2026 Gilmore Festival Fellowship

American pianist Sara Davis Buechner is a musician of “intelligence, integrity and all-encompassing technical prowess” (New York Times), a performer of “fascinating and astounding virtuosity” (Philippine Star), renowned for her “thoughtful artistry in the full service of music” (Washington Post). Japan’s InTune magazine says: “When it comes to clarity, flawless tempo selection, phrasing and precise control of timbre, Buechner has no superior.”

In her twenties, Ms. Buechner was the winner of a bouquet of prizes at the world’s première piano competitions — Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, Leeds, Salzburg, Sydney and Vienna. She won the Gold Medal at the 1984 Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, and was a Bronze Medalist of the 1986 Tschaikowsky International Piano Competition in Moscow.

Her breathtaking range of repertoire includes 125 piano concertos ranging from A (Albeníz) to Z (Zimbalist), which she has performed internationally with the world’s great orchestras. Her numerous recordings have received prominent critical appraisal, and she is one of the only prominent concert pianists to perform and record original scores for silent motion pictures.

The broad sweep of Ms. Buechner’s artistry is presented in her autobiographical stage show “Of Pigs and Pianos,” which she wrote, produced and starred in to acclaim from the New York Times and other media in 2022. She continues to appear in the show yearly, and it will have its première at the International Gilmore Festival in 2026.

Ms. Buechner is Piano Chair of the Greenwich House Music School in New York City, Professor of Piano at Temple University in Philadelphia, and an Adjunct Professor at New York University. As the most prominent transgender musician of her generation, Sara Davis Buechner appears often as a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ community. She has been a dedicated Yamaha Artist for nearly 40 years.

Grammy award winning pianist Bill Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of our time, from Wynton Marsalis and Tony Bennett to Phil Woods and Ron Carter. He is acclaimed for his interpretations of the American Popular Songbook and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington.

Since 1997, he has led the Bill Charlap Trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, recognized as one of the leading groups in jazz. The trio earned Grammy nominations for Uptown Downtown (Impulse!/Verve), Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein (Blue Note) and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note). Their 2016 recording, Notes from New York (Impulse!/Verve) earned a five-star review in Downbeat, which hailed it as “a masterclass in class.” The trio’s most recent release, Street of Dreams marks their return to the Blue Note label. The Bill Charlap Trio tours all over the world and New York engagements include regular appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Birdland and the Village Vanguard.

Mr. Charlap was the Artistic Director of the 92NY’s Jazz in July Festival for 18 years. He has also produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. He is currently Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in New Jersey. Founded in 1973, it is one of the longest-running and most respected jazz programs in the world.

Born in New York City, Mr. Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, who wrote the score for the Mary Martin production of Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como shows, and she earned a Grammy award nomination for her 1963 recording, My Coloring Book.

Mr. Charlap’s album with Tony Bennett, The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern (RPM/ Columbia), won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It features Mr. Charlap and Mr. Bennett in duet, in collaboration with the Bill Charlap Trio and in duo piano performances with his wife, renowned jazz pianist and composer, Renee Rosnes.

Mr. Charlap and Ms. Rosnes frequently perform two piano concerts. Of their recording, Double Portrait (Blue Note), Downbeat wrote: “The counterpoint and compatibilities are so perfectly balanced, the selections and arrangements so handsome, that ‘Double Portrait’ is a prize.”

Proclaimed “a phenomenon” by the Los Angeles Times and “one of the best pianists of his generation” by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Stewart Goodyear is an accomplished concert pianist, improviser and composer. Mr. Goodyear has performed with, and has been commissioned by, many of the major orchestras and chamber music organizations around the world.

Last year, Orchid Classics released Mr. Goodyear’s recording of his suite for piano and orchestra, “Callaloo” and his piano sonata. His recent commissions Include works for violinist Miranda Cuckson, cellist Inbal Segev, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Horszowski Trio, the Honens Piano Competition and the Chineke! Foundation. Mr. Goodyear made his BBC Proms debut performing “Callaloo” with the Chineke! Orchestra under Andrew Grams in the fall 2024.

Mr. Goodyear’s discography includes the complete sonatas and piano concertos of Beethoven, as well as concertos by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev, an album of Ravel piano works, and an album, entitled “For Glenn Gould”, which combines repertoire from Mr. Gould’s US and Montreal debuts. His recordings have been released on the Naxos, Marquis Classics, Orchid Classics, Bright Shiny Things and Steinway and Sons labels. Mr. Goodyear released his recording of Mendelssohn and Schumann concertos, with two of his original compositions, on Orchid Classics in February 2025.

Highlights for the 2025-26 season are his performances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, the Stratford Music Festival, and performances with the St. Louis, Winnipeg and Virginia Symphonies, and A Far Cry in Boston. He will also perform in recital on the Eastman Piano Series, and the Gilmore Piano Festival.

Pianist Marc-André Hamelin, a “performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” (The New York Times), is acclaimed worldwide for his rare combination of profound musicianship and dazzling technique. He is celebrated both for his interpretations of the core repertoire and for his fearless exploration of lesser-known works from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. He regularly performs around the globe with the leading orchestras and conductors of our time, and gives recitals at major concert venues and festivals worldwide. 

Hamelin’s 2025–2026 season spans North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, with a dynamic mix of orchestral, recital, and chamber music engagements. He opens the season with a tour of Australia and Asia, featuring concerto and recital appearances with the Sydney Symphony under Sir Donald Runnicles, concerto engagements with the Wuxi, Ningbo, and Shenzhen symphonies, and solo recitals in Adelaide, Xiamen, and Shenzhen.

In North America, Hamelin appears with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the San Diego Symphony with Thomas Guggeis, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, on tour. Recital highlights include Chicago Symphony Presents, San Francisco Symphony, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Keyboard Concerts in Fresno, and Soka Performing Arts Center. In duo with Maria João Pires, he is presented by The Cleveland Orchestra, the Gilmore Piano Festival, and the Fortas Chamber Music Series at the Kennedy Center.

European appearances include Rhapsody in Blue with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Vladimir Jurowski, the Marx Piano Concerto with the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich and Fabien Gabel, and performances with the Bremer Philharmoniker, Wigmore Hall, the Schubertiade, MDR Wartburg, and the Chipping Campden Festival. Additional recitals take place in Italy, the Netherlands, and Berlin, along with an extensive duo tour with Maria João Pires to the Philharmonie de Paris, the Barbican, The Hague, Martigny, Toulouse, and Berlin.

Chamber music highlights include the Chausson Concert with Augustin Hadelich and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Franck Piano Quintet with the Juilliard String Quartet for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. With Canadian pianist Charles Richard-Hamelin, Hamelin tours to Koerner Hall in Toronto, Salle Bourgie in Montréal, Club musical de Québec, and the Isabel Bader Centre in Kingston.

An exclusive recording artist for Hyperion Records, Hamelin has released more than 90 albums to date, with notable recordings of a broad range of solo, orchestral, and chamber repertoire. In October 2025, Hyperion releases Found Objects / Sound Objects, a recording of contemporary works. Recent acclaimed recordings include Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, Op. 106, and Sonata in C major, Op. 2 No. 3, as well as the Dvořák and Florence Price quintets with the Takács Quartet.

Also a noted composer, Hamelin has written more than 30 works. Many, including his Études and Toccata on “L’homme armé”—commissioned by the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition—are published by Edition Peters. He performed the Toccata in 2023 on NPR’s Tiny Desk alongside works by C.P.E. Bach and William Bolcom. His most recent composition, Mazurka, was commissioned by the Library of Congress to celebrate 100 years of concerts and premiered in April 2024. Featuring nine original pieces, Hamelin’s 2024 album New Piano Works is a survey of some of his own recent works, exhibiting his formidable skill as a composer-pianist whose music imaginatively and virtuosically taps into his musical forebears. “His previous offerings of his own music were rich, but his latest self-portrait album is on another level,” wrote The New York Times. It was Hamelin’s first album of all original compositions since Études (2010).

Hamelin is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the German Record Critics’ Association, and over 20 of its quarterly awards. Other honors include eight Juno Awards, 12 Grammy nominations, the 2018 Jean Gimbel Lane Prize from Northwestern University, and the Paul de Hueck and Norman Walford Career Achievement Award from the Ontario Arts Foundation. Hamelin is an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec, and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Born in Montreal, Hamelin lives in the Boston area with his wife, Cathy Fuller, a producer and host at Classical WCRB.

Sean Hickey is an American composer whose music blends postmodern complexity with a wide range of influences—from Frank Zappa to Igor Stravinsky. Born in Detroit, he began as a jazz guitarist before earning a degree in composition from Wayne State University, continuing his studies in New York. Hickey’s work has been commissioned by major institutions including Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, the St. Petersburg Symphony and Steinway. His orchestral and chamber music is performed throughout the world. His most recent recording, a collaboration with Yuval Noah Harari, is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. A frequent speaker at conservatories and universities, he also writes and speaks regularly on music, new media and musician entrepreneurship. Hickey is a voting and committee member of the Recording Academy and has received multiple ASCAP awards and grants from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the American Music Center. He was Senior Vice-President of Naxos of America and current CEO of PENTATONE.

Called a “superb pianist, first class talent” (Philadelphia Inquirer) and “extremely persuasive” (Gramophone), Taiwanese American pianist Charlotte Hu is an acclaimed soloist, educator, and entrepreneur. A top prizewinner at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition and Concert Artists Guild Competition, she’s renowned for her virtuosity, musicianship and captivating stage presence.

Charlotte has performed at prestigious venues worldwide including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Concertgebouw. She has appeared with major orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic.

Her 2025-2026 season features her second PENTATONE album of Granados works, performances in the “Chopin-Viardot Project” at the 2026 Gilmore Piano Festival, her “Women Pioneers” recital at Strathmore Mansion, and appearances at the Newport Festival and Cheboygan Chamberfest.

A Steinway Artist, Charlotte is an associate professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and artist-in-residence at Temple University. She founded the Philadelphia Young Pianists’ Academy and its renowned PYPA Piano Festival, now in its 13th year. 

Ukrainian-born American pianist Stanislav Khristenko, hailed as a “poet of piano” by Le Soir (Belgium), has graced some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Critics from The New York Times, The Washington Post, Miami Herald, Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and El País have praised his performances for their “emotional intensity,” “charismatic expression,” and “solid, precise technique,” along with his remarkable “palette of touches.”

Khristenko has performed as a piano soloist with esteemed orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, National Orchestra of Belgium, Phoenix Symphony, and the Liege Royal Philharmonic, among others. His performance highlights feature solo recitals at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, and Palais de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, as well as appearances with orchestras at The Berlin Philharmonie, Seoul Arts Center, and Moscow Conservatory Great Hall. Notably, his performance with The Lviv National Orchestra of Ukraine at Carnegie Hall was selected as one of the 15 highlights of the 2022/2023 season by The New York Times.

Khristenko’s recordings, released on the Steinway & Sons label (“Fantasies,” “Romeo and Juliet”), Naxos (“Soler Sonatas”), Oehms (“Krenek: Piano Works”), and Toccata Classics (“Ernst Krenek Piano Works: Volume One” and “Volume Two”), showcase his artistry. As a Steinway Spirio Artist, he maintains a significant presence in the Spirio recording library.

A prizewinner in numerous competitions, Khristenko received the Gold Medal at the Cleveland Piano Competition, First Prize at the Maria Canals Piano Competition, and Second Prizes at both the Isang Yun and Takamatsu Piano Competitions. He also earned Fourth Prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and received First Prizes at various U.S. competitions, including Bosendorfer, Jose Iturbi, Virginia Waring, and Wideman. Additionally, he has served on the jury of several international piano competitions.

In his hometown, he co-founded the KharkivMusicFest, which brought together top classical musicians and featured unique projects like a festival orchestra, a classical music conference, and artist-designed pianos for public display. As Music Director, he founded the Nova Sinfonietta Chamber Orchestra of Ukraine, which performed works by over 40 composers in its first three seasons.

Khristenko’s musical journey began at the age of 11 with his first solo recital at the Kharkiv Philharmonic Hall. He graduated from Moscow’s Chopin College and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, studying under Vera Gornostaeva. In 2008, he relocated to the United States to study with Sergei Babayan at the Cleveland Institute of Music and later completed Postgraduate Artistic Training in Orchestral Conducting at The Chopin University in Warsaw, Poland, and a Short Course in Orchestral Conducting at The Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England.

In 2024, Khristenko was appointed Assistant Professor of Piano at Michigan State University College of Music.

Stanislav Khristenko is a proud Steinway Artist.

Renee Rosnes’ distinguished career continues to reach new levels marked by new music, exciting collaborations, and ever-evolving musicianship. Upon moving to New York from Vancouver, Canada in 1985, she quickly established a reputation of high regard, touring and recording with such masters as Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, JJ Johnson, Buster Williams and James Moody. She was the pianist of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, and a founding member of the all-star ensemble, the SFJAZZ Collective, with whom she toured and recorded for six years. In 1990, Renee released her debut album on Blue Note Records and went on to record 10 solo albums for the label.

In 2020, she returned to Blue Note with ARTEMIS, a jazz supergroup featuring trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, bassist Noriko Ueda, drummer Allison Miller, and Rosnes who serves as the band’s pianist and musical director. In 2025, the band released their third recording, “Arboresque.” Artemis was awarded Jazz Group of the Year in 2023 and 2024 in Downbeat’s 88th & 89th Readers Polls.

Rosnes’ 2021 release, Kinds of Love (Smoke Sessions) won Rosnes her 7th JUNO Award. All About Jazz wrote, “Rosnes elicits some of the most emotive and enthralling music of her career.” Her 2024 solo release, Crossing Paths (Smoke Sessions) is an exhilarating Brazilian excursion featuring a stellar band including two legendary Brazilian artists, Edu Lobo & Joyce Moreno performing their own songs. In 2025, the album enjoyed six weeks in the #1 spot on the JazzWeek National Radio charts.

In 2018, the Montréal Jazz Festival presented Renee with the Oscar Peterson Award in recognition of her exceptional contributions to jazz. She is also an 15-year member of iconic bassist Ron Carter’s Foursight Quartet. Ron Carter: Live in Stockholm, Vol. 1. & Vol. 2 (In’n’Out Records) was released in 2020.

Since winning the Gold Medal at the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition in 1998, American pianist Lori Sims has become firmly established as one of the most beloved and respected pianists in the music world today.

She has performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and China, including guest artist performances with the NordDeutscheRadio Orchester (Hannover, Germany) the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Utah, Indianapolis (Ind.), Rockford (Ill.), and Kalamazoo (Mich.) symphony orchestras. An avid chamber musician, Sims has been featured at the El Paso Chamber Music Festival (Texas), and performed with Kalamazoo’s Fontana Chamber Music Players and Opus21, a Princeton University-based chamber ensemble dedicated to contemporary repertoire. She also has performed with the Spokane (Wash.), Denver (Colo.), and Memphis (Tenn.) chamber orchestras.

As a recitalist, Sims received critical acclaim from Bernard Holland in The New York Times for her 2000 Alice Tully Hall debut; she also has performed in Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. In addition, Sims has made an unprecedented seven appearances at the prestigious Gilmore International Piano Festival in Kalamazoo as a featured recitalist, chamber artist, and master class instructor.

Highlights of her 2019–20 concert season included a solo recital in Bogota, Columbia, a duo piano recital with Yu-Lien The at Steinway Hall in New York, and a return to the Gilmore International Piano Festival for solo and duo piano performances. As the winner of the 1993 American Pianists Association, she has also been invited to perform at the organization’s 40th anniversary concert celebration in November 2019.

Sims joined the faculty of Western Michigan University in 1997 and was named the John T. Bernhard Professor of Music in 2003. She was also named Distinguished Professor in the College of Fine Arts in 2020. In high demand as an artist-teacher, she has performed and taught master classes at the Bay View Music Festival (Petoskey, Mich.); the Eastern Music Festival (Greensboro, N.C.); the Internationale Konsertarbeitswochen (Gosler, Germany); and Western Michigan University’s high school summer music camp (SEMINAR).

She has recorded three CDs on the Naxos label, including Lori Sims: Romantic; Lori Sims: American Music; and a live recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations which CD Classics called “a masterful, heartfelt, and simply beautiful performance.” She also collaborated with cellist Natalia Khoma to record a CD of works by Schumann, and with violinist Renata Artman Knific on a recording of three sonatas of William Bolcom.

Sims received her bachelor’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where she was a student of Leon Fleisher; her master’s degree from the Yale School of Music as a student of Daniel Pollack and Claude Frank; and an Artist Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater, und Medien in Hannover, Germany under the tutelage of Arie Vardi.

Indonesian-Australian classical pianist Calvin Abdiel is currently pursuing the Konzertexamen at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg with Prof. Stepan Simonian. He previously earned his Master’s degree from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin under Prof. Eldar Nebolsin and graduated with First Class Honours from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Abdiel gained international recognition as the youngest competitor at the 2021 Sydney International Piano Competition, where he received Third Prize and Best Australian Pianist, followed by a national concert tour. Additional honors include prizes at the Premio Mauro Paolo Monopoli in Italy and the Val de Travers International Piano Competition in Switzerland. As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras across Australia, Europe, and Asia. His debut album, Themes and Variations (Decca), was praised for its “varied musical palette” and “jaw-dropping technique.” Abdiel is a Fellow of the Lieven Piano Foundation and a scholar of the Liechtenstein Musikakademie.

Michigan-based jazz pianist and keyboardist Aris Chalin blends jazz, classical, hip-hop, electronic, and R&B influences into a contemporary and highly personal sound. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University’s Jazz Studies program (2023).

Chalin has performed and collaborated with artists including Chris Potter, Christian McBride, säje, Johnaye Kendrick, and Jesús Molina. Now based in Southeast Michigan, he is an in-demand sideman and solo artist, appearing at venues such as NAMM 2023, Sofar Sounds Chicago, the Blue LLama Jazz Club, Cliff Bell’s, Merriman’s Playhouse, and the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. He is also a collaborative partner with Expressive E, bringing their flagship Osmose keyboard into live performance. Through this work, Chalin explores the intersection of technology and improvisation, expanding the expressive possibilities of modern jazz performance.

Dr. Nathan Cheung is a classical pianist, composer, and educator dedicated to connecting music with diverse audiences. He has performed in ten countries and more than thirty U.S. states, with appearances at Carnegie Hall, the Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, and the Chautauqua Institution.

Cheung has earned top prizes in more than fifteen national and international competitions and is known for championing overlooked repertoire. His research and compositions—particularly on the jazz-influenced concert works of Dana Suesse—have been featured by the College Music Society, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and the American Liszt Society. With pianist Eric Tran, he co-founded the Happy Dog Duo, recognized for memorized performances, stylistic range, and engaging stage presence. Cheung is Instructor of Collaboration at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music and holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and Stanford University.

Philadelphia-based jazz pianist and composer James Fernando blends jazz, classical, and electronic influences into a distinctive and expressive musical voice. He has been praised as a “prodigiously gifted composer and virtuoso pianist.”

A former Strathmore Artist in Residence, Fernando has received recognition from DownBeat Magazine, the National YoungArts Foundation, and the West Virginia International Piano Competition. He graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in just three years and attended the Banff International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music. Fernando has performed internationally and collaborated with artists including Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, Victor Provost, and Chris Cheek. His discography spans solo, trio, and collaborative projects, with his debut jazz trio album, Philly 3, scheduled for release in 2026. He is also an active educator, teaching and leading workshops across the United States.

Pianist and composer Tomás Jonsson is an internationally recognized jazz artist known for stylistic versatility and expressive depth. His musical voice reflects classical training alongside formative years performing in historically Black churches, shaping a distinctive gospel-infused sensibility.

From 2023–24, Jonsson served as pianist with the One O’Clock Lab Band®, collaborating with artists including Helen Sung, Billy Childs, Steve Davis, and Rufus Reid. He has earned top prizes at major competitions, including First Prize at the Rubato International Jazz Piano Competition and the Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. Additional honors include awards at the UNISA International Jazz Piano Competition and the BMI/PeerMusic Latin Music Award for his original composition Ocurrencias. Jonsson performs internationally and has released original music with artists including Benny Benack III and Juno Award–winner Caity Gyorgy.

Pianist Linda Lee is a classical artist recognized for her expressive depth, refined technique, and vivid musical imagination. Born in Seoul, South Korea, she trained at Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School before earning her bachelor’s degree with honors from Seoul National University.

Lee completed her master’s degree at the Yale School of Music under Boris Berman and Weiyi Yang, where she received the Elizabeth Parisot Prize for exceptional artistry. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan. Her accolades include first prizes at the Leoš Janáček and Pia Tebaldini International Piano Competitions, along with honors at numerous international competitions. An active chamber musician, Lee is a member of the Amnis Piano Quartet, prizewinner at the Yellow Springs and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions.

Spencer McKee is a classical pianist and junior at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he studies with Dr. Heather Conner. A Florida native, he began piano studies at age four and continued early training with his mother, Dr. Mary Watanabe McKee.

McKee has earned top prizes at competitions including the Vanderbilt University Concerto Competition, Knoxville International Piano Competition, and Tennessee MTNA Competition. He has participated in masterclasses with artists such as Rachel Naomi Kudo and Yakov Kasman. An active performer, McKee presents recitals throughout the southeastern United States and frequently performs for churches, senior centers, and benefit events. He is especially committed to using music for community engagement and humanitarian causes. Outside of music, he co-hosts a Vanderbilt student podcast and enjoys A/V production, baseball, and cooking.

Pianist Takeshi Nagayasu is an internationally active classical performer and prizewinner of numerous competitions, including the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competition and the International Robert Schumann Competition in Germany. He was recently a semifinalist at the Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris.

Nagayasu has appeared at major venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and the Opéra-Comique in Paris and has performed as concerto soloist with orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He studied at Juilliard and Yale and is currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan. An active educator, he regularly gives masterclasses and has served as a competition judge and festival teaching fellow.

Shelley Xuechun Shao is a classical pianist whose work spans solo performance, chamber music, curation, and writing. She has performed internationally across Europe, North America, and Asia.

A passionate curator, Shao has launched multiple recital series highlighting historically informed and underrepresented repertoire. Her ongoing project The Traveller explores keyboard literature across centuries, from early works to contemporary music. In addition to performing, she writes program notes for major symphony halls in China and contributes to print and digital publications. Shao earned degrees from the University of Toronto and the Peabody Institute and is currently pursuing a Professional Studies Certificate at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Pianist Daria Vasileva is a classical concert artist devoted to sharing the music of Alexander Scriabin with global audiences. She trained at the Kazan Conservatory and later studied at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts as a recipient of the Swiss ESKAS grant.

Her competition honors include First Prize at the Smetana International Piano Competition, Second Prize and the Special Scriabin Prize at the Scriabin International Piano Competition in Italy, and Second Prize at the Campillos International Piano Competition in Spain. In 2026, Vasileva will release her debut album devoted to Scriabin on the Aparté label. She continues to perform internationally, combining expressive intensity with a strong curatorial focus.

Ningxin (Jen) Zhan is a classical pianist with an international performance career spanning China, Europe, and the United States. She began piano studies at age five and trained at the music school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory of Music as a scholarship student.

Zhan currently studies at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University with Steven Spooner and Boris Slutsky. She received Second Prize at the 2023 New York Franz Liszt Piano Competition, leading to her debut at Carnegie Hall as soloist in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Additional honors include First Prize at the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition. She has appeared at major festivals including Aspen, PianoTexas, and Chautauqua.