Cellist WESLEY BALDWIN holds degrees from Yale College, the New England Conservatory, and the University of Maryland. He performs throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist with orchestra, he has recently appeared with the Laredo Philharmonic, the Oregon Mozart Players, the Symphony of the Mountains, and the Aberdeen, Bemidji, Bryan, Chattanooga, Florence, Germantown, Johnson City, Hot Springs, Knoxville, La Porte, Oak Ridge, Manchester, New River Valley, Salisbury, Wintergreen, and Bismarck-Mandan Symphony Orchestras, among others. His passionate and charismatic performances have been widely lauded.

An advocate for great music from all eras, Mr. Baldwin is one of the only performers of several little known and new concerti for cello, including recently those by Sollima, Wagenseil, Jacob T.V., Behzad Ranjbaran, and Alan Shulman. His recording of music for cello by Alan Shulman, released by Albany records, enjoyed widespread critical acclaim. He has also recorded for the Naxos, Zyode, and Innova labels. His most recent CD release, his fourth on the Centaur label, features the chamber music of Arthur Honegger.

Wesley was the founder of the Plymouth String Quartet, with whom he was a top prize-winner in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and a finalist in the Paolo Borciani International String Quartet Competition. He was also cellist of the James Piano Quartet for five years, with residencies at both Sweet Briar College and the Wintergreen Festival. Solo and chamber music performing honors Baldwin has received include the Prix Mercure, Homer Ulrich Awards, and a Tennessee Arts Commission Individual Performing Artist Fellowship.

As a member and principal cellist of the New World Symphony, Baldwin performed with many of the world’s great conductors and toured Japan, Scotland, England, Argentina, and Brazil. His orchestral colleagues there selected him as the recipient of the New World Symphony’s Community Board Award for artistic integrity and leadership. For many years Wesley served on New World Symphony regional audition committee panels throughout the U.S.

Dr. Baldwin has performed chamber music at the Aspen, Cazenovia, Hot Springs, Ojai, Sandpoint, Mainly Mozart, May in Miami, Skaneateles, and Sub-tropics Music Festivals, and internationally in Italy, France, Monte Carlo, Spain, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, and Costa Rica. In 2017 and again in 2018 he visited China, performing and teaching in Shanghai, Beijing, Xian, Nanjing, Ningbo, and other cities.

In the summers he performs and teaches at the Michigan City Chamber Music Festival, the ARIA International Academy, and at the Wintergreen Festival, where he is the principal cellist of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra, and serves as the chair of strings of the Wintergreen Festival Academy.

Currently Professor of Cello at the University of Tennessee, where he received the Chancellor’s Award for Professional Promise, Wesley previously taught at the University of Maryland and at Florida International University, where he was artist-in-residence with the Plymouth Quartet. He. His former students play and teach throughout the United States and Malaysia, an include a 2021 Marshall Scholarship Fellow.

Dr. Baldwin’s commitment to string education extends beyond his work at the University of Tennessee. He founded and directs the Tennessee Cello Workshop, an annual three-day gathering of more than 170 cellists of all ages from throughout the United States held each February. After serving as conductor of the Knoxville Youth Chamber Orchestra for 15 years, he now serves as Director of the Knoxville Symphony Youth Orchestra Association Chamber Music program. In Knoxville he also serves as Co-Director of the Knoxville Suzuki Academy.

Wesley lives in Knoxville with his wife, soprano Melisa Barrick Baldwin, and four wonderful children.

SYDNEY LEE, a master’s cello student of Hans Jørgen Jensen at the Bienen School of Music, has won first prize in the 2022 Washington International Competition for Strings. Lee receives a $10,000 cash prize; a one-year loan of a cello valued at up to $500,000, courtesy of Christophe Landon Rare Violins; and an invitation to present a solo concert and master class at the Tennessee Cello Workshop in January 2023.

Established in 1950, the Washington International Competition awards prizes to singers, pianists, and string players (violin, viola, and cello) on an annual rotation. A competition for composers is held every three years. The string competition finals took place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC.

Lee also recently won second prize and €30.000 in the 2022 Classic Strings International Cello Competition. As a member of the Bienen School’s Galvin Cello Quartet, she was named a winner of the Concert Artists Guild’s 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and will receive international management with Concert Artists Guild and a New York debut performance.

Sydney Lee made her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age 13 under the baton of Maestro Thomas Hong. Since then, she has captured first prizes in the 10th International Cello Competition “Antonio Janigro,” Bravura Philharmonic Young Artists Concerto Competition, Duquesne Young Artist National Competition, Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition, Monmouth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and second prize at the Lennox International Young Artists Competition. She was also a finalist at the Stulberg International String Competition and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Competition.

Lee has performed in many cities across Asia, United States, and Europe in venues such as Verizon Hall in Kimmel Center, Palladium Center for the Performing Arts, Heinz Hall, Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Euphrasian Basilica, Shanghai Concert Hall, and Konzerthaus Berlin. A National YoungArts finalist, Lee was named a 2015 US Presidential Scholar in the Arts by the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars. She was also the recipient of the 2015 Korean Honors Scholarship, which was awarded by the South Korean Embassy in Washington D.C.

Lee received a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. She will complete her master’s degree at the Bienen School of Music this spring and continue her doctoral studies with Professor Jensen this fall.

For 30 years DAN ALLCOTT has been conducting daring collaborations, outstanding symphonic concerts, and leading opera and ballet productions with international and regional stars.  

Music Director of the Oak Ridge Symphony, the Tennessee Philharmonic, and the Bryan Symphony orchestras in Tennessee, he regularly conducts Tennessee's finest musicians in concerts lauded by critics and enthusiastically enjoyed by audiences.  He has conducted the Dallas Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Danish Radio Orchestra, and as a frequent guest conductor with Asheville Lyric Opera, leading performances of Tosca, Marriage of Figaro, and Barber of Seville. From 2013-18, Allcott was Artistic Advisor and Summer conductor with Eastport Strings in Maine. 

In 2012-13 he helped celebrate the Bryan Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary in a season bookended by performances of Beethoven's 9th symphony and Puccini's Tosca.  He has led world premieres by Tennessee composers Stefan Freund, Rachel DeVore Fogarty, and Greg Danner, and was a commissioner of the League of American Orchestra's initial "Made in America" project, giving the Tennessee premier of a work by Joan Tower.  His programming regularly spans a 400-year period from Monteverdi to Elena Ruehr, and he is an engaging public speaker. In 2019 he conducted John Adams "Doctor Atomic Symphony" to open the 75th anniversary season of the Oak Ridge Symphony. 

For 12 years, Mr. Allcott was featured guest on WCTE's "BSO Backstage: A Concert Preview" and he is a frequent guest on network and public media in East Tennessee.

    "My training in cello performance and chamber music with a generation of the world's great performers has informed my deep-seated commitment to helping musicians make great music. I am humbled and proud to have had the opportunity to work with Imre Pallo and Thomas Baldner (conductors) and Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Menahem Pressler, Josef Gingold, Franco Gulli. (Chamber music and cello)"

Allcott served as Music Director and Principal Conductor for Atlanta Ballet from 2000-2010 during which time he led over 250 performances with the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra. In addition to traditional ballet scores, he led musical collaborations with the Indigo Girls, the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Choir, the Red Clay Ramblers, the Michael O'Neal Singers, Atlanta Boy Choir, and the Atlanta Youth Choirs.  Atlanta Ballet has performed Mr. Allcott’s own arrangements of Carmen and Shed Your Skin. 

In the fall 1996, Mr. Allcott was appointed the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's Conducting Fellow, a position he held for three years. In 1998, Mr. Allcott was named the first conducting fellow of the American Austrian Foundation at the Salzburg Festival (now the Faber Young Conductors fellowship) and was accepted to participate in the Nicolai Malko and Grzegorz Fitelberg competitions in Europe. He received further training in master classes with Michael Tilson Thomas and Gunther Schuller. 

Allcott holds a master’s degree in cello performance from Indiana University where he completed his coursework towards the Doctor of Music in both conducting and cello performance before leaving to accept the position as Music Director of Atlanta Ballet. At Indiana he served as Associate Instructor of Conducting and conductor of the Indiana University New Music Ensemble.

Dr. SEAN HAWTHORNE has gained international recognition for his achievements as a chamber musician, orchestral musician, soloist and educator. He was appointed as the assistant professor of cello at East Tennessee State University in 2018. Dr. Hawthorne received his DMA from Stony Brook University in 2018, after having earned a Bachelor’s Degree from The Juilliard School and a Master’s Degree from the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. His primary teachers were Richard Aaron, Michel Strauss and Colin Carr.

Dr. Hawthorne has enjoyed an active and far-reaching orchestral career performing with orchestras such as the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada, the Royal Philharmonic in London, and the Residentie Orkest in The Hague. He served as principal cellist of the National Repertory Orchestra for two years, during which time he was featured twice as a soloist, performing Strauss’s Don Quixote and Tchaikovsky’s Variations on a Rococo Theme. In 2014, Dr. Hawthorne was selected as the Institute for Orchestral Studies cello apprentice with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under Maestro Pinchas Zukerman. He has also been a member of a number of renowned summer festival orchestras, including the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra and the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, Dr. Hawthorne has collaborated with musicians such as Colin Carr, Arnaud Sussmann, Jennifer Frautschi, and members of the Emerson String Quartet. He has been a featured artist in venues such as Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Dr. Anton Philipszaal in The Hague, and Casa da Música in Porto. He has studied chamber music under the tutelage of the Juilliard String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, Gilbert Kalish, Sylvia Rosenberg, Donald Weilerstein, Timothy Eddy, and David Finckel.

As a teacher, Dr. Hawthorne has held positions at Stony Brook University and Eastern Music Festival. He established himself as a sought after teacher for young cello students in the New York area, serving as cello instructor at the Herald Music School, the Joyous Music School and the Music Academy of Long Island. Students of Dr. Hawthorne’s have been accepted into top music programs, such as the Juilliard Pre-College program.

Recently hailed by The New York Times for his “warm-toned” performance of Lutosławski’s Grave (Metamorphoses), cellist PAUL YORK is an accomplished soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. He currently serves on the string faculty at the University of Louisville, where he maintains an active teaching and performing schedule. Recent solo appearances include performances of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto in Nanjing, China and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Karel Husa’s Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra at New York’s Carnegie Hall. He has performed Aaron Jay Kernis’s Colored Field for Cello and Orchestra with the Louisville Orchestra, and Vivaldi’s Double Concerto in G Minor with internationally acclaimed cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Of his performance at Carnegie Hall, New York Concert Review said “The fiendishly difficult solo part was brilliantly played by cellist Paul York; one had to be in awe of his playing.” 

An avid chamber musician, Mr. York is a member of the York-Biran Duo and is a former member of the Louisville String Quartet. He was also a founding member of The Logsdon Chamber Ensemble, a Texas Commission of the Arts Touring ensemble as well as ensemble-in-residence at Hardin-Simmons University. He has performed recitals throughout Japan and has recently performed at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan.

As a champion of contemporary music, Mr. York has commissioned works for the cello by such composers as Stefan Freund, David Maslanka, Douglas Knehans, Jeremy Beck, Marc Satterwhite, Steve Rouse, Paul Brink, Rene Orth, and Frederick Speck. He also premiered the work Ballad ­for Solo Cello and Seven Cellos by Grawemeyer and Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Aaron Jay Kernis as well as Alfred Bartles’ new orchestration of Bartok’s First Rhapsody for cello with the Sewanee Festival Orchestra.

Mr. York has participated in numerous summer festivals. He is currently a member of the cello faculty at the Aria Summer International Academy and has been member of the artist faculty at the Beyond the Music Festival in Benasque, Spain, the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, Strings in the Mountains, and Accent 09 and 11 at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. He has served as principal cello with the Des Moines Metro Opera Orchestra and has held principal cello positions with numerous regional orchestras and has performed with the cello section of the Saint Louis Symphony.  

Mr. York received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Southern California and his master of music degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where he studied with Ronald Leonard. Other teachers include Gabor Rejto, and Louis Potter. The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Mr. York was selected to participate in the prestigious Piatigorsky Seminar at the University of Southern California and has received Distinguished Faculty Awards in Teaching and Creative and Research work from the University of Louisville. Mr. York can be heard on the Ablaze, Arizona University Press, Centaur, innova, and CRS labels. His premiere recording of the Husa concerto and can be found on the Ablaze label, and his CD of solo works entitled Paul York: Soliloquy and his recording of the Lutoslawski Cello Concerto have recently been released to critical acclaim.

SUSAN MOSES is the Co-Director Emeritus of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music String Academy. Her students have been awarded top prizes in international competitions and hold positions in leading orchestras of the United States and Europe. During her years of teaching in England, France and Italy, Susan was honored with several distinguished teaching awards and is the recipient of the 2014 INASTA Studio Teacher of the Year award. She also has served on the faculty of Boston University and the Oberlin Conservatory and serves on the juries of national and international cello competitions as representatives of the United States.

The recipient of a Ford Foundation prize, Ms. Moses has performed throughout the world in recital, with orchestras and as the solo cellist of the celebrated ensemble I Solisti Veneti.

As a founding member of the Chicago String Trio, she received a special prize from the University of Milan for outstanding contributions to chamber music. Susan Moses records for ERATO and the CONCERTO labels, has been nominated for a Grand Prix du Disque, and has served as a juror in major international cello competitions. Ms. Moses has also been recognized by the University of Padua for her research on the school of Giuseppe Tartini. Susan is currently an editor for the International Music Company. Her edition of Goltermann 4th concerto was released in 2019.

Well known as a Suzuki cello workshop and institute clinician, AVI FRIEDLANDER teaches a variety of methods from classical to jazz and rock. Mr. Friedlander is the director of the Barston Suzuki Center at the Music Institute of Chicago, a Suzuki teacher trainer, teaches Suzuki Pedagogy faculty at Roosevelt University/Music Institute of Chicago and teaches string pedagogy at the University of North Florida and Northwestern University. He holds Masters and Bachelors degrees in cello performance from The University of Michigan, and pursued his professional studies degree from The Cleveland Institute of Music. Mr. Friedlander is the former Assistant Principal cellist of the Atlanta Opera, former member of The New World Symphony and former professor of Cello at Emory University in Atlanta. His primary teachers have included Anthony Elliott, Stephen Geber, Irene Sharp, Tanya Carey and David Premo and he has also worked with Richard Aaron, Hans Jensen, Janos Starker and Bernard Greenhouse. Mr. Friedlander has studied improvisation methods with Eugene Friesen from the Berkley College, Stephan Braun from Berlin and Tim Kliphuis from Amsterdam. In addition to his own compositions, Mr. Friedlander writes his own arrangements for solo cello of rock tunes from Jimi Hendrix to Pearl Jam and is the author of his method books, “chopping around” and “pizzing around”, which  introduce alternative styles to cellist. In his free time, Mr. Friedlander loves to read, play hockey and spend time with his family.  On top of his cello teaching career, Mr. Friedlander is also an USA Hockey certified coach.

DAVID BJELLA is Professor of Cello at the UCF School of Performing Arts. A native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, cellist David Bjella has an extensive, multi-faceted career as a teacher, chamber musician, orchestral player and soloist. He is Co-Principal of the IRIS Orchestra in Memphis Tennessee for the last 18 years under the direction of Michael Stern and was a member of the Inman Piano Trio for 13 years. Professor Bjella is one of the featured IRIS chamber musicians for the Naxos-released CD, "Music of Stephen Hartke," which was chosen by the New York Times as a Top Ten Classical Recording. He has also served as Professor of Cello at Stetson University, Visiting Associate Professor of Cello at Florida State University, Adjunct Professor of Cello at UCF and has taught in the Valade Master Teacher program at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan. In the summers, Bjella is a member of the Wintergreen Festival Orchestra in Virginia and teaches in the LEAD Cooperative program. 

A sought-after performer and teacher, Bjella was asked in 2018 to join the Academia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy and the Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival in Wisconsin. He has also been a faculty member at the following festivals: Orfeo Festival in Italy, Rocky Mountain Summer Conservatory in Colorado, Bellingham Festival in Washington State, Quartz Mountain Festival in Oklahoma, Black Hills Chamber Soloists in South Dakota, Cedar Valley Chamber Music Festival in Iowa, and the Bay Area Music Festival in Florida. In 2015, Bjella was featured soloist at the Beaumaris Festival in the UK.

Bjella’s passion for teaching has produced many recent notable achievements:

• Students placed in graduate programs at USC (Thornton School of Music), Rice, Indiana University, Hartt School, Longy, and CIM
• Two students winning auditions for NYO (National Youth Orchestra)
• National audition winners at orchestral openings for the Memphis Symphony and Principal Cello with the Mississippi Symphony
• Summer festival placements at Tanglewood, Aspen, Bowdoin, Brevard, and Eastern
• Winner of Sarasota Young Artist Competition and 2nd place at Sphinx Competition
• Pre-college students awarded title positions in Youth Symphonies, All-State Principal chairs, and Concerto competition winners.

In 2012, Bjella joined Cuerdas de Enlace, a performing and teaching festival in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. As soloist, Bjella has appeared with many regional and college orchestras in the Southeast and Midwest. In addition to his orchestral work with the IRIS Orchestra, he has also been Principal Cellist of the Florida Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Southwest Florida Symphony, the Annapolis Symphony, a member of the cello section in Cincinnati, Tampa (Associate Principal Florida Orchestra) as well as a substitute for the Baltimore Symphony. An avid sports fan, Bjella lives in Oviedo, Florida with his wife Traci Ash-Bjella.

JOHN KABOFF, B.M., M.M., studied with Janos Starker at Indiana University as well as Jacqueline DuPre’s teacher, William Pleeth, at the Holland Music Sessions in the Netherlands and at the Britten-Peers Summer School in England. In addition to serving as Mr. Pleeth’s teaching assistant, he studied at the International Academy of Chamber Music (now known as the Kronberg Academy), in Kronberg, Germany, with Arto Noras.

A resident of the Washington since 1995, D.C., Mr. Kaboff has performed as recital and concerto soloist locally at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The United States Department of State, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Embassies of Germany, France and New Zealand, The Church of the Epiphany, Dumbarton House and has been a repeat concerto soloist with the JCC Symphony Orchestra and the Landon Symphonette. In 2013, he performed with the Manhattan Symphonie in Carnegie Hall. His concert appearance at Strathmore Hall in North Bethesda, MD was acclaimed by The Montgomery County Sentinel as ”beguilingly lyrical and in “top form”. Internationally, he has performed as recital soloist in the Kleinezaal of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, The Cologne Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt Museum of Contemporary Art and The Adelaide Towne Hall. He frequently performs chamber music  with various colleagues known as the Nottingham Ensemble and is currently the Director of Chamber Music for The Capital Symphonic Youth Orchestra.

Mr. Kaboff is a highly successful private teacher of pre-college age students who frequently garner prizes in local and regional cello competitions. Most recently, his students took top prizes in all levels of the 2016 Washington Performing Arts Society competition. In 2015 two students were prizewinners at the American Protégé Competition, resulting in Carnegie Hall, Weil Recital Hall debut recitals. In 2015 and 2016, his students have been featured in the Classical Spotlight Showcase for Maryland Public Television. His former students matriculate from highly competitive music schools such as the Curtis Institute, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, the Cleveland Institute of Music and the Mannes College of Music with substantial merit scholarship. They have held positions in the Baltimore Symphony, Austin Symphony, Aspen Music Festival, Castleton Music Festival and other European orchestras. In 2018, His 6 year old student appeared in concert at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall in New York City as a prize winner of the Concert Artists International Competition. In 2019, the chamber music ensembles he coaches under the auspices of The Capitol Symphonic Youth Orchestra appeared in concert at the Kennedy Center, Millennium Stage and on ABC, Channel 7 in Washington, D.C. 

His students' cello ensemble, known as the Bow Lightlys, were featured guest artists at the World Cello Congress III (2000), where they were featured in an internationally broadcast cello ensemble workshop with world famous cellist, Yo-Yo Ma which then resulted in a cello choir concert at the Sixth American Cello Congress (2001) as part or Mr. Kaboff’s appearance as a guest lecturer. They performed at the 2014 Tennessee Cello Workshop and will reappear in 2020. The Bow Lightlys have been featured in concert on live radio broadcast in Washington, DC. They have also performed cello ensemble concerts at the Embassy of France, Almas Shriner’s Temple as well as many local religious centers. They often perform at charity events for the American Diabetes Association. As a way to share their musical expression, the Bow Lightlys also perform at senior living centers as to bring music to the homes of those who might not be able to enjoy otherwise.

Mr. Kaboff is a frequent judge at local and regional competitions. He has also adjudicated  the preliminary competition rounds at the 2000 Third World Cello Congress’s Master Class Competition, 2006 and 2012 Washington International Competition. He has assumed the role as chairman of the Washington International Competition for Strings (2022).

As a frequent guest lecturer, he has conducted master classes and performed at the Flinders Street Conservatorium in Adelaide, Australia, Purcell School of Music in London, England, Indiana University Summer String Program, Michigan State University, Longy School of Music in Boston, The Music Academy of North Carolina and the Universities of Texas (Rio Grande Valley), Tennessee and Rhode Island. He was in artist in residence in 2011and 2019 at Appalachian State University and was a featured artist at the 2010 Tennessee Cello Workshop. 

Mr. Kaboff has earned Suzuki certification through level 10 and was invited by the Suzuki Association of Australia to conduct workshops, master classes and solo recitals in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia.

He has received accolades for his teaching by numerous world-class cellists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Janos Starker and has been the feature of numerous articles in such publications as the Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Jewish Weekly, The Vienna (VA) Connection and The Montgomery Journal. Yo-Yo Ma, also notes him in a biography about him entitled, “Musicians With a Mission”, as being a superb teacher of young children.

Born in Belgium, pianist and conductor KEVIN CLASS studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, as well as in the U.S and Canada. As a pianist, teachers have included Romeo Fracalanza, Ralph Votapek, Gyorgy Sebok and Daniel Blumenthal. In 1997, the Belgian government named Kevin a Fellow of the Flemish Community in recognition both of his performances of the complete Piano Sonatas of Mozart and Schubert, and for his contributions to the performance and promotion of contemporary music, with Jan-Marisse Huizing describing him as “an important ambassador for today’s composers”.

Kevin has recorded more than 15 CDs, including piano concerti by Brahms, Beethoven, Mozart and Schumann with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra, several albums as a collaborative pianist with saxophonists Timothy McAllister and James Romain, cellist Wesley Baldwin, violinists Francisco Caban and Juhi Kee, soprano Soo Yeon Kim and others. He has also recorded several albums of solo piano works by Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Elliott Carter.  Fanfare Magazine has described his playing as “exceptionally refined” and American Record Guide described his works as “provocative and impressive, simply impeccable.”

Kevin Class was a top-prize winner in Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, 1991 Mozart Piano Competition, Munich and, most recently, the American Prize Competition.  He was invited by Murray Perahia to perform Chopin program at Reinbeck Castle as a part of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival’s “Young Elite of Murray Perahia” series.  His performances at the Leeds International Piano Competition resulted in invitations to perform recitals in France, Switzerland and Austria, including Vienna’s Musikverein.  He has given solo recitals in numerous important venues worldwide, including Leeds’ Town Hall, Geneva’s Ansermet Hall, Munich’s Grosse Saal of the Hochschule fur Musik, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and six performances in New York’s Carnegie Hall.  His sold out solo recital performances in Chongqing, Chengdu and Kunming, China were broadcast nationally by China’s national network CCTV.

In addition to work as a piano soloist, Kevin has been active for more than 30 years as an orchestra and opera conductor. With a repertoire of more than 60 operas, Kevin has taken the podium of the National Opera La Monnaie in Brussels, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden and the National Opera Studio in London, Shanghai Opera and Opera Illinois (Peoria).  From 2001-2005 he served as Guest Music Director and Resident Conductor of the Illinois Opera Theatre.  He has conducted the Northern Illinois Philharmonic, the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra, Illinois New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Noir’ (Brussels) and orchestras in Taipei, Shanghai, Chongqing, Seoul, Kunming, Kuala Lumpur and Manila.  He has helped train numerous young conductors who have appeared with such orchestras as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Miami Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Orchestra and numerous opera houses.

Kevin is particularly invested in the education of young musicians in Asia.  For more than a decade, he has been a frequent visitor to South Korea, China, Taiwan, The Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.  He has been a recurring guest of Yonsei University in Seoul as well as the University of Philippines in Manila.  He regularly gives residencies teaching masterclasses for pianists, conductors, singers and working with orchestras and wind ensembles.  He served on the jury for the grand finals of the 2018 Indonesia Steinway Piano Competition in Jakarta, and in 2019 performed solo recitals at the Philippine Women’s University and gave recitals and conducted the orchestra of UCSI University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  In October 2019 Kevin will perform and give masterclasses for pianists at the Philippine High School for the Arts in Los Banos, Laguna and at the Ying Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore.

Additional 2019-20 performances include continued collaborations with Knoxville Symphony Orchestra concertmaster on KSO’s concert series William Shaub & Friends, conducting Tennessee Opera Theatre’s productions of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and Menotti’s Old Maid and the Thief & Amelia al ballo, and concerts celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth with performances of the complete Piano Trios with the Edison Piano Trio, and the complete Sonatas for Piano & Cello, with Wesley Baldwin.

Kevin is currently Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano and Music Director & Conductor of Opera Theatre at the University of Tennessee- Knoxville. Since 2014, Kevin has been conductor at Italy’s Arezzo Opera Festival.  He also serves as head of the conducting and collaborative piano programs for Oberlin Conservatory’s summer program, Oberlin in Italy.  In summer 2019, Kevin joins the conducting faculty of the Berlin Opera Academy and conducts Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Theater im Delphi in Berlin, Germany.

He has been profiled by BBC, NPR, PBS, Radio Noord Holland, KBS (Korea) and CCTV (China).

A native of Osaka, Japan, pianist EMI KAGAWA is known as a soloist and chamber musician, and has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Italy, and Japan. The Salt Lake Tribune described her performance as "a picture in the form of a 1000 piece puzzle, with each piece being a master piece." The New York Sun called her "… an artist both interesting and bold who quite literally throws herself into her performance creating truly exciting music."

Dr. Kagawa has performed in New York City at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Trinity Church, Steinway Hall, and Symphony Space. She is a past winner of the Juilliard School of Music’s Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. Dr. Kagawa was also awarded first prize at the Nancy Clark International Piano Competition, second prize at the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition, and third prize at both the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and the Corpus Christi International Competition. She was a featured performer on the McGraw-Hill Companies’ Young Artists Showcase series broadcast on The New York Times’ classical music station WQXR, and has also performed on central Pennsylvania’s PBS member station WITF.

As a co-director of MANI Brooklyn Chamber Music, Dr. Kagawa has participated in several world premiers of compositions by contemporary composers. Highly sought after for her innovative approach as an artist, she has collaborated in numerous productions with a variety of contemporary visual artists, filmmakers, and dancers. She has also appeared as collaborative pianist for master classes with Joseph Silverstein, Peter Wiley, Steve Tenenbaum, and David Geber.

Recent collaborations include the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra chamber music  and Q series, the Tennessee Cello Workshop and the Viola Celebration at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, the Southeast Regional Tuba-Euphonium Conference and the 2016 International Tube-Euphonium Conference, the Concertmaster Chamber Music Series of Symphony of the Mountains, the Oak Ridge Civic Music Association’s Isotone ConcertSeries, the Cumberland Trio of the Oak Ridge Symphony, the Steinway Society of Knoxville Piano Concert Series, the International Women’s Brass Conference, and Chamber Music Concert Series of the Musicians of Lenox Hill in New York. 

A dedicated educator, her recent exposure to meditation and neuroscience study lead her to focus on mind-body connection, and she teaches mindfulness as well as healthy and easeful movements in accordance with the true anatomical design of the body while making music. She has completed the Essentials of Performing Arts Medicine Course by PAMA. Dr. Kagawa has served on the faculties of New York University, Lee University, New York Youth Symphony Chamber Music Program, and the Perlman Music Program.

Dr. Kagawa received her bachelor's degree from the Kyoto City University of Arts, and her in piano performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She received a full scholarship for continued studies at The Juilliard School, and has also studied at New York University. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Among her teachers and coaches are Jerome Lowenthal, Richard Goode, Claude Frank, Bernard Greenhouse, Larry Graham, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Miyoko Lotto, Martin Canin, Christina Dahl, Gilbert Kalish, Ann Schein, Angela Cheng, and Samuel Sanders.

Dr. Kagawa currently serves on piano faculty at Bryan College, Dayton, TN. She lives in Knoxville, TN with her partner Sam and their cats Lulu and Huang-Hu.