuoso performer of extreme energy and youthful vibrance. Her clear and precise tone enhances her stormy expressions and performances, full of grace, serenity, style, and beauty. Her album entitled 4 RHAPSODIES, which she performed live at Carnegie Hall on November 17th, 2022, has been called “A Feast for the Ears” by Darren Rea of Classical Music Review Magazine.