Young Artist Institute

For three decades, omnivorous violist Nicholas Cords has been on the front line of a unique constellation of projects as performer, educator, and cultural advocate, with a signature passion for the cross section between the long tradition of classical music and the wide range of music being created today.

Nicholas served for twenty years as violist of the Silkroad Ensemble, a musical collective founded by Yo-Yo Ma in 2000 with the belief that cross-cultural collaboration leads to a more hopeful world. This mission was poignantly explored by the recent Oscar-nominated documentary by Morgan Neville, The Music of Strangers, which makes a case for why culture matters. In addition, Nicholas served from 2017-2020 as a Co-Artistic Director for Silkroad, and previously as Silkroad’s Programming Chair. He appears on all of the Silkroad Ensemble’s albums including Sing Me Home (Sony Music), which received a 2017 Grammy Award for Best World Music Album.

Another key aspect of Nicholas’s musical life is as founding member of Brooklyn Rider, an intrepid group which NPR credits with “recreating the 300-year-old form of the string quartet as a vital and creative 21st-century ensemble.” Highly committed to collaborative ventures, the group has worked with Irish fiddler Martin Hayes, jazz saxophonist Joshua Redman, ballerina Wendy Whelan, Persian kemancheh virtuoso Kayhan Kalhor, Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, Mexican singer Magos Herrera, and banjoist Béla Fleck, to name a few. Their most recent recording, Healing Modes, was lauded by The New York Times and received a 2021 Grammy Nomination.

His acclaimed 2020 solo recording, Touch Harmonious (In a Circle Records), is a reflection on the arc of tradition spanning from the baroque to today, featuring multiple premieres. A dedicated teacher, Nicholas currently serves on the viola and chamber music faculty of New England Conservatory.

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San Francisco-based violinist Paul Kim is excited to return to CMNW’s Young Artist Institute for another summer. He is currently a member of the Modesto Symphony and has performed with other bay area orchestras such as Symphony San Jose, California Symphony, and Vallejo Symphony. This past season, Paul was the Acting Concertmaster of Symphony Parnassus and worked with artists such as Hélène Wickett and Jeff Anderle In addition to orchestral music, he loves performing chamber music and has had recent performances with the Glenview Classical Music Series and Insight Chamber Players. Paul holds Bachelor’s degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder in Violin Performance and Economics, and a Master’s degree from
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Aside from music, Paul enjoys hiking the landscape around the bay, baking loaves of sourdough bread, and finding the next exciting apple varietal—he is currently obsessed with Empire apples. Additionally, Paul is always exploring San Francisco, discovering beautifully hidden spots and creative corners of the city.

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season. When he was 20 years old, Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works that were released in 2022.

Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an Honorary Doctorate upon him in 2015. In 2020, he and his wife, pianist Gloria Chien, became artistic directors of Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. He, with Chien, were awarded Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s 2021 CMS Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music. Kim devotes much of his time to his passion for teaching at the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Yale School of Music in New Haven.

Violinist Jessica Lee has built a multifaceted career as soloist, chamber musician, pedagogue, Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra until the 2023-2024 season, and now as Associate Concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony. She was the Grand Prize Winner of the 2005 Concert Artists Guild International Competition and has been hailed as “a soloist which one should make a special effort to hear, wherever she plays.” Her international appearances include solo performances with the Plzen Philharmonic, Gangnam Symphony, Malaysia Festival Orchestra, and at the Rudolfinum in Prague. At home, she has appeared with orchestras such as the Houston, Grand Rapids, and Spokane symphonies. 

Jessica has performed in recital at venues including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Ravinia “Rising Stars,” the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., and the Kennedy Center.

A long-time member of the Johannes Quartet as well as of The Bowers Program (formerly the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Two), Jessica has also toured frequently with Musicians from Marlboro, including appearances at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston’s Gardner Museum, and with the Guarneri Quartet in their farewell season. Her chamber music festival appearances include Chamber Music Northwest, Bridgehampton, Santa Fe, Seoul Spring, Caramoor, Olympic, and Music@Menlo. She also put together a six-video chamber music series during the pandemic which was a collaboration between the Cleveland Orchestra and the Cleveland Clinic to bring chamber music from iconic spaces in Cleveland to the greater Cleveland community.

Jessica has always had a passion for teaching and has served on the faculties of Vassar College, Oberlin College, as Head of the Violin Department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and currently as Distinguished Artist at the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer College. She was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at age fourteen following studies with Weigang Li, and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree under Robert Mann and Ida Kavafian. She completed her studies for a Master’s degree at the Juilliard School.

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Jacob Mills is an undergraduate student at Biola University with a passion for both people and music. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, he was a 10-year member of the Portland Youth Philharmonic, serving as Principal Double Bass in his senior year. He has performed at venues including the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, the 1905 Jazz Club, and Hallowed Halls recording studio, developing a deep appreciation for Portland’s music culture.

In addition to collaborating with local artists such as Pink Martini, he has toured the East Coast with the Grammy-winning Imani Winds, performing at historic venues including Mechanics’ Hall and the Manhattan School of Music. Alongside his musical pursuits, Jacob is studying financial planning with the goal of helping others achieve financial freedom. He looks forward to continuing his musical involvement in the Los Angeles area while growing in his understanding of the financial services industry.

Born in Brussels, Belgian American viola player Dimitri Murrath made his mark on the international scene, performing as a recitalist and soloist at venues including the Wigmore Hall, the Purcell Room, Royal Festival Hall (London), and Théâtre de la Ville (Paris).

A first prize winner at the Primrose International Viola Competition, Dimitri Murrath has won numerous awards, including top prizes at the Tokyo International Viola Competition and ARD Munich Competition. In 2012, he was named laureate of the Juventus Festival, an award recognizing young European soloists. He is a recipient of a 2014 Avery Fisher Career Grant through which he recorded and released his first solo album, featuring music by Vieuxtemps, Clarke, and Hindemith, in 2017.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Murrath has been the violist of the Esmé Quartet since 2023. Prior to that, he was a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society from 2013 to 2023. He has collaborated with Richard Goode, Gidon Kremer, Menahem Pressler, Mitsuko Uchida, and members of the Cleveland, Mendelssohn, and Guarneri Quartets. He has performed in festivals that include Verbier, Caramoor, Juventus, and Marlboro.

Dimitri Murrath began his musical education at the Yehudi Menuhin School, studying with Natalia Boyarsky, and completed his Bachelor of Music in London with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and graduated with an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory as a student of Kim Kashkashian.

After nine years teaching viola at New England Conservatory, he is currently Professor of Viola and Chair of Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Dimitri Murrath participates in the Music for Food project, which raises awareness of the hunger problem faced by a large percentage of the population, and gives the opportunity to experience the powerful role music can play as a catalyst for change.

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Peter Stumpf is professor of cello at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Prior to his appointment, he was the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 9 years following a 12-year tenure as Associate Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and an artist’s diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music.

A dedicated chamber musician, he is a member of the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio and has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, in Amsterdam, Tokyo, and Cologne. He has performed with the chamber music societies of Boston and Philadelphia, and at numerous festivals including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Spoleto, and Aspen. He has toured with The Musicians from Marlboro, and with pianist Mitsuko Uchida in performances of the complete Mozart Piano Trios. As a member of the Johannes Quartet, he collaborated with the Guarneri String Quartet on a tour, including premieres of works by Bolcom and Salonen.

Concerto appearances have included the Boston Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Festival. He has also performed solo recitals at Jordan Hall in Boston, on the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society series, on the Chamber Music in Historic Sites series in Los Angeles, and at the Philips and Corcoran Galleries in Washington D.C. His awards include first prize in the Washington International Competition.

He has served on the cello faculties at the New England Conservatory and the University of Southern California.

Alyssa Tong has managed the Young Artist Institute of Chamber Music Northwest since its inception in 2022. During the academic year, she is currently the Assistant Director of Enrollment Management at the New England Conservatory, working with the Strings and Contemporary Musical Arts faculty.

In 2018, after sustaining a tendonitis injury while playing violin, she dove into the administrative world, founding String Insiders, an educational non-profit that focuses on providing pre-professional string players access to teachers, resources, and information. Since 2020, String Insiders has hosted the Online Solo Strings Intensive (OSSI) every summer, created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the first ever online music festival. OSSI gives over 100 students annually the opportunity to work closely with top professors and teachers from around the country. Alyssa formerly hosted the Strings Virtual Summit, an online conference with over 1,000 attendees at each iteration that provided access to interviews with leading music professionals free of charge. Through her work with String Insiders, she has worked with faculty members such as Clive Greensmith, Soovin Kim, Paul Kantor, Ani Kavafian, Paul Katz, Carol Rodland, and many others. She is passionate about increasing accessibility to classical music by revitalizing the concert stage, providing quality music education to youth, and opening conversations around careers and holistic musicianship.

Before working full-time in administration, she obtained her Master’s degree in Violin Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, studying under Simon James. Previously, she studied under Nelson Lee of the Jupiter String Quartet at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign School of Music. When she’s not buried in spreadsheets, you can find her exploring Boston where she lives, or cooking something new.

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Lexi Tong is a recently Board Certified Music Therapist (MT-BC) who specializes in special education and early intervention, with over a decade of classical performance experience as a pianist, accompanist, and choral singer. In addition to music therapy, Lexi is a piano teacher and collaborative pianist, serving private studios and music schools across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. During her undergraduate degree, Lexi served as an Alto section leader during her time in the Biola University Chorale and gained administrative experience working in honors college admissions as a team lead and orientation coordinator, with additional experience in public relations and fundraising for the Chorale. She previously served as Chamber Music Intensive Intern for String Insiders’ In-Person String Intensive (IPSI) and has attended several American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) festivals with her university Chorale. In addition to classical piano, Lexi enjoys playing guitar (especially jazz) and songwriting. Lexi currently lives in McKinney, Texas and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from Biola University with a concentration in classical piano.