Masterclass Series

Seattle Chamber Music Society is proud to be able to offer public masterclasses to our academy participants throughout the season. All masterclasses are free and open to the public. Come and join us at our Center for Chamber Music! Look below to see what’s next!

 

See our Spring 2025 Masterclass Teachers below!

Masterclass Teachers
Spring 2025

James Ehnes is recognized as one of the world’s foremost violinists, and is a favorite guest of many of the world’s most celebrated orchestras and concert halls. Recent orchestral highlights include the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, London Symphony, Gedwandhausorchester Leipzig, New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Chicago Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, and Hong Kong Philharmonic. Alongside his concerto work, Ehnes maintains a busy recital schedule and performs regularly at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center Chicago, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. In 2010, he established the Ehnes Quartet, with whom he has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Ehnes has an extensive discography of over 40 CDs and has won many awards for his recordings, including a Gramophone Award, two GRAMMY Awards and 11 JUNO awards. He began violin studies at the age of four, made his orchestral debut with l’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at age 13 and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1997, winning the Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Member of the Order of Canada, and has received honorary degrees from Brandon University and the University of British Columbia. James Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.

 

Amy Schwartz Moretti has a distinguished musical career of broad versatility. Since 2007, she has been Director of the McDuffie Center for Strings and has developed the Fabian Concert Series; she also holds the Caroline Paul King Chair, teaching in the Mercer University Townsend School of Music. A performing artist with an affinity for chamber music, she enjoys touring with the Ehnes Quartet and maintains an active schedule of solo, chamber and concertmaster appearances. Recent performances include the 2019 premiere of Schmitz’s Violin Concerto written for her. Her other festival appearances this summer include Bridgehampton, ChamberFest Cleveland, La Jolla, Meadowmount, and Manchester Music Festival. Moretti is former concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony and Florida Orchestra. She has served as guest concertmaster for the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Houston, Pittsburgh; the New York Pops and Hawaii Pops; and the festival orchestras of Brevard, Colorado and Grand Teton. The Cleveland Institute of Music has recognized her with an Alumni Achievement Award and she is the 2014 San Francisco Conservatory of Music Fanfare Honoree. In December 2018, Moretti was selected as one of Musical America’s “Top 30 Professionals of the Year.”

 

Taiwanese-American violist Che-Yen Chen has established himself as an active performer and educator. Since winning First Prize in the 2003 Primrose International Viola Competition and the “President Prize” of the Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition, he was described as a musician whose “most impressive aspect of his playing was his ability to find not just the subtle emotion, but the humanity hidden in the music.” As the founding and former member of the Formosa Quartet, he won the first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition, founded the Formosa Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan, and has released recordings on EMI, Delos, New World, and Bridge Records. Chen was the principal violist of the San Diego Symphony and Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra for eight years and has appeared as guest principal viola with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony. A former Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Two member, Chen frequently performs and teaches at music festivals across North America and Asia. Professor of Viola Performance and Chamber Music at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Chen has previously served on the faculty of USC Thornton School of Music, UC San Diego, San Diego State University, California State University Fullerton, and McGill University. A native of Taipei, Chen began his viola study with Ben Lin and became a four-time winner of the National Viola Competition in Taiwan. As a fourteen- year-old, he came to the U.S.A. to matriculate at The Curtis Institute of Music under the mentorship of Michael Tree and Joseph de Pasquale and later at The Juilliard School studying viola performance and string quartet with Paul Neubauer and The Juilliard Quartet. Chen joined the renowned Ehnes Quartet in 2023.

 

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has since appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician, throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The 2023-24 season marks Mr. Arron’s 11th season as the co-artistic director of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Palm Beach Chamber Music Society, Bargemusic, and Caramoor, and his performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2021, Mr. Arron’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics record label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Arron has served on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2016.

 

Described as “superb” by the Chicago Classical Review, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious is an emerging, passionate and versatile solo, chamber and orchestral musician and performer. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a winner of its John Erskine Prize for scholastic and artistic achievement. In 2023, Njioma won both the Robert F. Smith First Prize and the Audience Choice awards in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition and joint prizes in the CAG/YCAT auditions. She won First Prized for Performance and Interpretation in the 2018 Prix Ravel in Fontainebleau, France. As a soloist, Njioma has appeared with the Chicago Philharmonic, the Western Michigan Symphony and the Newark Symphony Orchestra. Njioma is a founding member of the Abeo Quartet, which was the inaugural graduate string quartet in residence at the University of Delaware and is a winner of several prizes. Njioma is a frequent chamber music series player and has performed in festivals including the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and Music@Menlo, among others. Originally from Boston, Njioma was a scholarship recipient of Project STEP, a string training program for black and Latino children.

 

Praised for her “deeply reflective playing”(Indianapolis Star) and “infectious exuberance” (New York Times), Korean-born pianist Jeewon Park has garnered the attention of audiences for her dazzling technique and poetic lyricism. Since making her debut at the age of 12, performing Chopin’s First Concerto with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, pianist Jeewon Park has performed as a recitalist, soloist, and chamber musician in prestigious venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, 92nd Street Y, Metropolitan Museum of Art and Seoul Arts Center. She is a frequent performer at Bargemusic and Caramoor International Music Festival where she was named a Rising Star in 2007. A passionate chamber musician, she has appeared at prominent festivals throughout the world, including Seattle Chamber Music Society, Lake Champlain, Chamber Music Northwest, Spoleto USA, Bridgehampton, Bowdoin, Manchester, Seoul Spring, Great Mountains (Korea), Tucson, Appalachian Summer, Central Vermont, Taos, Eastern Music Festival, Emilia-Romagna (Italy), Music Alp in Courchevel (France), and Kusatsu Summer Music (Japan). The 2022-2023 season marks her 10th season as the co-artistic director, along with her husband, Edward Arron, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute. In 2021, Ms. Park’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with cellist Edward Arron was released on the Aeolian Classics Record Label. Subsequently, they received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation. She came to the US in 2002 after winning all major competitions in Korea. Park is a graduate of Yonsei University, The Juilliard School, Yale University and SUNY Stony Brook where she earned her DMA.

 

Joel Link is a violinist with the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Link is an active soloist and chamber musician; and has been a top prize winner of numerous competitions including the Johansen International Competition in Washington, D.C. and the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in England, for which he was featured in The Strad magazine. Mr. Link has appeared on numerous radio shows, including NPR’s From the Top. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Link studied with renowned violinists Joseph Silverstein and Pamela Frank, and served as the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster for the 2009–10 season. He has attended music festivals across the globe, including the Ravinia Festival, the Marlboro Music Festival, and Music from Angel Fire. As a member of the Dover Quartet, Mr. Link won first prize and every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013 and the gold medal and grand prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2010; and performs over 100 concerts around the world annually. Mr. Link joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020. He also teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. Mr. Link performs on a very fine Peter Guarneri of Mantua, 1710–15, on generous loan from Irene R. Miller through the Beare’s International Violin Society.

 

Bryan Lee is a violinist with the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. Mr. Lee has performed as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Delaware, Lansdowne, and Temple University symphony orchestras, among others. He was awarded the bronze medal at the 2005 Stulberg International String Competition and won second prize at the 2004 Kingsville Young Performers Competition. He has been featured on NPR’s From the Top and has attended Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Music from Angel Fire, Encore School for Strings, Sarasota Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, and the Perlman Music Program. Mr. Lee has served as associate concertmaster of Symphony in C and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and as a substitute for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Lee is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Pamela Frank and Victor Danchenko. His previous studies were with Choong-Jin Chang and Soovin Kim. He performs on a 1904 Riccardo Antoniazzi and a 2020 violin by Brooklyn-based maker Samuel Zygmuntowicz. Mr. Lee joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020. He also teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. Mr. Lee performs on a Riccardo Antoniazzi, Milan, 1904 or Samuel Zygmuntowicz, Brooklyn, 2020.

 

Julianne Lee joins the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music, as its violist in September 2023. She has forged a remarkable career as both a violinist and violist, frequently appearing as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral player. She holds the position of assistant principal second violinist at the Boston Symphony Orchestra and has been a member of the BSO violin section since 2006, serving as acting assistant concertmaster from 2013 to 2015. From 2017 to 2019, she was also the principal second violinist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Lee has toured nationally and internationally with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Marlboro Music Festival, and the Australian Chamber Orchestra, where she held the title of guest principal violist. She also served as the second violinist of the Johannes String Quartet, an ensemble that performed commissioned works by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Derek Bermel, and William Bolcom. Throughout her illustrious career, she has performed as a soloist with orchestras in Germany, the United States, and South Korea and as a chamber musician at numerous music festivals, including the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music at the Banff Centre, Aspen Music Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. She received her bachelor’s from Curtis in 2005, having studied both violin and viola, and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she double majored in violin and viola. Ms. Lee will join the chamber music faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in fall 2023. Ms. Lee performs on a viola made by Gaspar Lorenzini, Piacenza, 1788 generously on loan by the Beares International Violin Society.

 

Camden Shaw is the cellist of the Dover Quartet, the Penelope P. Watkins Ensemble in Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has appeared with the ensemble in performances all over the world to great acclaim. Mr. Shaw has collaborated in chamber music with such renowned artists as Daniel Hope, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, and the late Leon Fleischer, and maintains an active career as a soloist. Highlights from recent seasons include a performance of Beethoven’s Triple Concerto, Op. 56 with the Artosphere Festival Orchestra, where Shaw also holds the principal chair; and the release of his solo album by Unipheye Music, which was met with critical praise. With the Dover Quartet Mr. Shaw won first prize and every special award at the Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2013, and the gold medal and grand prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2010. He graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2010, where he studied with Peter Wiley. Other major teachers include Norman Fischer, David Finckel, and Steven Isserlis. He performs on an instrument made in 2010 by Frank Ravatin. Mr. Shaw joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020. He also teaches at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. Mr. Shaw performs on a Joseph Hill, London, 1770.

 

Reach out to us at (206) 283-8808 or [email protected] with any questions!