Originally from China, Crystal came to the United States in 2014 as a member of a students’ group from the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music. She has performed around the world, including in Vienna, Israel, Germany, Austria, France, Beijing, Tianjin, and the U.S. In 2022, she won the grand prize at the 78th Naftzger Young Artists Competition. She entered the doctoral program at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University in Fall of 2023.
Ezgi is a highly accomplished Turkish cellist. After moving to the United States, she was awarded first prize in the Belle and Lynum Jackson Balshaw Music Competition. Ezgi has performed internationally with renowned orchestras like the Topeka Symphony, Tulsa Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony. She was also featured as a soloist at the esteemed Springfield Symphony and at Yo-Yo Ma’s Master Class at the Kauffman Center of the Performing Arts. Furthermore, she is currently a co-director of Soundwave Academy and an accomplished cellist of Ensemble Iberica. She recently made her debut at Carnegie Hall.
Latin Grammy-nominated conductor and clarinetist Luis Víquez enjoys a versatile career as a guest conductor, performer and recording artist. He has been featured in albums with the University of South Dakota Symphony Orchestra and the Heredia Symphony in Costa Rica. After a successful seven-year tenure as an associate professor of music at USD, he was recently appointed as the Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Rhode Island and serves on the National Board of the College Orchestra Directors Association.
Ariel is the recipient of the Koch Cultural Trust Artist Grant, the 2019 Coeur d’Alene Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, and was a finalist in the 2021 Artist Presentation Society Competition. During the 2023 season, she debuted in roles as Musetta (La Boheme) and Lucy (The Telephone) with Midwest Opera Theater, Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) with Mid-Ohio Civic Opera, Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance) with Heartland Opera Theatre, and in a self-produced film production of Debussy’s cantata La damoiselle élue. The 2022/23 season also included her Carnegie Hall debut.
American tenor Ben Gulley’s recent artistic and critical triumphs include:
Recognized for her “operatic tonal glamour,” American mezzo-soprano Alice Chung has performed with Naples Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Hawaii Opera Theater, Arizona Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and the San Francisco Opera, to name a few (Parterre). Recent awards include those from the Sullivan Foundation, the Shoshana Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Recently making her Carnegie Hall debut, Ms. Chung enjoys performing in chamber and recital settings as well as raising awareness through her initiative Wear Yellow Proudly.
Dominic began his teaching career as the Director of Bands for Spokane School District from 2015 to 2019. He later became the Associate Director of Bands for Camdenton School District in the fall of 2019 before becoming the Director of Bands in 2021. Dominic received the Missouri Music Educator Association's Outstanding Young Educator Award in 2020 and is very involved in adjudicating both marching and concert band events.
Lyle Simpson is starting his third year as band teacher at Central Middle School in Kansas City, Kan. He also serves as a trumpet player with the 35th Infantry Division Band of the Kansas Army National Guard. Lyle has worked as a freelance trumpet player and private lessons teacher in Kansas City since 2017.
Julia is the Assistant Director of Bands at Blue Valley High School. She is also a private clarinet instructor, a former VP of Membership for the Missouri National Association for Music Education (NAfME-C) and the former president for UMKC and Missouri NAfME-C.
Karah is building a music therapy program at Millwood Hospital, an acute inpatient mental health facility serving the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex in Texas. Inspired by professors at UMKC who mentored her interdisciplinary research, Karah continues to conduct research post-graduation and started pursuing her master's in Marriage and Family Therapy in the Fall of 2023.
Austin works as a medical music therapist and is pursuing a master's degree in music therapy at Florida State University.
Gavin recently scored NEON's "How to Blow Up a Pipeline," starring Lukas Gage and Kristine Froseth, which premiered at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival. He also scored Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr.’s "Wild Indian," which earned a Brivik World Soundtrack Award nomination and starred Michael Greyeyes, Jesse Eisenberg and Kate Bosworth. Other recent projects include A&E’s documentary series, "The Secrets of Playboy," and the Paramount/Blumhouse film "The Visitor," directed by Justin Lange.
Hu studied with Drs. Chen Yi, Zhou Long, James Mobberlery and Paul Rudy. In 2007, he won the George Enescu International Festival Composition Competition first prize in Bucharest. He is a very well-known film score composer, whose film and TV series works include “Chinatown Detective” (2 and 3) and “The Knockout.”
Hermon was a semifinalist in the 2014 Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, the 2015 winner of the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition, and the winner of the 2008 National Trumpet Competition. He has recently released his third album as a leader, "Asmara," which was influenced by the harmonies and melodies of music related to his Eritrean origins. Mehari maintains a touring schedule around the world with his own group and as a sideman, while additionally running a weekly radio show called "The Session" on the NPR-affiliated station KCUR 89.3.
