2014 Young Professionals
Amalfi Fellows & Staff
Jeannette Fang
Amalfi Fellow
Jeannette Fang’s dynamic performances have attracted the attention of both professionals as well as the concert going public. She has been featured at such prestigious venues as Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, Zankel Hall, le Poisson Rouge, Weill Recital Hall, and Steinway Hall.
Her most recent awards include the Gold Medal at the 2013 Seattle International Piano Competition, where she also received the President’s Award and Audience Favorite Prize. She has won top prizes in the Dallas Chamber Symphony International Piano Competition and the MTNA Young Artist National Competition. She is the recipient of the University of Michigan’s Earl V. Moore Award and the Gottlieb Award, as well as the recipient of the Elizabeth J. Parisot award from Yale School of Music. She was the winner of the Karlfried Nordman Scholarship Piano Competition at Juilliard, and was a National Presidential Scholar in the Arts in 2003.
She has soloed with numerous orchestras including the University of Michigan’s Symphony Band under Michael Haithcock, New Jersey Philharmonic, Battleground Symphony, and St. Mary’s Chamber Orchestra, where she was Artist-in-Residence. She has performed as a guest artist at such places as Boston Conservatory, Jacob’s Pillow Festival, and the Steinway Society Musicale.
Ms. Fang is also an experienced chamber musician. She was a young artist at the Taos Music Festival, and has spent three summers at YellowBarn Festival. She is also a passionate advocate of new music, as well as a published writer.
Ms. Fang holds degrees from Juilliard, Yale, and has just finished doctoral studies at the University of Michigan under Logan Skelton.
Brian Hsu
Chamber Ensemble Coordinator
Since his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra as a teenager, Brian Hsu has gone on to establish himself as pianist of great energy and unusual communicative ability. Critics have described his performances in superlatives, noting his "breadth of expression and technical ability." He has won awards in numerous competitions, both in the US and Asia, including Wideman Competition, Corpus Christi International Young Artists' Competition, Isabel Scionti International, Juilliard's Gina Bachauer, National Piano Competition in Taiwan, as well as and concerto competitions both at the University of Michigan and Juilliard.
An experienced performer, Mr. Hsu has performed throughout the world in such countries as Spain, Italy, Japan, Taiwan, and South Africa. US performances include Boston, New York, West Palm Beach, Plano, Ann Arbor, New Haven, as well as many others. He has appeared numerous times as concerto soloist with such ensembles as Philadelphia Orchestra, Taiwan National Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard Pre-College Orchestra, Haddonfield Symphony, Sendai Philharmonic, and University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared on WQXR radio station in New York several times. He has performed in various festivals including Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy where he was invited to perform in a special Liszt 200th anniversary concert; Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan; Gijon International Piano Festival in Spain; Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina; McAlester Institute of Music in Oklahoma; Banff Festival of the Arts in Canada; PianoFest in The Hamptons in Long Island, New York. Mr. Hsu is currently the Assistant Professor at Loyola University New Orleans.
For Brian's complete bio, please click here.
Ellen Hwangbo
Executive Coordinator, Piano Program Coordinator & Webmaster
Ellen Hwangbo, Executive & Piano Program Coordinator at the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival, is known as a pianist for her expressive power and passionate interpretations. A top-prize winner of the Music Teachers National Association’s National Young Artist Competition in 2006, she has also performed to great acclaim across Asia, Europe, and North America, with recent performances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Hall. As a spirited chamber musician, Ellen has performed with world-renowned musicians such as Soovin Kim, Colin Carr, Jennifer Frautschi, William Sharp, Eduardo Leandro, Wu Han and Natasha Brofsky, among others. As a founding member of Consortium Ardesia, a new-music ensemble with horn player Ann Ellsworth and clarinetist Marianne Gythfeldt, she has premiered and recorded compositions by Sheila Silver, William Pfaff, and Perry Goldstein. Her performances have been broadcast on several radio stations, including VPR Classical and WRCJ Detroit.
Ellen has appeared at the Music@Menlo, Yellow Barn, Lake Champlain, Sarasota, and Aspen music festivals, as well as Pianofest and the Banff Centre. She is currently a doctoral candidate at SUNY Stony Brook, where she studies under luminary pedagogue Gilbert Kalish. Ellen also served for two years as administrator of the Stony Brook Piano Project, a concert series featuring faculty and graduate student pianists of SUNY Stony Brook, and for four years as a teaching assistant under Mr. Kalish. As Executive & Piano Program Coordinator of ACMAF, Ellen assists the Directors in dealing with registration, scheduling, and other administrative issues to ensure that the Festival runs smoothly. Ellen also designed the new Festival website, brought online in 2014, and updates it regularly.
Grace Ye-Eun Kim
Amalfi Fellow
Grace Ye-Eun Kim is a Korean-American violinist pursuing her Masters degree in violin performance and chamber music from University of Michigan, with a full fellowship and scholarship, studying with Aaron Berofsky, concertmaster of the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra.
Grace has been a recipient of numerous scholarships and winner of scholarship competitions, including the Gamble Trustee Scholarship, Golumbic Scholarship, Presser Foundation Scholarship, William Forest Chamber Music Endowment, Atherton Music Award, Undergraduate Exhibition, and the Brewster Scholarship Competition. She was chosen to be the first recipient of the East West Music Scholarship from the Asian American Women's Coalition of Philadelphia in 2008. Grace has won several competitions as a soloist including the 2011 Pennsylvania State University Concerto Competition and the 2008 Concerto Competition of the Annual All-City-Philadelphia High School. This led to a debut performance at the Verizon Hall of the Kimmel Center of Philadelphia in 2008. She was the winner of the regional WMEA (Washington Music Educator's Association) solo and ensemble competition in 2006, and a State Finalist for solo violin, as well as earning a Superior rating for solo flute. She has also participated in the Northwest Musicfest as both a violinist and flautist, earning medals for each instrument.
As a chamber musician, she has recently won the first prize award of the inaugural Dale and Nancy Briggs Chamber Music Competition with her quartet. She has also toured Argentina in 2010 with the Elan String quartet led by Max Zorin, a distinguished violinist, and professor of Pennsylvania State University. Grace also gave a Master Class at the Conservatoria Superior de Musica in Villa Maria, and performed in concerts with the Orquesta Metropolitana de Cordoba in Teatro Verdi, Auditorio Carlos Ortiz, and Teatro Real.
Eunae Lee
Amalfi Fellow
EunAe Lee recently won 3rd prize at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition. She was also featured at the Myra Hess Memorial Concert in Chicago, and it was broadcasted live on radio 98.7 WFMT. Ms. Lee made her solo debut at age 14, performing the Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Bong Kim. She later went on to collect an impressive number of prizes at the Korea Times National Piano Competition, the CBS Radio National Piano Competition, The Music Journal Piano Competition, the Seoul National University of Education Piano Competition, the Sook-Myung University Piano Competition, and Karlfied Normann Scholarship Competition.
In 2010, Ms. Lee won the Mozart Concerto Competition at The Juilliard School. She was one of four finalists in the 2011 ARD International Music Competition in Munich, where she performed the Beethoven Concerto No.3 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. She also received two special prizes: the Alice Rosnet Prize for the interpretation of Béla Bartók, and the Bärenreiter Urtext Prize.
Performance highlights include solo and chamber appearances in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Peter Jay Sharp Theatre, Merkin Hall, Flushing Town Hall, and the Mannes Concert Hall.
Ms. Lee was one of a select few students who enrolled in Juilliard’s prestigious five-year accelerated Bachelor’s and Master’s degree program, which she completed in 2009, studying with Martin Canin. In May 2013, she received her Professional Studies Diploma at the Mannes College of The New School for Music where she studied with renowned American pianist Richard Goode. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University, studying with Dr. James Giles.