Diana Adamyan is quickly gaining an international reputation as one of her generation’s most outstanding violinists. After winning the First Prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, the world’s most prestigious prize for young violinists, she went on to receive First Prize in the 2020 Khachaturian Violin Competition.

In summer 2022, Ms. Adamyan made her debut at the Aspen Festival performing Dvorak with Lionel Bringuier, and with the Boston Pops Orchestra performing Mendelssohn at Boston Symphony Hall. This season, she returns to the Göttinger Symphonieorchester to perform Beethoven, and the Niederbayerische Philharmonie in Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1. She will also make her debut performing Sibelius with the Staatsorchester Darmstadt, and performing Beethoven with the Bruckner Orchester Linz in Munich’s Prinzregententheater, and will return once more to the Göttinger Symphonie in Dvorak. Recent and upcoming engagements also include recitals in Tokyo and France, and her debut with the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester at the Philharmonie in Berlin.

Since winning First Prize at the Menuhin Competition, Ms. Adamyan has received numerous proposals to participate in the concerts around the world, from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, to the Seiji Ozawa Academy in Switzerland, and the Matsumoto International Music Festival in Japan. Following an invitation from Maestro Pinchas Zukerman to participate under his guidance in summer masterclasses of the Ottawa National Arts Center, Ms. Adamyan was invited to appear as a soloist in Gala Concert of NAC, alongside Mr. Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Jessica Linnebach, and other renowned musicians. Later, she also appeared alongside Mr. Zukerman playing the Bach Double Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic at Cadogan Hall in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.

Born in 2000 in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians, Ms. Adamyan currently studies at the Munich University of Performing Arts with world-renowned teacher, Professor Ana Chumachenco, whose distinguished students have included Lisa Batiashvili, Julia Fischer, and Veronika Eberle. Previously, she studied at the Tchaikovsky School of Music (Yerevan) with Professor Petros Haykazyan and at Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory with Professor Eduard Tadevosyan.

Ms. Adamyan is the recipient of a scholarship from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and under the patronage of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) and “YerazArt” organization in Boston. She performed on a violin crafted by Urs Mächler for the Menuhin Competition, and now performs on an instrument made by Nicolò Gagliano in 1760, generously on loan from the Henri Moerel Foundation.

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American double bassist Nina Bernat, acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, emerges onto the world stage with awards and accolades, thrilling audiences everywhere. She was hailed by Star Tribune as a “standout” for her recent concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, praising her performance as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical…technically precise and impressively emotive.”

In 2023, Nina was honored as a recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the CAG Elmaleh Competition. Recent 1st prizes include the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, the Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, the Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition.

Engaged in all aspects of double bass performance, she has been invited to perform as guest principal bassist with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Oslo Philharmonic, serving under the batons of conductors such as András Schiff and Osmo Vänskä. Nina is in demand as a passionate chamber musician. She began her involvement with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center as a member of the Bowers Program in 2025. She has spent summers at Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Music@Menlo, and Chamber Music Northwest.

She is quickly becoming a sought-after pedagogue, having given masterclasses at the Colburn School, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and University of Texas at Austin, among others. She is on the faculty of Stony Brook University.

Nina performs on an instrument passed down from her father, Mark Bernat, attributed to Guadagnini.

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American violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger is nationally recognized for her captivating performances and sincere artistry. Based in New York City, she is first violinist of the acclaimed Aeolus Quartet and an alumni of Carnegie Hall’s prestigious Ensemble Connect program as well as the Marlboro School of Music.

An avid chamber musician, Durrenberger’s recent and upcoming engagements include performances at Chamber Music Northwest, Boston Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Jupiter Chamber Players, Caramoor Performing Arts Center, The Knights, and A Far Cry. A committed educator, Durrenberger serves on the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston.

Durrenberger grew up in a musical home in Ohio and began playing piano at age four, and violin at age seven. Her most influential mentors are Soovin Kim, Don Weilerstein, and Jaime Laredo. Durrenberger was a top prizewinner at the Lillian and Maurice Barbash J. S. Bach Competition and Klein Competition. Durrenberger performs on a 2020 Zygmuntowicz violin on generous loan from a patron in New York City.

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At the age of 18, pianist Chloe Jiyeong Mun was brought to the world’s attention in 2014 when she won first prize at the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. In 2015, she also won the Busoni International Competition in Italy. Since then, she has gained a reputation as one of the most sought-after musicians of her generation.

She has collaborated with the world’s leading conductors, including Myung-whun Chung, Alexander Shelley, Yuri Bashmet, James Judd, Roberto Beltran Zavala, Victor Pablo Perez, Mario Venzago, and Eiji Oue, with renowned orchestras such as Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Moscow Soloists, Asia Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, Trieste Verdi Orchestra, Nuova Orchestra Ferruccio Busoni, St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, Palermo Festival Orchestra, MAV Symphony Orchestra, Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid (ORCAM), Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and Korean National Symphony Orchestra.

For recitals, she has appeared at the Gewandhaus, Wigmore Hall, Warsaw Philharmonic, Salle Cortot, Philharmonie Arthur Rubinstein in Bydgoszcz, and Seoul Arts Center, as well as performing at the prestigious festivals including Chopin and His Europe, Duszniki Chopin Festival, Arthur Rubinstein Piano Festival, Festival Omaggio di Michelangeli, and Pharos Music Festival. Chloe released her first album, Schumann Piano Sonata No.1 & Fantasie, with Deutsche Grammophon.

Also as a committed chamber musician, she is annually invited to perform at Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber music and Seoul International Music Festival. In 2021, she gave the world premiere of Jeajoon Ryu’s Sonata for Viola and Piano at the Seoul Arts Center with violist Sangjin Kim.

Born in Yeosu, South Korea in 1995, Chloe began studying piano at the age of five. She studied with Professor Daejin Kim at the Korea National University of Arts from 2010 to 2020, then with Sir András Schiff as an Artist Diploma student at the Barenboim Said Academy.

Sonoko Miriam Welde, violin
Edvard Erdal, violin
Albin Uusijärvi, viola
Daniel Thorell, cello

The Swedish-Norwegian string quartet, Opus13, is one of Europe’s most promising, up-and-coming young string quartets. Formed in 2014, the ensemble now comprises Sonoko Miriam Welde, Edvard Erdal, Albin Uusijärvi, and Daniel Thorell. They were 2nd prize winners of the prestigious Banff International String Quartet Competition 2022. In 2023, they received the Norwegian Equinor Classical Music Award, a coveted prize of one million Norwegian Crowns (approx. $96,000). Previous recipients of the award include Leif Ove Andsnes, Lise Davidsen, and Vilde Frang.

They have guested concert series and festivals such as the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht in the Netherlands, Yeulmaru and Yonsei Chamber Music Festivals in South Korea, Rusk Festival in Finland, Swiss Chamber Concerts, and most of the major chamber music festivals in Norway, including Bergen International Festival, Stavanger, Rosendal, Trondheim, and Risør Chamber Music Festivals. Highlights in 2024 included debuts in Scotland and the United States.

Opus13 has collaborated with international top musicians such as Janine Jansen, Olli Mustonen, Julian Bliss, Alisa Weilerstein, Tabea Zimmermann, Jonathan Biss, and Konstantin Heidrich. They are mentored by Berit Cardas and Bjørg Lewis of the Vertavo Quartet, and have benefitted from masterclasses with many of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including members of the Belcea Quartet, Quatuor Ébène, Artemis Quartett, Oslo String Quartet, and Quatuor Mosaïques.

In their early years, Opus13 received invaluable support and performing experience from the Oslo Quartet Series’ Talent Program and the Crescendo Mentoring Program.

The Opus13s are Founders and Artistic Directors of Vinterspill på Lillehammer, a chamber music festival in the winter town of Lillehammer.

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Composer Kian Ravaei (b. 1999) takes tone painting to a new level, synthesizing diverse inspirations into evocative musical portraits. Whether he is composing a string quartet inspired by wonders of the natural world, electronic music that evokes the pulsating energy of late-night dance clubs, or a symphonic poem that draws from the Iranian music of his ancestral heritage, he takes listeners on a spellbinding tour of humanity’s most deeply felt emotions.

The 2025-26 season sees a variety of performances, including the New York premiere of Ravaei’s Gulistan at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as two new string quartets for the Abeo Quartet and Sheffield Chamber Players. He has been named a 2025-26 Classeek Ambassador Programme Artist, and will partake in a one-year career enhancement program alongside six of the world’s most promising classical musicians.

From Carnegie Hall to Pierre Boulez Saal, sought-after musicians such as Grammy Award winner Fleur Barron, Performance Today Classical Woman of the Year Lara Downes, and New York Philharmonic clarinetist Anthony McGill have brought Ravaei’s music to global stages. The Alexander String Quartet capped their 44-year career with a farewell tour that featured Ravaei’s seven-movement string quartet The Little Things. His works have been commissioned by prominent chamber music organizations—among them Seattle Chamber Music Society and Chamber Music Northwest—as well as the American Composers Orchestra, where he is currently a resident CoLABoratory Fellow.

Notable honors include a Copland House CULTIVATE Fellowship—during which he participated in an emerging composers institute at Aaron Copland’s National Historic Landmark home—as well as commissioning grants from Chamber Music America, New Music USA, and the Barlow Endowment. Ravaei’s rapidly expanding catalog has earned him first prize awards in the New York Youth Symphony First Music Chamber Music Competition, the Foundation for Modern Music Robert Avalon Competition, and the Zodiac International Music Competition.

Born to Iranian immigrants, Ravaei maintains close ties to the Iranian community in his hometown of Los Angeles. Many of his works combine the ornamented melodies of Iranian classical music with the colorful harmonies of Western classical music. Mezzo-soprano Fleur Barron and pianist Kunal Lahiry commissioned Ravaei to compose a Persian-language setting of the feminist Iranian poet Forough Farrokhzad for their U.S. tour, culminating in a sold-out Carnegie Hall recital. A passionate speaker, Ravaei was a featured lecturer at the UCLA Iranian Music Lecture Series, where he discussed his multicultural upbringing and its deep-seated influence on his music.

Just days into the COVID-19 lockdown, Ravaei began a daily ritual of playing a Bach chorale at the piano and composing an original chorale in response. What started as a way to ground himself during a period of emotional turbulence blossomed into an artistic reawakening. Over the course of one year and three hundred sixty-five chorales, Ravaei cultivated a “rich harmonic idiom” (Washington Classical Review) rooted in a centuries-long tradition.

As part of his residencies at chamber music festivals across the Western hemisphere, Ravaei engages with local audiences through educational presentations, musical performances, and community events. He was a resident composer at Chamber Music Northwest through their Protégé Project, and later became the inaugural composer-in-residence at Sunkiss’d Mozart. Through a trailblazing partnership between the Wyoming International Chamber Music Festival and the Tenby International Music Festival, Ravaei serves as composer-in-residence of both festivals, helping to foster musical dialogue between the United States and United Kingdom.

Millions of classical radio listeners have heard Ravaei’s music on the airwaves, from New York’s WQXR to Los Angeles’s KUSC. As part of Classical California’s 2024 Ultimate Playlist, the nation’s largest public radio listenership ranked Ravaei’s piece Latif in 26th place—sandwiched between Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto—making him the only living composer in the top 30. His music has been featured on award-winning radio programs such as APM’s Performance Today and WNYC’s New Sounds, as well as his personally curated streaming station for Classical Music Indy.

With numerous commercial recordings, Ravaei has earned critical acclaim from outlets including Gramophone, Bandcamp Daily, and I CARE IF YOU LISTEN. His compositions appear on albums such as Lara Downes’ This Land—a poignant reflection on American identity—and Tallā Rouge’s genre-bending debut Shapes in Collective Space. Fans of electronic dance music will hear Ravaei’s orchestration in the official orchestral arrangement of Wooli & Codeko’s “Crazy (feat. Casey Cook),” which has garnered over two hundred thousand views across streaming platforms.
Choreographers have tapped into Ravaei’s music as a source of inspiration, transforming his vivid sound worlds into dance. They include Marla Phelan—whose innovative fusion of dance and video projections set to Ravaei’s immersive electronic score premiered at the Juilliard Future Stages Festival—and Carly Topazio, who captivated audiences with her choreography to Ravaei’s Family Photos during a joint performance by Art of Elan and The Rosin Box Project. Most recently, Ravaei and choreographer Annie Kahane completed a three-year project to combine Persian and Jewish musical and dance traditions, which debuted at the San Francisco International Arts Festival.

Inspired by the generosity of his own teachers—celebrated composers such as Valerie Coleman, Richard Danielpour, and Derrick Skye—Ravaei pays forward his musical training by empowering others to embrace their creativity. He recently launched the Wales-Wyoming Workshops Composer Fellowship, a tuition-free program for early-career composers from the U.S. and U.K. to gain transatlantic exposure through performance and recording opportunities. In previous years, Ravaei taught composition to historically underserved students as a Composer Teaching Artist Fellow for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and also held a teaching position at the Indiana University Jacobs Composition Academy, where he mentored composers aged 17 to 70.
Ravaei’s own musical journey has led him eastward from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music to the heart of New York City, where he is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School.

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Yutong Sun has gained international recognition for his profound artistry and refined musical voice. He is a laureate of numerous major international piano competitions, including second prize at the 19th Paloma O’Shea Santander International Piano Competition, first prize at the 54th Jaén International Piano Competition, and third prize at the 62nd Maria Canals International Music Competition in Barcelona. He has also received top prizes at the Bösendorfer, Horowitz, New Orleans, and Ferrol International Piano Competitions.

Sun has performed as a recitalist at prestigious venues around the world, including Salle Cortot in Paris, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Jordan Hall in Boston, the Bolshoi Hall in Saint Petersburg, the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, and the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. His performances have been broadcast by Bavarian Broadcasting, Polish Radio, and the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation.

He has appeared as a soloist with the China NCPA Orchestra, the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, the RTVE Symphony Orchestra of Spain, the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia, the City of Granada Orchestra, the Ukrainian National Symphony Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Fort Worth Symphony, the Santander Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic. He has collaborated with distinguished conductors including Hugh Wolff, Miguel Ángel Gómez Martínez, Paul Mann, Earl Lee, Nicholas McGegan, Matthew Kasper, Lio Kuokman, Yifan Sun, Maciej Tworek, José Trigueros, and José Molina.

In 2024, Sun joined celebrated pianist Sa Chen and other distinguished pianists for a nationally acclaimed tour of Bach’s Concertos for One to Four Keyboards (in piano version) with the China NCPA Orchestra, performing at major venues in Beijing, Shanghai, and Nanjing.

He has been invited to perform at major international festivals including the Verbier Festival, Kissinger Sommer, the Beethoven Easter Festival, and the Holland International Music Festival.

Sun’s debut solo album, recorded for the Naxos Laureate Series, was released internationally in 2013 to critical acclaim.

Born in 1995 in China, Yutong Sun began piano studies at age seven in Tianjin. He later attended the middle school affiliated with the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where he studied with Professor Chang Hua. Since 2015, he has studied at the New England Conservatory with Professors Alexander Korsantia and Dang Thai Son, earning his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Artist Diploma degrees. He currently serves as Artist-in-Residence at the Zhejiang Conservatory of Music.

23-year-old Chinese pianist Zitong Wang made her solo recital debut at age 13 in Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing. She has performed at such venues as the Steinway Hall in New York, Verizon Hall in Philadelphia, Severance Hall in Cleveland, etc. She has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Galicia Symphony Orchestra, Hangzhou Philharmonic, etc. She has worked with conductors Jahja Ling, Xian Zhang, Lina Gonzalez-Granados, José Trigueros, and Yang Yang.

Among others, she is a first prize winner of the Rosalyn Tureck International Bach Competition and Virginia Waring International Concerto Competition, second prize in the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Competition, and first prize in Princeton Festival Competition and France Music Competition. She most recently won first prize and “Nelson Freire Prize” in the XXXIII Ferrol International Piano Competition in 2022. A devoted chamber musician, Zitong has played alongside with Meng-Chieh Liu, Don Liuzzi, Vera Quartet, Zora Quartet, etc. She has toured with Roberto Díaz and musicians from Curtis. As an active member of Curtis 20/21 ensemble, she has worked with composers Unsuk Chin, Bright Sheng, David Ludwig, and Alvin Singleton. In 2019 she participated in the Intimacy of Creativity conference for composers in Hong Kong as a guest pianist.

Born in Inner Mongolia, China, Zitong began piano lessons at age three and previously studied with Hua Chang and Yuan Sheng at the Central Conservatory of Music Affiliated Middle School in Beijing. At age thirteen, she entered the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Meng-Chieh Liu and Eleanor Sokoloff. She is currently pursuing her Master’s degree at New England Conservatory with Dang Thai Son.

American violinist Claire Wells is acclaimed by audiences and press for her expressive musicality and rich, singing quality of sound. Claire has won numerous major prizes in renowned international competitions such as the Sibelius, Michael Hill, and Indianapolis competitions, and has collaborated with orchestras such as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and others. Solo concert engagements have brought her to halls like the Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, the Meyerson Symphony Center, Bass Performance Hall, and Teatro Degollado.

Having always held a special place in her heart for chamber music, Claire has been invited to perform at several international festivals such as Chamber Music Northwest, Chamber Music Connects the World, the Gstaad Festival, Krzyzowa Festival, and the Verbier Festival. Claire has the pleasure of frequently collaborating with some of the world’s top young musicians, as well as sharing the stage with world-renowned musicians such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Christian Tetzlaff, Lars Anders Tomter, and Enrico Pace, amongst others.

Since 2022, Claire Wells has studied with Mihaela Martin at the Kronberg Academy, made possible by the Opel/Dr. Schaefer patronage. Claire plays on a Nicolo Amati and a Grand Adam bow, on loan from a generous donor.