Larinae Ensemble

 

Stephanie Tang, piano

BBC Magazine Rising Star Stephanie Tang is a Chinese-American pianist establishing an active career in solo and chamber performance in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Europe. She has appeared in major international concert halls such as Carnegie Hall (New York), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), Sendai Concert Hall (Japan), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Grafenegg Festival (Austria), TivoliVredenburg (Utrecht), Sony Auditorium (Madrid), Place Flagey (Brussels), Wigmore Hall, King’s Place, Barbican Centre (London), Banff Centre, and Koerner Hall (Toronto). An avid chamber musician, Stephanie has performed and collaborated with John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Marc Danel, Ani Kavafian, Nicholas Kitchen, Teemu Kapianen and received coaching from members of the Ébène, Guarneri, Brentano, Endellion, Takács and Tokyo Quartets. She has had the privilege of working closely with mentors such as Alfred Brendel, Thomas Adès, Robert Levin, Eberhard Feltz, Steven Isserlis, Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Alina Ibragimova and Günter Pichler. She is the pianist and founding member of the award-winning Paddington Trio. Recent concert highlights include performances at the Janine Jansen’s International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, Chipping Campden Festival, Oxford Chamber Music Festival, Internacional Festival Cervantino, Four Seasons Chamber Festival, Listen Hear! Series in Sarasota, Florida, Toronto Summer Music, and a concerto debut at the Barbican Centre. This summer, Stephanie will perform the rarely heard Amy Beach Piano Concerto with the Barnet Symphony Orchestra in London, return to the Kuhmo and West Cork Chamber Festivals, and appear at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and La Jolla SummerFest. Raised in the Los Angeles area, Stephanie began her formal musical studies at the Colburn Academy. She holds degrees from the Colburn Conservatory of Music (B.M.), Glenn Gould School (A.D.), Yale School of Music (M.M.) and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her principal teachers have been John Perry, Peter Serkin, Boris Slutsky, and Ronan O’Hora.

 

Jake Dongyoung Shim, violin

Jake Dongyoung Shim gained international recognition winning the Isang Yun Prize at the ISANGYUN Competition. After winning 1st Prize and the Bach Prize at the 2020 Stulberg International String Competition in Michigan and prizes at the 2022 Zhuhai International Mozart Competition in Zhuhai, China, and at the 2020 Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco, he recently won a prize at the 2022 F. Kreisler International Violin Competition in Vienna, Austria. Jake was also one of the Laureates at the 2020 J. S. Bach Competition. In the upcoming season, Jake will make his debut as a soloist with the Seocho Philharmonic Orchestra, Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Adelphi Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Symphony in C, and Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. He also gave debut performances on three different continents including venues such as Salle des Combins at Verbier Festival, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall, Kumho Art Hall, Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall, The Musikverein in Vienna, and Alice Tully Hall. Jake has appeared at chamber music festivals including the Verbier Festival Soloist Academy, Perlman Music Program, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, NUME Academy & Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute’s Ashkenasi Chamber Music Seminar, and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Spring Festival, performing alongside esteemed musicians such as Kim Kashkashian, Molly Carr, David Finckel, Wu Han, Arnaud Sussmann, Sarah Chang, and Itzhak Perlman. He is currently an Artist Diploma candidate at the Curtis Institute of Music with a full scholarship and Tobe Amsterdam Fellowship studying with Ida Kavafian and Shmuel Ashkenasi. His former teachers include Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory and Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program. He plays the 1695 F. Rugeri, on generous loan from the Sooyoung Art Trade in Korea.

 

Joseph Skerik, viola

Joseph Skerik is violist of the Vega String Quartet, in residence at the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta. Recent quartet appearances include venues in Washington DC, New York, Charlotte, Raleigh, Atlanta and San Miguel. Since 2023, the quartet has collaborated with the Juilliard Quartet, Zuill Bailey, Mark and Maggie O’Connor, Ettore Causa, Amy Schwartz-Moretti. Jon Kimura Parker and Ransom Wilson. 2024–25 quartet commissions feature a new work by Paul Coletti and a project with composers Emily Koh and David Gardner for PBS. Prior to his appointment, Joseph attended the Yale School of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Interlochen Arts Academy. As a member of the Vega Quartet, Joseph also serves as artist-affiliate viola faculty at Emory University; teaching viola performance and chamber music. Joseph regularly appears in the Heifetz Institute’s Tours and Residencies and is a winner of the 2022 Nedbal Competition in Prague. 2025 summer activities include teaching and performing at the Montecito Festival, Atlanta Festival Academy, Tallgrass, Sitka, Viridian, and Highlands-Cashiers Festivals. Joseph also co-directs the summer music series Viridian Strings, now entering its eighth season in 2025.

 

Jakob Giovanni Taylor, cello

Jakob Giovanni Taylor is a recipient of Yale’s Aldo Parisot Prize for gifted cellists who show promise for a concert career. A graduate of the Yale School of Music, he has recently completed his Masters of Musical Arts under the esteemed cellist of the Emerson Quartet, Paul Watkins. As a soloist, Jakob has performed at venues such as Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Bargemusic, Jordan Hall, and Woolsey Hall. Jakob’s passion for chamber music has allowed him to collaborate with artists such as Wu Han, Ani Kavafian, Ettore Causa, Marcy Rosen, Steven Tenenbom, Hye-Jin Kim, and Matthew Lipman. He has spent his summers working and performing at programs such as Music@Menlo’s International Program, Ravinia Steans Institute, Four Seasons Spring Workshop, the Taos School of Music, Music Academy of the West, among others. Recognizing the importance of new music, he has premiered new works by composers such as Paul Cantelon and Paul Miller and has worked closely with rising composers such as Caroline Shaw and Timo Andres. Jakob received his Masters of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music studying with Desmond Hoebig. He has also studied at the New England Conservatory, and at The Juilliard School. He was the recipient of the Harvey R. Russel Scholarship and Irving S. Gilmore Fellowship at Yale University. There, he recently performed Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Yale Philharmonia under the baton of Leonard Slatkin as the winner of the 2022 Yale School of Music, Woolsey Hall Concerto Competition. He is also the winner of the 2020 Shepherd School of Music concerto competition.