Pianist Linda Lee performs works by Johannes Brahms and Alexander Scriabin, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Known for her bold musical instinct and striking individuality, pianist Linda Lee brings a vivid sense of expression and deep stylistic understanding to every performance. Her natural phrasing, harmonic sensitivity, and communicative presence make her a compelling artist on both solo and chamber music stages.
Originally from Seoul, South Korea, she began her musical studies at the age of five. She continued her training at Yewon School and Seoul Arts High School, and later earned her bachelor’s degree with honors from Seoul National University, where she studied with Prof. Aviram Reichert. During her time there, she was fully funded and received the Seoul National University Alumni Association Prize.
She went on to pursue her Master’s degree at the Yale School of Music under Prof. Boris Berman and Prof. Weiyi Yang, supported by a full scholarship. While at Yale, she was awarded the Elizabeth Parisot Prize, presented to a pianist who has demonstrated exceptional artistry. Currently, she is completing her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Prof. Arthur Greene, where she receives full-tuition fellowships and serves as a graduate student instructor in the piano department.

Katarina String Quartet perform works by Joseph Haydn and Kevin Puts, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Grand Prize winner of the 2025 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, the Katarina String Quartet has quickly distinguished itself as one of North America’s most compelling young ensembles. The tightly-knit ensemble currently serves as the Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School, where they explore all chamber music, from contemporary and canonized works to folk tunes. Known for their personable concert presentations and community leadership, they regularly perform in community centers around New York City as recipients of Juilliard’s Gluck Fellowship.
The ensemble’s 2025/26 season includes tours in the United States, United Arab Emirates, and Europe; performances in and around New York City, including at Carnegie Hall; and a residency at the Avaloch Farm Institute. The KSQ regularly collaborates with Refettorio Harlem, a free fine-dining restaurant focused on building community, rescuing food waste and alleviating food insecurity in the New York City community. They have also appeared at Music for Food, a concert series raising donations for local food shelters. In the competition world, the KSQ are recent ProQuartet Prize and Drimnin String Quartet Academy Prize winners of the 2025 Wigmore Hall String Quartet Competition; previously, they were Gold Medal and BIPOC prizewinner of the 2024 St. Paul Chamber Music Competition.
The KSQ was founded in 2022 at McGill University under the tutelage of André Roy. Since then, the Katarinas have worked extensively with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Danel, Dover, and Pacifica Quartets, and have participated in prestigious programs such as IMS Prussia Cove and McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA).

Violist Laura Liu and Pianist Victor Asuncion perform works by Florence Price, William Bergsma and Johannes Brahms, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Laura Liu, a native of Miami, Florida, currently lives in New York City studying with Cynthia Phelps and Misha Amory. Liu, hailed by Classical Voice America as a “standout” with “sound deep, warm, and consistently musical,” last summer participated in the Verbier Festival Academy, where she won the Edwin Caplin Foundation Award, debuted at Sunkiss’d Mozart Summerfest, and performed at Kronberg’s “Chamber Music Connects the World.” Her ardent love of collaboration led her to participate in Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach’s “Rising Artist” Program, Olympic Music Festival’s Fellowship, Music@Menlo’s International Performer’s Program, Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Workshop, Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall, and Heifetz International Music Institute. This season she will make her debut with Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and Bargemusic, reappear at CMS Lincoln Center’s “Inside Chamber Music” and Music@Menlo for an alumni concert. This summer, after participating in the 6th Tokyo International Viola Competition, Liu will participate as a Junior Artist at Marlboro Music Festival. She recently earned her Bachelor of Music, and her Master of Music as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School. In the fall, she will begin her Artist Diploma at Juilliard.
Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.
A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.

Cellist Dilshod Narzillaev and Pianist Victor Asuncion perform works by Robert Schumann, Afanasyevich Varelas and Johannes Brahms, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Cellist Dilshod Narzillaev has captivated audiences worldwide with his solo performances alongside prestigious ensembles, including the Boston Pops Orchestra at Symphony Hall, the National and State orchestras of Uzbekistan, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, and the Croatian Radio-Television Symphony Orchestra as part of the Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition prize.
Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.

Pianist Han Chen performs works by Florence Price, György Ligeti and Sergei Rachmaninoff, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
A fearless performer with seemingly limitless imagination and possessed with uncanny energy, pianist Han Chen plays scores old and new with rare rigor and insight.
Alex Ross, classical music critic of The New Yorker, who selected Mr. Chen’s Naxos disc of the Ligeti Études and Capriccios as a “Notable Classical Recording of 2023,” characterized him as follows: “The Taiwanese pianist Han Chen, a noted interpreter of the Ligeti Études and other modernist repertory, has made a blistering album of the [Liszt] opera transcriptions.” –The New Yorker, September 4, 2023
Mr. Chen has performed as solo recitalist internationally. He is a core member of Ensemble Échappé while regularly collaborating with The Metropolis Ensemble. In 2021, Chen launched Migration Music, an ongoing series of performances and interviews with immigrant composers. Han Chen has studied with Yoheved Kaplinsky, Wha Kyung Byun, and Ursula Oppens at The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory, and CUNY Graduate Center.

Violinist Zachary Brandon and pianist Sung Hoon Mo perform works by Claude Debussy and Gabriel Fauré, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Zachary Brandon is acclaimed for his poetic interpretation and boldly personal sound. A laureate of the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, the International Stradivarius Violin Competition, and the Cooper International Violin Competition, he has performed at venues such as Severance Hall and Carnegie Hall. His interpretations have drawn particular praise for their narrative clarity and expressive nuance. Zachary holds two degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, including an Artist Diploma, where he studied with Jaime Laredo, Jessica Lee, Stephen Rose, and Jan Mark Sloman. He is also a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, where he trained with Robert Lipsett, and previously studied with renowned pedagogues Almita and Roland Vamos.
Dr. Sung Hoon Mo is a pianist renowned for his extensive performances as a soloist and chamber musician. He studied at the Peabody Conservatory, Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and the Eastman School of Music, under the guidance of James Tocco, Leon Fleisher, and Emanuel Ax. Dr. Mo has performed for the American Embassy in Guatemala and toured throughout Puerto Rico, giving concerts at the San Juan Conservatory and the Ponce Museum. He has been featured on PBS and has appeared on radio broadcasts including WQXR in New York City as a winner of the Bergen Philharmonic Concerto Competition. His collaborations include tours in Germany with violinist Victor Tretjakov and violist Yuri Bashmet, and performances with artists such as violinist Charles Castleman and cellists Pieter Wispelwey and Emilio Colón. Dr. Mo is currently on the piano faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and the Wheaton College Conservatory, where he also serves as the Site Coordinator for the Downers Grove campus.

Soprano Adia Evans and pianist Michael Banwarth perform works by Alfred Bachelet, Joseph Marx, Gian Carlo Menotti, H.T. Burleigh, Lori Laitman, Leslie Adams, and Ricky Ian Gordon, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
A second-year soprano with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center from Baltimore, Adia Evans sang Theresa Alvarez/The Listeners, Girlfriend 2/Blue, and Countess Ceprano/Rigoletto in Lyric’s 2024/25 Season. The previous year she debuted at The Cliburn in Recital with Jake Heggie, the Dayton Philharmonic (Handel’s Messiah), and Annapolis Opera (First Lady/The Magic Flute). Other recent highlights include Mimì/La Bohème with the Borderland Arts Foundation and Beethoven’s 9th with the National Orchestral Institute and Marin Alsop. Evans has performed with Santa Fe Opera, Merola Opera Program, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Opera Guild, Opera Columbus, Tulsa Opera, and Knoxville Opera, among others. Her numerous honors include the 2025 Lola Fletcher Award from the American Opera Society of Chicago, a 2024 Richard F. Gold Career Grant, an Encouragement Award from the 2024 London Foundation Competition, third place in the 2023 and 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Midwest Region, and first place in the 2023 Dallas Opera Guild Lonestar Vocal Competition. After participating in the 2025 Britten Pears Young Artist Programme in Aldeburgh, England, Evans appears in Lyric’s 2025/26 Season production of El último sueño de Frida y Diego.
Michael Banwarth, the third-year pianist with The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, served on Lyric’s music staff for Blue (2024/25) and Champion (2023/24). He recently completed a Master of Music in collaborative piano at the New England Conservatory of Music. A recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship and Gunther Schuller medal at NEC, Banwarth served as teaching assistant for the Song Lab program, performed frequently in the Liederabend and Sonata Night concert series, and prepared productions of The Turn of the Screw and L’enfant et les sortilèges. This summer he is a pianist for the Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumarkt, Germany, and he was invited to be a 2022 vocal piano fellow at Music Academy of the West. He has also held fellowships at the Bay View Music Festival and the Atlantic Music Festival, and served as assistant music director and harpsichordist for the Iowa State Opera Studio during his undergraduate studies.

Pianist Robert Brooks Carlson performs works by Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy and Johannes Brahms, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Originally from a small town in central Virginia, American pianist Robert Brooks Carlson began playing piano at the age of eight. Now, Robert performs extensively throughout the United States and Europe as both a recital soloist and chamber musician.
Currently, Robert resides in New York City where he is a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the CUNY Graduate Center, adjunct faculty of music at Hunter College, and a student of Soyeon Kate Lee. Notable recent influences include Jeremy Denk, Conor Hanick, and Julio Elizalde, and previous full-time teachers include Paulo Steinberg, Emily Yap Chua and Nicholas Ross. Prior to his studies in New York City, Robert received degrees from the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and James Madison University. Until 2020, Robert also studied applied Mathematics at JMU as a student of the Honors College. In his free time, Robert enjoys baking, coffee, and relaxing with his cat, Olive.

Cellist Aaron Wolff and pianist Victor Asuncion perform works by Reena Esmail and César Franck live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
Described by the Chicago Tribune as “a musician of quicksilver brilliance,” Aaron Wolff is a laureate of the 2024 Naumburg Cello Competition, and first prizewinner of the Boston Symphony Concerto competition. As winner of the Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Prize, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in Weil Recital Hall in 2023, and has performed at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, the Musikverein, and Metropolitan and Guggenheim Museums.
Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.

Pianist Ilya Shmukler perform works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Modest Mussorgsky, live from the Seventeenth Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago.
“Shmukler is a volcano”; “the name of Ilya Shmukler should be remembered” – that is how the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described this pianist after his triumph at the world-renowned Concours Géza Anda 2024 in Zurich, Switzerland, where he won four special awards in addition to the First Prize.
Besides the Concours Géza Anda, Ilya is a laureate of many international piano contests, taking top prizes at the Wideman (Shreveport), Lewisville Lake Symphony, Artist Presentation Society (St. Louis), Shigeru Kawai (Tokyo) Competitions. To have become a finalist of the 2022 Cliburn Competition, where he also received the award for the “Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto”, is a milestone in his career. As a winner of the Carnegie Weill Recital Hall Debut Audition he made his New York debut at the venerated venue on December 13, 2022.
An alumnus of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory under the guidance of Professors Elena Kuznetsova and Sergey Kuznetsov, Ilya continues his studies at Park University (USA) with Professor Stanislav Ioudenitch, so he combines diverse approaches in piano playing. Ilya’s dear teacher Stanislav Ioudenitch characterized him as “an exceptionally talented pianist with a unique blend of imagination and individuality.”