Apply to the 14th Annual

Cornell Concerto Competition

Andy Sheng, '20, a physics, math, and music major at Cornell University, has been studying piano for 13 years. He has studied with Mrs. Anna Polonsky, Mr. Frank Levy, and is currently studying with Prof. Xak Bjerken. During this time, Andy has won prizes in many competitions including the Mondavi Piano Competition, the San Jose International Piano Competition, and the Alexander and Buono International Piano Competition, earning him a performance in Carnegie Hall. He has also performed with the Vienna Neustadter Orchestra, engaged in five piano and organ solo concerts in the U.S, Austria, and Poland, and was also featured on NPR’s From the Top. Andy is also an enthusiastic conductor and is studying with Professor Chris Kim.

Phiroze Mehta is Professor of Piano at the Ithaca College School of Music in Ithaca, where he has been teaching since 1976. He has performed as recitalist and in chamber music groups at universities, music conventions, and for radio broadcasts. A graduate (M.M.) in piano performance of the University of Massachusetts, and a Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music, London, he also holds degrees in Electrical Engineering and in Industrial and Systems Engineering. A recipient of several awards, he was named a Dana Teaching Fellow at Ithaca College in recognition of excellence in teaching. Prior to joining the music faculty at Ithaca College he taught piano at Western Michigan University and at Western Illinois University. Mehta has presented master classes in the U.S., China, Taiwan, and India, and has also frequently served as adjudicator for piano competitions. Many of his students have been winners at piano competitions, including top prizes at the Music Teachers National Association Competition, the Young Keyboard Artists International Piano Competition, and the Bartok-Kabalevsky International Piano Competition.

Violinist Dennis Kim is the concertmaster of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Born in Korea, raised in Canada, educated in the United States, working in Asia for a decade, and most recently working in Europe, Dennis Kim is truly a citizen of the world. Dennis Kim was first appointed Concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22. He was the youngest Concertmaster in the history of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also served as concertmaster of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. Mr. Kim has served as guest Concertmaster on four continents with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, Montpelier Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony Orchestra of Navarra. He served as guest concertmaster with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on their 10-city tour of the UK. When the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra made their BBC Proms debut in 2014, they tapped Kim as the guest concertmaster. He has worked with many of this generation’s greatest conductors, including Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Muti, Andre Previn, Yannick Nezet Seguin, and Sir Simon Rattle. As a chamber musician, Mr. Kim has performed with leading musicians such as Pinchas Zuckerman, Jaime Laredo, Carter Brey, John Sharp, Marya Martin, and members of the Orion, Tokyo, and Guarneri string quartets. After making his solo debut at the age of 14 with the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra, Mr. Kim has gone on to perform as a soloist with every major orchestra in China and Korea. Highlights include performing on 10 hours notice to replace an ill William Preucil, performing the Vivaldi Four Seasons 20 times in one week, and touring Japan with the Busan Philharmonic in 2008. A dedicated teacher, Mr. Kim is on the faculty of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto. Mr. Kim has been on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Korean National University of the Arts, Yonsei University, Tampere Conservatory, and the Seoul Arts High School. He has taught at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, Interlochen Summer Camp, and PRISMA. His students have been accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, Colburn School, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, and the Queen Elizabeth College of Music and play in orchestras around the world. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, Mr. Kim's teachers include Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott. Mr. Kim plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius, on permanent loan from a generous donor.

Recipient of the 2008 Thelma A. Robinson Conducting Award, Katherine Kilburn has been Assistant Conductor of the National Repertory Orchestra, the El Paso Opera, the Hot Springs Music Festival, the Bowling Green State University Philharmonia, and the St. Louis Symphony Chorus, as well as Conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy Wind Ensemble, Music Director and Conductor of the Greater New Haven Youth and Chamber Orchestras, Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Repertory Orchestra, Interim Director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association’s Philharmonia, and Guest Conductor of the Lawrence University Symphony Orchestra, the Green Bay Symphony, Cleveland Opera Theater, the Lawrence University Opera Theater and the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra​. Ms. Kilburn assisted Sir Simon Rattle for performances of Peter Grimes at the Salzburg Easter Festival, and toured with world-renowned clarinetists David Shifrin and Alexander Fiterstein. She has conducted numerous world and USA-premieres and has been involved in several premiere recordings including some on the Naxos American Classics/Milken Archive label. She has conducted in the Cabrillo Music Festival, the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music Festival, the Philadelphia International Music Festival, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Last year, Dr. Kilburn was Interim Director of Orchestras at Kent State University where she also taught conducting and conducted the operas. Previous to that she was on faculty at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory where she was the Composition Program Performance Coordinator, guest conducted the Baldwin Wallace Symphony Orchestra, and was on the conducting faculty. Ms. Kilburn studied conducting at the Conservatoire Darius Milhaud in France and at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Her teachers include Kenneth Kiesler and Emily Freeman Brown. DMA Contemporary Music, Bowling Green State University, MM in Orchestral Conducting, University of Michigan, MM Choral Conducting, Indiana University, BA Music/French, Wellesley College. She currently makes her home in Ithaca, New York with her husband and their two children, Luana and Sebastián.

Pianist Ryan McCullough has developed a unique career as soloist and collaborator, at home with music ranging from the standard repertoire to electroacoustic improvisation. He has appeared as concerto soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and has performed alongside the Mark Morris Dance Group and contemporary ensemble eighth blackbird. He has performed at such festivals as the Tanglewood Music Center, Token Creek Chamber Music Festival, Sarasota Festival, Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, and Nohant International Chopin Festival, and in March of 2015 co-directed Environs Messiaen, a festival at Cornell University celebrating the naturalist aesthetic of French composer Oliver Messiaen. Ryan holds his B.A. from Humboldt State University and M.Mus. from the University of Southern California, as well an Artist Diplomas from the Colburn Conservatory and The Glenn Gould School. He has studied primarily with Deborah Clasquin, David Louie and John Perry, in addition to influential work with Stephen Drury, Leon Fleisher, and Peter Serkin. Ryan is currently DMA candidate in Contemporary Performance Practice at Cornell University where he works with pianist Xak Bjerken and composer Kevin Ernste.

Originally from Palo Alto, CA, Jeong is a San Francisco Conservatory Pre-College alum. She began playing the cello at age 8 and has since been a prizewinner in numerous competitions including the National YoungArts foundation, Mission College Symphony concerto Competition, and Alexander and Buono International String Competition. As an avid chamber musician, she won the inaugural Galante Prize and was featured twice on NPR's From the top. She has also played at Carnegie Hall and in various music festivals. Irene is a sophomore Physics major at Cornell University where she studies with cello with Prof. John A. Haines-Eitzen and co-principal cellist of the Cornell Chamber Orchestra.

She was one of four finalists chosen by judges Phiroze Mehta, Richard Faria of Ithaca College and Heather Buchman of Hamilton College.

Other finalists were:

• Ellie Bayles '17, a Biometry and Statistics major (student of Liz Shuhan), performing Lowell Libermann's Concerto for Flute and Orchestra (Mvt III), accompanied by Mary Ann Miller;
• Jiacong Xu, '17, a Computer Science major (student of Xak Bjerken), performing Saint Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 Mvt 1, accompanied by Miri Yampolsky;
• David Zhang, '20, a Biological Sciences Major (student of Ariana Kim), performing Max Bruch's Scottish Fantasy (mvt 1), accompanied by Miri Yampolsky.