MEET OUR JUDGES
Jun Cho
PIANO
Pianist JUN CHO is a multifaceted artist known for his versatility as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator. His performances have captivated audiences in major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center, Benaroya Hall, Kennedy Center, Barclay Theater, Salle Bourgie, Sala Sinfónia Pablo Casals, and Seoul Arts Center, among others. Cho has appeared as a guest artist at Gijón International Piano Festival, La Jolla Music Society, Cabrillo Festival, Harriman-Jewell Series, North Shore Chamber Music Festival, The Phillips Collection, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, and Pro Arte Musical Puerto Rico, among others. He has given lectures and masterclasses in Arizona State University and Sungshin Women's University, and Korea International School of Arts (KISA).
A passionate collaborator, Cho frequently performs with esteemed musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Philippe Quint, Stefan Jackiw, Ray Chen, Clive Greensmith, Steven Banks, and Randall Goosby, among others. As a featured pianist with the Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet, a winner of the Latin GRAMMY Award, Cho brings the rich tradition of tango to life in renowned New York City venues such as The Iridium, Joe’s Pub, and Barbès. In 2024, Cho participated in the world premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Haemosu’s Celestial Chariot Ride (commissioned and performed by Sejong Soloists) at Zankel Hall.
Concurrent with his position at Syracuse University as Assistant Professor of Piano, Cho is an artist-faculty member at the Perlman Music Program and serves as the studio pianist for violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School. At Juilliard, he also assists piano faculty member Julian Martin. In the past, he served as a faculty member at the Heifetz Institute and taught at the Michael P. Hammond Preparatory Division at Rice University.
As a founding member of New York in Chuncheon, a music festival based in Chuncheon, South Korea, Cho has played a pivotal role in creating a vibrant cultural exchange between New York City and Chuncheon. Since 2012, the festival has featured performances by prominent NYC musicians, including members of Brooklyn Rider, Attaca Quartet, and Sybarite 5. Through its outreach programs, including masterclasses and mentorship activities, the festival has nurtured the talents of aspiring musicians in Chuncheon, fostering a thriving musical community. In 2016, Cho, along with the other festival members, was appointed an honorary ambassador of Chuncheon.
Cho holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music in piano performance from the Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His teachers include Julian Martin and Jon Kimura Parker.
Tyler Duncan
VOICE
With a voice described as “honey-coloured and warm, yet robust and commanding” (The Globe and Mail), baritone TYLER DUNCAN has performed worldwide to great acclaim in both opera and concert repertoire. Recent and upcoming engagements in 2021/22 include Handel’s Messiah with TENET Vocal Artists, Schubert’s Winterreise with the Aspect Chamber Music Series and selections from J.S. Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with Early Music Vancouver. In 2022, Mr Duncan will appear with Arizona Early Music in Handel’s Apollo e Dafne and Bach’s Ich habe genug, join Vancouver Symphony in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, returns to the Handel and Haydn Society in C.P.E. Bach’s Magnificat, re-join Music of the Baroque as the bass soloist in Haydn’s Creation and reprise Bach’s Ich habe genug with Mercury Chamber Orchestra.
Mr. Duncan has performed at The Metropolitan Opera as Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, Huntsman in Rusalka, Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Moralès and Le Dancaïre in Carmen, Herald in Verdi’s Otello, Millhand in Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk and the Journalist in Lulu. At the Spoleto Festival USA, he debuted as Mr. Friendly in the 18th-century ballad opera Flora, returning the next season as Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte. Other notable appearances have included Raymondo in Handel’s Almira, Dandini in La Cenerentola with Pacific Opera Victoria and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Princeton Festival. In the realm of new opera, he recently performed the role of Raymond in Nic Gotham’s Nigredo Hotel with City Opera Vancouver and sang the world premiere of Jonathan Berger’s Leonardo at the 92stY in NYC. In the summer of 2021, Mr. Duncan covered the role of Arthur in Le roi Arthus (Chausson) at Bard Summerscape.
Mr. Duncan has received prizes from the Naumburg, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Munich’s ARD competitions, and won the 2010 Joy in Singing competition, 2008 New York Oratorio Society’s Lyndon Woodside Oratorio-Solo Competition, 2007 Prix International Pro Musicis Award, and Bernard Diamant Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. Originally from British Columbia, Canada, he now resides in the scenic Hudson Valley of New York and holds a passport from both countries. Mr. Duncan earned music degrees from the University of British Columbia, Hochschule für Musik (Augsburg), and Hochschule für Musik und Theater (Munich) and is currently on the voice faculty of the Longy School of Music in Boston.
Shari Hoffman
CLARINET
SHARI HOFFMAN is currently Associate Clarinet with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. She is Principal Clarinet of the American Symphony Orchestra and second clarinet with the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra Ms. Hoffman has performed with many of New York City’s finest ensembles, including the New York City Opera Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. Comfortable performing in many musical styles, Ms. Hoffman has been a member of numerous Broadway show orchestras including “My Fair Lady”, “The King and I”, and “South Pacific”. She is an active chamber musician, and a passionate teacher. Born and raised in the Philadelphia area, Ms. Hoffman completed her Bachelors and Masters degrees at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Her principal teachers were Jon Manasse, Eli Eban, and Kenneth Grant.
Jia Kim
CELLO
Cellist JIA KIM, recipient of the prestigious 2017 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Foundation for Performing and Visual Arts, leads a dynamic musical life as a performer, educator, and a passionate advocate for the Arts. She has appeared on stages across the United States, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East with performances broadcasted on WQXR, PBS, KMZT Classical, and acclaimed by the New York Times. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Kim has performed at Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. Ms. Kim has been invited as Visiting Artist at the University of Hawaii, American Academy of Jordan, College of William and Mary, Grand Valley State University, and served as a Tone Judge for the Violin Society of America's 2016 International Competition.
A devoted educator, Ms. Kim currently serves on the Faculty of The Juilliard School Pre College Division, The Mannes School of Music, The Perlman Music Program, and New York Youth Symphony’s Chamber Music Program.
As Artistic Director of Central Chamber Series in NYC and Chamber Music Stowe in Vermont, she is committed to connecting with a wider audience through the powerful language of Chamber Music.
Ms. Kim is a member of the award-winning Aeolus Quartet. She is evermore grateful to her mentors and teachers Itzhak&Toby Perlman, Ronald Leonard, and to Joel Krosnick, with whom she studied at The Juilliard School for a Bachelor and Master Degree in Music. Ms.Kim performs on a Testore cello made in 1748 and a cello made by Sam Zygmuntowicz.
Shelley Monroe
BASSOON
Kurt Nikkanen
VIOLIN
American violinist KURT NIKKANEN is an international soloist of the highest order. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, he began his violin studies at the age of three, later studying with Roman Totenberg and Jens Ellerman. At twelve he gave his Carnegie Hall debut, performing with the New York Symphony; two years later he was invited by Zubin Mehta to perform the Paganini Concerto No.1 with the New York Philharmonic for a Young People’s Concert. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a scholarship student of Dorothy DeLay.
Mr. Nikkanen regularly receives invitations from the leading orchestras and presenters in the USA and Europe, and has toured Japan and the Far East. In North America he has appeared with the Dallas Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra, and in Europe with the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Dresden Staatskapelle. He has worked with many leading conductors.
An enthusiastic advocate of contemporary music, Kurt Nikkanen has given numerous performances of the John Adams Violin Concerto, with orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Oregon Symphony, Hallé Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony (all under the composer’s direction).
Highlights of recent seasons have included a UK tour with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, performances with the Gothenburg Symphony and Neeme Jarvi at the BBC Proms, and concerts with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Prague Symphony and RTE Orchestra in Dublin; also with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Suddeutscher Rundfunk orchestras, both with the late Yakov Kreizberg, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra with Junichi Hirokami. He has also appeared with the Belgian National Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony and the orchestra of RAI Turin, the Detroit Symphony and Orchestra of Galicia, the Bilbao Symphony, the Malaysian Philharmonic and performances of the Dvorak concerto with the Czech Philharmonic and Vladimir Ashkenazy, both in Prague and on tour in the USA, with concerts in New York and Chicago. In 2011, he was featured as soloist in a performance of the Barber Violin Concerto and Ravel Tzigane with the Turku Philharmonic in a live webcast that was streamed worldwide.
Mr. Nikkanen has had many works written for him, including Steven R. Gerber’s violin concerto, which he has recorded for Koch International. In 2009, Mr. Nikkanen performed the world premiere of Mikko Heinio’s concerto Alla Madre, subsequently recording it for Sony Classical with the Turku Philharmonic under Petri Sakari and released in 2010. His recording of William Walton’s Violin Concerto with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra was released on the Nimbus Alliance label in 2010 and was chosen as “Critics Choice for 2010” in Gramophone Magazine.
Mr. Nikkanen gave the New York premiere of the Violin Concerto by Thomas Adès in May 2010 and has since performed it in Australia with the Perth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Paul Daniel.
In addition to his orchestral appearances, Kurt Nikkanen performs regularly as a recitalist both in the US and abroad with his wife, pianist Maria Asteriadou, presenting repertoire ranging from the complete Beethoven sonatas to Piazzolla tangos.
He is the Concertmaster of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and maintains a private teaching studio in New York, where he resides with his family.
Inesa Sinkevych
PIANO
A laureate of the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Ukrainian- born pianist INESA SINKEVYCH has also won first prizes in the Maria Canals International Piano Competition in Barcelona and the Concurso Internacional de Piano Premio “Jaén” in Spain, as well as awards in the Minnesota International Yamaha Piano-e-Competition; the Vianna da Motta and the Porto international competitions in Portugal among others. Inesa Sinkevych has been praised for her “intense, thrilling and sophisticated playing” (General-Anzeiger, Germany), “brilliant note-perfect fluency” (New York Concert Review), “grand passion and elegant lyricism” (Audiophile Audition), and “rich cantabile” (Ritmo, Spain). She has been described as a “Schubertian of real distinction,” with a “maturity that belies her age (Music Web International), and as an “artist with intuition that knows to look far beyond technique” (Diario de Noticias, Lisbon). “Grasping the overarching structure and purpose,” writes JWR Review, “is Sinkevych’s strength.”
As soloist she has appeared with the Israel Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Orchestra of Lisbon, Orquesta Nacional del Cuba, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic of Spain, the Porto Symphony of Portugal, the Tenerife Symphony of the Canary Islands, the Warsaw Symphony Orchestra, and the Kharkov Youth Orchestra, among others. She has performed as recitalist, chamber player, and orchestral soloist at the Mann Auditorium in Tel Aviv, the Purcell Room in London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Minnesota Orchestra Hall, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Hong Kong City Hall, Guanghualu Arts Center in Beijing, Joaquin Rodrigo Auditorium in Madrid, the National Philharmonic Hall of Ukraine, and the Great Hall of the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. Recent performances include appearances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Bar Harbor Music Festival, Dame Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago, Festival de El Valle de Anton in Panama, with the Orquesta National del Cuba and Orquesta Mozartiano de La Habana, as well as in Shanghai, Beijing, Shenyang, and Guangzhoua in China on tour. Inesa Sinkevych appeared live on WFMT Chicago, Kol Israel, Classical WETA Washington, the RDP Portugal, Minnesota Public Radio, and Mezzo Classic TV Channel, France. She performed at the Israeli Presidential Conference (2008) in Jerusalem for U.S. President G.W. Bush and Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Dr. Sinkevych has been a member of the Piano faculty of Manhattan School of
Music’s College Division since 2014 and Precollege Division since 2008, and is serving as a Co-Head of the Piano Department at the Manhattan School of Music since 2022.