Folk Voices: Dvořák Dumky Trio

Artists

Kit Armstrong Piano/Organ

Ever since Kit Armstrong entered the international music stage twenty years ago, his activities have exerted an enduring fascination upon music lovers. He performs recitals in major series, appears with the world’s finest orchestras, and has developed close artistic partnerships with leading instrumentalists and vocalists. He has held artist-in-residence appointments incorporating a wide spectrum of musical formats, combining his roles as composer, pianist, conductor, and organist. His project, Expedition Mozart, traverses Mozart’s music in various genres with an international group of distinguished chamber musicians and soloists—and has become a main feature at prestigious festivals and venues.

Armstrong came to classical music through composition at the age of five. He has since created a broad oeuvre of vocal, instrumental, chamber, and symphonic works, many of which have been commissioned by notable European cultural institutions. His compositions are published by Edition Peters.

Born in 1992 in California, USA, Armstrong pursued undergraduate studies in physics at California State University, chemistry, and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and mathematics at Imperial College London. Alfred Brendel has guided Armstrong as a musical mentor since 2005. In 2008, he earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and in 2012 a master’s degree in pure mathematics at the University of Paris VI.

In 2012, Kit Armstrong purchased the Church of Sainte-Thérèse in Hirson, France, and transformed it into a hall for concerts, exhibitions, and outreach. This cultural centre has become home to interdisciplinary projects, reaching a regional as well as cosmopolitan public.

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Jazz Notes: Gershwin Piano Concerto
• An Evening with Kit Armstrong: Liszt’s Pilgrimage
• Folk Voices: Dvořák Dumky Trio   (currently selected)
• NEW@NIGHT: Echoes of Home

Wenting Kang 2025 YAI Faculty, Viola

Chinese violist Wenting Kang appeared as an “excellent violist” who “possesses a dark glowing sound” in The New York Times after her performance at Carnegie Hall. Kang’s playing also has been lauded as “elegant”, “precise,”  as well as “pure” and “tone-passionate without ever losing a sense of control” in the Boston Musical Intelligencer.

Her debut CD recording with pianist Sergei Kvitko, Mosaic, received many positive reviews, among which Gramophone Magazine noted “Part of the allure is her golden and glowing tone, but the subtlety of her shading is just as transfixing.” It has won the gold medal as a recommended CD on the Melómano Magazine in Spain.

Ms. Kang has appeared as a soloist, collaborating with major orchestras such as Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, and Malaga Philharmonic Orchestra—working with renowned conductors including Ivor Bolton, Michiyoshi Inoue, and José María Moreno.

Ms. Kang was appointed as Viola Faculty at the New England Conservatory in Boston in September 2024. Since 2016, Kang has been active as assistant professor alongside the renowned Nobuko Imai at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. In recent years, Kang has taught masterclasses for viola and chamber music in prestigious institutions such as University Mozarteum, University of Graz, Conservatorium van Amsterdam, and Franz Liszt Academy of Music.

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Folk Voices: Dvořák Dumky Trio   (currently selected)
• NEW@NIGHT: Echoes of Home

Soovin Kim 2025 YAI Faculty, Violin & Artistic Director

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.

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• NEW@NIGHT: Across the Americas
• Folk Voices: Dvořák Dumky Trio   (currently selected)
• Universal Harmony: Schumann Piano Quintet
• Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”
• Timeless Classics: Mozart Clarinet Quintet & “Rhapsody in Blue”

Peter Stumpf Cello

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 nine years, following a twelve-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 music musician, he is a member of the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio and has appeared at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and 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 Music 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, among others. Solo recitals have been 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.

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Folk Voices: Dvořák Dumky Trio   (currently selected)
• Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet
• Crossing Borders: Brahms Piano Quartet
• Souvenir: Tchaikovsky Sextet
• Souvenir: Tchaikovsky Sextet

Viano Quartet String Quartet

Lucy Wang, violin
Hao Zhou, violin
Aiden Kane, viola
Tate Zawadiuk, cello

Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet is one of the most sought-after ensembles today and recipients of the prestigious 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since soaring to international acclaim as the first-prize winner at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have traveled to nearly every major city across the globe, captivating audiences in New York, London, Berlin, Hong Kong, Vancouver, Paris, Beijing, Toronto, Lucerne, and Los Angeles. They are currently in-residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program from 2024-2027.

During the 2025 summer season, the quartet will debut at Klavier-Festival Ruhr, CMS Summer Evenings, Tippet Rise, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Their many return visits include Music@Menlo, Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music, and MISQA. Their latest album, Voyager, was released with Platoon Records in Spring 2025.

The Viano Quartet has collaborated with world-class musicians including Emanuel Ax, Fleur Barron, Sir Stephen Hough, Miloš Karadaglić, Mahan Esfahani, and Marc-André Hamelin. Dedicated advocates of music education, they have given classes at institutions such as Northwestern University, University of Victoria, Colburn Academy, Duke University, and SMU Meadows School of the Arts. Each member of the quartet is grateful to the interminable support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.

The name “Viano” reflects the unity of four string instruments acting as one, much like a piano, where harmony and melody intertwine.

Artist's Website

Upcoming Concerts & Events

• Folk Voices: Dvořák Dumky Trio   (currently selected)
• NEW@NIGHT: Echoes of Home
• Jazz Notes: Gershwin Piano Concerto