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Canadian pianist Tong Wang explores a variety of genres and mediums to bring creative initiatives to the community. As a soloist, Tong has performed with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and Red Deer Symphony Orchestra. She has won awards including the International Chopin Golden Ring Competition, the Canadian Music Competition, and the Queen’s Jubilee Medal of Performing Arts. Among her projects are the interactive performance tours ‘Song of Praise’ and ‘Ghiblilane’, research on the aesthetic of ‘cuteness’ in music, and social entrepreneurship initiatives such as ‘Zenkora Studios’. Tong is a member of the UTAU2, Lincoln Center Stage, and the Global Leaders Cohort. She received BM and MM from the New England Conservatory and McGill University. Tong received grants from the Canada Council and FRQSC for the creation of a new operetta, ‘Labyrinth of Tears’.
Akilan Sankaran is a ninth grade student attending Albuquerque Academy. He has played piano for nearly ten years and has won several piano competitions and awards on both the state and national level. “I love the piano because it allows me to express the full scope of a whole orchestra using only 88 keys,” says Akilan. “There are so many different ways to play the piano— with authentic styles, tones, and textures—that allows each one of my performances to be unique.” In addition to piano, Akilan also plays percussion in his school jazz band. He also teaches a fusion of Indian and classical music to young musicians. Besides piano, he enjoys science, math contests, track and cross country, debating and writing for his school newspaper.
Jack Kessler is a bachelor’s student at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studies viola with Roberto Diaz and Edward Gazouleas. He previously worked with Michael Klotz at Florida International University. Jack performed with fellows of the New World Symphony, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas from 2015 to 2019. He was a National YoungArts Foundation finalist in 2019 and has performed for distinguished artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and Steven Tenenbom, and performed on NPR’s From The Top with Jeremy Denk at Dartmouth College. In recent summers, Jack has studied at Center Stage Strings, Bowdoin International Music Festival, in The Perlman Music Program, and at the Ashkenasi-Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar at the Heifetz International Music Institute.
American violist Brian Isaacs attended Yale University, where he received his master’s degree in Viola Performance as a student of Ettore Causa and his bachelor’s degree in Sociology. He will be based in Berlin starting September 2023 as a member of the Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker. Brian received several awards while at Yale and won both the School of Music’s Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition (2023) and the College’s William Waite Concerto Competition (2022). He was a semifinalist at the Primrose International Viola Competition (2021) and the Kodály International Music Competition (2022), and was a prizewinner of the Rubinstein International Viola Competition (2019). He has performed in numerous American, Asian and European festivals and academies, including Bowdoin, Gimhae, Heyri, Moritzburg, NUME, NYO-USA, NYSOS, Schiermonnikoog, Taos, Thy and Yanghwajin. He attended the Verbier Festival Academy in 2022. Brian plays on a 2011 Douglas Cox viola, on generous loan from the Virtu Foundation.
Misi Boros started playing piano at age 4. As a child, he won first prizes in all national and international piano competitions he entered. In 2013, he took part in Lang Lang’s first Junior Music Camp in Munich and, a year later, he was the First Prize winner of the Virtuosos Classical Music Talent Show television programme, which has enabled him to perform in more than 30 countries. Misi has performed in several European countries, including Switzerland (Tonhalle Zurich), the United States (Lincoln Center, New York), Brazil, Japan and China. He previously attended the Verbier Festival Academy in 2022, where he was awarded the Tabor Foundation Award for piano. He has released six solo albums: including his disc Inspiration on the Hungaroton label, which received praise from International Piano Magazine and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Misi is currently pursuing his university studies in at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München with Antti Siirala.
Giovanni Bertolazzi is currently studying with Epifanio Comis. In addition to winning Second Prize and five special awards at the 2021 Franz Liszt International Piano Competiton in Budpest, Giovanni has won more than 40 prizes in international piano competitions. These include First Prizes at the S. Weishaupt Piano Competition and the S. Thalberg Piano Competition, as well as Fourth Prize at the Ferruccio Busoni Piano Competition. In 2019, he also received the Alkan Award for Piano Virtuosity (Milan). Giovanni has performed at Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Palazzo del Quirinale in Rome, at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Steinway Hall in London, among other prestigious venues. Highlights of his career so far include appearances with the Hungarian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro la Fenice and Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana.
Amy Goto began the cello at age three and has studied with Philippe Muller since the age of 12. In 2020 she became the youngest member of the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Her debut as soloist with orchestra took place at age 9 with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and in 2015 she received the ‘Hope’ Award at the IX International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. She has been featured on NPR’s From the Top and TEDx University of Rhode Island. At Musica Mundi in 2016, she performed in the closing gala concert as soloist with the festival orchestra and was the youngest semifinalist at the Mazzacurati Competition in 2019. During the summers, Amy has studied at Musica Mundi, Music@Menlo, and Domaine Forget. She currently resides in Rhode Island (USA).
In 2013, Kevin Chen was listed in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Top 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30.” He has won multiple international piano competitions, including the International Piano-e-Competition (2019), the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (2020), the Mozart International Piano Competition in Lugano, Switzerland (2020), and the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition in Budapest, Hungary (2021) as both the youngest competitor and the youngest ever winner of the competition. Since his orchestral debut with the Abbotsford Youth Orchestra at the age of seven, Kevin has performed concerts with many symphonies in Canada, including the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vancouver Island Symphony Orchestra, and the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, many of which featured Kevin’s own orchestral works. As well, he has performed with the Astana Opera Symphony Orchestra (Kazakhstan), the Minnesota Orchestra, the Hilton Head (South Carolina) Symphony Orchestra, and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra.
John Fisher studied at Glasgow University and the Royal Academy of Music & Drama and The London Opera Centre. His career, which began as Music Director of Welsh National Opera’s ‘Opera for All’ project, has included work at the Théâtre à la Monnaie (Brussels), Nederlands Opera (Amsterdam), La Scala (Milan), where he was also Artistic Administrator, and as the first non-Italian to be appointed Artistic Director in a state-funded Italian opera house, at the Teatro alla Fenice (Venice). He was Director of Opera and Vocal Productions and Executive Producer at Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft, Hamburg, and Director of Music Administration at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. In 2006, he took up the post of Chief Executive and Artistic Director at Welsh National Opera, a role he held for five years. He subsequently returned to the Metropolitan opera as Assistant General Manager.
John has collaborated throughout his career with the industry’s most distinguished conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber and Sir Georg Solti. He has also worked extensively with many of the world’s greatest opera stars, notably José Carreras, Marilyn Horne, Luciano Pavarotti and Dame Joan Sutherland. John’s recent work in New York has also featured engagement with the Young Artists programme at the Metropolitan Opera and at the world-renowned Juilliard School. As Hodge International Chair in Opera since 2015 he has been a regular visiting artist at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama working with many young singers on the College’s Masters programme in Advanced Opera Performance.
Yumeka Nakagawa is the 2021 Prix Clara Haskil recipient (Concours International de Piano Clara Haskil), as well as winner of the prestigious competition’s Audience Award and Children’s Corner Award. She was also the first prizewinner at the 2019 International Robert Schumann Competition (Düsseldorf) and second prizewinner at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists (Weimar) in 2014. After winning the federal Jugend Musiziert Competition in 2014, Yumeka was granted a scholarship by the Carl Bechstein Stiftung which led to invitations from numerous venues across Germany. Since 2019 she has appeared on the stages of the Wigmore Hall in London, Tonhalle Düsseldorf and Rachmaninoff Hall at the Mariinsky Theater. Yumeka currently pursues her bachelor’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar with Grigory Gruzman.