STEPHEN YIP

Stephen Yip  was born in Hong Kong and is now living in the United States. He received his doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.) at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, studied with Law Wing-­fai, Clarence Mak, and Arthur Gottschalk. He has attended major music festivals including: Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, Asian Composers’ League, ISCM World Music Days, Chinese Composers’ Festival, IMPULS Ensemble Akademie, Luxembourg, the International Summer Course for New Music, Darmstadt, Germany, Wellesley Composers’ Conference. Residencies include: the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Yaddo Colony, and MacDowell Colony.

Yip’s works have been performed in Asia, Europe, and America. He has received several composition prizes, included  “Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award,” “Taiwan Music Center International Composition Prize,” “Robert Avalon International Prize,” “Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Orchestra”, the ALEA III composition Competition, and the 2010 Alvarez Chamber Orchestra Freestyle Composition Competition, London, England. His works are recorded in the ERM-Media, Navona Records, Capstone, North South recording, Ablaze records, ATMA Classique, and Beauport Classical labels.

Yip is a member of the SCI, NACUSA, and ASCAP. Currently, he is on the music faculty at Houston Community College and works as a freelance composer.

HAN-JUI (HENRY) CHEN

A versatile bassist, Han-Jui (Henry) Chen has performed in North America, Europe, South Africa, Asia, and his native Taiwan. He enjoys performing as soloist, chamber music collaborator, and orchestral bassist. Henry was appointed to the faculty at Soochow University in Fall of 2014. He previously taught double bass at Ball State University during 2011-2012 and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013 during Professor Michael Cameron’s sabbatical leave.

Besides his rich teaching experience, Henry also have a successful orchestra career. He was appointed principal bass of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago by the principal bassist Joseph Guastafeste of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2008. He has served as principal of Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and Advent Chamber Orchestra in Chicago, associated principal bass of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and assistant principal bass of the Sinfonia da Camera at Champaign-Urbana. The winner of 2008 DePaul University Concerto Competition, and a semi-finalist at the International Society of Bassists in Kalamazoo in 2005, Henry has also won numerous first prizes at national competitions in Taiwan including the Taiwan National Music Competition, the Tainan National University of the Arts Concerto Competition, and the Young Musician String Instruments Awards in Taiwan. Henry earned the Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Master’s degree from DePaul University. His primary teachers include Michael Cameron, Robert Kassinger, Emilie Kuo, and Yungho Fu.

Recently, Henry worked with several permanent composers, including Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bright Sheng, and Yao Chen, in preparation for performances of their work. He and his wife Yu-Chen Wang, a professional gu-zheng player, premiered Yao Chen’s “Yearning” and received a lot of praise.

YU-CHEN WANG

Yuchen was appointed guzheng playing in Suzhou Chinese orchestra in 2017. A native of Taiwan, Yu-Chen Wang is a graduate of the Tainan National University of the Arts where she studied Gu-Zheng with Dong-He Ling and Hao-Yin Huang; and composition with Siao-Wun Jhuang and Chao-Ming Tung. She has performed in master classes for Yan-Jia Zhou, Li Meng, Ji Qiu, Yuan Sha, Ji Wei, and Lei Zhu.

Ms. Wang is the winner of the Gold Prize at the “Golden Lotus” International Youth Music Competition in Macau. She was a three-time First Prize winner at the Taiwan National Music Competition, First Prize at the Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s Competition, and the winner of the Taiwan Young Concert Artist Competition.

Ms. Wang has appeared as soloist with the Tainan National University Chinese Orchestra, the National Chinese Orchestra, and the Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra. She has performed many solo recitals and has toured to Germany with the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Wang’s compositions blend western classical and traditional Chinese music. She enjoys expanding the usual instrumentation and forms used in Gu-Zheng ensembles. She was recently invited to play Gu-Zheng concerto, “Hovering in the Air,” with Ball State Symphony orchestra and a guest artist for Kansas City’s newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, UMKC Music Nova. She currently joins two ensembles, Compost Q and Orchid ensemble; these two groups bring her performs across the U.S.

DR. YU-FANG CHEN

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Yu-Fang Chen is the Assistant Professor of Music Performance – Violin at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She received her Doctoral of Musical Arts degrees on both violin and viola performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013. As a sought-after performer and pedagogy, Dr. Chen has been invited to teach and perform at various music festivals, including the Sunflower Music Festival and the Heartland Chamber Music Academy in U.S.A, the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy, and Thailand International Composition Festival in Salaya, Thailand. Dr. Chen has won numerous awards and competitions and her career as a performing artist is extensive. Her international performing career has taken her to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, South Africa, Estonia, Germany, Finland, France, Italy and the United States, and she continues to perform as a guest musician internationally with various concert artists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras. Her engagements as concerto soloist include works by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Walton, and Tchaikovsky and performances with Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Washburn Symphonic and String Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of Kansas City, etc. From 2015-2017, Dr. Chen served as an Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Washburn University in Topeka. Additionally, She was a member of the Kansas City Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Taiwan.

After moving to Indiana, she frequently performs with Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Fort Wayne Symphony, and Muncie Symphony as violinist and violists. She has worked with renowned soloists and conductors, such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and Seiji Ozawa, just to name a few. In this season, Dr. Chen will be the featured artist for the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, The Clear Lake Chamber Ensemble, the Ball State University Festival of New Music, 2018 Thailand International Composition Festival, etc. As an enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, she has commissioned and premiered many compositions by living composers. Her recording of Dr. Chin Ting Chan’s Shape of Wind for solo violin was published by the ABLAZE in the Records Millennial Masters vol. 7 (2017), and violin duet Thread by Chan will soon be published in the Records Millennial Masters vol. 8.

DAN GELOK

Saxophonist and educator Dan Gelok is internationally recognized and sought-after as an outstanding young performer and teacher of classical saxophone music. He received his Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Indiana University and his Masters in Saxophone Performance from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He currently holds the title of Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of Houston. His teachers include Otis Murphy, Lynn Klock, and David Baker.

He has been featured in solo and chamber music performances at the New England Saxophone Symposium, the North American Saxophone Alliance regional and national conferences, the Northeastern Texas Saxophone Symposium, and Cape Cod's Falmouth Academy. Significant recent performances include Singapore's Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' Commuter Concert Series, the Spectrum Series at Esplanade (Singapore), the Dalian Arts School (China), plus performances with the Hwa Chong Institute Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Ballet, and the Singapore Saxophone Symposium. As a performer of new music he has worked closely with composers such as Zach Browning, Bill Ryan, Rob Smith, Kawai Shiu, Zechariah Goh, and Christian Lauba, with whom he organized an international workshop in the spring of 2012. He has recordings of new music on the Ablaze and Resolute Music record labels, and frequently performs with Musiqa, a Houston-based new music collective. As an educator, Mr. Gelok also maintains a private studio of students ranging in experience from beginner to the collegiate level. Internationally sought-after as a teacher, he has received masterclass and lecture invitations from the Northeast Texas Saxophone Symposium, The New England Saxophone Symposium, the Singapore Saxophone Symposium, the Artists Academy (Singapore) Summer Workshop Series, the Belles Artes Music Festival (Medellin, Colombia), and various universities throughout the United States. His students have advanced and received awards from prestigious contests such as the Young Texas Artist Competition, the NASA soloist competition, the J.C. Arriaga competition, the Coleman Competition, the Plowman Competition, and the Fischoff competition, to which he sent an unprecedented two ensembles in the spring of 2014. In addition, he founded and continues to serve as Director of the Houston Underground Competition, the country’s largest independent chamber music contest for high school saxophonists. Mr. Gelok is a Yamaha Performing Artist and an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Symphonia.

RUDY ALBACH

Double bassist Rudy Albach joined the CSO in 2016 as Principal Bass. Prior to joining the CSO, Rudy spent two seasons with the Houston Ballet Orchestra as a co-principal. As a substitute musician, he has also performed with the National, Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and San Antonio Symphonies. A two-time member of the Schleswig-Holsten Musik Festival, Rudy has performed internationally on stages in Germany, Denmark, and China. Rudy earned his Master’s Degree in music performance from Rice University and his Bachelor’s from the Peabody Institute. His primary teachers include Paul Ellison, Paul Johnson, and Linda McKnight. A native of New Jersey, Rudy was born into a very musical family with both of his parents being professional musicians in New York City.

ANDREW SCHNEIDER

A native of Houston, Andrew Schneider is a pianist and vocal coach whose virtuosic technique and interpretative daring has cemented his

reputation among clients as a fearless musician. His extensive collaborative activity encompasses early music, standard operatic and art song repertoire, as well as contemporary music. Proficient in Italian, German, French, Latin -- and especially adept in less frequently encountered languages, such as Russian -- Andrew enjoys using his considerable linguistic skill to help make challenging texts accessible to his clients. Andrew’s wide ranging musical activities also includes harpsichord and organ performance, composition, and conducting.

Andrew holds a B.Mus. in music composition from Rice University, and in 2009, was a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Competition. From 2012-2016, Andrew served as organist at St. Michael Catholic Church in Houston and continues to perform as a church organist throughout the Houston area. Andrew has also served LSC-Kingwood as a staff accompanist since 2014.

For Mercury Houston, a period instrument ensemble, Andrew regularly plays harpsichord continuo, and has participated in several performances for the Houston Early Music Festival. As a continuo player, Andrew has also played Handel’s Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony and the Kingwood Chorale, as well as Haydn’s Creation with the Woodlands Chorale.

In the field of opera, Andrew has served as music director for a production of Sweeney Todd and has coached Ariadne auf Naxos for the Kingwood Summer Opera. Other operas Andrew has coached include Rita, L’heure espagnole , and L’italiana in Algeri for Operativo Houston, and Hansel and Gretel .

For a 2016 Pittsburgh production, Andrew also coached the leading role in Die schweigsame Frau . Currently, Andrew works with HGOco, Houston Grand Opera's community outreach initiative, to assist in coaching singers for performances of Kamala Sankaram's Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers . In his spare moments, Andrew enjoys history, literature, linguistics, cartography, and mystery novels, all interests upon which he is apt to draw for his renowned store of indelible anecdotes. Andrew Schneider is represented by Seven Eight Artists.

JIUAN-RENG YEH

Ms. Yeh was born in Taipei city. Since 1998, Ms. Yeh joined with Chai Found Music Workshop, and now is teaching at National Taiwan Normal University, department of Chinese Music and also the chief of Szu-Xiang Orchestra of zheng. She can interpret the diversity and vitality from the traditional music, but she also long-time in touch with contemporary music to practice the complex changes and music structure in her performances. She has invited to Berlin, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Warsaw, Paris, Rouen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Austria, England, Hungary, Czech Republic, Lithuania, America, Canada, Israel, India, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan to join the concert.

MASAHITO SUGIHARA

Masahito Sugihara is the associate professor of saxophone at Sam Houston State University. Mas has appeared as recitalist and clinician in Brazil, Canada, England, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Japan, Scotland, and United States. He is a member of Awea Duo and Amethyst Saxophone Quartet, and has performed in the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Grant Park Orchestra, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Network for New Music, New York City Ballet, and Reading Symphony. An advocate of contemporary music, he has worked with such notable composers including, Lee Hyla, Christian Lauba, Lei Liang, Zhou Long, Alvin Lucier, François Rossé, Mari Takano, Hans Tomalla, and Marc-Anthony Turnage. As an avid arranger, Mas has transcribed a wide range of compositions for flute/sax duo, reed quartet, saxophone quartet, and larger saxophone ensembles. Previously, he was the assistant professor of saxophone at Morehead State University and has taught saxophone and chamber music in the Chicago area at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University and Trinity Christian College. Mas is a Conn-Selmer/Selmer Paris and D’Addario Performing Artist.

BEN ROIDL-WARD

Ben Roidl-Ward is a bassoonist and improviser based in Chicago. His dedication to working with and advocating for composers of his generation has led to national tours with the string trio Chartreuse, the cello/bassoon duo Aviary, and the violin/bassoon duo Wolftone, all featuring new works for the bassoon. Ben has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, along with several regional orchestras throughout the United States. He has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, and has spent his summers with the Lucerne Festival Academy, Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Banff Ensemble Evolution, and the National Repertory Orchestra. A 2018 Luminarts Fellow in Classical Music, Ben is a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and a student of David McGill at Northwestern University. He also studied with Ben Kamins at Rice University, George Sakakeeny at the Oberlin Conservatory, and Francine Peterson in the Seattle Area.

IZUMI MIYAHARA

Flutist Izumi Miyahara is a freelance artist and educator based in Houston, Texas. She holds the Assistant Principal Flute/Piccolo position with the Symphony of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, TX, and the Piccolo/Third Flute chair with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, New World Symphony, Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, and as guest principal flutist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with renowned conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hans Graf and Paavo Jarvi, among others.

Internationally, Izumi has performed in Alcala de Heneres and Madrid, Spain as well as in Lucca, Italy.  As a passionate advocate of chamber music and community engagement, Izumi is co-founder of the flute and harp duo, inFLUX. inFLUX brings innovative and progressive concerts into the community and has created artistic partnerships with organizations such as New Hope Housing, Sheltering Arms Senior Services, Daniel Pearl World Music Days, The Methodist Hospital Crane Garden Recital Series, and Holocaust Museum Houston. As the winner of the 2007 Albuquerque Flute Association Frank Bowen Competition, Izumi performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Santa Fe Symphony in December 2007. Her 2009 solo recital in Houston was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio’s Performance Today program. Her orchestral performances have been broadcast on KUHF and KTRU in Houston and WQXR in New York City. She has performed with members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as part of their Concert:Nova chamber music series. Izumi was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Piccolo Artist Competition sponsored by the National Flute Association, first place winner of the 2005 Central Ohio Flute Association Competition in Columbus, OH, the recipient of the 2004 Ira Gershwin Award in Orchestral Performance from the ASCAP Foundation in New York, and a top prize‐winner in the Cincinnati Flute Symposium’s flute competition in 2006 and 2008. Her summer festival appearances include the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, CO, the National Orchestral Institute in College Park, MD, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival in Canada. She has also performed extensively with Cincinnati’s Music X and Grandin Vocal Chamber Music Festivals from 2005 to 2008. As an educator, Izumi maintains a private flute studio and coaches clinics and masterclasses in Houston for American Festival of the Arts, Houston Youth Symphony and Houston Flute Fest. In addition to her musical activities, she is a 200 RYT certified yoga instructor in the Pralaya Yoga System. A native of New York City and a graduate of the Juilliard School Pre-College Program, Izumi holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music from Rice University. Her primary teachers include Randy Bowman, Leone Buyse, and Robert Boustany.

THELEMA TRIO

Thelema Trio is a Belgian, dynamic and unusual ensemble that promotes and performs new music of the 21st century. Within diverse contemporary composition styles going from a filmic blaze of colors, and an orchestral lushness to the energy and power of avant-garde, in which emotion and story are primary and thoughts can roam free.   With their unique line-up of piano, saxophone and clarinet, many composers have been written for them. Thelema Trio has played on big-name festivals in Europe, Japan, Latin-America and in the United States and recorded two full cd's.  To learn more about Thelema Trio please visit their website.

WARD DE VLEESCHHOUWER

Ward De Vleeschhouwer studied at the School of Arts in Gent, studying piano with Claude Coppens and Daan Vandewalle, composition with Luc Brewaeys and Frank Nuyts, and improvisation with Peter Vermeersch. Ward likes to embrace different music styles. From contemporary classical music to African and Peruvian folk music to chamber rock music. In 2013 he released his first solo album 'Chicha Morada', featuring Peruvian piano music. With  the progressive chamber rock band Aranis and Present, Thelema Trio and as a soloist, Ward has played at prestigious festivals and renowned concert halls in Europe, USA, Japan, Brasil and Peru.

As a composer, Ward writes for piano, chamber music, theater and film. Many of his titles have names of African masks such as Boki (2010), Warakun (2014) for piano solo, Goli (2009) for piano four hands and Kono (2016) for violin and piano. Ward has also written for ensembles including Spectra Ensemble, Thelema Trio, Kugoni Trio and Aranis. Several of his works are recorded on CD and some of his piano works are published with HrdScr Editions and Metropolis Music Publishers. Ward is teaching piano, improvisation and Soundpainting in SAMWD Deinze in Belgium.

PETER VERDONCK

Peter Verdonck studied at the School of Arts in Gent with Willy Demey. Peter also studied composition with Lucien Posman and graduated in 2003 with highest honours for saxophone, chamber music and improvisation. In 2007 he also received his postgraduate diploma for Concert Soloist at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp where he studied saxophone with Hans de Jong. Peter also took masterclasses with Hans De Jong, Claude Delangle and Rasscher Saxophone Quartet. He’s the founder, composer, lead singer and tenor saxophonist of death metal outfit Wound Collector, who released the first full-CD on 24 May 2018 via Profane Records. Since June 2012 he also performs regularly with his own balkan band De Pandoering. The Antwerp based organisation Champ d’Action often involves Peter in their contemporary and experimental programs. Furthermore he’s a member of krautrock band Manngold de Cobre, with this group a first CD was recorded in the summer of 2013, and improvisation collective FUNDAMENT. Peter also record with a.o. The Rhythm Junks and Va Fan Fahre. In 2014 Peter began to compose his first musical “Muizenissen”. In May 2015 this was performed by Kon. Kath. Fanfare De Kunstliefde from Melsele and pupils from primary school De Toren from Melsele. June 2018 marks the debut of his second musical “Jungle Koorts”. These groups, ensembles and project have taken him to concert halls and festivals all over Europe, Japan, China, Peru and USA. As a teacher of saxophone and chamber music Peter is active at the Heilig Graf Institute in Turnhout and the Academie Wijnegem Schilde Zoersel. As a composer Peter mainly writes chamber music for various line-ups. A number of his works have been recorded by a.o. Thelema Trio, Ambrassband, Aardbeefman and Aranis.

RIK DE GEYTER

Rik De Geyter is currently clarinettist/bass clarinettist of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway, assistant professor clarinet and bassclarinet at NTNU Institutt for Musikk in Trondheim and since 2011 is he assistant-teacher of Eddy Vanoosthuyse at the Royal Conservatory in Liège (Belgium).He is a former clarinettist of the Royal Band of the Belgian Guides, was a member of the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra) and played with the Brussels Philharmonic, Trondheim Sinfonietta, Trondheim Soloists, Württenbergisches Kammerorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Alpaca Ensemble amongst others.As the clarinettist of Thelema Trio (21th century music), he performed on many stages including some tours in the USA and Norway. With his sister Griet De Geyter (soprano) and pianist Nicolas Callot, togheter Trio Meleas, he performs recitals regularly. Besides this ensembles is he an active chamber musician in all kinds of combinations, not scared of any experiment.As the chairman of ‘Dagen van de Huismuziek’ he organizes musical courses for youth.At the Lemmensinstitute in Leuven(Belgium), he studied with Eddy Vanoosthuyse and graduated as Master in Music in 2009 and Master-after-Master in 2013. In between he went to the Ghent conservatory where he studied bass clarinet with Marc Kerckhof.

STEPHEN YIP

Stephen Yip  was born in Hong Kong and is now living in the United States. He received his doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.) at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, studied with Law Wing-­fai, Clarence Mak, and Arthur Gottschalk. He has attended major music festivals including: Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, Asian Composers’ League, ISCM World Music Days, Chinese Composers’ Festival, IMPULS Ensemble Akademie, Luxembourg, the International Summer Course for New Music, Darmstadt, Germany, Wellesley Composers’ Conference. Residencies include: the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Yaddo Colony, and MacDowell Colony.

Yip’s works have been performed in Asia, Europe, and America. He has received several composition prizes, included  “Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award,” “Taiwan Music Center International Composition Prize,” “Robert Avalon International Prize,” “Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Orchestra”, the ALEA III composition Competition, and the 2010 Alvarez Chamber Orchestra Freestyle Composition Competition, London, England. His works are recorded in the ERM-Media, Navona Records, Capstone, North South recording, Ablaze records, ATMA Classique, and Beauport Classical labels.

Yip is a member of the SCI, NACUSA, and ASCAP. Currently, he is on the music faculty at

Houston Community College and works as a freelance composer.

HAN-JUI (HENRY) CHEN

A versatile bassist, Han-Jui (Henry) Chen has performed in North America, Europe, South Africa, Asia, and his native Taiwan. He enjoys performing as soloist, chamber music collaborator, and orchestral bassist. Henry was appointed to the faculty at Soochow University in Fall of 2014. He previously taught double bass at Ball State University during 2011-2012 and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013 during Professor Michael Cameron’s sabbatical leave.

Besides his rich teaching experience, Henry also have a successful orchestra career. He was appointed principal bass of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago by the principal bassist Joseph Guastafeste of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2008. He has served as principal of Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and Advent Chamber Orchestra in Chicago, associated principal bass of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and assistant principal bass of the Sinfonia da Camera at Champaign-Urbana. The winner of 2008 DePaul University Concerto Competition, and a semi-finalist at the International Society of Bassists in Kalamazoo in 2005, Henry has also won numerous first prizes at national competitions in Taiwan including the Taiwan National Music Competition, the Tainan National University of the Arts Concerto Competition, and the Young Musician String Instruments Awards in Taiwan. Henry earned the Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Master’s degree from DePaul University. His primary teachers include Michael Cameron, Robert Kassinger, Emilie Kuo, and Yungho Fu.

Recently, Henry worked with several permanent composers, including Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bright Sheng, and Yao Chen, in preparation for performances of their work. He and his wife Yu-Chen Wang, a professional gu-zheng player, premiered Yao Chen’s “Yearning” and received a lot of praise.

YU-CHEN WANG

Yuchen was appointed guzheng playing in Suzhou Chinese orchestra in 2017. A native of Taiwan, Yu-Chen Wang is a graduate of the Tainan National University of the Arts where she studied Gu-Zheng with Dong-He Ling and Hao-Yin Huang; and composition with Siao-Wun Jhuang and Chao-Ming Tung. She has performed in master classes for Yan-Jia Zhou, Li Meng, Ji Qiu, Yuan Sha, Ji Wei, and Lei Zhu.

Ms. Wang is the winner of the Gold Prize at the “Golden Lotus” International Youth Music Competition in Macau. She was a three-time First Prize winner at the Taiwan National Music Competition, First Prize at the Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s Competition, and the winner of the Taiwan Young Concert Artist Competition.

Ms. Wang has appeared as soloist with the Tainan National University Chinese Orchestra, the National Chinese Orchestra, and the Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra. She has performed many solo recitals and has toured to Germany with the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Wang’s compositions blend western classical and traditional Chinese music. She enjoys expanding the usual instrumentation and forms used in Gu-Zheng ensembles. She was recently invited to play Gu-Zheng concerto, “Hovering in the Air,” with Ball State Symphony orchestra and a guest artist for Kansas City’s newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, UMKC Music Nova. She currently joins two ensembles, Compost Q and Orchid ensemble; these two groups bring her performs across the U.S.

DR. YU-FANG CHEN

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Yu-Fang Chen is the Assistant Professor of Music Performance – Violin at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She received her Doctoral of Musical Arts degrees on both violin and viola performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013. As a sought-after performer and pedagogy, Dr. Chen has been invited to teach and perform at various music festivals, including the Sunflower Music Festival and the Heartland Chamber Music Academy in U.S.A, the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy, and Thailand International Composition Festival in Salaya, Thailand. Dr. Chen has won numerous awards and competitions and her career as a performing artist is extensive. Her international performing career has taken her to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, South Africa, Estonia, Germany, Finland, France, Italy and the United States, and she continues to perform as a guest musician internationally with various concert artists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras. Her engagements as concerto soloist include works by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Walton, and Tchaikovsky and performances with Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Washburn Symphonic and String Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of Kansas City, etc. From 2015-2017, Dr. Chen served as an Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Washburn University in Topeka. Additionally, She was a member of the Kansas City Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Taiwan.

After moving to Indiana, she frequently performs with Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Fort Wayne Symphony, and Muncie Symphony as violinist and violists. She has worked with renowned soloists and conductors, such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and Seiji Ozawa, just to name a few. In this season, Dr. Chen will be the featured artist for the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, The Clear Lake Chamber Ensemble, the Ball State University Festival of New Music, 2018 Thailand International Composition Festival, etc. As an enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, she has commissioned and premiered many compositions by living composers. Her recording of Dr. Chin Ting Chan’s Shape of Wind for solo violin was published by the ABLAZE in the Records Millennial Masters vol. 7 (2017), and violin duet Thread by Chan will soon be published in the Records Millennial Masters vol. 8.

DAN GELOK

Saxophonist and educator Dan Gelok is internationally recognized and sought-after as an outstanding young performer and teacher of classical saxophone music. He received his Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Indiana University and his Masters in Saxophone Performance from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He currently holds the title of Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of Houston. His teachers include Otis Murphy, Lynn Klock, and David Baker.

He has been featured in solo and chamber music performances at the New England Saxophone Symposium, the North American Saxophone Alliance regional and national conferences, the Northeastern Texas Saxophone Symposium, and Cape Cod's Falmouth Academy. Significant recent performances include Singapore's Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' Commuter Concert Series, the Spectrum Series at Esplanade (Singapore), the Dalian Arts School (China), plus performances with the Hwa Chong Institute Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Ballet, and the Singapore Saxophone Symposium. As a performer of new music he has worked closely with composers such as Zach Browning, Bill Ryan, Rob Smith, Kawai Shiu, Zechariah Goh, and Christian Lauba, with whom he organized an international workshop in the spring of 2012. He has recordings of new music on the Ablaze and Resolute Music record labels, and frequently performs with Musiqa, a Houston-based new music collective. As an educator, Mr. Gelok also maintains a private studio of students ranging in experience from beginner to the collegiate level. Internationally sought-after as a teacher, he has received masterclass and lecture invitations from the Northeast Texas Saxophone Symposium, The New England Saxophone Symposium, the Singapore Saxophone Symposium, the Artists Academy (Singapore) Summer Workshop Series, the Belles Artes Music Festival (Medellin, Colombia), and various universities throughout the United States. His students have advanced and received awards from prestigious contests such as the Young Texas Artist Competition, the NASA soloist competition, the J.C. Arriaga competition, the Coleman Competition, the Plowman Competition, and the Fischoff competition, to which he sent an unprecedented two ensembles in the spring of 2014. In addition, he founded and continues to serve as Director of the Houston Underground Competition, the country’s largest independent chamber music contest for high school saxophonists. Mr. Gelok is a Yamaha Performing Artist and an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Symphonia.

RUDY ALBACH

Double bassist Rudy Albach joined the CSO in 2016 as Principal Bass. Prior to joining the CSO, Rudy spent two seasons with the Houston Ballet Orchestra as a co-principal. As a substitute musician, he has also performed with the National, Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and San Antonio Symphonies. A two-time member of the Schleswig-Holsten Musik Festival, Rudy has performed internationally on stages in Germany, Denmark, and China. Rudy earned his Master’s Degree in music performance from Rice University and his Bachelor’s from the Peabody Institute. His primary teachers include Paul Ellison, Paul Johnson, and Linda McKnight. A native of New Jersey, Rudy was born into a very musical family with both of his parents being professional musicians in New York City.

ANDREW SCHNEIDER

A native of Houston, Andrew Schneider is a pianist and vocal coach whose virtuosic technique and interpretative daring has cemented his reputation among clients as a fearless musician. His extensive collaborative activity encompasses early music, standard operatic and art song repertoire, as well as contemporary music. Proficient in Italian, German, French, Latin -- and especially adept in less frequently encountered languages, such as Russian -- Andrew enjoys using his considerable linguistic skill to help make challenging texts accessible to his clients. Andrew’s wide ranging musical activities also includes harpsichord and organ performance, composition, and conducting.

Andrew holds a B.Mus. in music composition from Rice University, and in 2009, was a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Competition. From 2012-2016, Andrew served as organist at St. Michael Catholic Church in Houston and continues to perform as a church organist throughout the Houston area. Andrew has also served LSC-Kingwood as a staff accompanist since 2014.

For Mercury Houston, a period instrument ensemble, Andrew regularly plays harpsichord continuo, and has participated in several performances for the Houston Early Music Festival. As a continuo player, Andrew has also played Handel’s Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony and the Kingwood Chorale, as well as Haydn’s Creation with the Woodlands Chorale.

In the field of opera, Andrew has served as music director for a production of Sweeney Todd and has coached Ariadne auf Naxos for the Kingwood Summer Opera. Other operas Andrew has coached include Rita, L’heure espagnole , and L’italiana in Algeri for Operativo Houston, and Hansel and Gretel .

For a 2016 Pittsburgh production, Andrew also coached the leading role in Die schweigsame Frau . Currently, Andrew works with HGOco, Houston Grand Opera's community outreach initiative, to assist in coaching singers for performances of Kamala Sankaram's Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers . In his spare moments, Andrew enjoys history, literature, linguistics, cartography, and mystery novels, all interests upon which he is apt to draw for his renowned store of indelible anecdotes. Andrew Schneider is represented by Seven Eight Artists.

JIUAN-RENG YEH

Ms. Yeh was born in Taipei city. Since 1998, Ms. Yeh joined with Chai Found Music Workshop, and now is teaching at National Taiwan Normal University, department of Chinese Music and also the chief of Szu-Xiang Orchestra of zheng. She can interpret the diversity and vitality from the traditional music, but she also long-time in touch with contemporary music to practice the complex changes and music structure in her performances. She has invited to Berlin, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Warsaw, Paris, Rouen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Austria, England, Hungary, Czech Republic, Lithuania, America, Canada, Israel, India, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan to join the concert.

MASAHITO SUGIHARA

Masahito Sugihara is the associate professor of saxophone at Sam Houston State University. Mas has appeared as recitalist and clinician in Brazil, Canada, England, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Japan, Scotland, and United States. He is a member of Awea Duo and Amethyst Saxophone Quartet, and has performed in the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Grant Park Orchestra, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Network for New Music, New York City Ballet, and Reading Symphony. An advocate of contemporary music, he has worked with such notable composers including, Lee Hyla, Christian Lauba, Lei Liang, Zhou Long, Alvin Lucier, François Rossé, Mari Takano, Hans Tomalla, and Marc-Anthony Turnage. As an avid arranger, Mas has transcribed a wide range of compositions for flute/sax duo, reed quartet, saxophone quartet, and larger saxophone ensembles. Previously, he was the assistant professor of saxophone at Morehead State University and has taught saxophone and chamber music in the Chicago area at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University and Trinity Christian College. Mas is a Conn-Selmer/Selmer Paris and D’Addario Performing Artist.

BEN ROIDL-WARD

Ben Roidl-Ward is a bassoonist and improviser based in Chicago. His dedication to working with and advocating for composers of his generation has led to national tours with the string trio Chartreuse, the cello/bassoon duo Aviary, and the violin/bassoon duo Wolftone, all featuring new works for the bassoon. Ben has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, along with several regional orchestras throughout the United States. He has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, and has spent his summers with the Lucerne Festival Academy, Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Banff Ensemble Evolution, and the National Repertory Orchestra. A 2018 Luminarts Fellow in Classical Music, Ben is a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and a student of David McGill at Northwestern University. He also studied with Ben Kamins at Rice University, George Sakakeeny at the Oberlin Conservatory, and Francine Peterson in the Seattle Area.

IZUMI MIYAHARA

Flutist Izumi Miyahara is a freelance artist and educator based in Houston, Texas. She holds the Assistant Principal Flute/Piccolo position with the Symphony of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, TX, and the Piccolo/Third Flute chair with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, New World Symphony, Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, and as guest principal flutist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with renowned conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hans Graf and Paavo Jarvi, among others. Internationally, Izumi has performed in Alcala de Heneres and Madrid, Spain as well as in Lucca, Italy.

As a passionate advocate of chamber music and community engagement, Izumi is co-founder of the flute and harp duo, inFLUX. inFLUX brings innovative and progressive concerts into the community and has created artistic partnerships with organizations such as New Hope Housing, Sheltering Arms Senior Services, Daniel Pearl World Music Days, The Methodist Hospital Crane Garden Recital Series, and Holocaust Museum Houston. As the winner of the 2007 Albuquerque Flute Association Frank Bowen Competition, Izumi performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Santa Fe Symphony in December 2007. Her 2009 solo recital in Houston was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio’s Performance Today program. Her orchestral performances have been broadcast on KUHF and KTRU in Houston and WQXR in New York City. She has performed with members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as part of their Concert:Nova chamber music series. Izumi was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Piccolo Artist Competition sponsored by the National Flute Association, first place winner of the 2005 Central Ohio Flute Association Competition in Columbus, OH, the recipient of the 2004 Ira Gershwin Award in Orchestral Performance from the ASCAP Foundation in New York, and a top prize‐winner in the Cincinnati Flute Symposium’s flute competition in 2006 and 2008. Her summer festival appearances include the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, CO, the National Orchestral Institute in College Park, MD, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival in Canada. She has also performed extensively with Cincinnati’s Music X and Grandin Vocal Chamber Music Festivals from 2005 to 2008. As an educator, Izumi maintains a private flute studio and coaches clinics and masterclasses in Houston for American Festival of the Arts, Houston Youth Symphony and Houston Flute Fest. In addition to her musical activities, she is a 200 RYT certified yoga instructor in the Pralaya Yoga System. A native of New York City and a graduate of the Juilliard School Pre-College Program, Izumi holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music from Rice University. Her primary teachers include Randy Bowman, Leone Buyse, and Robert Boustany.

THELEMA TRIO

Thelema Trio is a Belgian, dynamic and unusual ensemble that promotes and performs new music of the 21st century. Within diverse contemporary composition styles going from a filmic blaze of colors, and an orchestral lushness to the energy and power of avant-garde, in which emotion and story are primary and thoughts can roam free.   With their unique line-up of piano, saxophone and clarinet, many composers have been written for them. Thelema Trio has played on big-name festivals in Europe, Japan, Latin-America and in the United States and recorded two full cd's.  To learn more about Thelema Trio please visit their website.

WARD DE VLEESCHHOUWER

Ward De Vleeschhouwer studied at the School of Arts in Gent, studying piano with Claude Coppens and Daan Vandewalle, composition with Luc Brewaeys and Frank Nuyts, and improvisation with Peter Vermeersch. Ward likes to embrace different music styles. From contemporary classical music to African and Peruvian folk music to chamber rock music. In 2013 he released his first solo album 'Chicha Morada', featuring Peruvian piano music. With  the progressive chamber rock band Aranis and Present, Thelema Trio and as a soloist, Ward has played at prestigious festivals and renowned concert halls in Europe, USA, Japan, Brasil and Peru.

As a composer, Ward writes for piano, chamber music, theater and film. Many of his titles have names of African masks such as Boki (2010), Warakun (2014) for piano solo, Goli (2009) for piano four hands and Kono (2016) for violin and piano. Ward has also written for ensembles including Spectra Ensemble, Thelema Trio, Kugoni Trio and Aranis. Several of his works are recorded on CD and some of his piano works are published with HrdScr Editions and Metropolis Music Publishers. Ward is teaching piano, improvisation and Soundpainting in SAMWD Deinze in Belgium.

PETER VERDONCK

Peter Verdonck studied at the School of Arts in Gent with Willy Demey. Peter also studied composition with Lucien Posman and graduated in 2003 with highest honours for saxophone, chamber music and improvisation. In 2007 he also received his postgraduate diploma for Concert Soloist at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp where he studied saxophone with Hans de Jong. Peter also took masterclasses with Hans De Jong, Claude Delangle and Rasscher Saxophone Quartet. He’s the founder, composer, lead singer and tenor saxophonist of death metal outfit Wound Collector, who released the first full-CD on 24 May 2018 via Profane Records. Since June 2012 he also performs regularly with his own balkan band De Pandoering. The Antwerp based organisation Champ d’Action often involves Peter in their contemporary and experimental programs. Furthermore he’s a member of krautrock band Manngold de Cobre, with this group a first CD was recorded in the summer of 2013, and improvisation collective FUNDAMENT. Peter also record with a.o. The Rhythm Junks and Va Fan Fahre. In 2014 Peter began to compose his first musical “Muizenissen”. In May 2015 this was performed by Kon. Kath. Fanfare De Kunstliefde from Melsele and pupils from primary school De Toren from Melsele. June 2018 marks the debut of his second musical “Jungle Koorts”. These groups, ensembles and project have taken him to concert halls and festivals all over Europe, Japan, China, Peru and USA. As a teacher of saxophone and chamber music Peter is active at the Heilig Graf Institute in Turnhout and the Academie Wijnegem Schilde Zoersel. As a composer Peter mainly writes chamber music for various line-ups. A number of his works have been recorded by a.o. Thelema Trio, Ambrassband, Aardbeefman and Aranis.

RIK DE GEYTER

Rik De Geyter is currently clarinettist/bass clarinettist of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway, assistant professor clarinet and bassclarinet at NTNU Institutt for Musikk in Trondheim and since 2011 is he assistant-teacher of Eddy Vanoosthuyse at the Royal Conservatory in Liège (Belgium).He is a former clarinettist of the Royal Band of the Belgian Guides, was a member of the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra) and played with the Brussels Philharmonic, Trondheim Sinfonietta, Trondheim Soloists, Württenbergisches Kammerorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Alpaca Ensemble amongst others.As the clarinettist of Thelema Trio (21th century music), he performed on many stages including some tours in the USA and Norway. With his sister Griet De Geyter (soprano) and pianist Nicolas Callot, togheter Trio Meleas, he performs recitals regularly. Besides this ensembles is he an active chamber musician in all kinds of combinations, not scared of any experiment.As the chairman of ‘Dagen van de Huismuziek’ he organizes musical courses for youth.At the Lemmensinstitute in Leuven(Belgium), he studied with Eddy Vanoosthuyse and graduated as Master in Music in 2009 and Master-after-Master in 2013. In between he went to the Ghent conservatory where he studied bass clarinet with Marc Kerckhof.

STEPHEN YIP

Stephen Yip  was born in Hong Kong and is now living in the United States. He received his doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.) at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, studied with Law Wing-­fai, Clarence Mak, and Arthur Gottschalk. He has attended major music festivals including: Wellesley Composers Conference, Aspen Music Festival, Asian Composers’ League, ISCM World Music Days, Chinese Composers’ Festival, IMPULS Ensemble Akademie, Luxembourg, the International Summer Course for New Music, Darmstadt, Germany, Wellesley Composers’ Conference. Residencies include: the Atlantic Centre for the Arts, Yaddo Colony, and MacDowell Colony.

Yip’s works have been performed in Asia, Europe, and America. He has received several composition prizes, included  “Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award,” “Taiwan Music Center International Composition Prize,” “Robert Avalon International Prize,” “Singapore International Composition Competition for Chinese Orchestra”, the ALEA III composition Competition, and the 2010 Alvarez Chamber Orchestra Freestyle Composition Competition, London, England. His works are recorded in the ERM-Media, Navona Records, Capstone, North South recording, Ablaze records, ATMA Classique, and Beauport Classical labels.

Yip is a member of the SCI, NACUSA, and ASCAP. Currently, he is on the music faculty at Houston

Community College and works as a freelance composer.

HAN-JUI (HENRY) CHEN

A versatile bassist, Han-Jui (Henry) Chen has performed in North America, Europe, South Africa, Asia, and his native Taiwan. He enjoys performing as soloist, chamber music collaborator, and orchestral bassist. Henry was appointed to the faculty at Soochow University in Fall of 2014. He previously taught double bass at Ball State University during 2011-2012 and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2013 during Professor Michael Cameron’s sabbatical leave.

Besides his rich teaching experience, Henry also have a successful orchestra career. He was appointed principal bass of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago by the principal bassist Joseph Guastafeste of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2008. He has served as principal of Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Muncie Symphony Orchestra, and Advent Chamber Orchestra in Chicago, associated principal bass of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and assistant principal bass of the Sinfonia da Camera at Champaign-Urbana. The winner of 2008 DePaul University Concerto Competition, and a semi-finalist at the International Society of Bassists in Kalamazoo in 2005, Henry has also won numerous first prizes at national competitions in Taiwan including the Taiwan National Music Competition, the Tainan National University of the Arts Concerto Competition, and the Young Musician String Instruments Awards in Taiwan. Henry earned the Doctor of Musical Arts from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Master’s degree from DePaul University. His primary teachers include Michael Cameron, Robert Kassinger, Emilie Kuo, and Yungho Fu.

Recently, Henry worked with several permanent composers, including Chen Yi, Zhou Long, Bright Sheng, and Yao Chen, in preparation for performances of their work. He and his wife Yu-Chen Wang, a professional gu-zheng player, premiered Yao Chen’s “Yearning” and received a lot of praise.

YU-CHEN WANG

Yuchen was appointed guzheng playing in Suzhou Chinese orchestra in 2017. A native of Taiwan, Yu-Chen Wang is a graduate of the Tainan National University of the Arts where she studied Gu-Zheng with Dong-He Ling and Hao-Yin Huang; and composition with Siao-Wun Jhuang and Chao-Ming Tung. She has performed in master classes for Yan-Jia Zhou, Li Meng, Ji Qiu, Yuan Sha, Ji Wei, and Lei Zhu.

Ms. Wang is the winner of the Gold Prize at the “Golden Lotus” International Youth Music Competition in Macau. She was a three-time First Prize winner at the Taiwan National Music Competition, First Prize at the Chinese Musical Instrument Association’s Competition, and the winner of the Taiwan Young Concert Artist Competition.

Ms. Wang has appeared as soloist with the Tainan National University Chinese Orchestra, the National Chinese Orchestra, and the Kaohsiung City Chinese Orchestra. She has performed many solo recitals and has toured to Germany with the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra.

Ms. Wang’s compositions blend western classical and traditional Chinese music. She enjoys expanding the usual instrumentation and forms used in Gu-Zheng ensembles. She was recently invited to play Gu-Zheng concerto, “Hovering in the Air,” with Ball State Symphony orchestra and a guest artist for Kansas City’s newEar contemporary chamber ensemble, UMKC Music Nova. She currently joins two ensembles, Compost Q and Orchid ensemble; these two groups bring her performs across the U.S.

DR. YU-FANG CHEN

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Yu-Fang Chen is the Assistant Professor of Music Performance – Violin at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She received her Doctoral of Musical Arts degrees on both violin and viola performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013. As a sought-after performer and pedagogy, Dr. Chen has been invited to teach and perform at various music festivals, including the Sunflower Music Festival and the Heartland Chamber Music Academy in U.S.A, the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy, and Thailand International Composition Festival in Salaya, Thailand. Dr. Chen has won numerous awards and competitions and her career as a performing artist is extensive. Her international performing career has taken her to Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Russia, South Africa, Estonia, Germany, Finland, France, Italy and the United States, and she continues to perform as a guest musician internationally with various concert artists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras. Her engagements as concerto soloist include works by Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Walton, and Tchaikovsky and performances with Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Washburn Symphonic and String Orchestra, and the Philharmonia of Kansas City, etc. From 2015-2017, Dr. Chen served as an Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Washburn University in Topeka. Additionally, She was a member of the Kansas City Symphony, the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Taiwan.

After moving to Indiana, she frequently performs with Indianapolis Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Fort Wayne Symphony, and Muncie Symphony as violinist and violists. She has worked with renowned soloists and conductors, such as Pinchas Zukerman, Yefim Bronfman, Christoph von Dohnanyi, and Seiji Ozawa, just to name a few. In this season, Dr. Chen will be the featured artist for the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, The Clear Lake Chamber Ensemble, the Ball State University Festival of New Music, 2018 Thailand International Composition Festival, etc. As an enthusiastic performer of contemporary music, she has commissioned and premiered many compositions by living composers. Her recording of Dr. Chin Ting Chan’s Shape of Wind for solo violin was published by the ABLAZE in the Records Millennial Masters vol. 7 (2017), and violin duet Thread by Chan will soon be published in the Records Millennial Masters vol. 8.

DAN GELOK

Saxophonist and educator Dan Gelok is internationally recognized and sought-after as an outstanding young performer and teacher of classical saxophone music. He received his Bachelor's degree in Music Education from Indiana University and his Masters in Saxophone Performance from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He currently holds the title of Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of Houston. His teachers include Otis Murphy, Lynn Klock, and David Baker.

He has been featured in solo and chamber music performances at the New England Saxophone Symposium, the North American Saxophone Alliance regional and national conferences, the Northeastern Texas Saxophone Symposium, and Cape Cod's Falmouth Academy. Significant recent performances include Singapore's Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts' Commuter Concert Series, the Spectrum Series at Esplanade (Singapore), the Dalian Arts School (China), plus performances with the Hwa Chong Institute Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Ballet, and the Singapore Saxophone Symposium. As a performer of new music he has worked closely with composers such as Zach Browning, Bill Ryan, Rob Smith, Kawai Shiu, Zechariah Goh, and Christian Lauba, with whom he organized an international workshop in the spring of 2012. He has recordings of new music on the Ablaze and Resolute Music record labels, and frequently performs with Musiqa, a Houston-based new music collective. As an educator, Mr. Gelok also maintains a private studio of students ranging in experience from beginner to the collegiate level. Internationally sought-after as a teacher, he has received masterclass and lecture invitations from the Northeast Texas Saxophone Symposium, The New England Saxophone Symposium, the Singapore Saxophone Symposium, the Artists Academy (Singapore) Summer Workshop Series, the Belles Artes Music Festival (Medellin, Colombia), and various universities throughout the United States. His students have advanced and received awards from prestigious contests such as the Young Texas Artist Competition, the NASA soloist competition, the J.C. Arriaga competition, the Coleman Competition, the Plowman Competition, and the Fischoff competition, to which he sent an unprecedented two ensembles in the spring of 2014. In addition, he founded and continues to serve as Director of the Houston Underground Competition, the country’s largest independent chamber music contest for high school saxophonists. Mr. Gelok is a Yamaha Performing Artist and an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Symphonia.

RUDY ALBACH

Double bassist Rudy Albach joined the CSO in 2016 as Principal Bass. Prior to joining the CSO, Rudy spent two seasons with the Houston Ballet Orchestra as a co-principal. As a substitute musician, he has also performed with the National, Houston, Cincinnati, Atlanta, and San Antonio Symphonies. A two-time member of the Schleswig-Holsten Musik Festival, Rudy has performed internationally on stages in Germany, Denmark, and China. Rudy earned his Master’s Degree in music performance from Rice University and his Bachelor’s from the Peabody Institute. His primary teachers include Paul Ellison, Paul Johnson, and Linda McKnight. A native of New Jersey, Rudy was born into a very musical family with both of his parents being professional musicians in New York City.

ANDREW SCHNEIDER

A native of Houston, Andrew Schneider is a pianist and vocal coach whose virtuosic technique and interpretative daring has cemented his

reputation among clients as a fearless musician. His extensive collaborative activity encompasses early music, standard operatic and art song repertoire, as well as contemporary music. Proficient in Italian, German, French, Latin -- and especially adept in less frequently encountered languages, such as Russian -- Andrew enjoys using his considerable linguistic skill to help make challenging texts accessible to his clients. Andrew’s wide ranging musical activities also includes harpsichord and organ performance, composition, and conducting.

Andrew holds a B.Mus. in music composition from Rice University, and in 2009, was a finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Competition. From 2012-2016, Andrew served as organist at St. Michael Catholic Church in Houston and continues to perform as a church organist throughout the Houston area. Andrew has also served LSC-Kingwood as a staff accompanist since 2014.

For Mercury Houston, a period instrument ensemble, Andrew regularly plays harpsichord continuo, and has participated in several performances for the Houston Early Music Festival. As a continuo player, Andrew has also played Handel’s Messiah with the San Antonio Symphony and the Kingwood Chorale, as well as Haydn’s Creation with the Woodlands Chorale.

In the field of opera, Andrew has served as music director for a production of Sweeney Todd and has coached Ariadne auf Naxos for the Kingwood Summer Opera. Other operas Andrew has coached include Rita, L’heure espagnole , and L’italiana in Algeri for Operativo Houston, and Hansel and Gretel .

For a 2016 Pittsburgh production, Andrew also coached the leading role in Die schweigsame Frau . Currently, Andrew works with HGOco, Houston Grand Opera's community outreach initiative, to assist in coaching singers for performances of Kamala Sankaram's Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers . In his spare moments, Andrew enjoys history, literature, linguistics, cartography, and mystery novels, all interests upon which he is apt to draw for his renowned store of indelible anecdotes. Andrew Schneider is represented by Seven Eight Artists.

JIUAN-RENG YEH

Ms. Yeh was born in Taipei city. Since 1998, Ms. Yeh joined with Chai Found Music Workshop, and now is teaching at National Taiwan Normal University, department of Chinese Music and also the chief of Szu-Xiang Orchestra of zheng. She can interpret the diversity and vitality from the traditional music, but she also long-time in touch with contemporary music to practice the complex changes and music structure in her performances. She has invited to Berlin, Darmstadt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Warsaw, Paris, Rouen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Austria, England, Hungary, Czech Republic, Lithuania, America, Canada, Israel, India, Malaysia, Korea, and Japan to join the concert.

MASAHITO SUGIHARA

Masahito Sugihara is the associate professor of saxophone at Sam Houston State University. Mas has appeared as recitalist and clinician in Brazil, Canada, England, France, Luxembourg, Norway, Japan, Scotland, and United States. He is a member of Awea Duo and Amethyst Saxophone Quartet, and has performed in the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Lyric Opera, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Grant Park Orchestra, Houston Ballet, Houston Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Network for New Music, New York City Ballet, and Reading Symphony. An advocate of contemporary music, he has worked with such notable composers including, Lee Hyla, Christian Lauba, Lei Liang, Zhou Long, Alvin Lucier, François Rossé, Mari Takano, Hans Tomalla, and Marc-Anthony Turnage. As an avid arranger, Mas has transcribed a wide range of compositions for flute/sax duo, reed quartet, saxophone quartet, and larger saxophone ensembles. Previously, he was the assistant professor of saxophone at Morehead State University and has taught saxophone and chamber music in the Chicago area at Northwestern University, Roosevelt University and Trinity Christian College. Mas is a Conn-Selmer/Selmer Paris and D’Addario Performing Artist.

BEN ROIDL-WARD

Ben Roidl-Ward is a bassoonist and improviser based in Chicago. His dedication to working with and advocating for composers of his generation has led to national tours with the string trio Chartreuse, the cello/bassoon duo Aviary, and the violin/bassoon duo Wolftone, all featuring new works for the bassoon. Ben has appeared as a soloist with the Seattle Symphony and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, along with several regional orchestras throughout the United States. He has performed with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, the Chicago Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, and has spent his summers with the Lucerne Festival Academy, Tanglewood Music Center, Spoleto Festival USA, Banff Ensemble Evolution, and the National Repertory Orchestra. A 2018 Luminarts Fellow in Classical Music, Ben is a member of the Chicago Civic Orchestra and a student of David McGill at Northwestern University. He also studied with Ben Kamins at Rice University, George Sakakeeny at the Oberlin Conservatory, and Francine Peterson in the Seattle Area.

IZUMI MIYAHARA

Flutist Izumi Miyahara is a freelance artist and educator based in Houston, Texas. She holds the Assistant Principal Flute/Piccolo position with the Symphony of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, TX, and the Piccolo/Third Flute chair with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera and Ballet Orchestras, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, New World Symphony, Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra, and as guest principal flutist with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with renowned conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Hans Graf and Paavo Jarvi, among others. Internationally, Izumi has performed in Alcala de Heneres and Madrid, Spain as well as in Lucca, Italy.

As a passionate advocate of chamber music and community engagement, Izumi is co-founder of the flute and harp duo, inFLUX. inFLUX brings innovative and progressive concerts into the community and has created artistic partnerships with organizations such as New Hope Housing, Sheltering Arms Senior Services, Daniel Pearl World Music Days, The Methodist Hospital Crane Garden Recital Series, and Holocaust Museum Houston. As the winner of the 2007 Albuquerque Flute Association Frank Bowen Competition, Izumi performed the Nielsen Flute Concerto with the Santa Fe Symphony in December 2007. Her 2009 solo recital in Houston was broadcast nationwide on National Public Radio’s Performance Today program. Her orchestral performances have been broadcast on KUHF and KTRU in Houston and WQXR in New York City. She has performed with members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as part of their Concert:Nova chamber music series. Izumi was a semi-finalist in the 2010 Piccolo Artist Competition sponsored by the National Flute Association, first place winner of the 2005 Central Ohio Flute Association Competition in Columbus, OH, the recipient of the 2004 Ira Gershwin Award in Orchestral Performance from the ASCAP Foundation in New York, and a top prize‐winner in the Cincinnati Flute Symposium’s flute competition in 2006 and 2008. Her summer festival appearances include the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, CO, the National Orchestral Institute in College Park, MD, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival in Canada. She has also performed extensively with Cincinnati’s Music X and Grandin Vocal Chamber Music Festivals from 2005 to 2008. As an educator, Izumi maintains a private flute studio and coaches clinics and masterclasses in Houston for American Festival of the Arts, Houston Youth Symphony and Houston Flute Fest. In addition to her musical activities, she is a 200 RYT certified yoga instructor in the Pralaya Yoga System. A native of New York City and a graduate of the Juilliard School Pre-College Program, Izumi holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and a Master of Music from Rice University. Her primary teachers include Randy Bowman, Leone Buyse, and Robert Boustany.

THELEMA TRIO

Thelema Trio

is a Belgian, dynamic and unusual ensemble that promotes and performs new music of the 21st century. Within diverse contemporary composition styles going from a filmic blaze of colors, and an orchestral lushness to the energy and power of avant-garde, in which emotion and story are primary and thoughts can roam free.   With their unique line-up of piano, saxophone and clarinet, many composers have been written for them. Thelema Trio has played on big-name festivals in Europe, Japan, Latin-America and in the United States and recorded two full cd's.  To learn more about Thelema Trio please visit their website.

WARD

DE VLEESCHHOUWER

Ward De Vleeschhouwer studied at the School of Arts in Gent, studying piano with Claude Coppens and Daan Vandewalle, composition with Luc Brewaeys and Frank Nuyts, and improvisation with Peter Vermeersch. Ward likes to embrace different music styles. From contemporary classical music to African and Peruvian folk music to chamber rock music. In 2013 he released his first solo album 'Chicha Morada', featuring Peruvian piano music. With  the progressive chamber rock band Aranis and Present, Thelema Trio and as a soloist, Ward has played at prestigious festivals and renowned concert halls in Europe, USA, Japan, Brasil and Peru.

As a composer, Ward writes for piano, chamber music, theater and film. Many of his titles have names of African masks such as Boki (2010), Warakun (2014) for piano solo, Goli (2009) for piano four hands and Kono (2016) for violin and piano. Ward has also written for ensembles including Spectra Ensemble, Thelema Trio, Kugoni Trio and Aranis. Several of his works are recorded on CD and some of his piano works are published with HrdScr Editions and Metropolis Music Publishers. Ward is teaching piano, improvisation and Soundpainting in SAMWD Deinze in Belgium.

PETER VERDONCK

Peter Verdonck studied at the School of Arts in Gent with Willy Demey. Peter also studied composition with Lucien Posman and graduated in 2003 with highest honours for saxophone, chamber music and improvisation. In 2007 he also received his postgraduate diploma for Concert Soloist at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp where he studied saxophone with Hans de Jong. Peter also took masterclasses with Hans De Jong, Claude Delangle and Rasscher Saxophone Quartet. He’s the founder, composer, lead singer and tenor saxophonist of death metal outfit Wound Collector, who released the first full-CD on 24 May 2018 via Profane Records. Since June 2012 he also performs regularly with his own balkan band De Pandoering. The Antwerp based organisation Champ d’Action often involves Peter in their contemporary and experimental programs. Furthermore he’s a member of krautrock band Manngold de Cobre, with this group a first CD was recorded in the summer of 2013, and improvisation collective FUNDAMENT. Peter also record with a.o. The Rhythm Junks and Va Fan Fahre. In 2014 Peter began to compose his first musical “Muizenissen”. In May 2015 this was performed by Kon. Kath. Fanfare De Kunstliefde from Melsele and pupils from primary school De Toren from Melsele. June 2018 marks the debut of his second musical “Jungle Koorts”. These groups, ensembles and project have taken him to concert halls and festivals all over Europe, Japan, China, Peru and USA. As a teacher of saxophone and chamber music Peter is active at the Heilig Graf Institute in Turnhout and the Academie Wijnegem Schilde Zoersel. As a composer Peter mainly writes chamber music for various line-ups. A number of his works have been recorded by a.o. Thelema Trio, Ambrassband, Aardbeefman and Aranis.

RIK DE GEYTER

Rik De Geyter is currently clarinettist/bass clarinettist of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway, assistant professor clarinet and bassclarinet at NTNU Institutt for Musikk in Trondheim and since 2011 is he assistant-teacher of Eddy Vanoosthuyse at the Royal Conservatory in Liège (Belgium).He is a former clarinettist of the Royal Band of the Belgian Guides, was a member of the EUYO (European Union Youth Orchestra) and played with the Brussels Philharmonic, Trondheim Sinfonietta, Trondheim Soloists, Württenbergisches Kammerorchester, Bergen Philharmonic, Alpaca Ensemble amongst others.As the clarinettist of Thelema Trio (21th century music), he performed on many stages including some tours in the USA and Norway. With his sister Griet De Geyter (soprano) and pianist Nicolas Callot, togheter Trio Meleas, he performs recitals regularly. Besides this ensembles is he an active chamber musician in all kinds of combinations, not scared of any experiment.As the chairman of ‘Dagen van de Huismuziek’ he organizes musical courses for youth.At the Lemmensinstitute in Leuven(Belgium), he studied with Eddy Vanoosthuyse and graduated as Master in Music in 2009 and Master-after-Master in 2013. In between he went to the Ghent conservatory where he studied bass clarinet with Marc Kerckhof.