
Delaware County Symphony
Sebastian Grand, Music Director
SOLOISTS
Praised for her “thrilling blend of fury and finesse” (San Antonio Express-News) and her “winning combination of passion, imagination, and integrity” (New York Concert Review), pianist YOUNG-AH TAK enjoys a remarkable career that has taken her throughout the United States, Canada, Austria, Germany, Italy, Korea, and Japan. Ms. Tak made her New York City debut at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ AliceTully Hall with the Juilliard Orchestra. She has since appeared with numerous orchestras; including the Roanoke, Lansing, North Arkansas, Orchestra of Northern New York, Venice, Imperial, Filharmonia Pomorska (Poland), Oltenia Philharmonic (Romania). In her native South Korea, she has appeared with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Seongnam, Busan, KNN, and Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestras. Other notable performances by Ms. Tak have taken place at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Kimmel Center’s Perelman Theater in Philadelphia, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Jordan Hall in Boston, Columbia University, and Ravinia Festival. She has also appeared in Korea at major concert halls such as Seoul Arts Center, and at international music festivals in Busan, Seoul and Tongyeong. Her performances have been broadcast on WQXR (NYC), WRTI (Philadelphia), WMFT and LOOP (Chicago), WBJC (Baltimore), WCLV (Cleveland), CKWR (Ontario), and Korea’s KBS and Arte TV. Active as a chamber musician, Young-Ah Tak is a member of the Marinus Ensemble, and has collaborated with the late violinist Robert Mann, cellist Paul Katz, Bonnie Hampton, the Ma’alot Quintet, and members of The Florestan Trio. Young-Ah Tak has been awarded top prizes in numerous international competitions including: the San Antonio International Piano Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, Korea’s Isang Yun International Music Competition, Germany’s Ettlingen International Piano Competition, and Italy’s Valsesia-Musica International Competition. Ms. Tak received her training from The Juilliard School, New England Conservatory and the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University where she earned her doctorate degree under the tutelage of the legendary pianist Leon Fleisher. She has also studied with Young Ho Kim, Martin Canin, Yong Hi Moon, Russell Sherman and Wha Kyung Byun.
Ms. Tak currently serves as an Associate Professor of Piano and Head of the Piano Area at the Crane School of Music of the State University of New York at Potsdam. Deeply dedicated towards teaching the next generation of musicians, she has also presented masterclasses at venues such as the Steinway Festival in Seoul, MIT, Temple University, Cal State Fullerton, Yonsei University and Busan National University in Korea. Young- Ah Tak’s debut recording of Judith Zaimont’s Wizards – Three Magic Masters was released by Albany Records. Her recordings are also available from MSR Classics and on Steinway’s Spirio. Ms. Tak’s CD recording of works by Beethoven was released on the Steinway & Sons Label in 2019 as part of the essential series of Steinway Classics. Her recording of All-Schubert album on the Steinway & Sons Label is to be released in 2024 to critical acclaim. Ms. Tak is a Steinway Artist. [www.youngahtak.com]

Young-Ah Tak
Branson Yeast

Cellist Branson Yeast, a native of Houston, TX, is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music (B.M.), the Juilliard School (M.M.), and is also a protégé of cellist Wendy Warner. His performances as a chamber musician, soloist (recently, the Ibert Concerto with the Capital Philharmonic of New Jersey in 2025 and Dvorak Concerto with Litha Symphony in NYC, 2023), and orchestral musician have brought him to Chicago, London, Lucerne, Hamburg, Heidelberg, St-Jean-de-Luz (broadcast on RadioFrance), and across the north-eastern United States. While at Curtis, Branson was the last student of the late David Soyer of the Guarneri Quartet, a Jacqueline du Pré Memorial Fellow, and his graduation recital aired on WHYY Television. His passions for contemporary music and cross-disciplinary projects have also led him to make dozens of premieres of new works, including chamber operas with Opera Philadelphia and many chamber music and solo performances in halls such as Alice Tully and with companies such as Philadelphia’s BalletX. As a chamber musician, he recently formed a piano trio— the Rosalind Trio, with a residency at Haverford College in Fall 2024. Branson resides in Philadelphia and is Principal Cello of both Opera Philadelphia and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the latter of whom he performed concerti of CPE Bach, Boccherini, and Vivaldi.

Thomas Pandolfi
American pianist Thomas Pandolfi is an exciting virtuoso who, with each passing season, is becoming more and more sought after by audiences worldwide, and showered with superlatives by critics for his passionate artistry and amazing technique. His performances of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Chopin, Liszt and Gershwin have captured the hearts of listeners across the globe, and made him a popular and much beloved concerto soloist.
Upcoming performances during the 2025-26 season feature engagements with The Prince George’s Philharmonic, the Manassas Symphony, Piedmont Symphony, Virginia Chamber Orchestra and the Naptown Philharmonic, as well as a nationwide recital tour across 11 States. The 2024-25 Season included performances with The Chesapeake Orchestra, Lakeview Orchestra, Monticello Chamber Orchestra, The Florence Symphony, The Fredericksburg Symphony, Gateway Festival Orchestra and The Romanian State Symphony at Italy’s Alba Festival.
Thomas' international concerts have carried him across the globe to China and Europe; he enjoyed a successful summer of masterclasses and concerts in China, and will return there again later this season. An enthusiastic champion of new music, Thomas’ most recent recording was recently released on Seafront Records featuring Polo Piatti’s stunning Bohemian Concerto with Maestro John Andrews and The National Symphony Orchestra of London.
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Thomas has collaborated with conductors such as Piotr Gajewski, Dimitru Goia, Sabin Pautza, Emil Seigbert Maxim, Peter Schmelzer, Mihail Agafita, Grigori Moseico, David Russell Hulme, Andreas Delfs, Elizabeth Schulze, Miriam Burns, Sebrina Alfonso, Nicholas Palmer, William Intrilligator, Kim Allen Kluge, Robert Hart Baker, Crafton Beck, Ray Fowler, Glenn Quader, Scott Wood, Jay Friedman, Larry Eckerling, Lawrence Rapchak, Gordon Johnson, Terry Roberts, Anna Binneweg, Kyle Elgarten, Matthew Troy, Jeffrey Silberschlag, Mark Laycock, William Kushner, Ryan Kozak, Beatrice Jona Affron, William MacNieland, Norman Nunamaker, John Andrews and Raffaele Ponti.
A graduate of The Juilliard School, Pandolfi earned both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees as a scholarship student.

Julie Chen
Julie Chen, age 15, is a sophomore at Pennsylvania Leadership Charter School. She began cello at age 8 and currently studies with Gloria dePasquale, Clancy Newman, and Dominique de Williencourt. She previously studied with Hai-Ye Ni, the principal cellist of The Philadelphia Orchestra. She has attended Meadowmount for three years in Prof. Hans Jensen’s studio. She also studies piano with Natalie Zhu. She has attended master classes with cellists Wei Liu Denton, Marcy Rosen, and the Dover Quartet. Julie attends the Advanced Study Ensemble program at Settlement Music School on full scholarship and is the principal cellist in the Youth Chamber Orchestra at Temple Music Prep.
Julie was the principal cellist of both the Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra (PYAO) from 2023-2024 and Prysm Strings of the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra from 2021-2023. Julie won the concerto competitions of Delaware County Symphony Orchestra (2026), Main Line Symphony Orchestra (2025), Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra (2024), and Old York Road Symphony Orchestra (2024). She performed with the Lansdowne Symphony Orchestra and Old York Road Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2025. She also won the Pennsylvania Music Teachers’ Association competition (2024). At the Tri-County Music Festival competition, she won first place in both the junior strings division (2023) and senior ensemble division (2024) and performed in the winners’ concert both years.
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Additionally, Julie won first place in American Protégé concerto competition with the Judges Distinction Award (2023), and first place in the 11-13 division and overall runner-up in the Philadelphia International Music Festival’s summer concerto competition (2022), which earned her a spot in the Winners Circle Concert in March 2023 with the Philadelphia Orchestra members. Her other interests include drawing, dancing, singing, playing the piano, and swimming. She is in the gifted program at her school.