Adam Mayon received his Bachelor of Music, summa cum laude, from Loyola University in New Orleans. He is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music. Adam was the 2010-2011 Music Teachers National Association’s National Winner in the Young Artist Piano Competition, and he was the first collegiate freshman to win the 2009 Loyola Concerto and Aria Competition. In the summer of 2011, he performed for the National Conference of Keyboard Pedagogy in Chicago and was a guest performer for the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans. He also had the honor of being the piano hand double for Zac Efron in the 2012 movie “The Lucky One.” Starting piano at the early age of 5, his passion for piano and music in general has flourished.
Adam has studied with Dr. John Murphy, professor of piano at Loyola University in New Orleans, Dr. Frank Heneghan, Dr. Chan Kiat Lim, and Jac McCracken. He has taken part in master classes with Logan Skelton, Nelita True, Alan Chow, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Frank Heneghan, and Alexander Korsantia.
As a scholarship student, Angela JeongHyun Kim received her Bachelor of Music, Masters of Music, and Graduate Diploma with Academic Honors at the New England Conservatory of Music.
A native of South Korea, Ms. Kim began her piano studies at the age of four and made her first public debut as the winner of the Soong Eui Competition in Seoul when she was only nine years old. Upon turning sixteen, Ms. Kim came to the United States to continue her music studies with world renowned pedagogue Wha Kyung Byun. As a high school student she performed numerous concerts along the east coast including the Walnut Hill Gala at Harvard University’s Sanders Theatre, and the 9/11 Memorial Concert at Saint Paul Chapel at the heart of Ground Zero in New York City. During that time, Ms. Kim toured and performed in Panama and Guatemala as a pianist with the New England Conservatory Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Benjamin Zander. In her very first year at the New England Conservatory of Music, she was the winner of the Piano Department Honors Audition. She has performed many festival concerts celebrating the birth and death of important composers of piano literature including Messiaen, Haydn, Liszt, and Scriabin. Recent engagements include tours with the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra in Michigan and Filarmonica Joven de Colombia.
As an active new music performer, Ms. Kim has performed and premiered works by many influential composers such as John Zorn, Steve Reich, Frederic Rzewski, and Gunther Schuller. Ms. Kim also collaborates with the Callithumpian Consort in Boston, a new music ensemble, in residence at the New England Conservatory, directed by Steve Drury. Along with the collaboration of percussionist Andre Sonner, Ms. Kim has also formed a noteworthy Boston based Piano/Percussion Duo performing new music for the genre as one of the very few groups that exist in the country.
Ms. Kim has worked with many world renowned musicians including Russell Sherman, Lev Natochenny, Gary Graffman, Hung-Kuan Chen, and Hae Sun Paik. She is currently pursuing her Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature as a student of Natalya Antonova.
Born and raised in rural Alabama, Cahill Smith began playing the piano at age ten. Six years later, he made his orchestral debut playing Robert Muczinsky’s Piano Concerto with the Shoals Symphony Orchestra. Before coming to Eastman, he completed his Master’s degree at the University of Michigan with Arthur Greene, and his Bachelor’s at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he studied with concert pianist and Cliburn-laureate Yakov Kasman.
Amid his solo recitals, Cahill has been featured as a soloist with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and the Samford University Orchestra. Cahill has also enjoyed success in regional, national, and international piano competitions over the past several years, most recently in the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition, and the Music Teachers National Association Competition. Cahill has been featured in public master classes with Joseph Kalichstein, Jerome Lowenthal, Julian Martin, Ann Schein, and Claude Frank, to name a few.
Active in other fields of music, Cahill also plays the trumpet, and has concertized in both the United States and Europe on that instrument. In composition, he has performed his own cadenzas in concerto performance with orchestra.
Cahill is currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Piano Performance and Literature as a student of Natalya Antonova.
Min Hwan Kim began his musical studies at the age of six in South Korea; after a year he began playing the piano. He was named a top prizewinner in the Fifteenth Korean National Students Music Contest.
Since Min Hwan made his orchestral debut with the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra in 2004, he has performed with the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, Bellflower Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles County High School for the Arts Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, New York; Mozarteum, Salzburg; and Herbert Zipper Concert Hall, Los Angeles; as well as in other venues in South Korea, Itlay and throughout the United States. He also has performed in numerous master classes given by artists such as Philippe Bianconi, Alexander Braginsky, Akiko Ebi, Norma Fisher, Douglas Humpherys, Menahem Pressler, Susan Starr, Mykola Suk, and Arie Vardi. His major music festival participation includes PianoTexas International Academy & Festival, International Keyboard Institute and Festival, London Master Classes, and International Summer Academy Mozarteum.
A top prizewinner of several regional and international competitions, Min Hwan has won, among many others: First Prize from International Isabel Scionti Piano Solo Competition and Second Prize from Kingsville International Concerto Competition; First Prize in Duo Category from Second New York Piano Competition; First Prize from Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition; First Prize from Edith Knox Performance Competition; and Third Prize from Jefferson Symphony Young Artists Competition.
After coming to the United States in 1999, Min Hwan has studied piano in Los Angeles with Walter Ponce while attending Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at Eastman with Natalya Antonova and is currently pursuing his Master of Music degree.
John Marcin is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Literature at the Eastman School of Music. His musical foundation has been shaped by years of study at the Peabody Preparatory of the Johns Hopkins University. He began studying the piano at age seven under Elizabeth Azcona-Hartmark at the Preparatory, and was very fortunate to have also received a complete musical education in theory, composition, and chamber music. At the Preparatory, John was an active recitalist, and the recipient of numerous awards, including the Victoria Gittings Prize for Outstanding Accomplishment in Piano and the Grace Newman Cushman Prize for Excellence in Musicianship. He continued his musical studies at the University of Maryland, where he studied with Mikhail Volchok and earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Piano Performance as a scholarship recipient from both the University and the School of Music. John has participated in several music festivals, including the Traditional Session at the Adamant Music School, the Gijón International Piano Festival, and the Chautauqua Music Festival, where he was the winner of the 2010 Sigma Alpha Iota Concerto Competition.
Shichao Zhang is a first prize winner at the Hong Kong (Asia) Piano Open Competition, the second prize winner at the MTNA (Music Teachers National Association, USA) Young Artist Performance Competition (New York), and the third prize winner at the 2011 Jefferson Symphony International Young Artists Competition. He has appeared in solo recitals, classical radio program, orchestral performances, and chamber music concerts at Beijing Poly Theatre, the Forbidden City Concert Hall, the National Library of China Concert Hall, Rialto Center for the Arts, Arvada Center for the Arts, Eastman Kilbourn Hall, Eastman Hatch Recital Hall, Geneva Smith Center for the Arts, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and WXXI 91.5 radio. He debuted compositions of Chinese modern composers, such as Huguang Xin and Jin Xue. He has also performed extensively in China as a national choir pianist and participated in many prestigious music festivals.
Currently a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music, Shichao Zhang studies under Professor Douglas Humpherys, chair of the piano department. In addition to his duties s a Class Piano Teaching Assistant of Professor Tony Caramia, he is the Studio Teaching Assistant of Professor Vincent Lenti. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance at the Eastman School of Music, with the highest distinction in 2012.
He had also studied with Professor Yafen Zhu in China. He has taken part in master classes and been coached by prestigious musicians such as Guangren Zhou, Logan Skelton, Alan Chow, Zhong Xu, Choi Sown Le, Jean Barr and Lang Lang, and has received high remarks from them.
Acclaimed as a pianist with “astounding musical authority”, Susan Zhang made her orchestral debut at the age of twelve with the Augusta Symphony after winning the Augusta Symphony Concerto Competition. Since then, she has been featured as a soloist with the South Carolina Philharmonic multiple times. Susan has been a prizewinner of many competitions, including the 2009 Burgos International Music Festival Competition and 2005 Arthur Fraser International Concerto Competition at the Southeastern Piano Festival. She has performed in numerous solo recitals in the United States and will be concertizing and giving master classes in China this summer.
Susan recently received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of South Carolina under the tutelage of Dr. Marina Lomazov. In the past, she has also worked with Joseph Rackers, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Boris Slutsky, Robert McDonald, and Ursula Oppens. She is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree in Piano Performance and Literature at Eastman.
