Applauded by The Strad for her “fiery virtuosity” and “consummate performances,” violinist YooJin Jang is a winner of the 2017 Concert Artists Guild Competition and is also First Prize winner of Japan’s 2016 Sendai International Music Competition. These two prominent victories have resulted in a busy itinerary of international recital and concerto engagements, and also the release of two new recordings, including a CD of her prize-winning Sendai concerto performances.
YooJin has appeared with the Budapest Festival Orchestra (led by Ivan Fischer), Bulgaria National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Emil Tabakov), Sofia Philharmonia Orchestra (Ljubka Biagioni), the Erato Ensemble (Sholomo Mintz), Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and the NEC Philharmonia (Josh Weilerstein). She earned a Master of Music, Graduate Diploma, and Artist Diploma from New England Conservatory, as a student of Miriam Fried, and she is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at NEC. In the fall of 2020, Yoojin started her position as assistant professor of violin at the Eastman School of Music.
One of the most exciting and versatile British cellists of his generation, Guy Johnston was born into a musical family and joined his brothers in the world-renowned choir of King’s College, Cambridge. He went on to achieve important early successes through the BBC Young Musician of the Year title, the Guilhemina Suggia Gift, the Shell London Symphony Orchestra Gerald MacDonald Award, and receiving a Classical Brit Award at the Royal Albert Hall.
He has made many important debuts including the First Night of the BBC Proms under Leonard Slatkin, the DSO Berlin under Juraj Valchua, the St. Petersburg State Capella Orchestraunder Dmitriev in St. Petersburg, the Osaka Philharmonic under Tadaaki Otaka, and the the English Chamber Orchestra under Jonathan Tilbrook. Highlights with leading orchestras in the UK are Strauss’s Don Quixote with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain under Yan Pascal Tortelier, the Walton Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic under Tortelier, the Dvorak Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Michael Seal, Britten’s Cello Symphony with the Royal Northern Sinfonia under Robin Ticciati, and Shostakovich Concerto No. 2 with the RTE National Orchestra under Vladimir Altschuler.
Guy plays a 1714 David Tecchler cello, generously on loan from the Godlee-Tecchler Trust which is administered by The Royal Society of Musicians. He has recently commissioned and recorded a number of short new works to celebrate its tricentenary by composers including Charlotte Bray, David Matthews, and Mark Simpson. This CD also includes a performance with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia recorded in Rome, where the cello was made.
In the 2019-2020 season Alexander Kobrin made his Carnegie Hall debut, as well as concluding his Complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas project for WETA radio in Washington, DC. Kobrin has won top prizes in international piano competitions, including the Gold Medal in the 2005 Van Cliburn Competition, and has appeared with many of the world’s great orchestras. His prize-winning performances have been praised for their brilliant technique, musicality, and emotional engagement with the audience. His recording of Schumann’s Carnaval, Waldszenen, and Arabesque was named a Top 5 Album of the year by Fanfare Magazine in 2015. Gramophone praised Kobrin’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Second Sonata, noting, “Kobrin achieves a hypnotic sense of the music’s dark necromancy.” In 2017 his Russian Music CD received the “critic award” from Fanfare. He has also recorded works by Chopin and Haydn. His Schubert and Hindemith CDs were released in 2019 on Centaur and Quartz Records.
Kobrin has served on the faculties of the Gnessin Academy of Music and New York University’s Steinhardt School, and held the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Georgia. He has given master classes in Europe and Asia and has been a jury member for many international piano competitions.
Grammy Award-winning Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Per Rostad has been described as an “electrifying, poetic and sensitive musician” with an “understated yet commanding presence” by critics and is in demand as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher.
As a former member of the Pacifica Quartet 2001-2017, Masumi was full professor of viola and chamber music at Indiana University. Together, they were awarded Musical America’s ‘Ensemble of the Year’, Avery Fisher Career Grant, Cleveland Quartet Award, and a special invitation to perform for the Supreme Court of the United States.
He received his BM and MM degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with legendary violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle and was appointed her teaching assistant. While a student, he performed the world premiere of Michael White’s Viola Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall and also gave the New York premiere of Paul Schoenfield’s Viola Concerto. Masumi has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, The University of Chicago, and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. Masumi has been associate professor of viola at Eastman since 2017. His Amati viola was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1619.
The Faculty Artist Series is generously supported by Patricia Ward-Baker.
This performance will be live streamed at https://www.esm.rochester.edu/live/ and will be free to view. The stream will start approximately 15 minutes before the event.
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About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training. The current dean is Jamal Rossi, appointed in 2014.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community.