The Whole Note Podcast

Episode 24 w/ Ying Li

Ying Li is the First Prize winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions including the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival, and was a finalist at Concours musical international de Montréal. Ms. Li has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, L'Accademia Orchestra del La Scala, NWD-Philharmoniker, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic with conductors such as Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Xian Zhang, Dan Ettinger, Eric Jacobsen, and Jonathon Heyward. This season she makes her debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic and embarks on a 8 city tour of Italy. Ms. Li made her New York City recital debut at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and her Washington, DC debut at the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater. Upcoming and recent recitals also include Sala Verdi in Milan, Hammerklavier International Piano Festival in Barcelona, Musica Insieme Bologna, Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, Fazioli Pianoforti in Sacile, and the C. Bechstein Series at the Konzerthaus in Berlin. Ying was also featured on WQXR's “Eine-kleine Birthday-musik,” a free, all-Mozart live streamed concert from The Greene Space in New York City, to celebrate Mozart's 266th birthday. As an avid chamber musician, Ms. Li has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including the Verbier Festival Academy, ClassicheFORME International Chamber Music festival in Lecce, Ravinia's Steans Institute, La Jolla Music Society and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. Ms. Li began piano lessons at age five in China and was a student at the Elementary School division of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, then she moved to Philadelphia in 2012, at age fourteen, to study at the Curtis Institute of Music with Jonathan Biss and Seymour Lipkin. After receiving the Bachelor of Music degree at Curtis Institute in 2019, she received her Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert McDonald and finished her studies with McDonald at the Juilliard School's Artist Diploma Program.

Episode 23 w/ Jack Gao

Jack Gao was named the winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 2023. Most recently he was personally selected by Martha Argerich to be the second recipient of the Martha Argerich Piano Award which was presented in collaboration with Steinway Hamburg. This prize is awarded to a pianist under the age of 30, whom Argerich would like to draw the attention of the public and the music world. Part of the award includes a concerto performance with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. He began playing the piano at age four and studying composition at age nine. In 2016, he entered Middle School affiliated to the China Conservatory of Music to study piano with Tianhong Tan, and composition with Xin Xie. Additional studies have been with Huiqiao Bao, Xu Fei, and Elmar Gasanov. Currently he studies at Julliard with Jerome Lowenthal. Among his awards at Juilliard include: the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition and winner of the concerto competition. He was awarded second prize in the 9th Steinway National Competition and 83rd Steinway International Piano Competition. His performances include playing John Corigliano's Piano Concerto with the Juilliard Orchestra conducted by Simone Young, and performing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 with En Shao and the Orchestra Academy of China Conservatory of Music. As part of Jack's Naumburg prize, he will be performing his Naumburg commissioned work, Van Vechten Variations for solo piano (2025) on his second Naumburg concert to take place on September 29, 2025 in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Episode 22 w/ Timothy Chooi

https://www.timothychooi.com/ Instagram: @timmychooi [https://studio.youtube.com/channel/UC8qfEWdvDd8TjMmOywSWMqg] Timmy was our first in-person guest on episode 15. Please consider watching that episode if you haven't already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-WB2ZNJ3S8&t=1426s

Episode 21 w/ Sydney Lee

Korean-American cellist Sydney Lee has established herself as an artist of refined elegance and profound sincerity. She garnered recognition when she claimed both 1st prize at the 2022 Washington International Competition and 2nd prize at the 2022 Classic Strings International Competition. Most recently, she was awarded the inaugural $50,000 Gurrena Fellowship from Meadowmount School of Music. Additional accolades include 1st prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Croatia, where she subsequently debuted with the Zagreb Soloists. Since her solo debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at age 13, Sydney has continued to perform extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in many of the world's leading venues, including the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, and Konzerthaus Berlin. Renowned cellist Julian Lloyd Webber praised her performance with the Armenian Symphony State Orchestra, “Sydney Lee's playing of Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante was mesmerizing. She surmounted all of its technical challenges with ease and gave us a joyous musical experience. It was a performance to treasure.” An ardent devotee of chamber music, Sydney is the founder of the Galvin Cello Quartet, which has rapidly been building an international profile following their silver medal win at the 2021 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Furthermore, they have earned the distinction of joining the Concert Artists Guild roster as winners of the esteemed 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition. The quartet's upcoming 2023-24 season include performances at New York City's Merkin Hall, Newport Classical, and Ravinia Music Festival. Sydney's dedication to fostering arts education is evident through her active role as a Board of Director, Social Media Manager and Back to Bach Soloist at The Back to Bach Project Charitable Foundation. This global initiative, with over 70 regions and 800 members, seeks to inspire young children through arts education and community engagement, imparting the values of commitment, dedication, and passion. She spearheaded the establishment of the Calgary, Canada, and Delaware County, PA regional chapters. Additionally, one of her notable collaborative achievements at Back to Bach involved a three way collaboration between Play on philly, The Curtis Institute of Music, and The Back to Bach Project under the guidance of violinist Midori. Furthermore, as a Back to Bach Soloist, she has led numerous virtual music education seminars to young audiences all across the United States. Sydney's unwavering commitment to her philanthropic endeavors led to Back to Bach's receipt of funding in 2020 from the esteemed U.S. Presidential Scholars Foundation and Alumni Association Seed Grant Program. Born and raised in New York City, Sydney is an alumna of both The Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern University, where she studied with Carter Brey, Peter Wiley, and Hans Jorgen Jensen. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Northwestern, continuing her studies under the tutelage of Hans Jorgen Jensen. Throughout her artistic journey, other past influential teachers include Richard Aaron, Jens Peter Maintz, Sophie Shao, Julie Albers, Minhye Clara Kim, Wendy Warner, and mentorship by acclaimed cellist Lynn Harrell. In her spare time, Sydney served as a Content Assistant for The Violin Channel. Sydney finds joy in the art of crafting captivating lifestyle content through her vlogs, where she unveils the tapestry of her journeys, offering glimpses into her life as a musician, surviving the Chicago winters, and even her exhilarating escapade of maneuvering a dune buggy through the vast expanse of the Dubai desert.

Episode 20 w/ Christine J. Lee

Motivated and hungry for new experiences, Korean-born, Philadelphia-made cellist and activist, Christine J. Lee, crosses cultural boundaries through music and aims to connect people around the world. She is the most recent winner of the Isang Yun international competition in Korea as well as a laureate of the first Queen Elisabeth International Cello Competition. Some of her highlights for this season includes the American premiere of Andrea Tarrodi's Concerto, as well as her debut at the Berlin Philharmonie lunch series. In her previous seasons, she successfully made her debut with the Brussels Philharmonic playing the Brahms Double Concerto with Augustin Dumay on violin and under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero. She has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Monterey Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra Symphony, Houston Symphony, as well as Young Belgian Strings, Orchestra of Mons, and the National Orchestra of Belgium as a soloist. Christine began playing the cello at the age of seven, and she made her debut with the Seoul Philharmonic only two years later. She was accepted to The Curtis Institute of Music at the age of ten. Since then, she has performed around the globe as a soloist and a chamber musician. She has appeared in many prestigious venues, such as the Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Musée du Louvre, and the Victoria Hall. As a musician of versatility and diverse interest, she has worked with contemporary music ensembles like eighth blackbird and Juilliard AXIOM. Christine also enjoys playing Baroque, especially the Bach Cantatas, and has worked with Anner Bylsma and Roel Dieltiens. In addition to exploring and performing different styles of classical music, she is one of the original members of “CelloPointe”, whose performances combine classical ballet and music in an intimate setting with music encompassing from Baroque through contemporary works and genres. She is currently living her dream of traveling around the world educating and communicating through music. She especially loves working with other musicians from different backgrounds in a chamber music setting, and her passion has led to appearances in prestigious festivals such as La Musica Festival, Music@Menlo, La Jolla Summerfest, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, Music@Angelfire, and Marlboro Festival. Christine studied with Orlando Cole, Peter Wiley, and Carter Brey at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received a B.M. and with Joel Krosnick at The Juilliard School, where she completed her M.A. She is an artist-in-residence at Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth where she works closely with Gary Hoffman and Jeroen Reuling. Furthermore, she is pursuing an Advanced Performance Diploma under the guidance of Christoph Richter at the Royal Academy of Music in London. In addition to her performances, Christine is an avid advocate for charitable and philanthropic causes. In January 2017, she organized a charity concert as well as coat & backpack drive for the refugee children in Brussels. This season, she will be participating in community projects with Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth and Nativitas and organize concerts for homeless people in Brussels. She plays on a Francesco Stradivarius on a generous loan from an anonymous sponsor.