November 2023 Artists
Agatha Blevin
Peruvian-American violinist, Agatha Blevin, recently completed her Master’s Degree under Martin Chalifour at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She is currently on faculty at the Colburn School, working for the Center for Innovation and Community Impact (CICI). Agatha identifies first and foremost as a passionate chamber musician and has performed in small ensembles alongside Paul Neubauer, Axel Strauss, Caroline Shaw, Roger Tapping and many others across the United States. She has also competed in the Coltman Chamber Music Competition, Fischoff Competition, and received first prize in the Kuttner Quartet Competition. Throughout her young career, Agatha has continued to advocate for contemporary compositions in the hopes of expanding the classical music canon. As a member of the Lucerne Festival Academy, she has supported her mission to study and perform new and sometimes overlooked contemporary works. Outside of her violin playing, Agatha is an avid hiker and runner. She will also never pass up the occasional post-performance glass of fine red wine. Agatha currently performs on a violin by Mario Miralles, generously on loan to her through a private donor and bows made by W.E. Hill & Sons. |
Anthony Cardella
Anthony Cardella is a dynamic and compelling, active performer who has performed in esteemed concert halls across the United States and Europe, and has won regional and national performance competitions in the United States. A Wisconsin native, Anthony moved to Los Angeles in 2019 after completing his undergraduate studies at the Lawrence Conservatory of Music. Since then, he has been performing, teaching, and collaborating in the Los Angeles area while pursuing further studies at the Thornton School of Music. Anthony is an award-winning performer who has been praised for his virtuosity, exceptionally delicate touch, and colorful playing that connects with his audiences on an emotional level. Anthony is known for assembling programs that showcase the full extent of his technical abilities and vulnerability at the piano in tandem, while actively seeking out music written by living composers to program and showcase in addition to standard Classical repertoire. Anthony’s performing career has recently centered around a combination of abstract art and Classical/Contemporary music, creating interdisciplinary experiences for audiences. Anthony holds a Bachelor of Music with honors in Piano Performance and Pedagogy from Lawrence University and Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, and is a Doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at USC, teaching at the collegiate level while also doing research in musicology and pedagogy. Anthony’s passions in pedagogy include modernized teaching approaches that value many genres of music to adequately prepare students for multifaceted careers and opportunities ahead of them, as well as injury prevention at the piano with specialized work and research done in Taubman Technique and ergonomic piano playing. In addition to his private students and work at USC, Anthony is also a member of the keyboard faculty at Occidental College. Website: Anthonycardellapiano.com |
William Chiang
William Chiang completed degrees at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where he studied under the tutelage of Evelyne Brancart and André Watts. He began piano studies with Olga Radosavljevich at the Cleveland Institute of Music and later studied with Andrey Ponochevny and Pamela Mia Paul in Dallas, Texas. William has performed with the Hollywood Chamber Orchestra, Plano Symphony Orchestra, Lewisville Lake Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, and Indiana University orchestras. He has been a recipient of top prizes at the Redlands Bowl Concerto Competition, Memphis International Piano Competition, MTNA California State Competition, Hellam Competition, International Keyboard Odyssiad, Knabe International Piano Competition, and Beardsley Piano Prize, among others. He was a recipient of the 2014 Texas Commission on the Arts’s Young Masters in the Arts Scholarship recognizing young musicians and artists in Texas. William has attended summer festivals such as Brevard, Chautauqua Institution, Orford Musique, Texas State International Piano Festival, Art of the Piano, and Dublin International Piano Festival. Most recently, he was the Piano Resident Artist at the 2023 Windwood Music Festival. An avid chamber musician and collaborative pianist, William seeks to encourage musical collaboration as a method of social dialogue, community activism, and to promote contemporary music. William is currently pursuing a doctorate in piano performance with Bernadene Blaha at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, where he is a Studio Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Studies, serves as a staff pianist, and is a piano instructor at the USC Keck School of Medicine. |
Erica Lee
Erica Lee is a Los Angeles-based pianist and educator. She is currently pursuing a DMA in Piano Performance at USC’s Thornton School of Music, where she also earned her bachelor's and master's degrees under the guidance of Dr. Lucinda Carver and Jeffrey Kahane. Erica serves as a keyboard studies teaching assistant, lecturing group piano classes and private teaching for non-major undergraduate students. She is an active member of the Music Teachers National Association USC Collegiate Chapter, has represented the chapter at the CAPMT State Conference and MTNA National Conference, and proudly serves on the board of officers to organize and provide additional teaching resources, opportunities, and workshops to USC music students. An avid music educator, Erica is a faculty member at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music and is certified as an elementary piano teacher through the Royal Conservatory of Music. During her undergraduate years, Erica served as a mentor with the Thornton Community Engagement Program, through which she taught group music classes and accompanied choir rehearsals at partnering Los Angeles Unified School District elementary schools. Outside the classroom, Erica was also involved in the Thornton Student Ambassador Program, where she served as Ambassador Leader in her final year. She simultaneously completed a B.S. in Business Administration and was honored as a Renaissance Scholar upon graduation. |
Kaitlin Miller
Kaitlin is currently an active musician in the Los Angeles area performing in orchestral, chamber, and solo settings. Her favorite music to perform ranges from romantic French music to the innovative compositions of contemporary artists. In her orchestral pursuits, Kaitlin has performed with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, and American Youth Symphony. Kaitlin’s achievements include winning the 2019 AHS in Dallas Scholarship Competition and the 2020 Anne Adams Awards Competition. She was also honored with fellowships at the Music Academy of the West in 2022 and 2023. Distinguished as the Young Professional Division winner of the AHS National Competition, Kaitlin now stands as the Concert Artist for 2023-2025. |
Yu-Chen (Janet) Yang
Yu-Chen (Janet) Yang is a 22 year-old Taiwanese violist. She believes the most important thing is to let the music touch people’s hearts and to express the emotions that one wants to share with people. Yu-Chen currently studies with Professor Yura Lee at USC Thornton School of Music where she will earn a master degree of music in viola performance. Prior to attending USC Thornton School of Music, she studied at San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Professor Dimitri Murrath and earned her bachelor degree. During her studies, she has participated in Taipei Music Academy Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Allegro Vivo Festival in Austria and International Mendelsohn Music Festival in Germany. She has studied chamber music with members of Guarneri and Telegraph String Quartets. Yu-Chen has also received instruction from Katherine Murdock, Hsin-Yun Huang, Wen-ting Kang, Paul Coletti, Che-Yen Chen, Ivo-Jan van der Werff, Jessica Bodner, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Mai Motobuchi, Nobuko Imai, Ayane Kozasa, Hartmut Rohde among others. |