Mercury-Juilliard Fellowship
A collaboration between The Juilliard School of Music Historical Performance Program and Mercury
This initiative, a collaboration between The Juilliard School of Music Historical Performance Program and Mercury, encourages the development of talented young instrumentalists and fosters a strong relationship between two major players in America’s period instrument performance scene.
Each spring, Mercury holds auditions at Juilliard, selecting two post-graduate students to participate in a one-year fellowship with the ensemble. Fellows will perform with Mercury during the season, gaining valuable performance experience while introducing Houston to the next generation of great period performance musicians.
Current Mercury-Juilliard Fellows
Epongue Ekille, a Cameroonian- and Taiwanese-American historical and modern violinist, enjoys an incredibly varied career. She performs regularly with New York City ensembles including the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, American Composers Orchestra, and NYO All-Stars. She has been featured on ESPN and The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. Epongue is also active in the studio recording scene and on Broadway, having appeared in Sweeney Todd, Gypsy, and The Great Gatsby. Epongue was assistant principal second violin on the Grammy-nominated recording of An American Soldier with the American Composers Orchestra.
As a baroque violinist, Epongue has played with Juilliard415, at the Carmel Bach Festival, and with Bach Vespers Holy Trinity. Epongue holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Environmental Management from Yale University. Epongue has a Master’s in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School and plays in Lincoln Center Theater’s Tony Award-winning production of Ragtime. She is also a fellow with The English Concert in America.
Eliana Estrada is a Los Angeles-born baroque and modern violinist whose musical journey began at age four studying fiddle music. She holds degrees from Oberlin College and Conservatory (BM) and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM), where she won the 2023 and 2024 Baroque Concerto Competitions. She is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School (MM) where she studied with Cynthia Roberts and Elizabeth Blumenstock.
Eliana has performed at the Boston Early Music Festival, Musica Antiqua Bruges, and Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht. She has also worked with ensembles including Twelfth Night, Apollo’s Fire, and the Handel and Haydn Society, where she is a 2025–2027 Stone Fellow. She was also recently appointed the Drake Fellowship with American Bach Soloists in San Francisco.
She has participated in festivals such as the Carmel Bach Festival Baroque and Classical Academy, Oregon Bach Festival’s Berwick Academy, and the Oberlin Baroque Performance Institute. During the summer of 2026, her string quartet, Quartet Novalis, will be in residency as the Emerging Ensemble at the Arizona Early Music Festival.
In addition to performing, Eliana is also a dedicated teacher who fosters healthy, tension-free technique while encouraging curiosity and individuality, creating a supportive and joyful learning environment for students of all ages.
Beyond performing and teaching, she enjoys befriending stray cats, watching horror films, and curating vintage clothing for her online shop.
Cordelia Lindsey Mutter is a cellist currently based in New York City who specializes in baroque and other historical performance. A prize-winning Laureate of the 2026 Blakeman-Gerber International Baroque Concerto Competition in Indianapolis, Mutter has a comprehensive background in leadership roles both as a soloist and lead continuo player. Significant engagements include performances with Les Arts Florissants in Thiré, France under the direction of Paul Agnew and William Christie, lead placements with major oratorio, operatic, and concerto repertoire in New York and Houston, and a principal jump-in alongside the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra on the Juilliard all-Rameau collaboration tour.
Cordelia has degrees in modern and baroque cello from the Oberlin College & Conservatory, Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and The Juilliard School, where she was recently awarded the Benzequen Career Grant for artistic excellence and potential to make a significant impact in the performing arts. Alongside her performance career, Cordelia is committed to teaching, peer representation, and community engagement, and has served in both study-body-elected roles as well as community-based fellowship positions at each of her institutions. Outside of music, she enjoys long hikes and spending time with as many dogs as she can.
Past Mercury-Juilliard Fellows
2024-2025
Ryan Cheng (Violin)
Violinist and viola da gamba player Ryan Cheng has performed widely across the United States, Europe and Asia. Notable performances include the MAFestival Brugge with Juilliard415, American Bach Soloists, California Bach Society, with the faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM), at the Boston Early Music Festival, and the Smithsonian Viol Consort, Nuova Pratica, and the Orbis Pictus Ensemble. He has won the Juilliard Historical Performance Concerto Competition and the SFCM Baroque Concerto Competition and participated in the 2022 Leipzig International Bach Competition. Ryan is a part of The Fooles, a baroque ensemble dedicated to 17th century Italian repertoire, which won the Association des Centres Culturels de Rencontre residency at Thiré with Les Arts Florissants and was featured at Early Music America’s Emerging Artists Showcase in 2023. Ryan is currently interested in composition in historical styles. When not playing the violin, Ryan can be found cooking.
Cristina Prats-Costa (Violin)
Described in The Strad magazine as a “quartet leader playing with uncommon sensitivity”, Spanish violinist Cristina Prats-Costa is a vibrant musician honoured to have been elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music (ARAM), London, in 2019. She has performed with Arcangelo Ensemble, Brecon Baroque, The English Concert, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, Holland Baroque, Finnish Baroque Orchestra, L’Harmonie des Saisons, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Toronto Bach Festival. Cristina recently graduated, June 2024, from The Juilliard School in New York with a Master of Music in Historical Performance. She holds the Christopher Hogwood Award and the excellence scholarship. She previously studied at The Royal Academy of Music, The Guildhall School in London, The Hague Conservatory, and The Hochschule, Hannover. Co-founder and first violin of the Alauda Quartet, was awarded the Chamber Music Fellowship at the Royal Academy of Music and recorded the complete string quartets by Roffredo Caetani released by Brilliant classics. Cristina is first prize and public prize winners at the International Chamber Music Competition “Massimiliano Antonelli” in Italy and prize winner at the Orlando International Competition. Cristina plays a classical violin by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, kindly on loan from MERITO String Instruments Trust, Vienna, and a baroque violin by David Tecchler, kindly on loan from the Museum of the Royal Academy of Music, London.
2023-2024
Lydia Becker (Violin)
French-American violinist Lydia Becker unites historical performance practices with creativity and curiosity, engaging diverse audiences through explorative music-making. Lydia currently serves as concertmaster for La Forza delle Stelle, and has held concertmaster positions for Juilliard415, the Boston Early Music Festival Young Artists program, and the Eastman Collegium Musicum. As a core member of Juilliard415, Lydia toured the Netherlands and Germany, and has performed with Rachel Podger, Reggie Mobley, William Christie, and Lionel Meunier, among others.
She has appeared as a soloist with Juilliard415 (under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki), Publick Musick, and the Eastman Collegium Musicum (with Christel Thielmann and Paul O’Dette). She is a founding member of the Berwick Fiddle Consort, an ensemble that explores historical fiddling traditions of the British Isles. Equally at home on modern violin, Lydia regularly teaches and performs at Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves (France), where she has premiered new works by composers such as François Rossé and collaborated with Maxim Vengerov.
Lydia is a Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant recipient and a Mercury-Juilliard Fellow. She is also a former Presser Scholar, Morse Teaching Artist fellow, and a member of Pi Kappa Lambda. Lydia holds degrees from the Juilliard School, the Eastman School of Music, and the Conservatoire de Bordeaux.
Amelia Sie (Violin)
Based in New York, violinist and violist Amelia Sie is a virtuosic and adventurous performer on both Baroque and modern instruments. As a historical performer, she has appeared on stage with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, and Teatro Nuovo, among others. Equally comfortable on the modern violin, Amelia made her first public appearance with the Seattle Festival Orchestra at the young age of 8 and has since performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Seattle Symphony and the Coeur D’Alene Symphony.
Along with Vivian Mayers, Jimmy Drancsak, and Chelsea Bernstein, Amelia is a member of the Arrow Quartet, a historically informed ensemble that explores and performs music across genres with the goals of expanding the historical performance music canon and creating a more inclusive concert experience. Notable engagements include Roger Williams University, the Dedham Museum & Archive, and Community Strings Project in Rhode Island.
Known for her exuberant and fiery performances, Amelia specializes in the performance practice of Italian virtuoso music from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. Her most recent solo program explores the shifting language of Italian violin virtuosity over the centuries and features music from Marini to Paganini. She is also interested in the performance practice of music from the Classical to early Romantic periods. 2021 saw her solo viola debut performing Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ Sinfonia Concertante Op. 10 No. 2 with Juilliard415.
Amelia received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Violin Performance from New England Conservatory, where she studied with Paul Biss, Miriam Fried, and Soovin Kim. She graduated in 2023 from the Juilliard School with a master’s degree in Historical Performance, where she studied with Cynthia Roberts, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Rachel Podger. Amelia is honored to have been named a Mercury Chamber Orchestra Mercury-Juilliard Fellow for the 2023-24 concert year, as well as a Handel+Haydn Society Stone Fellow for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 concert years.
Amelia proudly performs on a Peter Westerlund modern violin and a Timothy Johnson baroque violin.
2022-2023
Kako Miura (Violin)
Originally from Tokyo, Japan and now based in New York, NY, Kako Miura is a violinist who performs on both historical and modern instruments. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including first prize in the Nagano International Music Festival Violin Competition, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition, and Sound Symphony Orchestra’s Solo Competition, as well as a National YoungArts Foundation Award.
Kako has appeared internationally as a soloist, performing concertos alongside orchestras in Asia, Australia, and the United States, and her solo and chamber music performances have taken her to such distinguished venues as Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, Weill and Zankel Halls at Carnegie Hall, and the Sydney Opera House.
Deeply committed to community engagement and music education, Kako has worked extensively with the Music Advancement Program, a department of The Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division, o1ering instruction on violin as well as courses on historical performance and curricular studies. In 2019, she conceived, directed, and performed an original interactive concert centered around Baroque music for local elementary school students in New York City, titled A Day in the Life of a King, as part of The Juilliard School’s Young People’s Concerts series.
Kako currently studies at The Juilliard School, pursuing a graduate degree in Historical Performance under the guidance of Cynthia Roberts, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Robert Mealy. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, where she also attended the Pre-College program, as well as a Master of Music from The Colburn School. Her principal teachers have included Robert Lipsett and Masao Kawasaki.
Kako plays a Vuillaume workshop “St. Cecile des Thernes” violin and Sartory bow, generously on loan from the Nippon Violin Company, as well as a Kloz Baroque violin and several period bows from the Juilliard Instrument Collection. In addition to music, Kako loves food, tea, and naps.
Pablo O’Connell (Oboe)
Pablo O’Connell (he/him) performs a diverse swath of musical genres on historical and modern oboes. Pablo’s musical life includes performing western classical music on period instruments, interpreting contemporary concert music, studying folkloric traditions of Andean Latin America and Appalachian USA, and writing and recording original music.
Highly in demand as both a period and modern oboist, Pablo has performed with the Carmel Bach Festival, Musica Angelica, New York Baroque Incorporated, Juilliard415, SEM Ensemble, and AXIOM. In April and May of 2022, he undertook tours to Bolivia and Germany with Juilliard415. In June, he curated ensembles to perform pop-up concerts of improvised open-score music as part of Metropolis Ensemble’s Biophony festival.
In 2021 he released his debut EP of original chamber folk, entitled Still You Answer. Pablo holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in modern and historical oboes from the Juilliard School. Pablo is thrilled to be a recipient of the Mercury-Juilliard Fellowship, and will perform with the orchestra as Principal Oboe for several concerts over the 2022-23 season.
2021-2022
Chloe Kim (Violin)
Canadian violinist Chloe Kim has performed at prominent concert venues around the world, sharing the stage in both principal and soloist capacities with international figures such as Rachel Podger, Pablo Heras-Casado, Richard Egarr, and Nicholas McGegan. The recipient of numerous awards including the 2020 Mercury-Juilliard Fellowship, Juilliard Historical Performance Fellowship, and the 2016 Early Music America Scholarship, Chloe was most recently nominated for the prestigious Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award.
Chloe’s most memorable engagements include an all-women Vivaldi tour led by inspirational violinist, Monica Huggett, as well as two recent trips to France for collaborations with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants. Last summer, Chloe served as concertmaster of Juilliard415 for several sold-out productions of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, led by Avi Stein in London and the Versailles Royal Opera.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, season highlights would have included touring as concertmaster with Juilliard415 and Nic McGegan for performances of Handel’s Rinaldo in New York, Germany, and the Netherlands as well as a UK tour with Richard Egarr and Philharmonia. Instead, Chloe is excited to present Music for the Pause, an online chamber music series cosponsored by multiple organizations and produced in beautiful Victoria, BC. She is deeply grateful for the beloved West Coast colleagues that she considers family, and is especially indebted to her mentors, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Robert Mealy, and Heilwig von Königslöw.
Natalie Rose Kress (Violin)
Praised by the New York Times for her “splendid playing,” Natalie Rose Kress is a modern and Baroque violinist based in Washington, D.C. Following three summers as a Tanglewood Fellow, she was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center and performed with Yo-Yo Ma at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. This past spring she graduated from The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program where she attended on a full-scholarship. Her primary teachers throughout her studies at Stony Brook University and The Juilliard School were Soovin Kim, Philip Setzer, The Emerson String Quartet, Jennifer Frautschi, Elizabeth Blumenstock and Cynthia Roberts.
Natalie frequently performs with The Handel and Haydn Society and is a founding member of period ensembles Quartet Salonnières and Musicivic Baroque. As a member of Juilliard415 she performed with William Christie’s Les Arts Florissants and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and performed in masterclasses for Aisslinn Nosky, William Christie, and Masaaki Suzuki.
2020-2021
Manami Mizumoto (Violin)
New York native Manami Mizumoto started her lifelong relationship with music at age 3 on the violin. Early exposure to chamber music sparked in her a devoted love of collaboration. This led to a fascination with performing contemporary music and working with living composers. Most recently, this has manifested in a songwriting project co-created with Uhuru Quartet and composer Sato Matsui to benefit women’s shelters in NYC. In addition, Manami is passionate about exploring different approaches to music making in history and how that can transform the way modern audiences relate to music of the past. Her driving curiosity is in exploring the dialogue between ancient and contemporary thoughts, and she is equally at home on the baroque violin, modern violin, and electro-acoustic setups with Ableton Live. Manami is a recent graduate of the Juilliard School, where she earned her Masters in Historical Performance and graduated with the Norman Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant.
2019-2020
Bethanne Walker (Flute)
Flutist Bethanne Walker is dedicated to modern, orchestral, and historical performance practice. She is the principal flutist of the Stockton Symphony, and performs with the San Francisco Symphony among several others.
A strong advocate of new music, she has given performances of over fifty world premieres. She has given premieres and has worked with composers including Mason Bates, John Adams, Nico Muhly, Kaija Saariaho, Gunther Schuller, and George Crumb.
In 2012, Walker was the William H. Grass Memorial Prize Winner of the 32nd Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition in Boston. She is a recipient of a fellowship at Music Academy of the West; the Kaplan Fellowship at Bowdoin International Music Festival; a full tuition scholarship recipient at American Bach Soloists Academy, Tafelmusik Winter Institute, Tafelmusik Summer Baroque Institute, the Baroque Performance Institute at Oberlin; and a Historical Performance Fellowship Recipient of a full tuition scholarship at The Juilliard School, among several other awards and scholarships.
Walker maintains an exclusive private teaching studio, and has taught baroque flute through the Historical Performance Program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She has studied with Tim Day, Linda Toote, and Sandra Miller.
Rachell Ellen Wong (Violin)
Performing with “unerring beauty” (The Classical Music Network), international prize-winning violinist Rachell Ellen Wong is recognized as an “emerging artist to watch and seek out” (Early Music America).
Originally from Seattle, Rachell has been a featured soloist with orchestras across the globe. Recent appearances include the Orquesta Sinfónica in Costa Rica, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá, and tours with the New Zealand String Quartet.
Rachell was a prize winner in the XXI International J.S. Bach Competition, and won grand prizes in the Sorantin International String Competition, and the inaugural Next Generation Competition, as part of Seattle’s Gallery Concerts. An avid chamber musician, Rachell regularly performs at Valley of the Moon Music Festival in Sonoma, and on the chamber music series Byron Schenkman & Friends. Rachell is a founding member of New Amsterdam Consort based in NYC, performing consort-style music of the 17th century. She is also an American Fellow of The English Concert, elected in 2019.
Rachell holds a Masters of Music in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School, where she was a Kovner Fellow. She also holds a Masters degree from Indiana University. Proud of her multi-racial heritage, Rachell studies diverse musical styles, including the Scottish fiddle.
2018-2019
Alana Youssefian (Violin)
A native of New Jersey, “sensational” baroque and modern violinist Alana Youssefian (San Francisco Civic Center) has quickly forged a reputation as an engaging and spirited soloist, chamber player, and orchestral musician. Hailed for her “incredible poise,” “sensitive dynamics,” and “plangent emotional involvement” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer), as well as presenting performances that are “utterly convincing” (Early Music America), Ms. Youssefian has performed internationally as a concertmaster and soloist, in addition to holding engagements at venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Mann Center, Carnegie Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. Ms. Youssefian studied with Marilyn McDonald at Oberlin Conservatory, and completed a master’s degree in Violin Performance at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music with Kenneth Goldsmith. She most recently graduated from The Juilliard School’s Historical Performance Program in Spring 2018.
As winner of Juilliard’s 2017 Historical Performance Concerto Competition, she performed Vivaldi’s “Il Grosso Mogul” concerto with Juilliard415 and Nicholas McGegan. She has performed with Juilliard415 as concertmaster and soloist on several occasions, including their tours of India and New Zealand. She has also performed with Ars Lyrica Houston, Bach Society Houston, Mercury, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, The Sebastians, New York Baroque Incorporated, Sonnambula, Les Arts Florissants at Dans le Jardin de William Christie, and Teatro Nuovo as associate concertmaster. Recent engagements as concerto soloist include Voices of Music and Philharmonia Baroque. She is a founding member of the baroque ensemble les soûls d’amour, and enjoys their residency at the Seabury Academy at St. Paul’s on the Green in Norwalk, CT. Her latest ensemble, The Cramer Quartet, was selected for a residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Summer 2018. She was named an American Fellow of The English Concert and Juilliard Fellow of Mercury in 2018.
In her free time, Ms. Youssefian enjoys spending time with her cats Jimmy and Django, learning new recipes, meditation coloring books, and rocking out to The Rolling Stones. More information can be found at alanayoussefian.com.
Sarah Jane Kenner (Violin)
Born and raised in New Rochelle, New York, violinist Sarah Jane Kenner is currently based in New York City. Ms. Kenner has performed with a number of ensembles, including Trinity Baroque Orchestra, the Aspen Opera Theater Center, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, and Juilliard415, the school’s period-instrument ensemble. As a winner of Juilliard’s Historical Performance concerto competition, Ms. Kenner made her Lincoln Center debut as a featured soloist with Juilliard415 in 2018. She has also served as their concertmaster and principal second violinist and joined them on tours throughout the U.S., Europe, India, and New Zealand.
Ms. Kenner has served as concertmaster of the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia and the Texas Music Festival Orchestra, and has held principal positions in the Temple University Symphony Orchestra. Recent engagements include a tour to Leipzig with Juilliard415 and Bach Collegium Japan, the Teatro Nuovo Festival, and performances with Les Arts Florissants at the Festival Dans les Jardins de William Christie in Thiré, France. Ms. Kenner is also sa proud recipient of the English Concert in America Fellowship and the Mercury Juilliard Fellowship.
Ms. Kenner received her graduate diploma in Historical Performance at Juilliard, where she studied with Cynthia Roberts and Elizabeth Blumenstock. She also holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and a Master of Music from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied respectively with Hirono Oka and Lucie Robert.
2017-2018
Augusta McKay Lodge (Violin)
Violinist Augusta McKay Lodge has been named a 2016 English Concert American Fellow, and a 2017 Mercury Juilliard Fellow. She performs regularly with Apollo’s Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, and will be joining Les Arts Florissants on their 2018 season. She has performed in venues such as Kennedy Center (Washington, D.C.), Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center, NY), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), and Severance Hall (Cleveland).
Past positions include serving as assistant concertmaster with the Nederlands Studenten Orkest, principal second violin of the Sweelinck Baroque Orchestra (Amsterdam), and concertmaster of Juilliard415 under the leadership of William Christie, Masaaki Suzuki, Ton Koopman, Kristian Bezuidenhout, and Nicholas McGegan.
Among her numerous honors are winner of Juilliard’s Historical Performance Concerto Competition, and first prize in the 2014 Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra Concerto Competition.
Augusta McKay Lodge earned a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and a Masters of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School, and is a graduate of the Juilliard School in historical performance under the tutelage of Cynthia Roberts, Monica Huggett, Elizabeth Blumenstock, and Robert Mealy. Augusta plays on a Jason Viseltear baroque violin from 2014.
Keiran Campbell (Cello)
Cellist Keiran Campbell received his undergraduate degree from Juilliard with Darrett Adkins and is pursuing his masters in Historical Performance at Juilliard with Phoebe Carrai and Timothy Eddy.
While at Juilliard, he has played under conductors including William Christie, Richard Egarr, and Masaaki Suzuki. Keiran has played in masterclasses for Zuill Bailey, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Harry Bicket, Christophe Coin, Richard Egarr, Pablo Heras-Casado, Bonnie Hampton, Frans Helmerson, Jordi Savall, Brinton Smith, and Hopkinson Smith.
He has attended the Berwick Festival, the Perlman Chamber Workshop, Sarasota Music Festival, and Kneisel Hall.
He has performed with members of the Cleveland and Juilliard quartets, studied with David Geringas at the Accademia Chigiana, and has often participated in IMS at Prussia Cove, working with Steven Isserlis and Ralph Kirshbaum. Keiran is both an English Concert and Mercury-Juilliard Fellow for 2017-18.
2016-2017
Edson Scheid (Violin)
Edson has been praised for his “polished playing” (The Strad), and for being “both musically and technically one of the most assured and accomplished of today’s younger period violinists” (The Boston Musical Intelligencer).
A native of Brazil, Edson has performed with such ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, Il Pomo d’Oro, the Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Juilliard415, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Aston Magna Music Festival, Orchester Wiener Akademie, and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. He is the two-time winner of the Historical Performance Concerto Competition at The Juilliard School, and recipient of the Broadus Erle Prize at the Yale School of Music.
Edson’s many performances of Paganini’s 24 Caprices, on both period and modern violins, have been received with enthusiasm around the world. He has performed the Caprices in cities in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, and has been featured live in-studio on In Tune from BBC Radio 3. He has recorded the Caprices on baroque violin under the Naxos label.
Edson holds degrees from the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg, the Yale School of Music and The Juilliard School, where he was the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.
Nayeon Kim (Violin)
Nayeon’s career focus on music from the Renaissance through the early Romantic era with period instruments. She pursued her second Master of Music degree in the Historical Performance program at The Juilliard School studying under Monica Huggett and Cynthia Robert and graduated recently.
Originally from South Korea, Nayeon has received an Artist Diploma as well as a Master of Music degree from the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Hyo Kang. While there, she was a graduate fellow for the Yale Baroque Ensemble, performing a wide variety of repertoire from early 17th century Baroque opera to contemporary chamber music in collaboration with New Music New Haven series.
Shortly after graduating with her bachelor’s degree with honors from Seoul National University in South Korea, Nayeon won a position with the Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra in Korea, where she remained for five years before coming to the United States.
Nayeon has participated in many festivals including Dans les Jardins de William Christie, the Berkeley and Boston Early Music Festivals, the Oregon Bach Festival, Leipzig Bachfest, and the Norfork Chamber Music Festival. She has performed alongside such distinguished musicians as William Christie, Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Robert Levin, Nicholas McGegan, Richard Egarr, Monica Huggett, Rachel Podger, and Robert Mealy.
Toma Iliev (Viola)
Currently based in New York City, Toma is a well-rounded musician focused on historical performance practice. He has performed at prominent concert venues in New York, including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Peter J. Sharp Theater, Merkin Hall, the Kosciuszko Foundation, and in venues across North America and Europe.
Recent appearances include performances at the Oregon Bach Festival 2016, the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition 2016, the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, American Bach Soloists Festival and Academy 2016, Dans les Jardins de William Christie 2016, as well as broadcasts on Medici.tv, BBC3 radio, KLCC and the CBC “Rush Hour” series.
Toma holds the Christa Bach-Marschall Foundation Prize from the International Bach Competition in Leipzig 2014, and was a competition winner at the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra Concerto Competition. Between 2014 and 2016 he appeared regularly with Juilliard’s period ensemble, Juilliard415 at venues in North America and Europe, including Alice Tully Hall, Jordan Hall, St. John’s Smith Square, and others.
A native of Sofia, Bulgaria, Toma holds a Master of Music degree from Indiana University and a Graduate Diploma in Historical Performance from The Juilliard School. In the 2016-2017 season he will be performing regularly with the Portland Baroque Orchestra.