Hailed by audiences across North America and Europe for his commanding and expressive performances, Venezuelan/American violinist and violist Paul Aguilar maintains an active solo and chamber music performance schedule of over 40 recitals each year. He is a member of the Sphinx Soloist Program roster and was the 2nd Prize Laureate as well as the Audience Prize winner of the 2025 Sphinx Competition. As an orchestral musician, he was recently appointed as a member of the Houston Symphony viola section.

As a chamber musician, Paul has appeared on concert series and in concert halls across North America and internationally, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Ravinia Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, La Jolla Summerfest, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Schneider Concert Series, the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival, and the Emilia-Romagna Festival. Equally comfortable on both violin and viola, Paul has won top prizes in nearly every major chamber music competition, including the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne International String Quartet Competition, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. He was selected as the only Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performance Fellow for the 2020-2021 season, and he also performs regularly as a member of the Astralis Chamber Ensemble. His chamber music collaborators have included artists such as James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Phil Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Desmond Hoebig, Jon Kimura Parker, Frank Cohen, and Shirley Brill.

Bringing total dedication and commitment to everything he does, Paul strives to educate the next generation on the importance of true excellence in every area of life, and of music’s role as simply a tool along that path. As an educator, Paul has appeared as guest artist faculty at festivals and institutions across the United States including Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music Young Artist Program, the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, and the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC. He is involved with the Sphinx Organization in both performance and outreach and was a 2019 MPower Grant recipient.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Paul counts Jaime Laredo, Jan Mark Sloman, and Si-Yan Darren Li as some of his most formative musical influences; he also holds a degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he participated in their String Quartet Residency. Paul pursued further chamber music studies in Europe at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where he was fortunate to study under Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Johannes Meissl, and Avri Levitan.

In addition to his busy travel and performance schedule, Paul is committed to regularly sharing music in schools and organizations throughout his community. When not involved with music, Paul enjoys running, reading, and spending time with his family. Paul plays on a very fine violin and viola that he commissioned from master luthier Kevin Lee.

“Major credit clearly went to conductor Chan, who must be some kind of naturalat this … it sounded like a kinder, gentler Toscanini was running the show.”
– New York Classical Review

Known as one of the most accomplished violinists of his generation, David Chan is also quickly making a name for himself as an elegant conductor of unusual interpretive depth. After 25 seasons as concertmaster of New York’s legendary Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, he now serves as Artistic Director of the Taipei Music Academy and Festival, one of the world’s preeminent educational festivals; as Principal Conductor of the Apollo Orchestra in the Washington, D.C. area; and as Director of the Credo Festival, an orchestral training institute held annually in Chicago’s Symphony Center. He was previously Music Director of the APEX Ensemble, with which he earned high praise for innovative and adventurous programming, and Music Director of Camerata Notturna.

Increasingly in demand on the podium, Chan’s conducting engagements in recent seasons have includedBelgium’s l’Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, and l’Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne in France; the Grant Park and Classical Tahoe summer festivals; the Juilliard Orchestra and Manhattan School of Music in New York City; and at Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot, where the festival orchestra comprises musicians from the Metropolitan Opera, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and all of the top orchestras in Paris. As Artistic Partner of Mainly Mozart’s Festival of Orchestras, he has conducted the organization’s famed All-Star Orchestra, as well as an entire festival combining musicians of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony, and another series bringing together members of the MET Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, he has appeared under the baton of such conductors as James Levine and Fabio Luisi, with orchestras including the MET Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, and Moscow State Symphony. He is also a dedicated chamber musician who performs regularly in the New York area and at all the leading summer festivals.

In addition to his concert appearances, Chan is active as an entrepreneur and creative director. In 2008,
combining his interest in wine with his passion for music, he co-founded the Musique et Vin au Clos
Vougeot festival in the Burgundy region of France. During his 13 seasons as artistic director of the
festival, which pairs wine tastings with music, he oversaw its growth from a small, intimate gathering to
a destination event attracting many of the biggest names in classical music, such as Yo-Yo Ma, Joyce
DiDonato, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Matthew Polenzani, Emmanuel Pahud, Menahem Pressler, Cho-Liang Lin,
Gary Hoffman, Marlis Petersen, and Ildar Abdrazakov.

A native of San Diego, Chan began his musical education at the age of four. After winning prizes at the
Tchaikovsky and Indianapolis international violin competitions, he made his New York debut in 1995 at
Avery Fisher Hall, and his Carnegie Hall debut in 2003, performing the Brahms Double Concerto with the
MET Orchestra. A student of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, and Michael Tseitlin, he received his bachelor’s
degree from Harvard University and his master’s from the Juilliard School. Chan becomes Professor of
Violin at Rice University’s prestigious Shepherd School of Music starting from the fall of 2025, while
continuing his roles on the Juilliard faculty and as Head of the Orchestral Performance Program at the
Manhattan School of Music through the 2026-27 school year. He lives in the Houston area with his wife,
Catherine Ro, and their children Annalise, Micah, and Arianna.

The New York Times hailed Evelyn Chen as “a pianist to watch,” praising her “brilliant technique, warm, clear tone, and exacting musical intelligence.” Ms. Chen’s recent engagements have included performances on five continents at venues including David Geffen Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Wolf Trap and the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, the Cultural Center of Hong Kong, and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow.

A Steinway Artist, Ms. Chen has performed with numerous orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra (upon Mstislav Rostropovich’s recommendation), the Houston Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, the New Zealand Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the State Symphony Orchestra of Mexico among others. She has collaborated with renowned conductors including Riccardo Muti, Leonard Slatkin, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Zdenek Macal, Joseph Silverstein, JoAnn Falletta, and Keith Lockhart.

Ms. Chen’s recordings have received international critical acclaim. Her recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Leonard Slatkin and the Philharmonia Orchestra of London on Sony/BMG was among the top ten best-selling classical recordings in England. Ms. Chen’s performance was praised by Fanfare Magazine as “eminently musical, particularly sensitive to Rachmaninov’s intimacies.” Fanfare also commended Ms. Chen’s recording of the Miklos Rozsa’s Piano Concerto with James Sedares and the New Zealand Symphony on Koch International, stating “it would be hard to imagine a performance more in tune with the music’s dynamism than the one turned in by Evelyn Chen, who wonderfully communicates a kind of virtuoso thrill while also capturing every one of the work’s Protean changes of mood.” Gramophone Magazine added that “Evelyn Chen is a dazzlingly secure, marvelously sympathetic exponent that Rozsa fans will rightly welcome with open arms.”

Ms. Chen has been featured on the CBS Evening News, and her performances have been broadcast by the National Public Radio, WGBH (Boston), WQXR (New York), WNYC (New York), WNCN (New York), WFMT (Chicago), and WGTS (Washington DC), as well as throughout Taiwan and Great Britain (Classic FM). She has collaborated in chamber music with artists including violinists Frank Huang, Cho-Liang Lin, and Yoonshin Song, violist James Dunham, cellists Leslie Parnas and Brinton Smith, as well as members of the New York Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, and the Houston Symphony. Ms. Chen has also performed before prominent dignitaries including the Princess of Thailand and the Prime Minister of Malaysia.

A winner of several international competitions, Ms. Chen was the recipient of the Petschek Award, which awarded her a fully sponsored New York debut recital at Alice Tully Hall. She was also the First Prize Winner of the Mieczyslaw Munz International Competition, and the Grand Prize Winner of the Piano Guild International Recording Competition. As the youngest competitor at the age of fourteen, Ms. Chen captured First Prize in the Bach International Competition in Washington DC.

Ms. Chen received a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Juilliard School, a Master of Music from the New England Conservatory, and a Bachelor of Arts in composition, Magna Cum Laude with highest honors, from Harvard University. Her teachers include pianists Russell Sherman and Jerome Lowenthal, and composers Leon Kirchner and David Lewin. She is currently Associate Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, in New York City.

Brittany Halen is a vocalist, dancer, actress and actor-musician based out of Houston Texas. Born into a musical family, she started playing the violin at age 6 under the instruction of her father, Eric Halen, and Grandfather, Dr. Walter Halen. At age 7, she found her way into a pair of tap shoes at Becky’s School of Dance. Finally, she found her love of musical theater through Theatre Under the Stars Humphreys School of Musical Theater where she was a student throughout high school. During this time, she also studied voice privately with the renowned vocalist Patti Spain.

Her career has led to appearances with several regional theatres including performances of George M!, Me & My Girl, Bright Star, Escape to Margaritaville, The Goodbye Girl, Once and The Spitfire Grill. In Houston, she has appeared as a vocal soloist with the Houston Symphony in a tribute performance to Marvin Hamlisch, and has also appeared in numerous productions with Houston theaters including A Christmas Carol and Around The World in 80 Days with The Alley Theatre, Reefer Madness, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Avenue Zoo, White Christmas, Guys and Dolls, Scrooge, and Urban Cowboy with Theatre Under the Stars, Mack and Mabel and Failure; A Love Story with Stages Repertory Theater, and A Civil War Christmas, Madeline’s Christmas, and The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley with Mainstreet Theater. Her talent as a violinist has found its way into many of these performances. When she’s not on the theatrical stage, she can also be seen entertaining guests at many private and corporate events throughout Houston. 

Brittany holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater with a concentration in Dance from Sam Houston State University, and is a member of Actors Equity Association.

Sean Holshouser, at age 15, has already had numerous and varied performance opportunities; both as a vocal soloist, and as an actor.

With the Houston Symphony, he performed over ten times as a boy soprano soloist. He participated in the 2010 Open House concert, sang the solo, “Walking in the Air” with a screening of that short film, and performed as a soloist for the many Christmas pops concerts for 2010. One of his best experiences was singing the boy soprano solo “In Dreams” at the end of a screening of the movie “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring”, featuring Howard Shore’s leading concert performers, soprano Kaitlyn Lusk and conductor Ludwig Wicki. who were joined by the Houston Symphony, the symphony’s Chorus, and the Houston Children’s Chorus.

Sean sang at a national meeting of American symphony leagues, and has done short concerts for the Bay Area Symphony League, and the Houston Symphony League. He played the comic role of “Harry” in a Moore’s School Opera production of the Britten’s, “Albert Herring”, and participated as an extra in the Houston Grand Opera production of “Peter Grimes”. He auditioned and won the role of Amahl in “Amahl and the Night Visitors”, but had to cancel because of the inevitable voice change. After the change was completed, he was asked by Donald Runnicles, music director of the Berlin Opera (formerly music director of the San Francisco Opera), to sing some Copland songs to open a concert at the prestigious Grand Teton Music Festival, which he did in August 2013.

As a theatre performer, Sean has been associated with HITS Theatre in Houston for several years, where he has played roles in plays from Shakespeare to musical theatre shows. His favorite roles include Gavroche in Les Miserables and Jesus in Godspell. Sean also played the roles of Scrooge at 14 and Peter Crachit in the Alley Theatre’s “A Christmas Carol”.

He is also an auditioned member of the Broadway Artist’s Alliance. In March of 2014, he won the first place $1,000 scholarship in vocal arts for Music Doing Good, a Houston-based scholarship program for aspiring musicians aged 18 and under; he received the same award in the 2015 season of the same program.

Sean has many videos on YouTube, covering two YouTube channels, both of which have over 1,000 subscribers. His recording of “In Dreams” is one of the most popular on YouTube, with over 84,000 views.

Sean’s two major teachers are tenor Jack Beetle, and Todd Waite, a repertory cast member member of the Alley Theatre company.

Scott Holshouser has been the orchestra keyboardist for the Houston Symphony since 1980, where he also serves as accompanist for the Houston Symphony Chorus. Scott has also served as a rehearsal pianist for the Houston Ballet and Houston Opera. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, he later started taking private lessons in Athens, Georgia. He then attended Florida State University. He has won, or been a top three prize winner in the Sorantin – San Angelo Competition, the national MTNA Competition, the GB Dealey Dallas Symphony Competition, and the Ima Hogg Houston Symphony Competition. He has performed as soloist with the symphonies of: Stavanger, Norway; San Angelo; Dallas; Atlanta; San Antonio; the Las Vegas Pops, and more than twenty times with the Houston Symphony. He also played four-hand piano pieces with former Houston Symphony music director Christoph Eschenbach. As a competition accompanist, Scott has been associated with more than 100 events, including: the Ima Hogg, Corpus Christi, Kingsville, Sorantin, Round Top, and Texas Young Artist competitions; in addition to University events in Houston. He is a regular artist every summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival (GTMF), where he performs chamber and orchestral music. Scott taught for several years on the piano faculty at the University of Houston. Currently, his private students have won the Houston Symphony High School Concerto Contest, the Lynn Harrell Competition in Dallas, and have been featured on the National PBS radio program “From the Top”. Scott met his wife Eileen, who was a soprano with the Houston Symphony Chorus. His fourteen year old son Sean is a promising vocalist, who has made several solo appearances with the Houston Symphony and the Grand Teton Music Festival, and is a auditioned member of the Broadway Artist’s Alliance.

Award-winning violinist Boson Mo, recognized as one of Canada’s “30 Under 30 Top Classical Musicians” in 2015, won Third Prize at the 2013 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and the “Prix Joseph-Rouleau” at the 2010 Montreal International Violin Competition. He was also a top 25 candidate at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition and received the Sylva Gelber Foundation Award. Boson has twice secured the Canada Council for the Arts’ Musical Instrument Bank loan and has competed in major international competitions including the Queen Elisabeth, Indianapolis, and Singapore competitions.

Boson’s performances have captivated audiences worldwide. He was featured as a Young Artist in Residence on American Public Media’s “Performance Today,” with broadcasts both nationally in the U.S. and internationally on Radio New Zealand and CBC Radio-Canada. His solo appearances include collaborations with the Auckland Philharmonia (New Zealand), Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil (Canada), and the Houston Symphony. His festival credits include the Banff Centre for the Arts, Aspen Music Festival and School, Festival de Lanaudière (Québec), Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Montreal Chamber Music Festival, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, Grand Teton Music Festival, Festival Emilia-Romagna (Italy), etc.

As an educator, Boson has guided students to prestigious institutions such as The Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and the University of Texas at Austin’s Butler School of Music. His former students are now studying with renowned pedagogues including Paul Kantor, Barry Shiffman, David Halen, and Sandy Yamamoto. His students were participants in this year’s National Youth Orchestra of the USA, representing the United States on their tour of South America.

Appointed Concertmaster of The Phoenix Symphony in September 2023, Boson has also held roles including Acting Assistant Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Guest Principal Second at the Minnesota Orchestra, and Guest Concertmaster at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Previously, he joined the Houston Symphony’s violin section in September 2019 under Maestro Andrés Orozco-Estrada and subsequently won an international audition to be appointed as Assistant Concertmaster by Maestro Juraj Valčuha in November 2023.

 An alum of distinguished programs including Music@Menlo’s International Program, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Perlman Music Program, and the Banff Centre’s Masterclasses and Chamber Music Residency, Boson has also participated in the International Holland Music Sessions (Netherlands), Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Morningside Music Bridge, Toronto Summer Music Festival, etc. He is deeply grateful to his mentors Paul Kantor, Keqiang Li, and Li Jin. Boson holds degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and performs on a violin crafted by the MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Joseph Curtin.

Mark Nuccio is a distinguished American clarinetist and educator whose career spans elite orchestral performance, solo artistry, and international teaching. He has served as Principal Clarinet of the Houston Symphony since 2016, performing extensively with the orchestra on concert series, tours, and broadcast engagements.

Before Houston, Nuccio spent 17 years with the New York Philharmonic, joining in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist and serving as Acting Principal Clarinet from 2009–2013, appearing in subscription concerts, tours, and the Live from Lincoln Center PBS series.

As a soloist he has appeared with major orchestras — including performances of the Aaron Copland Clarinet Concerto with the New York Philharmonic — and made notable recital debuts at venues such as Carnegie Hall and internationally.

Nuccio is faculty at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, teaches masterclasses worldwide, and contributes to the field with published educational resources such as The Audition Method for clarinet.

Samuel Pedersen joined the Houston Symphony viola section in 2022 under Maestro Orozco-Estrada and was appointed Assistant Principal in 2024 by Maestro Valčuha. 

Pedersen was raised in Batavia, IL. He holds a master’s degree from Rice University and a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University. Principal teachers include Ivo van der Werff and Rami Solomonow, with additional instruction from Lawrence Neuman and Joan DerHovsepian.

As a student, he was a fellow of the New World Symphony and a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He spent summers performing and studying at the Tanglewood Music Center and Madeline Island Chamber Music. 

Critics have described American cellist Brinton Averil Smith as a “virtuoso cellist with few equals,” hailing him as “a proponent of old-school string playing such as that of Piatigorsky and Heifetz.” Gramophone praised Smith in his debut recording of Miklós Rózsa’s Cello Concerto as a “hugely eloquent, impassioned soloist,” writing “The sheer bravura of Smith’s reading is infectious.” BBC Music magazine wrote of Smith’s recent Naxos recording of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Cello Concerto an “his is a cast iron technique of verve and refinement put entirely at the service of the music… The artistry on display here is breathtaking” while David Hurwitz of Classics Today wrote “Smith plays the living daylights out of it. His full tone, impeccable intonation, and fleet passage work–never for a moment ungainly or stressed, -lets the music soar” Gramophone also wrote of Smith’s most recent Naxos recording, Exiles in Paradise, which explores the rich legacy of the émigré composers who gathered in Hollywood in the mid-20th century “Smith plays the bejesus out of it, making child’s play of the rapid-fire spiccatos and almost impossible-to-control harmonics. … and teems with old-school elegance and just the right dose of schmaltz.”

Mr. Smith’s North American engagements have included performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and recital and concerto engagements both throughout the country and internationally, while his broadcast performances include CBS’s Sunday Morning and regular appearances on NPR’s Performance Today and Symphonycast. Mr. Smith has appeared regularly as a soloist with the Houston Symphony since joining the orchestra as principal cellist in 2005. Prior to this, he was the first musician chosen by Lorin Maazel to join the New York Philharmonic and the principal cellist of the Fort Worth and San Diego Symphony Orchestras. Devoted to expanding the cello repertoire, Mr. Smith performs a wide variety of violin, piano and vocal transcriptions, and his live concert performances on youtube have almost two million views. Smith gave the world premiere of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonata for violin and cello and the North American premieres of rediscovered cello works of Jean Sibelius and Alexander Zemlinsky, as well as the first professional performance of Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s cello concerto since its 1935 premiere with Arturo Toscanini and Gregor Piatigorsky.

An active chamber musician, Smith has collaborated with violinist Gil Shaham, including Carnegie Hall’s Gil Shaham and Friends series as well as with cellists Yo-Yo Ma and Lynn Harrell, pianists Yefim Bronfman, Emanuel Ax, Jeffrey Kahane and Kirill Gerstein, violinists James Ehnes, Cho-Liang Lin and Sarah Chang, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and members of the Beaux Arts Trio and the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, Cleveland, and Berg quartets. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Society, and the Mainly Mozart Festival. Mr. Smith is currently an Associate Professor at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and a faculty member of the Aspen Music Festival.

The son of a mathematician and a pianist, Brinton Averil Smith was admitted to Arizona State University at age 10, where he took courses in mathematics and German and, at age 17, completed a B.A. in mathematics. He then became a student of Eleonore Schoenfeld at the University of Southern California, where he was also a teaching assistant in the mathematics department, and completed work for an M.A. in mathematics at age 19. He subsequently studied with the legendary cellist Zara Nelsova at The Juilliard School. While there, he was a prize winner in several consecutive Juilliard concerto competitions and the Leonard Rose International Cello Competition and received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree, writing on the playing of Emanuel Feuermann. Mr. Smith resides in Houston with his wife, the pianist Evelyn Chen and their enormous but benevolent dog. Their daughter, Calista, is a soprano studying at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. His cello was made by Gaetano Pasta in Brescia, c.1710 www.brintonaverilsmith.com

Soprano CALISTA SMITH’s 2026 season is off to an exciting start, with her having been recently selected as a District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition’s North Carolina District. She advanced to the Southeast Regionals in Atlanta in February, where she won an Encouragement Award. This summer, Calista is a studio artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where she will make her professional debut as the Shepherd in Tosca at the Filene Center, as well as prepare the role of Clorinda in La Cenerentola and sing in the ensemble of Eugene Onegin. She will also sing Zerbinetta and Lucia in scenes from Ariadne auf Naxos and The Rape of Lucretia in Wolf Trap Opera’s Studio Spotlight. Calista also spent two summers at the Aspen Music Festival, where she sang the German Woman in Jimmy Lopez’s Bel Canto and covered Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro. While in Aspen, she also sang Zerlina, Gilda, Adina, and Frasquita in scenes from Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, L’elisir d’amore, and Carmen, participated in multiple masterclasses with Renée Fleming, Myra Huang, and Patrick Summers, and premiered three original works in collaboration with the composers. In 2025, Calista covered the soprano solo in Mozart’s Requiem and sang Fiordiligi in scenes from Così fan tutte at CCM. This semester, she sang Susanna and Donna Elvira in scenes from Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni at CCM. Calista has also won the Joyce Van Cura award from the American Opera Society of Chicago and an Encouragement Award from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition’s San Diego District. In Europe, Calista has sung Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi in Rimini, The Dew Fairy in Hänsel und Gretel in Berlin, the Vixen in scenes from The Cunning Little Vixen in the Czech Republic, and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro in Vienna. She is also a GRAMMY-award winner from her time in the chorus of Wozzeck with the Houston Symphony. 

As the winner of international competitions, Tong Yan has claimed first prize at the International Music Competition of Union Francaise des Artistes Musiciens in Paris, the International Violin Competition in Kazakhstan, the International Chinese Violin Competition in New York, and the string winner at the Gisborne International Orchestral Instruments Competition in New Zealand. She has also placed in the top 3 at the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy and the Brahms International Violin Competition in Austria. Tong has had many recitals and solo performances with orchestras in Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada, and the US.

Tong is currently an active chamber musician and has participated in festivals such as the Summer Strings Academy in Australia, Canada’s Morningside Music Bridge, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Bar Harbor Music Festival in Maine, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Spoleto Music Festival in South Carolina, Britt Music Festival in Oregon, and the Meadowmount Summer School in New York.

Tong Yan joined the Houston Symphony in January of 2012 while perusing her Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein. Tong Yan also holds a Masters Degree in Music from NEC, and a split Bachelors Degree from the Vienna University of Fine Arts, Joseph Haydn Conservatory and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her teachers include Elisabeth Kropfitsch, Klaus Maetzl and Marilyn McDonald.