Described by Rudolf Jansen as an “intelligent, sensitive and thoughtful pianist”, Dutch-Chinese collaborative pianist Michelle Chow has performed throughout Europe and the U.S., including the Concertgebouw and Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ in Amsterdam, Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht, Southwark Cathedral and Regent Hall in London and Lincoln City Cultural Center in the U.S. She was the winner of the Royal Academy of Music London Brahms Wilfrid Parry Prize, Harold Craxton Prize for chamber music, and recipient of the Evelyn German Prize, the Frank & Hilda Stokes Prize, and the Marjorie Meyer Memorial Prize. She has worked with such esteemed musicians as Dmitri Bashkirov, Nino Gvetadze, Helmut Deutsch, Rudolf Jansen, György Pauk, Henning Kraggerud, Philippe Graffin, Christoph Richter and Yuzuko Horigome. Michelle was a Repetiteur Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music from 2022-2024. She is also on faculty at the Savonnlina Music Academy since summer 2023. Headshot by by Felix Quaedvlieg.

Mimi Jung is a Los Angeles-based violinist who brings warmth, imagination, and heartfelt expression to every performance. Formerly the associate concertmaster of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra in Belgium, she now focuses on solo and chamber music activities while teaching a vibrant community of young musicians in her private studio. Highlights of her 2026 season include performances of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with violist David Samuel and the Jaibaná Chamber Orchestra, and Alban Berg's Violin Concerto with Sinfonía EAFIT, both under the direction of conductor Valentín Bravo. Additional engagements include a series of string quartet performances throughout Los Angeles and Colombia with Quarteto Peregrino, as well as recital appearances. Mimi is the founder of the Canvas Music Project, an initiative dedicated to creating immersive performances that unite music and visual art. Previous collaborations with Summer Studios Arts Academy featured works by Ysaÿe, Bach, Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Debussy, and Arvo Pärt, presented alongside original visual artwork, live painting created during the performance, and interactive opportunities for families to paint together while experiencing the music. In 2026, she launched the Jung-Bravo Artists Concert Series, an intimate performance platform that pairs beloved repertoire with lesser-known works, inviting audiences into the artistic process through conversations about interpretation, preparation, and the stories behind the music. As a dedicated educator and mentor, she prepares students for competitions and auditions, drawing from her own experiences at international competitions such as the Queen Elisabeth, Michael Hill, and ARD competitions. During the pandemic, she documented her journey of learning all 24 Paganini Caprices in 24 weeks, opening up conversations around perfectionism, resilience, and the lifelong process of growth as a musician. Whether in traditional concert settings or more personal environments, Mimi is passionate about making music that brings people together, sparks curiosity, and feels deeply human.

Katherine Schultz began her musical journey as a violinist at age 3 in her local Suzuki program, but after 11 years of whining about having to practice while standing up her mother finally let her switch to the cello (she would now give anything to be able to practice while standing up.) She currently serves as the principal cellist of the Portland Chamber Orchestra and Orchestra Nova Northwest (and has been featured as a soloist with both groups), assistant principal of the Oregon Ballet Theatre and Portland Opera orchestras, and music festivals such as Siletz Bay, Sunriver, Oregon Coast, and Alaska Resounding. Katherine harbors a strong passion for the repertoire and camaraderie of small ensemble performance. In addition to being a featured chamber musician at SBMF Katherine performs regularly for the highly popular Candlelight Concert series, the Portland Cello Project, the WildWood and Stumptown string quartets, and with various ensembles on the All-Classical radio show Thursdays @ Three. Always interested in stepping outside the classical genre, Katherine has recorded with the Von Trapps and played live with such artists as k.d. lang, Chicago, The Eagles, and The Who.

Ricky Smith is a dynamic performer and educator based in Portland, Oregon. He performs as Second and Bass Clarinet with the Oregon Ballet Theatre Orchestra and recently served as Acting Principal Clarinet with the Portland Opera and Acting Second Clarinet with the Oregon Symphony. He has also performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Eugene Symphony, and chamber ensembles such as 45th Parallel Universe, along with various regional orchestras throughout Portland and Western Pennsylvania.

In the summer, he has performed in the Siletz Bay Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria.

A passionate advocate for music education, Ricky maintains a thriving private studio made up of students from across Portland. He also teaches clarinet at George Fox University and is excited to begin teaching at University of Portland and Pacific University in the Fall of 2026.

Ricky holds a Master of Music and an Advanced Music Studies Certificate in Clarinet Performance from Carnegie Mellon University, as well as a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from Southern Methodist University. His principal teachers include Michael Rusinek and Paul Garner. Outside of music, he enjoys skiing, exploring Oregon’s wine country, and traveling.

Hailed by the Washington Post for “virtuosity and penetrating intelligence,” violinist and violist James Stern is a member of the Stern/Andrist Duo with his wife, Canadian pianist Audrey Andrist, and Strata, a trio in which the two of them are joined by clarinetist Nathan Williams. The duo has performed throughout the United States, Canada and China, with additional recitals in Munich and Paris. Their recent collaboration with cellist Steven Honigberg on trios by Dvořák and Fauré was deemed “extraordinary” by Fanfare magazine for its “gripping intensity.” Stern has recorded the complete Sonatas and Partitas by J. S. Bach on Albany Records.

He has performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Banff and Bowdoin festivals as well as at New York’s Alice Tully Hall and Carnegie Hall. Well-known to Washington, D. C. audiences, he has performed with the 21st Century Consort, VERGE Ensemble, the Smithsonian Chamber Players and the Axelrod Quartet, at the Corcoran Gallery, the German and French Embassies, Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, National Gallery, Phillips Collection, and the White House. 

Stern is Professor at the University of Maryland where he has been named Distinguished Scholar-Teacher. He has performed and taught at many summer festivals including Green Mountain, Eastern Chamber Music Conference, National Orchestral Institute, California Summer Music, Master Players Festival, Intermuse International Festival, and Colorado MahlerFest. He plays on a violin by Vincenzo Panormo built in 1781.

Praised for his virtuosity and depth, pianist Mei-Ting has performed the complete solo works of Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, and all 32 Beethoven Sonatas—an ambitious achievement that reflects his artistic breadth and intellectual rigor. After winning major competitions, including the National Chopin Competition of the U.S. and the first Piano-e International Competition, his career has taken him to renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional, Zurich’s Tonhalle, and Prague’s Obecní dům. Mei-Ting has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras around the world, including the Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Orquesta Nacional de España, the Warsaw Philharmonic, Prague Philharmonia, and Mexico’s National Symphony, performing under distinguished conductors such as Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Antoni Wit, Jakub Hrůša, Lü Jia, and Pablo González. Known also for his inventive transcriptions, Mei-Ting has expanded the piano’s sonic reach with original arrangements of orchestral and operatic works, including Ravel’s La valse, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, and selections from R. Strauss’s Rosenkavalier and Salome. These works have received critical acclaim for their brilliance and daring pianism. A Yamaha Artist, Mei-Ting continues to captivate audiences worldwide with performances that blend precision, imagination, and emotional depth.

Cellist Isaac Ward, age 18, is a student of Dr. Melissa Kraut. This fall he will begin a performance degree as a scholarship student at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he will study with Hannah Roberts. He was awarded scholarships at the Interlochen Fine Arts Camp where he won the principal chair, and twice to the Tanglewood Institute String Quartet Workshop. His studies have continued in Cleveland at Ascent Cello Intensive and Chamber Music Festivals, and at renowned Vivace International Music Festival in North Carolina where he was featured in their Rising Stars Concert Series, in addition to being asked to perform alongside faculty at the Vivace finale concert.

His travel has been subsidized in part by the Alaska Community Foundation’s Croft String Music Scholarship for Young Musicians. This year he won the Anchorage Civic Orchestra’s Concerto Competition playing Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante. He has won the Symphony of Sounds competition multiple times, performing the Elgar Cello Concerto and Bruch’s Kol Nidrei. In 2025, Isaac won the Alaska Youth Orchestras Concerto Competition with Dvorak’s Cello Concerto, performed to sold-out audiences as a featured local musician with the Portland Cello Project, and earned Honorable Mention in the Gustav Mahler Institute Prague 2025 International Competition. He has been invited as a professional featured artist in the Siletz Bay Music Festival for four years, most recently performing works of Haydn, Chopin and Fauré.

Isaac performs on an 1861 Charles Gaillard cello loaned from Alaska Resounding’s Fine Instrument Initiative for Alaskan musicians.

Nancy Ives is a composer and cellist based in Portland, Oregon. She has served as Principal Cello of the Oregon Symphony for more than twenty-five years and is a member of the Palatine Piano Trio, the Rose City Trio, and the trailblazing ensemble Fear No Music. She has also appeared with Chamber Music Northwest, Third Angle, Portland Piano International, the Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Cello Project, 45th Parallel Universe, and in solo concerto performance with the Oregon Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Portland Columbia Symphony, Clark College Orchestra, and Cascade Festival of Music, “demonstrating with attentive grace that technically challenging and sonically difficult music can still be beautiful.” (Oregon ArtsWatch) 

Long recognized for her deep commitment to new music, Ives has developed a body of work that reflects a sustained engagement with the natural world, history, and human relationships to place. Her music draws inspiration from environmental systems and cultural narratives, blending depth, clarity, and accessibility. Her orchestral works have been performed across the United States and Europe, including the Oregon Symphony, Denver Philharmonic, York Symphony and Orchestre National de Bretagne. Recent compositions include Celilo Falls, a multimedia orchestral work developed in collaboration with Indigenous artists on Navona Recordings as part of All Classical Radio’s Recording Inclusivity Initiative, and Immortal Beloved, a violin concerto premiered by an eight-member commissioning consortium. Recent residencies include Friends of Pando (2024–25), the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium (2025) and Lake Chelan Bach Festival (2025).

Ives is the founder of Mahonia Music and holds a DMA from the Manhattan School of Music.

Violist, educator, and nonprofit director Dr. Miriam English Ward has captivated audiences across the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Mexico, Spain, Pakistan, and Norway. Her passion for connecting people with the beauty of live classical music has led to collaborative performances worldwide.

In addition to coaching young chamber musicians, she teaches and mentors string students and professional musicians both in her own studio and through the University of Alaska, Anchorage Department of Music. She has pioneered a program offering long term loans of fine instruments through her direction of Alaska Resounding 501(c)3.

Highlights of Miriam's career include recordings for Naxos, Japanese television (NHK), live performances on All Classical Radio, the premier of a piece written for her with orchestra by Jasnam Daya Singh, and performances with composer Eve Beglarian on a tour of Alaska and at Roulette Intermedium in Brooklyn this spring. She enjoys commissioning new music.

For more information, please visit www.thejoyfulviolist.com

Powell Flutes Artist Amelia Lukas performs with "a fine balance of virtuosity and poetry" (The New York Times) and "excels at bringing drama and fire to hyper-modernist works with challenging extended techniques" (Oregon ArtsWatch). Recent solo engagements include her show "Natural Homeland" at the Alberta Rose Theatre and throughout the West Coast, and performances for Chamber Music Northwest, Portland Japanese Garden, the National Flute Association, United for Ukraine, World Beat Festival, New Music Gathering, Fear No Music, Friends of Chamber Music, Makrokosmos Project, Kenny Endo Ensemble, Portland Taiko, All Classical Portland's live radio broadcasts, and on American Public Media's Performance Today. In addition to her work with Lyra Trio PDX, she has featured in chamber music performance with the Oregon Bach Festival, Portland Piano International, Okaidja Afroso, 45th Parallel, and Willamette Valley Chamber Music Festival. 

Lukas' career includes founding the "truly original... impeccably curated" (Time Out New York) multimedia chamber series Ear Heart Music, membership in the American Modern Ensemble, and performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Stone, Bargemusic, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and New Music New York Festival. She holds degrees from the Royal Academy of Music (London), where she received three prizes for musical excellence, and from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was a founding class member for the Master's Degree in Contemporary Performance. Lukas received the President's Volunteer Service Award from former President Biden for her work supporting Ukraine, and offers creative strategy and public relations services as the Principal and Founder of Aligned Artistry. Amelialukas.com

Quebec mezzo-soprano Julie Boulianne is renowned for her musical intelligence and great sensitivity, her rich timbre, and her agility. Her vast repertoire ranges from baroque to contemporary opera, with a predilection for French opera, Mozart, and bel canto.

She has featured in opera and concert performances on the world's greatest stages, including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera de Paris, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Wienerstaatsoper, Carnegie Hall, the Concergebouw, the Royal Albert Hall and the Berlin Philharmonie.

She has also performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester among others under the direction of Charles Dutoit, John Elliott Gardiner, Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Franz Welser-Möst, Robin Ticcitati, and Emmanuel Villaume.

She has recorded for Decca, Naxos, Atma and Analekta labels, for which she won Opus and Juno awards and earned Grammy nominations. 

Her 26-27 season includes performances with Opera de Paris, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Enescu Philharmonic and Montreal Opera.

Julie Boulianne is a graduate of McGill University, Université de Montréal, and the Juilliard School in New York. She won First Prize at the Canadian Music Competition, First Prize at the Joy in Singing Competition in New York, the Chamber of Directors Prize at the Montreal International Competition, and the Silverman Prize from the International Vocal Art Institute.

Koji Attwood made his solo debut at the age of ten, and one year later won 2nd prize at the Young Keyboard Artists International Competition. He earned 2nd prize at both the Stravinsky and Missouri Southern International Keyboard competitions and was a winner of Astral Artistic Services' 2003 International Auditions.

Mr. Attwood has performed solo recitals across much of the country, including concerts in Steinway Hall, and Lincoln Center and was frequently heard on a weekly radio show on New York's WQXR, hosted by David Dubal. As a chamber musician, he has performed with members of the Borromeo, St. Lawrence, Koryo, and Fry Street quartets, and was a regular collaborator with Mikhail Baryshnikov.  He performed with the dancer's White Oak Dance Project and partnered with Mr. Baryshnikov for his 2002-3 solo tour of the United States. In 2010-11, he joined the American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House, playing in the critically lauded premiere of Lady of the Camellias.   

After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, Koji then went on to earn a Master of Music and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School.  Mr. Attwood currently serves on the faculty of the Peterson School of Music as an instructor in piano, lecturer on music history, and chamber music coach. He has been a visiting professor of piano at both Utah State University, and the University of Utah.

Praised for her profound musicality and her naturally flowing tone, Muriel Oberhofer is currently expanding her musical reach from Europe into the US, having performed in prestigious venues such as Wigmore Hall in London, the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid and Tonhalle Zürich in Switzerland. Further solo performances include a recital of the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas with Willam Wolfram in New York City and a tour with the Neues Zürcher Orchester across Switzerland. She received musical impulses at masterclasses from Hilary Hahn, James Ehnes, Shmuel Ashkenasi and at the Kronberg Academy with Vadim Gluzman. Under Semyon Bychkov, Muriel was principal in the Royal Academy Symphony Orchestra’s performance of Mahler 3 in the Southbank Center’s Royal Festival Hall in London. Further orchestral experiences include leading the Royal Academy Chamber Orchestra, and co-leading projects with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, Oberhofer plays regularly in recitals and festivals across Europe and the US, performing alongside artists such as William Wolfram, Kit Armstrong, Margarita Balanas and Dmitry Yudin.

Upon invitation of Pinchas Zukerman, Oberhofer completed her Professional Performance Diploma at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. She has graduated with distinction from the Royal Academy of Music, where she studied her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees under the guidance of Nicholas Miller, Roman Simovic and György Pauk. Previously, she studied privately with Klaidi Sahatci.

Oberhofer plays on a 1690 Vincenzo Rugeri violin, kindly loaned to her by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins

Tatiana Kolchanova earned her PhD in Violin Performance and Teaching from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory of Music / Russia. Dr. Kolchanova has been performing for 37 years and has 30 years of teaching experience. Beginning in 1983 she has toured the world, including performances at Carnegie Hall, Musikverein / Vienna, Concertgebouw / Amsterdam, and collaborative performances with Zubin Mehta and Jessie Norman. Tatiana has taught at the Moscow Conservatory and worked as the first violinist of Glinka string quartet. Besides teaching and performing, she is a sought-after adjudicator for International Competitions. Tatiana is the founder, director and instructor of the Music & Arts Academy in Camas, Washington. And she maintains an active performance career.

Violist Youming Chen (pronounced YO-ming) was appointed by Music Director Riccardo Muti to join the Chicago Symphony Orchestra during its 125th season. Previously, he served as the Associate Principal Viola of the Kansas City Symphony and was a member of the Grant Park Music Festival. Recently, he founded Audire Music with CSO violinist Rong-Yan Tang.  Audire Music performs string quartet masterworks in the Chicago area and Live on WFMT. As a chamber musician, he performs with the International Chamber Artists. He has participated in Pacific Music, Aspen Music, Prussia Cove, and Music@Menlo festivals. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan, Master of Music degree from Juilliard School, and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.