The WVMC Faculty consists of internationally recognized artists and teachers with extensive experience as soloists, chamber musicians, educators and members of major orchestras. Our faculty members are:
"...virtuoso violinist with incredibly pure tone..." by the L.A.Times, and "...performance with superb artistry and emotional nuance..." by the World Journal, Shan Jiang, one of the most accomplished violinists of our time, enjoys his music career as concertized soloist, top orchestra musician and active teacher. Mr. Jiang received his music education at Shanghai Conservatory of Music, University of Southern California and the Juilliard School. His teachers include Glenn Dicterow,Yoko Takebe, Ronald Copes, Abram Shtern,Alice Schoenfeld, Shi-Sheng Zheng and Lu-BinYu.
Mr. Jiang is the winner of American String Teachers' Association Solo Competition,Young Musicians Foundation National Instrumental Competition, Pasadena Instrumental Competition, University of Southern California Concerto Competition, and the China National Violin Competitions. He has performed as soloist with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony Orchestra,Westwood Symphony Orchestra, Marina Del Ray-Westchester Symphony, USC Symphony,Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra and American Youth Symphony under the directions of maestros Sergiu Commissiona , Carl St. Clair, Frank Fetta, Mehli Mehta and AlexanderTreger. His recordings have been broadcasted through KKGO Radio and KUSC Radio. As a chamber musician, Mr. Jiang has worked with distinguished artists including Earl Carlyss, Ronald Copes, Jerry Grossman, Raphael Hyllier, Joel Krosnick, Robert Mann, Peter Marsh, Samuel Rhodes, Joel Smirnoff, Lucy Stoltzman and Donald Weilerstein.
Mr. Jiang has been performing in the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago Symphony since 2001. He has performed on tour internationally with the Philharmonic in Europe,Asia and North America. Mr.Jiang has served as the concertmaster of the Juilliard Symphony, Cosmopolitan Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, USC Symphony,Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra and American Youth Symphony.
Students of Mr. Jiang have been admitted to prestigious music schools including the Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music. Many of them have won national solo competitions and auditions of major orchestras.
Violinist, Khullip Jeung has performed throughout the US and Korea as soloist and chamber musician. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree at The Graduate Center of CUNY. He has studied under Sally Thomas, Dorothy DeLay, Daniel Phillips, Simon Kim, LaVar Krantz, and Kathryn Lucktenberg.
Mr. Jeung has been awarded the Grand Prize in the Korea Times Music Competition (LA), American String Teachers Association Competition (HI), and the youngest recipient of the Morning Music Scholarship. Television and radio broadcasts include, The Saturday Morning Show, Saturday AM, Superkids, MBC Arts Theater and much more. He was also featured in the String and Bow music magazine of the October 2006 publication.
Currently, Mr. Jeung is on the faculty at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music and also an assistant faculty at The Juilliard School Pre-College. Additionally, he is one of the core leaders of the Sonata da Chiesa ensemble in New York and music director of the Good Neighbor Youth Ensemble in New Jersey. He has taught at the Waterville Valley Music Center since 2007 and has also taught at the Maui Summer Music Festival.
A former member of the Naples Philharmonic in Florida, violinist Jisun Kang is the concertmistress of the Ureuk Symphony Orchestra in New York, and a core leader of the Sonata da Chiesa, a chamber group based in the Tri-State area. She has performed throughout the US, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician.
Ms. Kang first started the piano in Korea, and after moving to England, she started the violin at the age of 9. Soon after, she won her first competition after only 6 months of studying the violin. She had her first solo debut with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 13 performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. She has won numerous competitions such as the Watford Music Festival Competition, Busan Music Association Competition, Busan MBC Music Competition, and the Music Journal Competition in Korea.
Jisun Kang received her bachelor's degree from Seoul National University, and earned her master's degree from The Juilliard School studying with Stephen Clapp, where she was awarded the Carabo-Cone Scholarship and Dorothy Starling Scholarship. She continued her study at the Manhattan School of Music with Glenn Dicterow, and received the Professional Studies degree in Orchestral Performance with the Stamas Fund from the New York Philharmonic.
In the summer, she teaches at the Maui Summer Music Festival.
Nurit Pacht grew up in Texas and made her first solo public appearance on national television at the age of 12. In 1990 at age 17 she made her US solo debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra and has since won top prizes in international competitions in Europe and the United States. She was selected as one of the “Stars of the Year 2000” by Le Monde de la Musique and since then she has appeared in major concert halls around the world. She has toured as soloist with the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, and in China with the Young Israel Philharmonic, and has been a soloist with numerous orchestras in the US and Europe.
Last season Nurit performed as soloist in collaboration with the dancer/choreographer Bill T. Jones in the Duomo in Milan, The Kennedy Center, a number of US capitals and at the Lincoln Center Summer Festival. It was also her third season as artistic director of the “Alliance Players”.
Ms. Pacht plays on a violin made by Peter Guarneri in 1750.
Violinist Stephan Tieszen has a Bachelors from the Mannes College of Music, a Masters from the Juilliard School and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music. He studied violin with Mischa Mischakoff, Guila Bustabo, Sally Thomas, Sidney Harth, and Gabriel Banat.
Dr. Tieszen teaches violin and chamber music at Mannes College of Music and the Tabor Community Arts Center in Branford CT, and orchestral violin classes at the Meadowmount School of Music in Elizabethtown, NY. He has taught at Yale University, the University of Connecticut, Connecticut College, and Fairfield University. He has been Concertmaster of the Norwalk, Meriden, Bridgeport and New Britain Symphonys, and he is currently the Concertmaster of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra in New London, and the Principal Second Violin of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
Dr. Tieszen appears frequently with the Wall Street Chamber Players, was a founding member of the Concord Chamber Music Ensemble, and is an active performer and lecturer in educational outreach programs.
Yuval Waldman has appeared as a violin soloist and conductor throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, the Middle East, Asia and South Africa. Conductor and Music Director of both the New American Chamber Orchestra in New York City and the Mid-Atlantic Chamber Orchestra in Washington, D.C., he has recorded for Sony, Newport Classic, Omega, CRI, Angel and Centaur Records. Born in Russia, Mr. Waldman made his debut on Soviet radio at the age of eight and at fifteen was the youngest graduate of the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv. With the assistance of Isaac Stern, he continued his studies in Paris, Geneva, Indiana University and the Julliard School of Music in New York. As the winner of the International Jeunesse Musicale Competition, Mr. Waldman made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1969. This year he was appointed Artistic Director of Music Bridges International, as well as the International “Young Tchaikovsky” Competition to take place in Tchaikovsky’s birthplace, Votkins, Russia.
Praised for her vibrant lyricism, fresh interpretations and expressive performances, cellist Caroline Stinson is sought after by orchestras and fellow musicians nationally and abroad for solo and chamber music concerts of both traditional and contemporary repertoire. Ms. Stinson's performance credits include Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden Series in New York, Boston's Gardner Museum, Washington D.C.'s Smithsonian in the United States; Germany's Koelner Philharmonie, Switzerland's Lucerne Festival and France's Cité de la Musique and Theatre at Rennes, in Europe, and the Centennial Centre and Winspear Halls in Canada. A champion of contemporary music, Ms. Stinson has joined forces with the acclaimed Lark Quarte+, renowned for its commissions of new works by some of today's foremost composers, including Aaron Jay Kernis, William Bolcom and Jennifer Higdon. Caroline Stinson's 2010-11 season includes performances in the United States and Canada of repertoire ranging from chamber music to new solo works to Baroque Concerti. Highlights include the double-premiere of a new concerto for cello and winds by Steven Bryant with the Cornell Wind Ensemble and the Ridgewood Concert Band, and a solo tour of Alberta with performances for the Edmonton Recital Society, the Alberta Baroque Ensemble and New Works Calgary, where she will premiere a new work for cello and audio by T. Patrick Carrabré. Her début CD Lines will be released this fall on Albany Records. In addition to the Lark, Caroline is a member of Open End (a new music and improvisation group founded with her husband, composer and violinist Andrew Waggoner) and the cello quartet, CELLO. Her principal teachers were Alan Harris (Cleveland), Maria Kliegel (Germany), Joel Krosnick (Juilliard) and Tanya Prochazka. Caroline is a teaching assistant to Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School and is on the cello and chamber music faculty of the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University.
