Judges – Photos & Bios

Anjela Asryan received her Master’s Degree in Piano Performance and Piano Pedagogy from the Turkmenian State Conservatory (USSR). In 1984 Mrs. Asryan was awarded first prize at the First National Piano Competition in Turkmenistan. During her teaching career at the Turkmenian Conservatory, Mrs. Asryan also served as a judge for national piano competitions. For many years she presented concert-lectures on National TV.

Anjela Asryan taught piano for 10 years in Los Angeles and worked as an accompanist at the music department of Los Angeles Valley College. Since 2007, after moving to Bay Area, she has been a faculty member at the AAM. Her students have been awarded prizes in various piano competitions. Currently, Anjela Asryan is Assistant Director at the Avloni Academy of Music.

Umida Avloni received her Doctor of Music degree from Uzbek Institute of Arts (USSR) and her Master of Music degree with Honors from Tashkent State Conservatory. Upon graduation, Dr. Avloni served as the Acting Head of the Musicology Department and the Vice-President of the Young Composers Association of Soviet Union. Her expertise is in piano, music theory, ethnomusicology and composition.
Today, Dr. Avloni serves as the Director and Founder of the Avloni Academy of Music. With over 500 enrolled students and 4 locations, it is one of the largest music schools in the Bay Area. In addition to running the Academy, Dr. Avloni conducts master classes and trains a talented group of students, many of whom have won prizes in national and international competitions.
Prior to opening the Academy, Dr. Avloni taught at the Tashkent Conservatory, Uspensky Music School at USSR, Suburban School of Music in Pennsylvania and the Amadeus School in California. She performed in concerts, on radio and television, served as a judge in numerous national and international competitions, and has lectured in international symposiums and conferences.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Virginia Bigelow was introduced to the piano early through her musical parents. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from Baylor University and the University of Houston. In 1986, Ms. Bigelow won the Grand Prize in the teacher division of the National Guild of Piano Teachers’ recording competition. Since 1971, she has lived and taught privately in the East Bay. And since 1991, she has taught piano at Diablo Valley College.

Ms. Bigelow has performed concertos with Bay Area orchestras more than a dozen times. She gives benefit concerts upon request, and regularly performs as a member of the Berkeley Piano Club and the Contra Costa Performing Arts Society. She also attends and performs at international summer music conferences each year.

Since 1960, Dr. Robert Bowman has performed extensively throughout the United States in solo and chamber ensemble recitals, appearances with orchestra, and on radio and television. He has also performed solo and ensemble recitals in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Japan, and Mexico.

He obtained a B.A. in Music (1962) and an M.A. degree in Orchestral Conducting (1965) from Stanford University as well as a D.M.A. from the University of Southern California after serving two years as a Special Services Officer in the U.S. Army in New York.

He served as coordinator of the keyboard program at California State University, Chico, from 1971-2003 and the Certification Program in Keyboard Pedagogy, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 2008. Dr. Bowman previously was a member of the of keyboard faculties of Eastern Illinois University (1969-71) and the University of Southern California (1965-69).

John Boyajy received his Bachelor and Master degrees from the Juilliard School of Music. He has appeared at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center and at other venues, including many college campuses across the nation. In February 2009, he joined several of the Bay Area’s most visible classical pianists at Old First Church in San Francisco for the Chopin Foundation’s fundraiser. He has also appeared on the Concerts Grand and Dance Palace piano series, at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts and at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Los Angeles. He was piano soloist with the Bay Area Harmonies Orchestra and Chorus in the Beethoven Fourth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy. In the spring of 2012 he returns to Old First Church. A frequent judge at local piano competitions, Mr. Boyajy has extensive experience as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach. He teaches piano and coaches vocalists at his San Marin studio and in San Francisco.

B.A. School of Music, Beijing Capital Normal University, China. M.A., New England Conservatory of Music. Other Conducting Studies include the Aspen Music Festival’s Conducting Fellowship, the Tanglewood Music Center’s Young Conductor’s Program. Studied with Bernstein, Gerhard samuel, Gustav Merier, Lorna Cooke deVaron, Murry Sidlin, and Carl St Clair. Assistant Conducting positions with the Cincinnnati Symphony, the Cincinnnati Chamber Orchestra, Faculty positions at UC Berkeley, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of Arizona, and Louisiana State University. Guest conducting appearances in include the Arkansas Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic, Lexington Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony, the Northwest Chamber Orchestra, the China National Broadcasting Symphony. The National opera and Ballet Theater of China, the Shanghai Symphony and the Shanghai Broadcasting Symphony, among others. ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music. Records with Centaur Records and Vienna Modern masters. Articles co-author with Sheila Melvin in the New York Times on performing arts in China and a new book Rhapsody in Red, How Western Classical Music Became Chinese, published by Algora.

Dr. Duane Carroll, music director and conductor of the Contra Costa Wind Symphony since 1981, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from San Francisco State University and a master’s in Educational Administration from Saint Mary’s College. His Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Applied Performance is from the University of Michigan. He attended the U.S. Naval School of Music and played clarinet, saxophone, and oboe in the Third U.S. Army Band in Atlanta, Georgia, and the 4th Armored Division Band in Germany. He studied conducting with Denis deCoteau, emeritus conductor of the San Francisco Ballet. He was honored with the Diablo Symphony Association’s Distinguished Music Educator’s Award and received the prestigious Arts Recognition Award of the Arts & Culture Commission of Contra Costa County. In April 2008, Dr. Carroll was a guest conductor with the wind band of the University of Szeged with concerts in Szeged and Budapest, Hungary. The Budapest concert was recorded with a live audience for future broadcast on Hungarian National Radio. He was also a guest conductor in southern Germany with the Stadtkapelle Markdorf. Duane Carroll teaches clarinet and saxophone performance in his private studio.

Pianist Jocelyn Hua-Chen Chang has been praised as “a pianist of virtuoso caliber” whose “artistry is very unique and communicative with wonderful attention to details, texture, color, and style.”
Chang has worked extensively with the internationally renowned concert pianists and distinguished artists, Daniel Pollack and Boris Slutsky.
Jocelyn received her early training in Taiwan’s prestigious government program for musically talented children. Chang holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance with Distinction from the University of Southern California, Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the National Taiwan Normal University. Additionally, she has studied at the Belarusian State Academy of Music in Minsk, Belarus.
Dr. Jocelyn Chang is on the piano faculty at California State University, San Bernardino, where she currently serves as Director of Keyboard Studies of the Music Department.

Born in Burma and raised in China, Mr.Cheng began piano lessons with his mother at age six. At sixteen, he entered Shanghai Conservatory and was recognized as a top student. His teachers included Ma Si Sun, Li Ming-Qiang, a winner of the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and Li Tsuei-Zhen, a member of the Royal Musical Association of Britain.

Mr. Cheng became a widely recognized solo pianist and teacher in China. He taught at Shanghai Conservatory, Shanghai Normal University and An-Hui Normal University. Many of his students won international piano competitions.

In the 1990′s, Mr. Cheng immigrated to America, settled in the Bay Area and began teaching piano. Throughout the years, he has taught many advanced students who’ve been awarded prizes in various piano competitions; some have gained the honor of the YAG in the MTAC. His reputation has garnered him invitations to give master classes around the country and in China.

By day, Evan Craves is a project manager for DSI, a technology company in Santa Rosa that specializes in high-precision optical filters. By night, he is a freelance violinist, composer, and conductor. Evan graduated from UC Davis in 1998 with Bachelor degrees in both Chemical Engineering and Music. He has studied the violin since his youth and has worked with the extraordinary musical talents of Michael Sand, Marilyn Thompson, Jorja Fleezanis, Jeffrey Thomas, and Mark Sokol.

Evan has performed with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, UC Davis Baroque Ensemble, Apollo Baroque Orchestra, Symphony of the Redwoods, Pacific Collegium and the San Francisco Lyric Opera. He is a co-founder of The String Quartet and has volunteered since 2000 with the American Philharmonic, Sonoma County, as concertmaster and assistant conductor — most notably performing Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in the spring of 2007 and conducting a concert of Quintessential Classics featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart, in the spring of 2009.

Randall Creighton has been active as a classical and jazz pianist and teacher for many years, including recent performances as a guest artist for Giving Concerts, which helps raise funds for the East Bay Young People’s Symphony Orchestra and other charities. He received a Master of Music degree from San Francisco State University and recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona. His DMA document explores the aspects of classical form and jazz style in Nikolai Kapustin’s Twenty-four Preludes, Op. 53. He was active with the M.T.A.C. from 2002-2005, serving on the board of directors in 2003-2005. He has taught students of all ages in classical and jazz styles, and his technical method is based on his experience with the Taubman Approach. In the current Spring 2012 semester, he will be teaching part-time at Diablo Valley College.

Dr. Charles Fuery has traveled extensively performing classical piano recitals, concertos, and world premiers of contemporary music, including appearances on both coasts of the U.S. and on TV and radio. During his college years, Chuck won several piano competitions. In 1978, after extensive nationwide auditions, he was selected by Gil Kalish as first alternate – one of 6 pianists – to attend the Tanglewood Festival in Massachusetts. Rudolf Serkin called Fuery’s playing: “unique and ‘molto espressivo.’” His concerto performances of the Chopin 1st and the Beethoven 4th Piano concerti in Boston were highly celebrated and met with standing ovations, numerous curtain calls, and substantial critical acclaim.

Equally versed in jazz piano styles, at the age of 19 Chuck was invited to participate in an extended tour with Princess Cruises, in which he formed a jazz trio and performed with the award winning musical group, “Standing Room Only.” In 1984 he received his doctorate in piano performance and theory from Stanford University. For over a decade, Dr. Fuery was on the faculty at UC Berkeley and taught piano, harmony, and counterpoint at both UC Berkeley and Stanford University.

Natsuki Fukasawa’s has appeared in Europe, Scandinavia, Israel, Australia, Japan, and China as both soloist and chamber musician. As a founding member of the award-winning Jalina Trio, Natsuki has won many accolades and international prizes, including a January 2006 rave review in Fanfare magazine and the Best Chamber Music Recording of the Year from the Danish Music Awards.

Recent highlights include a tour of Italy performing Gershwin’s Concerto in F and performances of Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto with the Sacramento Philharmonic and Rachmaninov’s 2nd Piano Concerto with the Camellia Symphony. Natsuki debuted with the Folsom Lake Symphony and Maestro Michael Neumann in 2009.

Natsuki is on the artist faculty for the Schlern International Music Festival in Italy, Calcap Chamber Music Workshop, and the Associate Director of SYS Advanced Chamber Music Workshop. She is a Fulbright Scholar and has earned her degrees from Juilliard, Prague Academy, and the University of Maryland. Natsuki records for Classico and Da Capo labels and her career is noted in the World of Women in Classical Music and Who’s Who in America.

Pianist Erna Gulabyan was born in Yrevan, Armenia. She began her piano studies at age four. She was accepted to the Central Music School for gifted children at the age of six, where she studied for eleven years. After graduating from the Central Music School, she continued her musical training in Moscow Conservatory. Throughout her studies both in Yrevan and Moscow, she performed in chamber recitals, and as solo pianist with many orchestras.
After graduation, she was offered a position in the piano faculty of Yrevan Conservatory, where she taught piano until she moved to the United States. Since 1982 she has been teaching at the San Francisco Conservatory, and from her studio in Mountain View, where she resides. A number of her students have won national and international competitions. As a result, they were invited to perform in Carmel, California; Amsterdam, Holland; and Carnegie Hall in New York. Ms. Gulabyan has been invited to serve in the juries of numerous national and international competitions including Stravinsky International Piano Competition and Missouri International Piano Competition. She has been a trusted adjudicator for the USOMC for 19 years.

John Hillebrandt, pianist, composer and educator, recently retired from C.S.U., Stanislaus, where his remarkable career spanned 15 years and included more than 500 performances. He has been the Principal Pianist and Keyboardist for the Modesto Symphony Orchestra since 1996. His numerous and highly acclaimed performances each season include solo recitals, chamber music, concertos, and original compositions. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Central Florida, with an M.M. and D.M.A. in piano performance from the U. of Michigan. He has received numerous honors as a pianist and composer, including first prize in the Florida West Coast Chopin Piano Competition and first prize in the American Matthay Association’s C.W. Memorial Piano Competition. As a doctoral student he received a dissertation grant for the composition and performance of microtonal piano music, and won the U.M.’s prestigious concerto competition for which he composed and performed his own Piano Concerto. The Modesto Symphony commissioned and performed his Fantasia on French Carols for choir and orchestra; and in October 2011, he completed a new work for the 20th anniversary of the Stanislaus County Ecumenical Choir. In concerts presented by the California Composer’s Consortium, Hillebrandt has performed original works all around California. In October 2005, he was the featured pianist of the Sonora Bach Festival, performing Bach’s Fifteen Sinfonias and the world premier Hillebrandt “Transcendental Hymn-Fantasies, Volume II.” He played the Carnival of the Animals and Petrouchka with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra; Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with the Stanislaus Symphony; and MiklosRosza’s Spellbound Concerto with the MSO. He has been adjudicator for the U.S.O.M.C. as well as the M.T.A.C.’s state competitions.

Audinga Jacobson has extensive performance and teaching experience in both Europe and the United States. A distinguished representative of the Russian school of violin playing, she continues the tradition of David Oistrakh as taught by her teachers Alexander Livortas, Victor Radovich, and Dana and Yuri Mazurkevich. Her method of teaching with modification from her association with American pedagogical methods, combines the best aspects of both traditions.

Ms. Jacobson is also an accomplished pianist, studying 15 years with the renowned Lithuanian pianist M. Rubackiene. She was a first prize winner of the national Lithuanian violin competition. She has toured Europe extensively as a member of the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra, received two performance Master Degrees from the Lithuanian Academy of Music: one in violin and one in chamber music. She has appeared as soloist in television and radio broadcasts for Lithuanian national television and radio and hosted a musical education program for children on Lithuanian national television. She has appeared in solo recitals and chamber music performances throughout New England. She is both a founder and faculty member of the San Francisco Institute of Music.

Susie Kim started to play the piano at age 4 and she was featured as a soloist at a concert with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra when she was 9, performing the complete Haydn D Major and the Mozart Eb Major (K.449) Concertos. Growing up in Seoul, Korea, she won first prizes in many national competitions, including the Ihwa-Kyunghyang Competition, the Hanguk Ilbo Competition and the Pusan Competition. She also was named one of the five most promising pianists by The Piano Magazine in Korea in 1985. After she obtained her B.A. from Seoul National University, she came to the United States and received her M.M. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She then obtained her D.M.A. in piano performance from Indiana University. Her teachers include Jin Woo Chung, Eckart Sellheim, James Tocco and Leonard Hokanson.
She was a faculty member in Monmouth Conservatory of Music in Red Bank, New Jersey and Westminster Conservatory in Princeton, New Jersey during 1999-2002. Her students have been accepted to several of the leading music schools, including the San Francisco Conservatory, the New England Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music. She has been actively involved in the MTAC and served as president during 2007-2010 in the Southern Alameda Branch. Ms. Kim has a private studio in Danville, CA and lives with her husband, two daughters and their dog.

Sharon Mann, D.M. is widely respected for her penetrating interpretations of Bach’s keyboard music; her recording of the Six Partitas has recently been re-released by Cappella Records. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Stanford, and Northwestern universities. Early studies were with Rudolph Ganz, Isador Buchhalter, Irwin Freundlich, Rosalyn Tureck, and Dorothy Taubman. Dr. Mann was recipient of the George Eastman Fellowship, artistic director of the Governor’s Series in Ohio, co-producer of the Soviet Emigre Orchestra, Switzerland’s Somermusikwochen, and artistic director of the Junior Bach Festival. She has served on the faculties of California Summer Music Festival and Itzhak Perlman’s Perlman Music Program. Her recent master classes were in Greece, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Utah, and California.

Mr. John McCarthy is Director of Preparatory and Extension Divisions at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. After graduation from the Conservatory, he was appointed to the piano and musicianship faculties, where he has taught for more than 35 years. He is also on the summer faculty of the International Institute for Young Musicians held at the University of Kansas.
In 2006, John McCarthy was one of three teachers of music in the country to receive a Distinguished Teacher Award from the Department of Education and the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars, at a special ceremony in Washington D.C. The National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts has honored McCarthy for his outstanding teaching four times and his students have received many awards at the international level, including first prizes in the Corpus Christi International Piano Competition, the Individualis (Ukraine), Khachaturian (Armenia), Scottish International and Stravinsky International piano competitions.
As a performer, McCarthy has appeared with the San Francisco Symphony in Davies Symphony Hall, with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players at the Ojai Festival, at CAMI Hall in New York City, at Stanford University and in the annual Bracebridge Concerts at Yosemite National Park. Mr. McCarthy embraces a wide repertoire ranging from Bach to music of our time.
Mr. McCarthy serves on the boards of the Pacific Musical Society, San Francisco International Music Festival, the Robert Helps Composition Competition at the University of South Florida, and is on the advisory board of the American Symphony Orchestra-Sonoma County.

Stephen Moore is a string pedagogue and professional free-lance violist. He has served as Orchestra Director at the San Francisco School of the Arts, Orchestra Director and Music Department Facilitator for the Dixie School District and Miller Creek Middle School in San Rafael. Mr. Moore conducts orchestras and coaches sectionals and chamber music for ensembles such as the El Camino Youth Symphony, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, the Marin Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Stanford University Flute Ensemble.
Mr. Moore performs with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, West Bay Opera, Lamplighters Music Theatre, Broadway by the Bay, and ChamberMix. He is Principal Viola of the San Francisco Sinfonietta, the Winifred Baker Chorale of Dominican University, the Marin Oratorio, and has played Principal for the San Francisco Lyric Opera. Mr. Moore received his Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance from Northwestern University where he studied with Peter Slowik and Chicago Symphony violist Robert Swan. He has also studied Paul Yarbrough and the Alexander Quartet at San Francisco State.
A dedicated teacher, Mr. Moore’s private students have won concerto competitions. Mr. Moore has presented several workshop-seminars for the California Music Educators’ Association (CMEA) and is a director of the California Music Educators’ Association (CMEA).

Bulgarian pianist Georgi Mundrov was educated at the Sofia Music Academy and was influenced by Prof. Milena Mollova and Prof. Triphon Silyanowski. Postgraduate studies in Frankfurt, Germany and subsequent concert examinations in the master class of Prof. Kristin Merscher at the University of Music at Saarland, Germany.
Mr. Mundrov has performed in different parts of Latin America, Australia, and the Middle East. He also performed with orchestras such as Maracaibo Symphony Orchestra (Venezuela), Baden-Baden Philharmonie, Filharmonia Slaska Katowice/Poland, Mainzer Kammerorchester, Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Suhl, Mainzer Kammerorchester, Sofia Academiy Orchestra and Stara Zagora Philharmonics/Bulgaria in cooperation with conductors such as Prof. Werner Stiefel, Pavel Baleff, Dr. Dariusz Mikulski, Jonathan Kaell and Eduardo Werner Rahn.
He made his debut in Bangkok, Thailand and Singapore in 2008, Washington D.C. and Lancaster, PA in 2009, and Tel Aviv, Israel in 2010.
As artistic director of the Dreieicher Musiktage im Mai music festival, GEORGI MUNDROV is one of the youngest program and concept designers of such international music podiums.
Georgi Mundrov teaches at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater des Saarlandes in Saarbrücken, Germany. He has been adjudicating in international piano competitions and giving master classes around the world.

Victoria Neve was awarded a BM from Illinois Wesleyan University and MM and DMA degrees from the University of Kansas, Lawrence.

Since 1975, Dr. Neve has been a faculty member of San Francisco State University as Full Professor of Music. As a distinguished piano soloist, chamber musician, duo pianist, and accompanist she has appeared at the College Music Society, the National Conference on Women in Music, the Memphis State Music Festival, the State Conventions of the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, Music Teachers Association of California, and the National Convention of the Music Teachers National Association. Dr. Neve has been heard on the National Public Radio series “Early American Keyboard Music” and on SFSU’s “University Concert Series,” as well as KQED in San Francisco, KPFA in Berkeley, and others.

Dr. Neve is an active member of the Women Musicians’ Club of San Francisco, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, the Music Teachers Association of California, the Sonneck Society, and the Liszt Society.

Chinese-American pianist Xun Pan received his early musical training from his grandmother and pianists-parents, Pan Yiming and Ying Shizhen. He continued his studies at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Syracuse University in New York, and earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Xun Pan has won many international piano competitions and awards. A student of Theodore Lettvin, Dr. Pan has performed solo recitals worldwide from Carnegie Weill Hall to the Beijing National Center for Performing Arts. He performs in Europe, Asia, and North America yearly. He “…excites his audience with extraordinary power and masterful technique.” (Intelligencer Journal)
A noted chamber musician, Dr. Pan is the pianist of the Newstead Trio and Trio Clavino. Their work has been broadcast live on radio and television, and they have released several highly acclaimed recordings.
Dr. Pan is an adjunct professor of Piano and Director of the Gifted & Talented Program at Millersville University, Pennsylvania as well as a visiting professor at China Conservatory of Music, China Northwest University for Nationalities, Fuzhou University, Yantai University, Shandong University, Qinghai Normal University, and Wenzhou University. He also serves as Artistic Director of the Lancaster International Piano Festival and Prestissimo Chamber Music Festival, both are in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Born in the Philippines, Lino Rivera won his first national competition at age eight. He has performed as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist on three continents. He has been featured on several radio and television broadcasts, notably live performances with the Manila Symphony Orchestra and the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra.

Rivera’s dedication to seldom-performed piano literature resulted in his 1997 doctoral dissertation on the piano transcriptions of great romantic pianists and composers. He holds piano performance degrees from the University of Santo Tomas, the University of Hawaii, and his doctorate from the University of Maryland. He serves as Chair of the Performing Arts Department at Saint Mary’s College of California. He actively promotes and performs music by contemporary composers.

Alejandro Sabre is an award winning pianist & composer. Born and raised in Mexico City, Sabre started playing the piano at age 4. He has performed extensively throughout Mexico, the United States and a few countries in Europe and Asia. His busy schedule includes teaching full time at Modesto Junior College, where he is in charge of the piano and music theory programs, as well as performing and writing music. He has offered master classes and lectures for both piano students and teachers through the Stanislaus branch of the Music Teachers Association of California. A strong advocate for the arts and community engagement, Sabre serves on the board of directors of the recently inaugurated Gallo Center for the Arts where he was instrumental in developing the Arts Education program. His experience adjudicating piano competitions includes major events throughout the state of California, most recently the 2011 Sylvia M. Ghiglieri International Piano Competition. He holds degrees from Mexico City’s National School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University and the Eastman School of Music where he earned a doctoral degree in Piano Performance and Literature with a minor in Music Theory. He has recorded for RCA/BMG and Centaur Records.

Charles Sepos holds a DMA from the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, where he taught theory and composition. As Visiting Assistant Professor at the Shepherd School of Music, he earned Rice University’s highest Course/Instructor Evaluation. He also taught at the University of Colorado and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Charles Sepos is the winner of numerous awards in composition, including the Broadcast Music, Incorporated (BMI) Award. He is the first recipient of the Bradmark Composition Award. His music has been performed by the Houston Symphony, American Philharmonic, Sonoma County, the Grand Rapids Symphony, and other artists and ensembles internationally. As a pianist, Charles Sepos has performed with the Santa Rosa Symphony, the American Philharmonic, Sonoma County, as well as solo and chamber music appearances.

He was a co-founder of American Philharmonic, Sonoma County, served as its Composer-in-Residence and acted as its first Communications Director. Since 1995, Charles Sepos has been host and producer of Curtain Call every Friday from noon to 1 on KRCB 91 FM, Sonoma County Public Radio. His guests have included pianists Andre Watts, Garrick Ohlsson, Angela Hewitt and Ingrid Fliter, violinists Joshua Bell and Pinchas Zukerman, flutist James Galway, Kronos, Juilliard and Emerson Quartets, and Eroica Trio

Larry Warkentin is professor emeritus at Fresno Pacific University, where he taught piano performance and music composition for forty years, before his retirement in 2002. He has appeared as soloist with the Tulare County Symphony in a performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1. In June 2005, he presented a recital of Chopin’s works in Gdansk.

His “Academic Variations for Piano” was awarded First Prize in the California State MTA competition. In June 2004, his composition “Chungking, May 5, 1939″ for baritone, piano, and piano effects was premiered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. In 2004, in collaboration with Harold Haak, as author-narrator, his piano composition “Mubox Bugs,” a children’s story with music, premiered and was recorded on CD. Dr. Warkentin holds a DMA degree from the University of Southern California.

Since retirement he has performed in recitals at Fresno Pacific University, including an appearance with renowned flutist Paul Fried. He has also taught courses in music theory and composition at California State University, Fresno. He has been commissioned to compose a major work for choir, soloist and orchestra, for the Centennial Celebration at Tabor College, in Kansas.

Betty Woo received her DMA from Stanford University and pursued graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, receiving the MacFarren Gold Medal. Her teachers include Bernhard Abramowitsch, Gordon Green, and George Barth in piano and William Pleeth in cello repertoire. Betty Woo has made major solo appearances in London and New York, received a special prize for the best performance of a twentieth-century piece in the Gina Bachauer International Competition, and a special award in the International American Music Competition. Ms. Woo has also performed, taught master classes, and given lectures in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, as well as California.

As a chamber music player, Betty Woo has performed with prominent musicians in the Bay Area and with such contemporary ensemble groups as Earplay and the San Francisco Contemporary Chamber Players. Recently, she collaborated with the flutist Elena Duran in Edinburgh, Scotland, and in Mexico. Ms Woo is also an experienced teacher, formerly on the faculty of Stanford University and the San Francisco Conservatory, and currently on the faculty of Holy Names University in Oakland and University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Yang received both her Doctoral and Master’s Degree of Piano Performance from the Indiana University¬¬-Jacobs School of Music, where she studied with André Watts and Evelyne Brancart. Her musical excellence has been recognized internationally while being awarded top prizes at numerous competitions such as Seattle International, Wideman International, Camerata, and WAMSO Young Artist Competitions and while performing throughout North America and her native country, Taiwan. Chia-Lin Yang has been on faculty at Indiana University, Northern California-School of Music, and West Valley College where she founded the highly acclaimed WVC Young Artist Concert Series. Being enthusiastic about chamber music, Chia-Lin has dedicated her time to collaborating with fellow musicians as well as students. She is the founder of the Aristo Trio and the Yang-Shin-Bate Trio. She is a participant at the Sarasota Chamber Music Festival. Chia-Lin Yang was invited to play in the soundtrack of an award-winning independent movie, “Hidden,” directed by Robert Shelby. Currently, Dr. Yang works as a collegiate staff pianist at San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a faculty member at the Prep Division. She is a member of the MTAC and directs a private teaching studio in the South Bay.

Born in China, Dr. Shi-gu Zhang obtained a BA from the Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing. She pursued her graduate studies in the US at the University of Massachusetts, Western Kentucky University and the University of Arizona, earning two MM degrees and a DMA. During her graduate studies, Zhang worked as a teaching assistant and won various awards, including the U.A. Concerto Competition and performed with the U. of Arizona Orchestra.
After studying at the U.S., Dr. Zhang became a faculty member of the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China. As a piano professor at CCM, many of Zhang’s students have won numerous local, national, and international piano competitions. One of her students, Yin-hong Wen was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, New York, as a result of winning the top prize in 2011. Some of her students have continued their studies at Manhattan School of Music, Peabody Conservatory etc. with scholarships. Many of Zhang’s students have started their professional career, teaching piano at conservatories and universities at different parts of the world.
Dr. Zhang and her husband have recently settled in the East Bay Area where she is an active member of the MTAC.
Her publications from The People’s Music Publishing House, Beijing, China includes: 1. Outline of the Western Piano Music (2006) 2.The Road of Learning Piano For Adults (2001) and 3. Electronic Piano Courses (2009).