Efe Baltacigil, associate principal cellist of The Philadelphia Orchestra and recent Young Concert Artist winner in New York City, was born in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1978.
He started studying the violin at the age of 5 and switched to cello two years later.
     Mr. Baltacigil graduated from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul before being invited by Peter Wiley to study in S.U.N.Y. Purchase College in the U.S. He then transferred to the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Mr. Wiley and David Soyer.
    Mr. Baltacigil joined The Philadelphia Orchestra in 2002 upon graduating from Curtis and won the orchestra’s associate principal position the following year.  
     Mr . Baltacigil enjoys both chamber music and solo work. He performed with Yo-Yo Ma in Carnegie Hall in December 2003 and has been a participant in the Marlboro Music Festival. He is member of the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II and is a founding member of the Susmann-Baltacigil-Hochman piano trio
     In his free time, Mr. Baltacigil enjoys windsurfing, golf and voleypong.

     Cellist Priscilla Lee, a 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, began music studies at the age of five and made her solo debut in 1988 at the Southwestern Youth Music Festival.  Ten years later she made her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic performing the Saint-Saens Cello Concerto.  She has also appeared as soloist with the American Youth Symphony, the Crossroads Chamber Orchestra, the Palisades Symphony and the Saddleback Chamber Orchestra. She is a recipient of the Gregor Piatigorsky Memorial Scholarship and the John Williams Scholarship from the Young Musicians Foundation and also received the Los Angeles Philharmonic's prestigious Bronislaw-Kaper Award.  She has participated in master classes for Bernhard Greenhouse, Lynn Harrell and Gary Hoffmann.
     Ms. Lee made her New York chamber music debut in 2003 at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall as a member of the Grancino String Quartet.  She collaborated with Arnold Steinhardt in Philadelphia and Boston to celebrate Human Rights Day, performing Messian's "Quartet for the End of Time."  She participated in the opening concert at Zankel Hall in New York City with John Adams and premiered Osvaldo Golijov's "Ayre" with Dawn Upshaw in Zankel Hall, Jordan Hall in Boston and most recently at the Barbican Center in London. This past year, Ms. Lee has been on two “Musicians from Marlboro” tours.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Lee has participated in the Marlboro Music Festival, Bargemusic, the Caramoor "Rising Stars" series, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Taos School of Music, Moritzburg Festival concerts in New York, the Dawn Upshaw/John Harbison and Emerson String Quartet workshops at Carnegie Hall, and Music from Angelfire, N.M.
     A native of California, Ms. Lee studied with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School of Performing Arts and in 1998 went on to the Curtis Institute of Music to study with former Guarneri String Quartet cellist David Soyer.  She recently received a master’s degree in music from the Mannes College of Music where she studied with Timothy Eddy. She has been chosen to be a member of Chamber Music Society Two for the 2006-2008 seasons. Priscilla is a founding member of Trio Cavatina, with pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute and violinist Harumi Rhodes.
     

     Jasmine Lin began violin studies at age four.  Since then she has appeared as soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Brazil, Symphony Orchestra of Uruguay, Evergreen Symphony of Taiwan, and National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and in recital in such cities as Chicago, New York, Nova Scotia, Rio de Janeiro, and Montevideo.  She was a prizewinner in the International Paganini Competition and took second prize in the International Naumburg Competition.  The New York Times describes her as an "unusually individualistic player" with "electrifying assertiveness" and "virtuosic abandon".
      As a chamber musician, Ms. Lin has been a participant of the Marlboro Music Festival and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia, and has toured extensively in the United States as part of the Chicago String Quartet, in China as part of the Overseas Musicians, and in Taiwan as a member of Taiwan Connection Music Festival.  She has been an adjunct faculty member at Northwestern University and DePaul University and was a faculty member of the Taos School of Music in New Mexico.
      Ms. Lin is a founding and current member of the Formosa Quartet, which won first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition.  The Formosa's critically-acclaimed recording of works by Mozart, Debussy, Wolf and Schubert on the EMI Debut Series was released in January 2006.  The quartet performs in major venues around the world including the Chicago Cultural Center, the Library of Congress, Caramoor Festival, Cornell University, Maui Classical Music Festival, Taipei's Novel Hall, BBC In Tune, and Wigmore Hall.
      Ms. Lin is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music.  She gave her New York debut in Merkin Hall, where the program included her poetry set to music.  Her poem "The night of h's" received Editor's Choice Award from the International Poetry Foundation, and her poetry/music presentations have been featured in Chicago, at Cornell University in Ithaca, and on radio in Taipei, and have resulted in collaborations with composers Dana Wilson, David Loeb, and Thomas Oboe Lee.
      In the 1999-2000 season, Ms. Lin was Second Assistant Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  In addition to her activities with the Formosa Quartet, she is a member of Trio Voce with cellist Marina Hoover and pianist Patricia Tao, as well as a member of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, whose Composer Perspectives series won the ASCAP award for adventuresome programming.  She received a Grammy nomination in 2007 as part of CCM's Grammy-nominated CD of works for winds and strings by Mozart.  She is on the faculty at Roosevelt University and a proud native of Chicago.

     Christina and Michelle Naughton have been hailed by the San Francisco Examiner for their “stellar musicianship, technical mastery, and awe-inspiring artistry.” They began their piano studies at the age of four. In the fall of 2007, they began their studies as merit-based full-tuition scholarship students of Robert McDonald at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where Christina holds the Hirsig Fellowship and Michelle holds the Bernard M. Guth Fellowship. They also study with Gary Graffman, and study chamber music with Claude Frank and Seymour Lipkin.
      In 2008–09 they made debuts at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in Washington, D.C., with the New Jersey Symphony, and with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts where the Philadelphia Inquirer praised them as “paired to perfection.” In 2010, the Naughtons will be making their debut at Herkulessaal in Munich, and with the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Other upcoming engagements include performances at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, and the Kingston Chamber Music Festival; as well as with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Verizon Hall, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, and Milwaukee Symphony.
      The Naughtons have performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Cleveland’s Red, Chicago’s Park Ridge Orchestra, the Erie Philharmonic, and the Gulf Coast and Sheboygan symphonies. They have also performed on the Steinway Society-The Bay Area, Artist Series of Sarasota, UAB Piano Series, Chamber Music San Francisco Series and on Chicago’s Music in the Loft and Pianoforte classical piano series. Their performances have been broadcast by Chicago’s WFMT and Philadelphia’s WHYY.
      Christina Naughton made her orchestra debut at the age of nine performing Haydn’s Piano Concerto No. 11 in D major. She was the bronze medalist at the quadrennial Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and her ensemble, the Vesta Trio, received the gold medal in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has performed as a soloist with Chicago’s Ars Viva and Park Ridge orchestras; the Madison, Fort Collins, and Utah symphonies; the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra; and at Ravinia’s Martin Theatre.
      Michelle Naughton made her orchestra debut at age ten performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A major, K. 488. She won first prize at the PianoArts National Biennial Piano Competition and was the gold medal winner in the quadrennial Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. She has performed as a soloist with the Madison, Milwaukee, and Gulf Coast symphonies and with Chicago’s Ars Viva and Park Ridge orchestras. She has also performed on Denver’s Saint John’s Cathedral concert series and at Green Lake Festival of Music.

     Ayano Ninomiya’s second New York recital took place at Merkin Concert Hall in October 2008 and garnered this praise: “Her technique is equal to all challenges, secure, effortless and unobtrusive; her tone is lovely, pure, and variable in color and intensity” (New York Concert Review).  Also chosen for the 2009 Young Performers Career Advancement program by the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, she performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in January 2009. 
     Second-prize winner of the most recent Walter W. Naumburg International Violin Competition, in 2003, Ms. Ninomiya’s 2004 debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall was described as “deeply communicative and engrossing” (The New York Times).  The winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions in 2003, she is also a prizewinner of the 2006 Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, and the winner of the S&R Washington Award and the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award.  As the recipient of the 2005 Beebe Fellowship, Ms.Ninomiya lived in Budapest, Hungary until 2007, where she studied at the Liszt Academy of Music and researched scores at the Bartok Archives.
      An enthusiastic chamber musician, Ms. Ninomiya gave a piano trio recital with pianist Claude Frank and cellist Clancy Newman in 2007.  Ms. Ninomiya joined Musicians from Marlboro for their 2005 tour of France and 2004 U.S. tour, and has performed with the Young Artists from the Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival, for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, on New York City’s WQXR, Metropolitan Art Museum, and Bargemusic.  A regular artist at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Caramoor, Moab and Bridgehampton festivals, Ms. Ninomiya was a founding member of the Amaryllis String Quartet, which won the Fischoff Competition (Junior Division), performed with Yo-Yo Ma and Pamela Frank.  As first violinist of the TinAlley String Quartet, she will perform at festivals throughout Australia and Europe in 2009-2010.  She is also an active member of the conductorless string ensemble, ECCO.
      Ms. Ninomiya graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a joint degree in Music and French in 2001, where she was also awarded the David McCord Prize and won the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition.  She holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School.  Her teachers and coaches include Robert Mann, Miriam Fried, Michele Auclair, Hyo Kang, Robert Levin, and Eszter Perenyi.  Currently residing in New York City, she has been a volunteer tutor for at-risk high school students at the East Harlem Justice Center and a volunteer teacher assistant at the Lighthouse Music School.
      Ms. Ninomiya is the grateful recipient of a generous loan of a Stradivarius violin from a private donor.

      Gail Niwa's "brilliant insights" and "power, eloquence and striking sound color" have made her an audience favorite throughout the world. Ms. Niwa won high praise for her New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall, and her recitals at Orchestra Hall in Chicago on the Allied Arts Piano Series and at the Ambassador Auditorium's Gold Medal Series in Pasadena. She also received outstanding reviews for her solo appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February 1995, performing the Schumann Piano Concerto with Sir Georg Solti conducting. Among her recent solo engagements are performances of the Brahms Concerto #2 with the San Luis Obispo Symphony and Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto with the California Philharmonic. She has been soloist with the Utah, Memphis, Fort Wayne, Augusta, Columbus, Reno, Evanston and Grant Park Symphonies and has given recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Washington's Kennedy Center, and in Athens, Montreal, Seoul, and St. Louis.
      In 1991 Ms. Niwa created a sensation by becoming the first woman ever to win the Gold Medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. She was also awarded the Audience Prize and the Chamber Music Prize. Ms. Niwa has also won major prizes in the International Chopin Competition, the Mae Whitaker Competition and the Washington International Competition.
     Ms. Niwa can be heard in Fantasia 2000 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Saint-Saens "Carnival of the Animals". She has also collaborated with violinist David Kim on recordings for the Musical Heritage Society and Teldec labels and with the late bassoonist Bruce Grainger on the Centaur label.
     The daughter of professional musicians, Ms. Niwa was born in Chicago. She began piano studies with her mother and made her orchestral debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at age eight. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees on scholarship at the Juilliard School as a student of Adele Marcus. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Chamber Music at Great Gorge, a concert series in northwest New Jersey, and continues to delight audiences with both her solo and chamber playing.

     Winner of Astral Artists' 2003 National Auditions, 25-year-old American Doug O'Connor was also recently named 2nd Prize winner of the 2nd International Jean-Marie Londeix Saxophone Competition in Bangkok, 2nd Prize winner in the 2008 North American Saxophone Alliance Classical Solo Competition, the 1st Prize National Winner of the MTNA Young Artist Woodwind Competition in Toronto, and he has appeared in American Symphony Orchestra League magazine as a 2007 Emerging Artist. In addition, he was named the winner of the 2004 National Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists Competition, the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra's Mary Graham Lasley competition.
      Mr. O'Connor has performed in Europe, Asia, and the U.S., including appearances at the Kimmel Center, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall. His teachers include Ramon Ricker, Chien-Kwan Lin, Dale Underwood and Timothy Roberts. In 2005 he received his Bachelor of Music Performance degree in saxophone from the University of Maryland, where he was also music director and conductor of its Philharmonia Ensemble chamber orchestra, and in 2008 he has recently received his Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music.
      Committed to performing a wide variety of music, including transcriptions, traditional repertoire, chamber works, contemporary music, and world-premieres, O'Connor's passion lies in making classical music come alive for all kinds of people. Astral Artists, a Philadelphia non-profit classical artist development agency, has presented O'Connor in over 70 recitals for community centers, schools, and senior homes, and also in ticketed events in many major USA concert venues: a world-premiere program featuring other Astral artists at Philadelphia's new National Constitution Center, a Rising Stars concert (as soloist with The Haddonfield Symphony Chamber Orchestra in Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto), as well as in recital at the Trinity Center, the Kimmel Center, Merkin Hall in New York City, and more events this upcoming season.
      Mr. O'Connor is currently pursuing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Eastman School of Music, where he has performed and recorded with the prestigious Eastman Wind Ensemble, the Canadian Brass, the Red Line Saxophone Quartet, and where he coaches the undergraduate saxophone quartet program. In the upcoming season, O'Connor's busy performance schedule will feature him with Branford Marsalis and the Alexandria Symphony, and also as a soloist with the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra.

     Kenneth Olsen was appointed assistant principal cello of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February 2005.
     He began his musical studies at the age of eight with Martha Vivona in Albany, New York, and later studied with Luis Garcia Renart of Bard College. Mr. Olsen received his bachelors degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music where he studied with Richard Aaron, and went on to study with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School.
     Mr. Olsen has performed as soloist, chamber musician and in orchestras at numerous festivals around the country, including Tanglewood, Saratoga, the Aspen Music Festival, Encore School for Strings, Wintergreen Music Festival, the New York String Seminar, and the Steans Institute at Ravinia.  He has also been a top prize winner at many competitions, including the Holland America Music Society Competition, the Nakamichi Cello Competition, the Heida Herman Young Artisits Competition, the Ithaca College Young Artists Competition, and the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition. He was the only American invited to play a recital at the Philharmonie in Berlin as a finalist at the 2002 Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann.
     In addition to his work with the Chicago Symphony, Mr. Olsen is on the faculty at Roosevelt University in Chicago and is a founding member of the group ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), which is a conductor-less string orchestra made up of soloists, and chamber and orchestral musicians from around the country. 

     A leading young artist of today, violinist Harumi Rhodes has been performing extensively with some of the most prestigious musicians worldwide.  Having just completed her residency at Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society II, she has also joined the Boston, Philadelphia, Minnesota, and Seattle Chamber Music Societies.  Some of her recent solo engagements include performances in the 2007 Vermont Mozart Festival featuring Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons.”  Harumi has also participated in several Musicians from Marlboro tours.  As an avid supporter of contemporary music, Harumi had a solo violin piece dedicated to her by composer Benjamin Lees.  She has also recorded Milton Babbitt's Sixth String Quartet and most recently performed at Zankel Hall in a tribute to George Perle. Harumi received degrees from the Juilliard School studying with Ronald Copes and Earl Carylss, and the New England Conservatory studying with Donald Weilerstein where she received the Gunther Schuller Award.
     Harumi is a founding member of Trio Cavatina.

     Baritone Randall Scarlata enjoys a lively career encompassing opera, recital, chamber music and works for voice and orchestra.  Career highlights include the world premiere of Thea Musgrave’s one man opera, The Mocking-Bird in Boston, recitals in the US and Europe with pianist Richard Goode, soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, and with the Pittsburgh, San Francisco, American, Ulster, Tonkünstler, National and BBC Symphonies, and the early music groups Wiener Akademie Orchester, Musica Angelica among others.  With Great Performers at Lincoln Center, he portrayed Siskov in Janacek’s From the House of the Dead. He has appeared in many of the world’s great music festivals, including the Ravinia, Marlboro, Edinburgh, Vienna, Salzburg, Aspen and Spoleto (Italy) festivals. 
     Known for his versatility and consummate musicianship, Mr. Scarlata’s repertoire spans four centuries and fifteen languages.  A sought-after interpreter of new music, he has given world premieres of works by George Crumb, Paul Moravec, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, Thea Musgrave, Samuel Adler, Daron Hagen, Wolfram Wagner and Christopher Theofanidis.   His performances of Songs of Tin Pan Alley with soprano Jennifer Aylmer and pianist Laura Ward are favorites of both Art Song aficionados and lovers of popular music.  He regularly performs the Schubert song cycles with pianist Jeremy Denk throughout the United States.  In addition, Mr. Scarlata has recorded for the Chandos, Naxos, CRI, Gasparo, Arabesque and Albany labels. 
     Randall Scarlata’s awards include First Prize at the 1999 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize at the 1997 Das Schubert Lied International Competition in Vienna, First Prize at the 1997 Joy in Singing Competition in New York, and the 1998 Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award.  Mr. Scarlata received a Fulbright Grant to study at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna and holds a masters degree from the Juilliard School.  In addition, Mr. Scarlata spent several summers studying with the great French baritone, Gérard Souzay in Nice and in Salzburg.  He is a Sing for Hope artist, having been involved with the foundation for over 10 years.  Mr. Scarlata serves on the faculty of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at West Chester University. 
     “It is impossible to imagine Randall Scarlata singing a mechanical or thoughtless phrase.  One has the wonderful sense that Scarlata searches out the Platonic essence of what he plans to sing and then uses every attribute at his disposal to create the most appropriate and fully dimensional realization possible.”   
The Washington Post

     Burchard Tang began his musical studies on the violin at the age of 3 and, at 16, switched to viola , studying with Choong-Jin Chang, principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He continued his musical education at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph de Pasquale, former principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Upon graduation, he was appointed to the viola section of the Philadelphia Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Tang has appeared at many of the country’s top festivals, including Marlboro, Ravinia, Music from Angel Fire, Seattle and Caramoor. He has toured with Music from Marlboro, and the Brandenburg Ensemble. As the winner of the 1992 Albert M. Greenfield student competition, Mr. Tang appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He has also appeared with the Temple University, and Temple University Music Prep Orchestra, where he presently is on faculty, teaching viola and chamber music.

     Harumi Rhodes, violin 
     Priscilla Lee, cello 
     Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano

     Trio Cavatina — winner of the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music competition — is rapidly emerging as one of today’s outstanding chamber ensembles. Deeply rooted in a strong sense of shared musical values, they met and formed in 2005 during the renowned Marlboro Music Festival. Harris Goldsmith described the trio, in his 2008 article for Chamber Music America, as offering “potent, intense interpretations.” 
      As winners of the 2009 Naumburg competition, Trio Cavatina will make its Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Hall in May 2010 and will give the world premiere of a composition to be written for them by Richard Danielpour. They will also make their San Francisco debut next season as well as their Philadelphia debut as one of the youngest ensembles to perform on the prestigious Philadelphia Chamber Music Society concert series. 
      Within two years of their formation, Trio Cavatina gave notable debut appearances on Kneisel Hall’s “Emerging Artists” Series in Maine, at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and at the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival in Maryland. They were selected to perform at the closing concert of the Chamber Music America Conference in New York City. 
      Season highlights in 2006-2007 included their New York City and Boston debut concerts at the New School’s Schneider Concert Series and at Jordan Hall. Trio Cavatina also appeared at Merkin Hall in New York City, at the Brattleboro Music Center, and on the concert series of Performers of Westchester.
      Garnering critical acclaim and enthusiastic responses from audiences and presenters wherever they perform, the trio has also received immediate engagements, most notably at Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., where they returned last fall in a mesmerizing performance of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with clarinetist Alex Fiterstein. The 2007-2008 season also brought the trio on their first international tour that included performances in Lithuania on stages in Vilnius and Kaunas.  
      Trio Cavatina has recently completed the New England Conservatory’s Professional Piano Trio Training Program. For more information, please visit www.triocavatina.com.

     Thomas Van Dyck is an active chamber and orchestral musician in the U.S. as well as abroad. He is a member of the conductor-less chamber orchestra ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra) that tours internationally under Frank Solomon Management. A recipient of the Maurice Schwarz Prize at Tanglewood, Thomas has played chamber
music at The Mostly Mozart Festival in New York City, People’s Symphony Concerts at New York City’s Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Boston Chamber Music society, Harvard University’s Houghton Library Chamber music series, The Union College Chamber Music Series, Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport Maine, and The Morrison
Chamber Music Series in San Francisco among others. He has collaborated with the Ying Quartet and the Lydian Quartets. A former member of the New World Symphony, he is currently a substitute with The Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the San Diego Symphony. In addition to enjoying a diverse performing career, Thomas is Artist Professor of Double Bass at the Longy Conservatory of Music in Cambridge Massachusetts and also enjoys doing outreach through Monadnock music in New Hampshire. Thomas lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

      The recipient of both 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, pianist Natalie Zhu is a winner of Astral Artistic Services' 1998 National Auditions. The Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Astral's recent presentation of Ms. Zhu in recital as a display of "emotional and pianistic pyrotechnics." The recital was later broadcast on National Public Radio's "Performance Today."
      Ms. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and China as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. She has performed in the United States with the Pacific Symphony, the Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Astral Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, and with the Colorado Philharmonic National Repertory Orchestra. Ms. Zhu made her European debut in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d'Orleans in France, and has toured in Austria, Holland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, France and Turkey.
      She collaborated with renowned violinist Hilary Hahn, stepping in for pianist Garrick Ohlsson in several performances of Ms. Hahn's October 2000 U.S. tour. Subsequently, Ms. Zhu and Ms. Hahn have maintained a partnership to this day with tours of the U.S., Europe, and Japan, including a hugely successful Carnegie Hall recital debut. The duo recorded the Mozart Sonatas for the Deutsche Grammophon label.
      Natalie Zhu has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the grand prize in the both the 1988 and 1989 Young Keyboard Artists Association Competition. She was the first prize winner in the Johanna Hodges Piano Concerto Competition in 1988 and 1991, having also received its 1991 Concert Series Award. In 1994, she was the top prize winner in the first China International Piano Competition. An active chamber musician, she is a frequent soloist at the Amelia Island Festival and has appeared at both the Great Lake Music and Marlboro Music festivals. In the year 2000 she was a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival.
      Ms. Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the age of 6 in her native China and made her first public appearance at age nine in Beijing. At age 11 she immigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and by 15 was enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received the prestigious Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman. In 2001 she joined the Curtis faculty as staff pianist. She received a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with Claude Frank.
          For further information, go to www.nataliezhu.com.