Meet the Artists: Perlman Alumni Chamber Music Concert

This Sunday, October 29^th, The Perlman Music Program will present their annual Alumni Retreat Chamber Music Concert. This program invites sixteen PMP graduates back to Shelter Island for five days of chamber music study, with a focus on community performance practices. Located at 73 Shore Road in Shelter Island Heights, The Perlman Music Program invites everyone out to enjoy this free-of-admission public concert on Sunday evening at 4:30 p.m.

The Perlman Music Program was established by Toby Perlman in 1994 for aspiring young violinists, violists, cellists, bassists, and pianists. The program is situated on Shelter Island, overseeing Crescent Beach, and sits among twenty-eight acres, creating the perfect setting for students to hone their craft and become part of a lasting community of likeminded artists.

PMP offers a vast curriculum of programs, mentorships, concerts, residencies, and other educational engagement throughout the year. At The Perlman Music Program they say, “The most promising young musicians from across the world have a platform to thrive, make music together, challenge each other, form life-long bonds, and transform their potential into a life-changing reality.” And the sixteen participants in this Sunday’s Alumni Retreat Concert will be showcasing these values.

For the past few days, throughout the retreat, the participants have worked on developing educational presentations for the young audiences at East End schools that will be taking place at Shelter Island School, Greenport School, Southold High School, and Westhampton Beach Middle School on Monday, October 30th.

For the performance open to the public on Sunday, the sixteen participants will be grouped into four quartets, each performing selections from chamber music masterworks. PMP says that attendees can expect to hear works by Haydn, Mozart, Brahms, Dvorak, Schubert, and Ravel during this evening of brilliantly crafted chamber music.

The sixteen participating artists have shared a bit about their backgrounds. They are excited for this upcoming performance on Shelter Island and to showcase their work. For more information, and to RSVP to the event, visit https://www.perlmanmusicprogram.org.

Meet the Artists:

K.J. McDonald

Boston, MA

K.J. McDonald, violin received his B.M. and M.M. with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at the Juilliard School, where he received a Kovner Fellowship (a full ride scholarship only awarded to a select few students). He currently studies with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory with the Dean’s scholarship. He has worked with composers Steve Reich, Thomas Ades, Alvin Singleton, Kaija Saariaho, Tan Dun, and John Adams, and regularly premieres and commissions music from upcoming composers in venues such as Alice Tully Hall. KJ McDonald has founded several string quartets and piano trios, and has worked with both present and past members of the Juilliard string quartet, members of the Cleveland Quartet, Joseph Kalichstein, Merry Peckham, and Kirsten Docter. KJ has a passion for pedagogy and has traveled the world teaching underprivileged children, including in Sal Paolo, Brazil. He has attended the Perlman Music Program, Yellow Barn, Lucerne, and IMS Prussia Cove music festivals.

Tong Chen

Centereach, NY

Shanghai-born violinist Tong Chen is an avid soloist whose love lies in chamber music. This has taken him to music festivals including Verbier Music Festival, Four Seasons Chamber Music Winter Workshop, International Musicians Seminar at Prussia Cove, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program. Tong has been blessed to have performed with inspiring musicians including Ida Kavafian, Colin Carr, Paul Biss, Areta Zhulla, and Vivian Weilerstein. Chen received BM, MM, and Graduate Diploma from the New England Conservatory under Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, and Donald Weilerstein. He is now pursuing his doctoral studies at Stony Brook University.

Isabella Bignasca

New York, NY

Violist Isabella Bignasca, from Sydney, Australia, is a thoughtful and expressive performer with a passion for chamber music and community engagement. She is a 2023-25 fellow in Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall and completed her master’s degree under the tutelage of Paul Neubauer and Heidi Castleman at The Juilliard School, where she also completed her undergraduate studies. International festival appearances include the Verbier Festival Academy, Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Music Academy of the West, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival and School, and the Heifetz International Music Institute where she was also a part of Heifetz on Tour.

Camden Archambeau

Cambridge, MA

Camden M. Archambeau is a cellist and conductor based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He studied History and German and cello performance in the Harvard–New England Conservatory Dual Degree program. This year he is serving as Artist-in-Residence in Lowell House at Harvard University. Camden has served as Principal Cellist of the New York String Orchestra, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, and New York Youth Symphony. He has completed residencies at the Stauffer Center in Cremona, Italy, studying with the Quartetto di Cremona and Antonio Meneses. In the summers, Camden attended festivals including the Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, Meadowmount School of Music, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. He received Honorable Mention in the Harvard Yannatos Concerto Competition, First Prize in the NFMC Cox String Award, and was a National YoungArts winner. For his work as a cellist and conductor, he received the Robert Levin Prize for Musical Performance from Harvard College. He has studied with Paul Katz, Hans Jensen, Sieun Lin and David Finckel. Camden served as the Music Director of the Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, Assistant Conductor and Vice President of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra under Federico Cortese. He works with Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras as a conductor and chamber music coach.

Daniel Dastoor

San Francisco, CA

Canadian violinist Daniel Dastoor studies with Ian Swensen at the San Francisco Conservatory, pursuing an Artist Diploma in Chamber Music. A native of Montreal, Daniel is a winner of the Sylva Gelber Award, the Calgary Philharmonic’s Marley Rynd Prize, and won first and second prize at the Fontainebleau Festival’s Prix Ravel. He has performed as soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic and the Lethbridge Symphony. A passionate chamber musician, Daniel won first prize at the Trondheim International Chamber Competition as part of the Rilian Trio. He has participated in the IMS Prussia Cove Masterclasses, Bowdoin Fellowship Program, Kneisel Hall, NAC Young Artist, Banff Centre, and Lunenburg Academy festivals. Daniel performs on the 1700 Taft Stradivari violin, on loan by the Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.

Clara Neubauer

New York, NY

Praised for her “seductive artistry” and “rare grace” (Classical Voice North America), violinist Clara Neubauer is a recent recipient of the Ana Chumachenko Award from the Kronberg Academy and the Peter Mennin Prize from The Juilliard School. Clara has appeared at festivals including the Ravinia Festival, Bravo! Vail, Taos School of Music, Music@Menlo, Four Seasons, Music From Angel Fire, and Olympic Music Festival, and as soloist with orchestras including the Symphony of Westchester, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, the Little Orchestra Society, Ensemble 212, and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn. Clara received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, studying with Li Lin and Itzhak Perlman.

Annie Hyung

Boston, MA

Korean-American cellist Annie Hyung has performed internationally as a soloist and ensemble musician at venues including Walt Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and Taipei’s National Performing Arts Center. She most treasures the human connections built through music, and has performed at festivals such as Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World, Perlman Music Program, and the Taos School of Music. She currently studies with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory of Music; previous mentors include Hans Jorgen Jensen and Sarah Koo Freeman.

Ayano Nakamura

New Haven, CT

Originally from Hudson, Ohio, Ayano Nakamura is currently earning a master’s degree at the Yale School of Music where she studies with Ettore Causa. She recently received a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory, studying with Martha Katz and Mai Motobuchi. She has attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop and Kneisel Hall Young Artist Chamber Music Program among others, and has recently performed with A Far Cry Chamber Ensemble and Nobuko Imai’s celebration concert in Japan.

Sterling Elliot

Newport News, VA

Cellist Sterling Elliott is a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and the winner of the Senior Division 2019 National Sphinx Competition. He has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Detroit Symphony. In his spare time, Sterling enjoys wrenching on cars at his home garage in Virginia. Sterling is pursuing an Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School studying with Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim. He performs on a 1741 Gennaro Gagliano cello on loan through the Robert F. Smith Fine String Patron Program, in partnership with the Sphinx Organization.

Wenqi Ke

Los Angeles, CA

Wenqi Ke, 24, born in China, is pursuing her Master of Music degree at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Robert Lipsett. She was the first prize recipient at the 2014 Hong Kong International String Competition, and was awarded a scholarship from the Shanghai City Government. Ms. Ke appeared as a soloist with the Shanghai Chamber Orchestra and the Colburn Orchestra. She has served as Assistant Principal Second Violin of the American Youth Symphony Assistant Concertmaster of the Seiji Ozawa Music Festival, Assistant Concertmaster of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Concertmaster of Music Academy of the West and Principal of the Colburn Orchestra. In 2021 She won the London Symphony’ Keston Max audition and has performed in the assistant concertmaster chair under Simon Rattle with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Cassia Drake

New Haven, CT

Cassia Drake, a native to Southwest Florida, made her debut with the Artis-Naples Philharmonic at the age of 14 and has since appeared as soloist with the Sarasota Music Festival Orchestra, Colburn Orchestra, and the Bravo Summer Music Festival, among others. She has won top prizes in competitions throughout the world, such as National YoungArts Foundation, Berlin Philharmonie Competition and has toured throughout North America, the Middle East, and Europe giving recitals and masterclasses. As an avid chamber musician, she has collaborated with quartet members of the Tokyo, Calidore, Aviv, and Vermeer quartet as well as chamber festivals such as the Mainly Mozart Chamber Festival, Ojai New Music Festival, and the Reno Chamber Music Festival. Cassia Drake is pursuing a Master of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music, studying with Ettore Causa. Previously, she studied at the Colburn Conservatory where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees under the tutelage of Paul Coletti and Yura Lee.

Ria Honda

New Haven, CT

Twenty-three-year-old Japanese-American violinist, Ria Honda, was recently named a 2022 Rohm Music Foundation Scholarship recipient. She was awarded the fourth prize at the 2021 Klein International Competition. She has been featured on WFMT’s Introductions, NPR’s “From the Top,” “Heifetz on Tour,” the Evermay Concert Series in Washington D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Recital series, and has performed with the Seattle Symphony, Cascade Symphony Orchestra, and the Oistrakh Symphony, among others. A passionate chamber musician, Ria has been a first prize winner in the M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition and has received the silver medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She has a B.A. from Columbia University, an M.M. from the Juilliard School, and is currently continuing her studies at Yale School of Music.

KayCee Galano

Cincinnati, OH

Kristine Clair “KayCee” Uchi Galano has established herself as one of the leading young violinists of her generation. Highlights of KayCee Galano’s 2021/22 season include  winning first prize at the 2021 Mary Lane Memorial Violin Competition and participating at the 2021 Shanghai Isaac Stern International Violin Competition and 2022 Internatiomal Violin Competition of Indianapolis. KayCee made her Carnegie Hall debut on October, 2019, performing all 6 Bach solo sonatas. In 2018, she was invited to perform the Bruch Violin Concerto with the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra in her native country, the Philippines. She was featured on National Public Radio’s “From The Top” with Christopher O’Riley at age 12. At age 14, she toured the USA with pianist Rohan DeSilva and China with the Starling Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, KayCee Galano spends her summers at the Perlman Music Program, Kneisel Hall, and Bowdoin Music Festival. Ms. Galano studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music with Kurt Sassmannshaus.

Joseph Skerik

Interlochen, MI

Born in 1999 and raised in Michigan, Joseph Skerik is the newly appointed violist of the Vega String Quartet, where he is an artist and faculty member in residence at Emory University and the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. He has performed at festivals such as the Ravinia Institute, Vivace Music Foundation, Heifetz Hear and Now Series, Highlands-Cashiers Festival, Perlman Music Program, Aspen Music Festival, and the Lake George Music Festival, and his chamber music performances include concerts with musicians such as Ani Kavafian, Ilya Kaler, Jaime Laredo, Erin Keefe, Colin Carr, Margaret Batjer, and Edward Aaron. Joseph is a Young Arts Merit Violist, a prize-winner at the American Viola Society Competition and at the 4th Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague. This season’s performances include collaborations with the Juilliard Quartet, Ransom Wilson and Zuill Bailey. He is the co-founder of Viridian Strings, a summer chamber music series in Northwest Lower Michigan.

Dilshod Narzillaev

Boston, MA

In the fall of 2021, Narzillaev performed Martinu’s string sextet with members of the Borromeo String Quartet as part of the Borromeo Guest Artist Award at NEC. In May of 2022, Narzillaev made two main debuts with the Boston Pops Orchestra in Symphony Hall and the State Orchestra of Uzbekistan in the Grand Hall of Tashkent Conservatory. Narzillaev was a featured artist at the iPALPITI festival in Los Angeles this past summer. He also attended the Kronberg Festival and played public masterclasses with Frans Helmerson in the fall at Kronberg Academy. He spent his 2023 summer at the Perlman Music Program Workshop, and Sitka Cello Seminar and he was a guest Artist and Junior faculty at the Vivace Music Festival.

Angie Zhang

Ann Arbor, MI

Praised as “warmly expressive, sensitive, and polished” and “a valuable advocate for classical music” by New York Concert Review, American pianist Angie Zhang is committed to showcasing the modern piano, fortepiano, and harpsichord as solo and collaborative instruments in impactful and awe-inspiring ways. Recently named Third Prize at the Chopin International Competition on Period Instruments in Warsaw, she is internationally sought after as a soloist and chamber musician. Angie has been invited by concert presenters at Lincoln Center, La Jolla Music Society, Bravo! Vail, Tippet Rise Art Center, Sarasota Music Festival, Perlman Music Program, Explorers Club, American Liszt Society, and