Yibin Li

yibinli.com

Yibin Li was born in Jiuquan, China, a small city near the Gobi Desert. When she was just 4 1/2, she began playing the violin under the guidance of her father. Just 7 years later, she left home to study at Xi’an Conservatory, where she remained until moving on to Shanghai Conservatory. Upon her graduation, she was appointed to the violin faculty, and taught in Shanghai for six years as a young member of the tenured faculty. At 25, she felt the need to continue her studies in the US and moved to New York, where she went on to earn two additional graduate degrees at The Juilliard School and Mannes School of Music. Her teachers have included Lewis Kaplan, Seymour Lipkin, Earl Carlyss, Peiwen Yuan and Xiaolong Liu.

Ms. Li has performed as a soloist with major symphonies in China and the US, including the Beijing National Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Gaoxiong Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Hunter Symphony and Syracuse Symphony Orchestra. She was the first violinist and founder of the Iris String Quartet, and the founder of French-American Ensemble, and has directed and played chamber music concerts in many New York City venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall and Scandinavia House. In China, she traveled to over 20 cities performing both solo and chamber concerts in major performing arts centers.

Ms. Li performs and teaches regularly at summer music festivals including the Bowdoin International Music Festival and Bach Virtuoso Festival in Maine., MusicAlp International Academe, LaSalle Music Festival in France, Sesto Rocchi Chamber Music Festival in Italy and the Lake Lugano Chamber Music Festival in Switzerland.

Yibin Li is currently on the faculties of Mannes School of Music and The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, and is a visiting professor in China at the Xi’an Conservatory of Music and Beijing Central University for Normal Studies.

Philippe Muller

Born in Alsace, Philippe Muller was raised in both the French and German musical traditions that characterize that province. His early experiences opened his mind to varying cultures and lead him to a multi-faceted career. He performs and has recorded a wide range of repertoire, from the Bach Suites, through the music of living composers.

In 1970, Mr. Muller founded a Piano Trio with pianist Jacques Rouvier and Jean- Jacques Kantorow, violin, which was widely known to be one of Europe’s most venerated chamber music ensembles. He worked closely with Pierre Boulez’ Ensemble Intercontemporain, for seven years, giving him an understanding of and an affinity for the music of our time. He continues to be active in commissioning new cello works and premiers of new music and performs frequently as soloist and in various chamber music ensembles at festivals in Europe, the United States, Canada, Latin America, Japan, Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Philippe Muller’s teaching career is legendary. He succeeded his mentor André Navarra as cello teacher at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1979, continues his teaching legacy today here in New York, at the Manhattan School of Music. Many cellists from his studio have gone on to major careers as soloists including Xavier Phillips and Gautier Capuçon. He travels often giving master-classes in the top conservatories across the globe and has spent twenty years teaching at the Academy of French Music in Kyoto, Japan.

Philippe Muller frequently serves on the juries of the major international cello competitions such as the Tchaikovsky in Moscow, Paulo in Helsinki and Rostropovitch in Paris.

Daniel-Panner

Daniel Panner enjoys a varied career as a performer and teacher. As violist of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, he concertized extensively throughout the United States and Israel. He has performed at numerous music festivals, including Marlboro, Ravinia, Tanglewood and Aspen, and he has collaborated with members of the Cleveland, Emerson, Guarneri and Juilliard String Quartets. As a member of the Whitman String Quartet, Mr. Panner received the 1998 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and served as a teaching assistant to the Juilliard String Quartet for two years.

Mr. Panner is co-chair of the string department of the Mannes College of Music, where he also teaches viola and chamber music. He has also taught at the Juilliard School, Rutgers University, SUNY Stonybrook, Queens College, and the Jerusalem Music Center Summer Courses, and he has given master classes at such schools as Peabody, Hartt and the North Carolina School of the Arts. He has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Orchestra of St. Lukes; he has also toured with Musicians from Marlboro and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As a guest artist, he has performed with the Juilliard String Quartet, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the Daedelus String Quartet, the Flux String Quartet and the Moscow Conservatory Trio. Mr. Panner has been heard on National Public Radio's "Performance Today," both as a soloist and chamber musician. He has served as the principal violist of such orchestras as the New York City Opera and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. An active performer of new music, he is a member of Sequitur and the Locrian Ensemble and has performed as guest with such new-music groups as Speculum Musicae, the Da Capo Chamber Players, and Transit Circle; he has recorded solo viola works by Thea Musgrave and Victoria Bond, both for Albany Records. Mr. Panner studied with Jesse Levine at Yale University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history. He continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Joseph dePasquale and the Juilliard School with Samuel Rhodes.

 Chung-Hsi Hsieh, piano

Pianist Chung-Hsi Hsieh is from Taiwan. He won top prizes in the Nena Wideman International Piano Competition, Taipei International Chopin Competition, Taiwan Concerto Competition, Corpus Christi Young Artists Competition, and Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. He has appeared in renowned recital halls such as Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Hall, Klavierhaus, and Steinway Hall, in New York City, as well as the National Recital Hall in Taiwan. As a chamber musician he often collaborates with the principles of Boston Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Deutsches Symphonie Orchester, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Hsieh has performed recitals in Boston, Los Angeles, Beijing, Shanghai and Shenyang.  He was a young artist at the Irving Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo, MI, as well as Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival.  

Mr. Hsieh obtained his high school diploma from Interlochen Arts Academy, BM and MM from The Juilliard School, and DMA from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. His principle teachers were Victoria Mushkatkol, Seymour Lipkin, and Susan Starr.  During this time he also worked with Lynn Harrell, Lewis Kaplan, Arnold Steinhardt, Jane Coop, and Douglas Lundeen.  

Currently he is a piano and music faculty at the Diller-Quaile School of Music.  Besides honing his craft and working with aspiring talents, Chung-Hsi also enjoys exploring culinary arts and fine wine around the world.

 Matthieu Cognet

French pianist Matthieu Cognet is an active soloist and sought-after chamber musician whose performances have taken him to major venues and festivals across Europe, Asia, and the United States. He has appeared at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, the Cultural Institute of Chicago, the Hemptinne Festival and Festival Musicorum (Belgium), the Ruhrtriennale Festival (Germany), the Rushmore Music Festival (South Dakota), Memphis in May, the Saint-Georges Music Festival (Guadeloupe), and the Prades and Pianissimes Festivals (France).

He collaborates regularly with internationally acclaimed flutist Carol Wincenc and Grammy Award–winning bandoneonist Héctor Del Curto, and was formerly a member of the CDK Trio alongside cellist Kenneth Kuo and violinist Arturo Delmoni, Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra.

As a soloist, Mr. Cognet has appeared with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, San José Chamber Orchestra, Queer Urban Orchestra, Stony Brook University Orchestra, Indiana University Student Orchestra, and the Paris Sorbonne Orchestra. His recital and chamber performances have been broadcast on Radio France, RAI (Italy), and WFMT in Chicago.

A laureate of the Concours Musical de France, the Bloomington Travel Grant, the Stony Brook Concerto Competition, and the Forte and Entraide Française Competitions (New York City), Mr. Cognet holds degrees from the Paris and Brussels Conservatories and the University of Paris–Sorbonne, where he graduated summa cum laude. He earned his Performer Diploma at Indiana University, working extensively with legendary cellist János Starker, and completed his Doctor of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University in 2017.

In addition to his performing career, Mr. Cognet published his own solo piano arrangement of Maurice Ravel’s La Valse with Lauren Keiser Publications / Hal Leonard. He serves as Artistic Director and Masterclass Director of the French-American Piano Society and has released three critically acclaimed albums: Debut Recital, Mit Humor (Odradek Records, praised by Gramophone), and Global Saxophone.

Mr. Cognet currently serves as Staff Collaborative Pianist at The Juilliard School and as French Diction Coach at both the Curtis Institute of Music and the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He has also been a guest vocal coach for Opera Philadelphia, a visiting faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music, and is a Collaborative Piano Artist at the Meadowmount School of Music

Samuel Adams

Samuel Adams is an NYC-based actor, director, and educator. Although a third-generation native of New York City, Sam was raised in a small farm-town upstate. He received his undergraduate education from the London Dramatic Academy and Adelphi University and his graduate degree from the George Washington University in collaboration with the Shakespeare Theater Company. He has worked as a director and an actor in films, television, and theaters across the nation, recently playing Mozart in Peter Schaffer’s celebrated play Amadeus at Folger Shakespeare Theatre and the titular character in Shakespeare's Henry V in at the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. In addition to these pursuits, he has worked extensively as a teacher, arts-administrator, and gardener. Visit him on Youtube and Instagram at @TheUnweededGarden.