Chamber Music Concert 2

Daniel Chong, violin | Ken Hamao, violin | Jessica Bodner, viola | Kee-Hyun Kim, cello

Internationally recognized for their “fearless, yet probingly beautiful” (The Strad) performances, the Grammy Award-winning Parker Quartet has rapidly distinguished itself as one of the preeminent ensembles of its generation, dedicated purely to the sound and depth of their music. Inspired performances and exceptional musicianship are hallmarks of the Quartet, having appeared at the world’s most illustrious venues since its founding in 2002.

Recent seasons included performances around the United States and Europe, including Wigmore Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Music Toronto, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Strathmore, San Antonio Chamber Music Society, University of Chicago, the Schubert Club, and Kansas City’s Friends of Chamber Music.

This season the Quartet marks their 20th anniversary with The Beethoven Project, a multi-faceted initiative which includes performances of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s string quartets; the commissioning of six composers to write encores inspired by Beethoven’s quartets; the creation of a new video library spotlighting each Beethoven quartet; and bringing Beethoven’s music to non-traditional venues around the Quartet’s home base of Boston, including homeless shelters and youth programs.

The Quartet is committed to working with composers of today — recent commissions include works by Augusta Read Thomas, Felipe Lara, Jaehyuck Choi, and Zosha di Castri. Celebrating the process of creation, the Quartet recorded three new commissions by Kate Soper, Oscar Bettison, and Vijay Iyer as part of Miller Theatre’s Mission: Commission podcast.

Additionally, the Quartet regularly collaborates with a diverse range of artists, including pianists Menahem Pressler, Orion Weiss, Shai Wosner, Billy Childs, and Vijay Iyer; members of the Silk Road Ensemble; clarinetist and composer Jörg Widmann; clarinetists Anthony McGill and Charles Neidich; flutist Claire Chase; and violist Kim Kashkashian, featured on their recent Dvořák recording. The Quartet also continues to be a strong supporter of Kashkashian’s project Music for Food, participating in concerts throughout the United States for the benefit of various food banks and shelters.

Recording projects continue to be an important facet of the Quartet’s artistic output. Described by Gramophone Magazine as a ”string quartet defined by virtuosity so agile that it’s indistinguishable from the process of emotional expression,” their newest release for ECM Records features Dvořák's Viola Quintet as well as György Kurtág's Six Moments Musicaux and Officium breve in memoriam. The Strad also declared the album as “nothing short of astonishing.” Under the auspices of the Monte Carlo Festival Printemps des Arts, they recorded a disc of three Beethoven quartets, of which Diapason “admired the group’s fearlessness, exceptional control, and attention to detail.” The Quartet can also be heard playing Mendelssohn on Nimbus Records, Bartók on Zig-Zag Territoires, and the complete Ligeti Quartets on Naxos, for which they won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance.

The members of the Parker Quartet serve as Professors of the Practice and Blodgett Artists-in-Residence at Harvard University’s Department of Music. The Quartet also holds a visiting residency at the University of South Carolina and spends its summers on faculty at the Banff Centre’s Evolution: Quartet program.

Founded and currently based in Boston, the Parker Quartet’s numerous honors include winning the Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prix and Mozart Prize at France’s Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, and Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award.

Photo by Beowulf Sheehan

Sierra Gao was generously supported by the Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment

Sierra Gao is an oboe and cor anglais player based in Melbourne Australia. She recently completed a Graduate Diploma in Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where she studied under Jeffrey Crellin, former Principal Oboe of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

She has performed with ensembles including the University of Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Melbourne Youth Orchestras, performing major orchestral repertoire. Sierra has also participated in masterclasses with oboists including Johannes Grosso, Bobby Cheng, Eve Newsome, Ricardo Barbosa, and Federico Curti.

Sierra is a co-founder of Auralis Ensemble, a Melbourne-based wind quintet dedicated to collaborative and expressive chamber music performance. The ensemble has performed at venues including Tempo Rubato, a well-known Melbourne concert venue recognised for its intimate chamber music programming, and Lennox St Gallery. Their repertoire spans core wind quintet works such as Barber’s Summer Music and Françaix’s Wind Quintet No.1, alongside Poulenc’s Sextet for Piano and Winds and contemporary Australian composer Ross Edwards’ Incantations. In 2025, Auralis attended the Portillo Music Festival in Chile, further expanding their international artistic collaborations.

Maija Flood was generously supported by the Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment

Maija Flood is a clarinettist from Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Australia. Maija completed her Bachelor of Music (Hons.) at the Melbourne Conservatorium in 2025, learning under the tutelage of David Thomas and David Griffiths. Maija is an avid chamber musician, performing across Melbourne with her group ‘Auralis Ensemble’ and participating in the 2025 Portillo International Music Festival in Chile. In 2026, she is excited to continue progressing her musical identity through the Banff Chamber Music Residency and to travel to Europe for further development of her clarinet playing, including through the Voksenåsen Summer Academy. Maija has a particular interest in exploring the relationship between fine arts and music, which saw her receive a grant from the University of Melbourne in 2025. With this, she presented a curated chamber music concert in collaboration with Lennox St Gallery, responding to Jason Cordero’s surrealist landscape exhibit, ‘The Place of Concord.’

Each Zhang was generously supported by the Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment

Yichi Zhang is in his honours (fourth) year of studying with Lyndon Watts at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music. He has played with the Melbourne Youth Orchestra and the University of Melbourne’s Philharmonic Orchestra, Wind Symphony and Symphony Orchestra. Highlights include concerts in Geelong, Sydney and Brisbane with the Wind Symphony, and the Symphony Orchestra’s 2023 international tour of Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, where he played in Gustav Mahler’s first symphony, and premiered Hun Tur by Melody Eötvös, Senior Lecturer of Music at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music.

Yichi is an enthusiastic chamber musician, having been a member of multiple wind quintets during his time at the Conservatorium, performing works such as György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for wind quintet and Samuel Barber’s Summer Music. Him alongside his wind quintet were selected to participate in the Portillo International Festival and Academy in Chile for 2025, where they performed Wind Quintet no.1 by Jean Françaix.

He is also a passionate pianist and conductor, and has conducted Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Gran Partita with ensembles of his own making, as well as conducted compositions by his fellow students at the university.

Ciara Wrede was generously supported by Frederick Louis Crosby Memorial Endowment

Ciara Wrede is a horn player from Melbourne, Australia. In 2025, she completed her Bachelor of Music with Honours at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, where she studied under Carla Blackwood. Ciara discovered her passion for the horn in high school and transitioned fully to the instrument at the beginning of her undergraduate degree. 

Ciara has had the opportunity to participate in various inspiring masterclasses with Australian and international horn players,including Katy Woolley, Andrew Bain, Přemysl Vojta, Genevieve Clifford, Anneke Scott, and Simen Fegran. She is looking forward to studying with Benjamin Jacks and Peter Luff at the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) in 2026.

Chamber music has become an unexpectedly important part of Ciara’s musical journey, especially after co-founding Auralis Ensemble. In 2025, she travelled to Chile with Auralis and also performed as principal horn in the Portillo Festival Academy Orchestra, touring major concert halls and working with leading international tutors.

Ciara’s true passion for the horn lies in orchestral performance. She performs regularly with Orchestra Victoria, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, and the Symphonic Cinema Orchestra. She has also been a member of the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Ben Gannon was generously supported by the Richard and Sidney Killmer Oboe Endowment Fund

Ben Gannon is an Irish oboist known for his thoughtful musicianship and versatility as a performer. In March 2025, he made his solo debut with the RTÉ Concert Orchestra, performing Françaix’s L’Horloge de Flore under the baton of Stephen Bell.

A finalist in the Irish Freemason’s Young Musician of the Year 2019, Ben has received support and recognition from the Willem Mengelberg Fund of the Concertgebouworkest, the Trench Award at the Birr Festival of Music, the Arts Council of Ireland, and Music Network Ireland.

He has performed with Camerata Ireland, the Ulster Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. His engagements have taken him to leading venues including Carnegie Hall, Het Concertgebouw, the National Theatre of São Carlos, and Ireland’s National Concert Hall, with recent festival appearances at Birr and Clandeboye in 2023.

Ben holds a Bachelor of Performance with First Class Honours and a Licentiate from the Royal Irish Academy of Music, and a Master of Music from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam. He is a Howarth of London Artist and plays on an XM model oboe.

Ben Gannon was generously supported by the Richard and Sidney Killmer Oboe Endowment Fund.

Shintaro Taneda was generously supported by the Cyril and Elizabeth Challice Fund for Musicians

Violinist Shintaro Taneda is active both as a chamber and orchestral musician. Along with being violinist in the Ethea Trio, he has recently collaborated with acclaimed artists including Kim Kashkashian, Parker Quartet, Inon Barnatan, and Shai Wosner. Shintaro is also a member of the Oregon Symphony, and a violin coach with the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Aidan Garrison was generously supported by the Cyril and Elizabeth Challice Fund for Musicians

As avid chamber musician, Aidan Garrison has collaborated with members of the St. Lawrence string quartet, and Rosemary Elliot, and performed for artists such as Ani Kavafian, Dimitri Murrath, and Christian Colberg, as well as members of the Emerson, Shanghai, and Pacifica string quartets. He has attended the Aspen, Bowdoin, Blairsville, and Heifetz international music festivals, and was a fellow at the Napa Valley Blackburn academy.

Aidan is currently pursuing his Doctoral degree at Stony Brook University, studying with Lawrence Dutton and Matthew Lipman. While at Stony Brook his string quartet was awarded first prize in the school’s Ackermann chamber music competition. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the New England Conservatory, studying with Mai Motobuchi and Nicholas Cords.

While at NEC, his string quartet was chosen for the Community Performances and Partnerships Ensemble Fellowship, where they developed educational programs designed to bring chamber music to audiences beyond the scope of a formal concert setting. This has led to engagements across the US, including a teaching residency as part of the Virginia Arts Festival.

Beyond the scope of classical music, Aidan has collaborated with musicians from many different disciplines. He has performed with the Scottish fiddle duo Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas, took part in the premiere of Wayne Shorter’s opera Iphigenia (co-written by Esperanza Spaulding), and performed as part of the backup string quartet for Jazz/Pop artist Laufey.

Hyunah Lee was generously supported by the Margaret (Peggie) Sampson Memorial Endowment

South Korean cellist Hyunah Lee is a versatile performer whose passion lies in chamber music and collaborative music-making. She has performed at notable festivals, including the Maine Chamber Music Seminar, Toronto Summer Music, the Tianjin International Chamber Music Festival, and the Tibor Varga Music Academy in Switzerland. Her collaborative highlights include performances with distinguished artists such as Weigang Li, Jinjoo Cho, Colin Carr, Tom Sauer, Jonathan Crow, Sharon Wei, Scott St. John, Alvin Zhu, and Philip Setzer. She is currently a member of the Arco Ensemble and the Velaris String Quartet, and studies at the Emerson String Quartet Institute at Stony Brook University.

Hyunah won First Prize at the Seoul Chamber Competition, Second Prize at the Music Association of Korea Competition, and Second Prize (with no First Prize awarded) at the Sung Jung Music Competition. In addition to her extensive chamber music activities, she regularly presents solo and chamber recitals throughout the United States and South Korea.

She received her Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University and her Master of Music in Chamber Music from The Tianjin Juilliard School, where she was awarded a full scholarship and a graduate fellowship. She is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stony Brook University under the guidance of Colin Carr, where she also serves as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Stamp Netthai was generously supported by the Barbara and John Poole Memorial Endowment

Thai trumpeter Jid-anan Netthai, known as Stamp, is a fellow at The Orchestra Now at Bard College. He began playing the trumpet at nine and has a passion for sharing music. Stamp has collaborated with international ensembles, including the Hangzhou Philharmonic Orchestra in China and the Metropolitan Festival Orchestra in Singapore. He co-founded the Brassisimo Brass Quintet and attended the American Brass Quintet Seminar at the Aspen Music Festival in 2019.

His versatility spans classical, jazz, and pop, enabling him to connect with diverse audiences. He served as the lead trumpet for the Ruam Smai Big Band during an international tour across Vietnam, Hong Kong, and Japan. Beyond performing, Stamp conducts masterclasses in Thailand to nurture young talent and composes and arranges music to expand traditional brass boundaries. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music from the Tianjin Juilliard School.

Linda Ruan was generously supported by the Barbara and John Poole Memorial Endowment

Chinese-Canadian pianist Linda Ruan is passionate about sharing the potential of music to overcome boundaries across cultures. Since being introduced to the drums at the age of four and then the piano at age seven, music has remained a stabilizing force in her childhood from Tokyo, Shanghai to Vancouver. Her unconventional path from a young age broadened her horizons and cultivated a fascination for diverse cultures. Her curiosity guided her beyond her solo piano studies, expanding to pedagogy and community engagement, fortepiano, conducting and chamber music projects. 

Linda is a top prize winner in international piano competitions including the ARD International Music Competition 2021. She has performed in venues across the world, from Carnegie’s Weill Hall and Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio to a recital tour in China spanning Guangzhou to Shanghai. 

Linda received her Bachelor of Music with Honours and Master of Music degrees from The Glenn Gould School, The Juilliard School, and the Tianjin Juilliard School respectively. Her past teachers include James Anagnoson Hung-Kuan Chen, Corey Hamm, Xiao Li, Li Wang, and Xiaohan Wang. Currently, she is studying at the UBC School of Music with Dr. Corey Hamm.

Enzo Kok was generously supported by the Maria Francisca Josepha Brouwer Fund for Dutch Artists

Enzo Kok (14th of August, 2002) born and raised in Kerkrade, The Netherlands, got his first violin lesson at the age of 6. With guidance of his teachers Ilya Grubert and Eliot Lawson he finished his bachelor studies in 2023 at the Conservatory of Amsterdam with the highest score. From October 2023-2025, Enzo continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin with Professor Ulf Wallin. Since October 2025 he’s studying at the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover with Liza Ferschtman.

In 2018 he was one of the three finalists of the Dutch Violin Competition ‘Davina van Wely’. In 2019 he received the 1st prize during the national finals of the Prinses Christina Concours. In 2024 Enzo won the 3rd prize as well as the audience prize at the Dutch Violin Competition “Oskar Back Prijs” during the finals. Enzo performed on multiple occasions in concert halls such as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht. He gave concerts all across Europe as a soloist and chamber musician. As a soloist he appeared with orchestra’s such as the Residente Orchestra and the Hamburger Kamerata. Enzo performed with musicians as: Daniel Rowland, Lisa Jacobs, Iris Hond, Anna Federova and members of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Enzo plays a violin built by J.B. Vuillaume generously in loan from André Rieu.

Maxim Heijmerink was generously supported by the Maria Francisca Josepha Brouwer Fund for Dutch Artists

Maxim Heijmerink, born in 2000 in Amsterdam, is a Dutch pianist, composer, and storyteller. Internationally, Maxim has performed in the United States, Canada, Switzerland, England, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France, Italy, and Israel, appearing in renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, and the Concertgebouw. He is a member of the vibrant Van Gogh Trio.

Awards
Maxim has won two First Prizes at the Prinses Christina Concours, the Classic Young Masters Award, the Steinway Award, First Prize at the Orbetello International Piano Competition (Italy), and was a laureate of the American Virtuoso International Music Competition (New York).

Highlights
In 2019, Maxim toured Canada and the United States. In collaboration with the Rotterdam Youth Orchestra (RYO), he performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in Rotterdam and Berlin and composed a work for orchestra, piano, and choir, which was performed as part of a charity initiative for an audience of 25,000 people at Ahoy.
Education

Maxim earned his bachelor’s degree in Amsterdam and his master’s degree in New York, where he studied with Jerome Rose. He is currently enrolled in the Meisterklasse in Leipzig, studying with Professor Markus Tomas. He has taken part in masterclasses with leading musicians such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jerome Lowenthal, and Boris Berman.

Recent
Most recently, he made his debut performing Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in Leipzig with the Orchester der Musikalische Komödie. In the summer of 2025, Maxim was invited to a three-week residency at the prestigious Banff Centre for Arts in Canada and, together with his Van Gogh Trio, made his international debut concert in South Africa.