Alice Burla — piano

Alice Burla is dazzling the main stages of the music scene with her vibrant and authentic musicianship and her intelligent and innovative repertoire.

Hailed as an “extraordinary talent” by The New York Times, Alice was named a prizewinner at the 17th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition 2025, receiving the Patricia and Neal Steffen Family Jury Discretionary Award and praised for her performances as “replete with sophisticated balances… unfettered freedom… and ear-catching textural diversity”. (Gramophone Magazine)

Alice has performed around the world, with recent highlights including the Tonhalle Zürich, Victoria Hall Geneva, Casino Bern, Dubai Opera, Carnegie Hall and the World Economic Forum, as well as orchestra engagements with the Sinfonieorchester Basel, argovia philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfónica UNAB, Schweizer Jugend Sinfonie Orchester and Donetsk Philharmonic Orchestra.

Following her success at The Cliburn, Alice was honored with an invitation to step in for the legendary Martha Argerich, Mischa Maisky and Iddo Bar-Shai at the Engadin Festival, where she performed with Denis Kozhukhin and Daniel Blendulf in piano duo and chamber ensemble formations. She has appeared in major festivals such as the Festival Internacional de Piano UIS in Colombia, DAVOS Festival, Musikdorf Ernen, Verbier Festival Academy and International Sommerakademie Mozarteum.

Alice is a laureate of major international competitions, with strong finishes at the Sydney, Montréal, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. She was awarded the Kiefer Hablitzel/Göhner Music Prize in Switzerland with special mention Prix Collard and the Schenk Stiftung Soloist Prize along with the Prize of the City of Zofingen following her praised performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 under the baton of Marc Kissóczy.

A passionate chamber musician, she has performed duo recitals with cellist Daniel Müller-Schott in Switzerland and Estonia and has previously collaborated with artists such as Ilya Gringolts, Maxim Vengerov, Peter Eötvös, Silvia Simionescu and Eduard Brunner. Her performances have been featured on national radio in Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Italy and the United States, as well as on streaming platforms Medici.tv and American PBS telecasts of “Live from Carnegie Hall”. She portrayed a piano prodigy in the film Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, with Michael Douglas and Carey Mulligan.

Born in Toronto, Alice was one of the youngest students ever accepted to the Juilliard School at age 6. She started her conservatory studies in Madrid with Dmitri Bashkirov at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, after which she moved to Switzerland to study with Claudio Martínez Mehner and Anton Kernjak at the Musik Akademie Basel, where she completed her bachelor’s and soloist master’s with distinction. Alice is currently mentored by Gabriela Montero.

Edward Arron — cello

Cellist Edward Arron has garnered recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician, throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

The 2025–26 season marks Mr. Arron’s 13th season as the co-artistic director with his wife, Jeewon Park, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Bargemusic, Caramoor, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival in Korea, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has performed numerous times in Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The Seoul Arts Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Town Hall and the 92nd Street Y. Other festival appearances include Salzburg, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, PyeongChang, Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, Evian, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and the Bard Music Festival. He has participated in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project as well as Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron’s performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2021, Mr. Arron’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics Record Label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation.

In 2022, Mr. Arron stepped down after 15 years as the artistic director of the acclaimed Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, Connecticut. In 2013, he completed a ten-year residency as the artistic director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Mr. Arron was also the artistic director of the USCB Chamber Music Series in Beaufort, South Carolina from 2009–2021, and the Chamber Music on Main concert series at the Columbia (SC) Museum of Art from 2009-2018.

Edward Arron began playing the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and continued his studies in New York with Peter Wiley. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro. In 2016, Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst, after having served on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016.

Jennifer Frautschi — violin

Two-time GRAMMY nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient violinist Jennifer Frautschi has appeared as soloist with innumerable orchestras including the Cincinnati Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, and St Paul Chamber Orchestra. She is an artist-member of the Boston Chamber Music Society and has appeared as chamber musician at Chamber Music Northwest, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, La Jolla Summerfest, Music@Menlo, Tippet Rise Art Center, Toronto Summer Music, and the Bridgehampton, Cape Cod, Charlottesville, Great Lakes, Lake Champlain, Moab, Ojai, Santa Fe, Salt Bay, Seattle, Spoleto, and Valley of the Moon Music Festivals.

Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos: the Stravinsky Violin Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London, conducted by the legendary Robert Craft, and two GRAMMY-nominated recordings with the Fred Sherry Quartet, of Schoenberg’s Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra, and the Schoenberg Third String Quartet. Her most recent releases are with pianist John Blacklow on Albany Records: the first devoted to the three sonatas of Robert Schumann; the second, American Duos, an exploration of recent additions to the violin and piano repertoire by contemporary American composers Barbara White, Steven Mackey, Elena Ruehr, Dan Coleman, and Stephen Hartke. She also recorded three widely praised CDs for Artek: an orchestral recording of the Prokofiev concerti with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony; the violin music of Ravel and Stravinsky; and 20th-century works for solo violin. Other recordings include a disc of Romantic Horn Trios, with hornist Eric Ruske and pianist Stephen Prutsman, and the Stravinsky Duo Concertant with pianist Jeremy Denk.

Born in Pasadena, California, Ms. Frautschi attended the Colburn School, Harvard, the New England Conservatory, and the Juilliard School. She performs on a 1722 Antonio Stradivarius violin known as the “ex-Cadiz”, on generous loan from a private American foundation with support from Rare Violins In Consortium. She currently teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University.

Luna Seongeun Park — soprano

Soprano Luna Seongeun Park is a South Korean soprano currently pursuing a Graduate Diploma at The Juilliard School. She holds a Master’s degree from the Mannes School of Music and a Bachelor’s degree from Yonsei University.

Park has established a significant international presence through numerous prestigious competitions. Her accolades include First Prize at the 2025 Luciano Pavarotti Foundation Opera Naples International Vocal Competition, being a New York District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (2024, 2025), and First Prize at the New York Career Bridges International Competition. She also earned Third Prize at the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition and was named a Semifinalist at the 2025 Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition. Most recently, in 2026, she further distinguished herself as a Finalist in the Dallas Opera National Vocal Competition.

Additionally, she is a laureate of the Giulio Gari Foundation International Vocal Competition, Butler International Vocal Competition, Opera Index International Vocal Competition, Opera Annapolis Vocal Competition, and the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition.

In the summer of 2024, Park made her European debut at the Verbier Festival as Nannetta in Falstaff, where she was honored as an Outstanding Artist of the season. Her operatic repertoire includes roles in Don Giovanni, Falstaff, L’enfant et les sortilèges, Dark Sisters, Hänsel und Gretel, Rusalka, Rigoletto, Le nozze di Figaro, La clemenza di Tito, La Boheme and Cendrillon.

Masumi Rostad — viola

Praised for his “burnished sound” (The New York Times) and described as an “electrifying, poetic, and sensitive musician”, the Grammy Award-winning, Japanese-Norwegian violist Masumi Rostad hails from the gritty East Village of New York City. He was raised in an artist loft converted from a garage with a 1957 Chevy Belair as the remnant centerpiece in his family’s living room. Masumi began his studies at the nearby Third Street Music School Settlement at age three and has gone on to become one of the most in demand soloists, chamber musicians, and teachers. In addition to maintaining an active performance schedule, he serves on the faculty of the prestigious Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

Recent performance highlights include concerto performances with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, and The Knights. Festival appearances include La Jolla SummerFest, Marlboro, Caramoor, Bowdoin, Aspen Music Festival, Beare’s Premiere Performances in Hong Kong, Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Spoleto USA, Music@Menlo, and Music In the Vineyards. In 2025, he performed an all-Shostakovich program with pianist Evgeny Kissin and the Kopelman Quartet at Carnegie Hall and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra Piano Festival. His guest violist collaborations include programs with the Miró, Ying, Pavel Haas, Verona, St. Lawrence, and Emerson String Quartets, as well as with the Horszowski Trio. He toured and recorded extensively as a former member of the International Sejong Soloists. Masumi can be heard on the Cedille, Naxos, Hyperion, Musical Observations, Bridge, and Tzadik record labels.

Masumi recently commissioned his childhood friend Jessie Montgomery to compose a Viola Concerto based on the experience they shared of growing up in NYC. The world premiere of L.E.S. Characters took place in October 2021 with Masumi as soloist with the Orlando Philharmonic. He has previously appeared as soloist with the Virginia Symphony, Juilliard Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and Sinfonia da Camera among others.

As a member of the Pacifica Quartet for almost two decades (2001–2017), Masumi regularly performed in the world’s greatest halls including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Sydney’s City Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Munich’s Herkuleshaal, Paris’ Louvre and Cité de la Musique, and Berlin’s Konzerthaus, among many others. During Masumi’s tenure with the Quartet, the ensemble was awarded the coveted Cleveland Quartet Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and it was named Musical America’s 2009 Ensemble of the Year.

Masumi is an ardent advocate for the arts, and often sought after as a contributing writer to such publications as the Huffington Post, Strings and Gramophone magazines as well as The Guardian. He also actively maintains a YouTube channel where he regularly publishes videos covering a variety of musical topics. He produces a video series called Sound Post, released in conjunction with The Violin Channel, which are interviews with his friends and colleagues about their instruments.

Passionate about breaking down barriers that prevent people from enjoying Classical music, Masumi was the founder of DoCha, a chamber music festival in Champaign, Illinois that produced innovative events with a focus on engaging new audiences through fun and inventive programming. DoCha-hosted events featured unique collaborations between members of the University and multi-genre presentations from Classical chamber music to contemporary dance, the spoken word, and much more. All programs were free of charge and took place at a beautiful former community Opera House. Other activities of DoCha included performances for elementary school students as well as master classes, competitions and performance opportunities for local music students.

Masumi has served on the faculties of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the University of Chicago, Longy School of Music, University of Toronto, and Northwestern University. Appointed to the Viola Faculty of Eastman School of Music in 2017, he was elected and served two terms as the first, and only, chair of the University of Rochester Faculty Senate to come from Eastman. He has given master classes at the Colburn School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Music@Menlo, the Aspen Music Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Interlochen and San Francisco Conservatory among many others.

He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with legendary violist and pedagogue Karen Tuttle from the age of 17 and became her teaching assistant just three years later at the age of 20. At Juilliard, he was awarded the Lillian Fuchs Award for the most outstanding graduating violist. He also won the Juilliard School Concerto Competition and performed the world premiere of Michael White’s Viola Concerto in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, with conductor James DePreist. That same year, he gave the New York premiere of Paul Schoenfield’s Viola Concerto with the Juilliard Symphony to critical acclaim. In 2008 he was awarded the Rising Star Award by the Third Street Music School Settlement for his musical achievements.

Masumi is a D’Addario Artist and has used their strings since 1999. His Brothers Amati viola was crafted in Cremona, Italy in 1619.