Hailed by the Gramophone Magazine as “brilliant and intrepid”, violinist Airi Yoshioka has concertized throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Canada as a recitalist, soloist and chamber musician.  Deeply committed to chamber music, she is the founding member of the Damocles Trio and Modigliani Quartet and has performed and recorded with the members of the Emerson, Brentano and Arditti Quartets.  Damocles Trio’s debut disc of complete Piano Trios and Piano Quartet of Joquín Turina has won a four-star rating from the BBC Music Magazine, Le Monde de la Musique and Diapason.

Her orchestral credits include performances with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, American Sinfonietta and engagements as concertmaster and soloist with the Manhattan Virtuosi and concertmaster of one of the festival orchestras at the Aspen Music Festival.  An enthusiastic performer of new music, she was one of the original members and concertmasters of the New Juilliard Ensemble and had performed annually in Juilliard’s FOCUS! Festival and is currently a member of Continuum, ModernWorks!, RUCKUS,  Son Sonora, and Azure Ensemble.  Of a performance with the New Juilliard Ensemble, the New York Times wrote, “Airi Yoshioka played the violin solo touchingly”, and of a performance with Continuum of Dallapiccola’s music, the New York Times wrote “Powerfully communicative…violinist Airi Yoshioka [played] a lovely

‘Due Studi.’ The performances were as varied as the music.”  She has premiered dozens of works and her latest recording project of works for violin and electronics includes commissions from such prominent women composers as Tania León, Linda Dusman, Alice Shields and  Milica Paranosic.

Educational outreach has been a vital aspect of Ms. Yoshioka’s professional life through her work as a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic and Lincoln Center Institute.  In addition, she has taught music at New York City public schools through the Morse Fellowship program and has performed in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes as a recipient of the Community Service Fellowship.  In October, 2004, she organized Art Reach!, a three-day symposium on effectiveness of arts outreach. The highly successful occasion brought together teachers, teaching artists, administrators, and community leaders from Maryland.  Currently, she is Professor of Violin at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

A native of Japan, Ms. Yoshioka came to the United States at the age of 12 and received her early training as a student of Honorary Distinction at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  She holds a B.A. in English from Yale University, where she received the Branford College Arts Award for outstanding contribution to the arts, M.M. and DMA from The Juilliard School.  Summer festivals attended include Meadowmount, Encore, Sarasota, Banff, and Aspen.

While at The Juilliard School, she won the concerto competition.  Among her teachers and coaches have been Jorja Fleezanis, Glenn Dicterow, Joey Corpus, Stephen Clapp, Syoko Aki, Felix Galimir, Paul Kantor, Jerome Lowenthal, and Seymour Lipkin, as well as members of the Juilliard and Tokyo String Quartets.

Her solo and chamber performances can be heard on Naxos, New World, Claves, Mode, Albany and Pony Canyon records labels. 

Cellist Si-Yan Darren Li made his professional debut at the age of nine and has gone on to an active career as recitalist, chamber musician and teacher. He has appeared in solo and chamber music performances at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Kennedy Center, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, Izumi Hall in Osaka, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, National Concert Hall in Taipei and the Basilica de San Lorenzo in Florence. Mr. Li has also performed in many renowned music festivals, including the Ravinia Festival, Kronberg Academy Cello Festival and Verbier Festival. An active chamber musician, he has collaborated with such esteemed artists as Emanuel Ax, Alexander Toradze, Thomas Quasthoff, Cho-Liang Lin, Miriam Fried, Paul Katz and Carter Brey. Mr. Li is a laureate in numerous prestigious competitions, including the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. He is also a recipient of the “American Masterpieces” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. For many years, he has served as a jury member of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition and the New World Symphony International Auditions. Mr. Li began his cello studies at the age of five in China. At the age of nine, he was accepted to the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. After moving to the United States in his early teens, he continued his cello studies with Orlando Cole in Philadelphia. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School and a Master of Music and Artist Diploma from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. In addition to Orlando Cole, his principal teachers include Fred Sherry, Harvey Shapiro, Alan Stepansky and David Hardy. Mr. Li’s other mentors include Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Ralph Kirshbaum and Tsutsumi Tsuyoshi. From 2008 to 2009, he served as principal cello of the New World Symphony under Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2009, Mr. Li joined the award-winning Euclid Quartet, a position he held for seven years. As a member of the quartet, his recording of the Bartók String Quartets was highly praised by Gramophone magazine and the American Recording Guide. Having previously taught at Indiana University-South Bend and the University of Central Florida, Mr. Li joined the award-winning Cavani Quartet and the faculty of the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2017. Mr. Li plays a 1773 cello by G. B. Guadagnini, generously on loan from the private collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rin Kei-Mei.

For the information on Dr. Sookkyung Cho, GVSU piano faculty, please click HERE.