Avery Armstrong is a 9-year-old pianist from the San Francisco Bay Area in California. She has been studying piano since the age of four, and began studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Pre-college Division under Annamarie McCarthy at six.

She has participated in numerous competitions and recitals. She is a First prize winner of many national and international competitions including 2022 Elite International Music Competition, 2022 United States International Music Competition, 2022 Chicago International Music Competition, 2022 Spotlight International Music Competition, Opus National Music Competition, 2022 New York International Young Musician Competition, 2021American Protege International Piano and Strings Competition, 2021US New Star Competition, 2022 New York Laureate International Music Competition, 2022 Crescendo International Music Competition, and 2022 International Music Competition 'Amsterdam' Grand Prize Virtuoso. In April 2022 she gave two solo recitals in Carnegie Hall.

Besides playing piano, Avery enjoys play table tennis, swimming, creative writing,  reading, coding, and biology and chemistry!

Jessica Jeon is a gifted violinist who has garnered much acclaim even at the tender age of 13. In 2013 and 2014, she performed twice at the Si-Yo Music Society Foundation Benefit Concert sponsored by the Steinway Music Foundation. Her first performance at Carnegie Hall was in 2014 as the Second Prize winner at the Crescendo International Music Competition, and she received Silver Award in the International Virtuoso Competition and First Prize in the New York Young Artist Competition in the same year. In 2015, Jessica received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award for performing at numerous homeless shelters, nursing homes, and special concerts for the disabled every week. Jessica won First in the Forte International Music Competition and VIVO International Competition in 2015 and performed twice at Carnegie Hall in 2016. In 2019, she was the Silver Prize winner in the Young Artist Concerto Competition hosted by the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gold Prize winner in the International Virtuoso Competition that May.

Since 2020, Jessica has been one of the youngest members of the prestigious New York Youth Symphony, in which she has been part of both the orchestra and chamber music programs. In the 2020-2021 program season, she was chosen to be a Vargas Scholar and received a full scholarship to the Summer Arts Camp at the Interlochen Center for the Arts for two years. For her second year, she was the concertmaster of the Interlochen Intermediate Symphony in the Advanced Strings division. During the rest of 2021, Jessica was awarded the Bronze Prize in the National League of Performing Arts Competition and was given First Prize in the New York Virtuoso International Competition by New York State Representative Ron Kim. Most recently, Jessica won Silver Award in the final round of the 2022 Camerata Artists International Competition.

Celine Chen, 18, was instinctively drawn to the piano and began playing at the age of 4. As a student of Nobuyo Nishizaka, Celine has won countless accolades in numerous piano competitions, including the International Grande Music Competition, the LANSUM International Music Competition, the Seattle International Piano Competition, the Glory International Music Competition, the International Enkor Piano Competition, the James Ramos International Piano Competition, the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, the Grand Virtuoso International Competition, the International Piano Competition Paderewski in Memoriam, the Russian Rhapsody International Youth Competition, the Chopin Avenue Piano Competition, the Spotlight International Competition, the Celia Mendez Young Pianist’s Beethoven Competition, the Claudette Sorel International Piano Competition, the London International Music Competition, and the Odin International Music Competition. Most notably, Celine was a finalist at the MTNA National Competitions, a scholarship recipient from the Friends of William Grant Still Arts Center, a merit awardee from the Music Center’s Spotlight, an alternate from the Kaufman Music Center International Youth Piano Competition, and more recently, the Grand Prize winner of the Young Musicians Inspiring Change International Competition as well as the New York International Classical Music Competition, a Herbert Zipper Scholar, a 2022 winner of the YoungArts National Competition, and a From The Top finalist.

Celine was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall in the winter of 2017 after receiving the top prize in the International Music Talent American Protege Competition. The WPTA Finland International Music Competition, similarly, invited her to an intensive piano lesson with Steinway Artist Elena Nesterenko. She has continuously worked with other world-renowned pianists, as well, most notably Lucinda Carver, Robert Thies, Christopher O’Riley, Alan Chow, Paul Roberts, and Elisabeth Pridonoff.

An avid chamber musician, Celine was chosen to tour various cities in Europe as a JCM debut artist, participating in masterclasses with Petr Tchaikovsky and Avedis Kouyoumdjian. Her piano trio placed silver in the PCM Chamber Music Competition and were semi-finalists at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She also had the chance to participate in Composers Direct!, performing compositions by Esther Ollivier. She was also part of MTAC Friends of Today’s Music, recording commissioned work Beads of Sunlight by Augusta Read Thomas for a world premiere.

Yu-Ping is currently a senior undergraduate violinist studying at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Mr. Joseph Lin. Her former teachers include Professor Chinn-Horng Nanette Chen, Ms.Hsin-Yu Yang, Ms.Mi-Chen Hsieh, Professor Yao-Tsu Lu, Mr.Yen-Hua David Wang, and Professor Szu-Ying Wang.

AWARDS

Yu-Ping has been participating in various music programs and competitions. She has won the following prizes: 

In 2022, Yu-Ping won the gold prize in Amadeus International Music Awards. 

In 2022, Yu-Ping won the gold prize in Singapore Raffles International Music Festival. 

In 2020, Yu-Ping won First place in the Shu-Te Sylvia Lee Violin Competition in Taiwan.

In 2018, Yu-Ping earned first place in Strings of National Taiwan College Admission Examinations. She has received acceptance letters from Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Longy School of Music of Bard College, Taipei National University of the Arts, National Tsing-Hua University, University of Taipei and National Kaohsiung Normal University.

In 2017, Yu-Ping won third place in the Academy of Taiwan Violin Competition. 

In 2016, Yu-Ping won the Wu-Ling Concerto Competition.

In 2016, Yu-Ping won First prize in Taiwan National Student Competition of Music. 

In 2016, Yu-Ping won First prize in the Chiang Mai Ginastera International Music Festival. 

In 2014, Yu-Ping won the Golden prize in the New York International Music Competition & Festival.

In 2014, Yu-Ping won First prize in the National Violin Competition of Mandarin Daily News.

CONCERTS 

In 2018, Yu-Ping gave a salon recital at Wu-Ling Concert Hall, Taiwan.

In 2017, Yu-Ping was invited by CGIMF (Chiang Mai Ginastera International Music Festival & Competition) to perform Mendelssohn Violin concerto, Op.64 with conductor Chaipruck Mekara and Chiang Mai Symphony Orchestra in Kad Suan Kaew in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

In 2017, Yu-Ping made her debut with Academy of Taiwan Strings at Taiwan National Concert Hall 

In 2017, Yu-Ping gave a recital at Taoyuan Concert Hall, Taiwan.

In 2016, Yu-Ping made her debut with Wu-Ling Philharmonic Orchestra. 

MUSIC PROGRAMS 

In 2022, Yu-Ping participated in The Aspen Music Festival as a fellowship with a full scholarship.

In 2021, Yu-Ping participated in Music Academy of the West, and was one of the concertmasters of Music Academy of the West Orchestra.

In 2020, Yu-Ping participated in Music Academy of the West (remote learning) based in Santa Barbara, California. She participated in the William Hymanson Concertmaster Program, and has received 2020 William Hymanson Endowed Full Scholarship.

In 2019, Yu-Ping participated in Music@Menlo based in Atherton, California.

In 2017, Yu-Ping participated in a music program offered by Heifetz International Music Institute and she was taught by Daniel Phillips, Brian Lewis and Hagai Shaham.

In 2016, Yu-Ping participated in a music program offered by Euro Music Festival and Academy and she was taught by Ingolf Turban and Nicolas Koeckert. 

MASTER CLASSES

Yu-Ping has participated in master classes of Maxim Vengerov, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Robert Lipsett, Masao Kawasaki, Agata Szymczewska, Andrew Watkinson, Bin Huang, Keng-Yuen Tseng, Ting-Yu Wu, Ching-Yi Wei, Yu-Chien Tseng, and Richard Lin.