Pianist Ching-Yun Hu made her concerto debut at the age of thirteen and has since embarked on a brilliant career as an international concert artist. At age 16, she won the Taipei International Piano Competition, and more recently, first prize at the 2006 Olga Koussevitzky International Piano Competition, gold medal at the 2007 World Piano Competition, and winner of the 2009 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. In 2008, she captured the top prize and the Audience Favorite Prize at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. Ms. Hu’s final round performances of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 and Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Israel Philharmonic were broadcast live to 38 countries. This was followed by a seven-city recital tour across Israel and a special invitation from the Israel Philharmonic to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, stepping in for Hélène Grimaud on only a week’s notice. Since then, Ms. Hu’s career has flourished with a host of international engagements on five continents.

Current concerto engagements include the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, Taipei Philharmonic Orchestra, Evergreen Symphony (Taiwan) and a tour with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Portgual’s Orquestra do Algarve, Johannesberg Philharmonic, Israel Symphony Orchestra, and the Maidstone Symphony Orchestra (UK). She made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut in a sold out concert and has also been a featured soloist with the Aspen Concert Orchestra, New York Sinfonietta, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, World Festival Orchestra, and Viana do Castelo (Portugal) Festival Orchestra. Recent recitals have included appearances in New York, Tel Aviv, Lisbon, Taipei, Washington D.C., Amsterdam, Paris, Munich, Budapest, Boston, and Osaka. Besides a full time performing career, Ms. Hu has given master classes in universities throughout Taiwan, and in the U.K. and U.S. She served on the faculty of the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra International Piano Festival, and is the artistic director and founder of “The Ching-Yun Hu Project – Taipei International Music Festival”, bringing internationally renowned musicians and professors to perform concerts and give master classes and lectures throughout concert halls in Taipei. Ms. Hu is a Yamaha Artist. Click here to listen to some of Ms. Hu's performances on YouTube.

Pacific Encore Performances is a unique musical repertory company that provides the performance opportunities necessary for successful careers in the entertainment industry. Created in Australia in 1994 and brought to the U.S. in 1999, Pacific Encore Performances serves as an emerging artists program intended to bridge the gap between the academic musical college and the professional opera theater. By providing extensive theatrical training and performance experience, the organization has been able to grow into a unique resource center for emerging talent and launch many successful operatic careers. Its members are multi-lingual singers from around the world who perform a wide variety of vocal music such as opera, Broadway, cabaret, pops, folk songs, spirituals, and national songs of diverse cultures. They are chosen by audition, and are provided extensive training in drama, characterization, stagecraft, languages, and repertoire under the supervision of experienced industry professionals. Pacific Encore Performances performs concerts in private and public venues throughout the New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas as well as overseas.

Violinist Blanka Bednarz is an alumna of the "Talent School" in Poznan, Poland, the University of Kansas (B.M.), and the New England Conservatory (M.M. and D.M.A.). As soloist, she has performed with the Connecticut Virtuosi, Symphony and Chamber orchestras of the New England Conservatory, Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, Sinfonietta Polonia, Dickinson College Orchestra, Central Pennsylvania Symphony, University of Kansas Camerata, and the Great Poland Symphony Orchestra. "The violinist charms with beautiful sound, impressive palette of color and extraordinary musicality” (Twoj Tydzien, Poland).

Ms. Bednarz is an avid chamber musician. As member of Atma Trio (www.atmatrio.org), Bednarz performed at music festivals throughout the world, including in Germany, Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Sweden, the United States and China. In 2011 Sinfonietta, and Bednarz with Atma Trio’s pianist Dobrzanski presented at the Beijing Concert Hall a festival of Szymanowski's works, as part of the cultural program of Poland’s presidency of the EU in Beijing, under the patronage of the Polish Minister of culture (www.Szymanowskifestival.pl). In 2007 Ms. Bednarz joined as first violinist the Vega String Quartet-in-residence at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, an ensemble that critics described as a “marvelous foursome” (Strad magazine). As a member of the Huntington Piano Trio, she performed at the Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, on Boston's WGBH Radio and concert series, and on Polish Radio.

Ms. Bednarz collaborated with renowned artists such as Barry Snyder, Rita Sloan, Brian Ganz, Adrian Levine, Richard Stolzman, Joanna Kurkowicz, Corigliano Quartet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and Alarm Will Sound. She is concertmaster of Sinfonietta Polonia (www.sinfoniettapolonia.pl), a unique orchestral training program she and her husband/conductor Cheung Chau established in Poland. Ms. Bednarz is Associate Professor of Music at Dickinson College. She has also taught at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Emory University, and coached chamber ensembles at the International Musical Arts Institute (Maine), the International Music Institute and Festival (www.imif.us), and at Franklin Pond (Atlanta). She has given numerous master classes at universities and colleges in the U.S., Poland, and China. She can be heard on Capstone Records, Acte Prealable, and Musica Omnia. Click here to listen to a performance by Ms. Bednarz on YouTube.

Violinist Beatrice Hsieh is a recipient of the Dorothy Richard Starling Scholarship at Temple Music Prep and the Advanced Study Scholarship at Settlement Music School. She is concertmaster of the Temple Music Prep Youth Chamber Orchestra and a violinist in the Gail W. Snitzer String Quartet. As a chamber musician and as a soloist, she has been featured at various esteemed venues, including: the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts, the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, the Union League of Philadelphia performing for Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, Philadelphia City Hall performing for Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, and Steinway Hall.

As the winner of their young artist competitions, Beatrice has performed as soloist with the North Penn, Warminster, Ambler, and Old York Road Symphony Orchestras. She has also soloed with the Olney Symphony Orchestra and the Temple Music Prep Youth Chamber Orchestra. In addition to her performance activities, Beatrice has played in several master classes for distinguished artists, such as Pamela Frank, Jennifer Koh, the Emerson Quartet, the Orion Quartet, the Johannes Quartet, the Miami String Quartet, Leon Bates, and James Dunham.

Beatrice, age 16, is a junior at North Penn High School. She has been studying the violin since the age of 6 and currently studies with Helen Kwalwasser. Beatrice has also been studying the piano since she was 4½ years old. On the piano, she has been named a winner of several competitions, including the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association Junior Competition, MTNA Junior Competition – Eastern Division, West Chester University Pre-Collegiate National Piano Competition, and International Rosalyn Tureck Bach Competition for Young Pianists.