Misha Vayman - Violin 

Misha Vayman has been received nationally and internationally with critical acclaim. North Star called his playing “Poetic and sincere” “Lyrical… with serious technical gifts.” Journal Star noted that “The crowd rose to its feet”. Steven Trinkle, artistic director and conductor at Trinkle Brass Works, Inc. said that Misha demonstrated “Some of the best string playing I’ve ever heard.”  

Misha has performed as a soloist with a great number of orchestras, including the Starling Chamber Orchestra at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, China, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic, and Symphony of the Lakes Orchestras, Indiana, the Lake Charles Symphony, Louisiana, the El Paso Symphony, Texas, the Poway Symphony, California, the Juarez Symphony, Mexico, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Russia. His performances have been broadcast nationally and internationally.  

Misha regularly performs with the Delirium Musicum Chamber Orchestra, and other recent chamber music performances have included collaborations with artists such as members of the Calidore String Quartet, members of the Jupiter String Quartet, David Requiro (cello faculty at University of Colorado, June Han (harp faculty at Yale), Kurt Muroki (double bass faculty at Indiana University), Carmit Zori, and Joseph Johnson (principal cellist of Toronto Symphony), among others. 

Proud to be Co-Artistic Director of the Mixtape Series, Misha is currently a member of the Mixtape Quartet and the Benefic Piano Trio, Grand Prize winners of the 2018 ENKOR International Music Competition. 

In 2016 he added a faculty position at Benefic Chamber Music Festival to his summer schedule, involving himself in coaching and private teaching, as well as having the opportunity to perform with the internationally renowned American Piano Trio. He has also recently led workshops and masterclasses at University of Texas, El Paso, JDR Summer Strings Academy in Plano, Texas, and the University of Juarez, Mexico. As of January 2019, Misha has been on the faculty of the Pascale Music Institute in Pasadena, CA. 

In 2011, Misha starred in the music video “Stronger” with groundbreaking string trio Time for Three (the video was featured on CNN in 2012), and is featured in a music video from Bach Dancing & Dynamite playing the first movement of the Klein String Trio, as of 2017.  

Misha earned his Bachelor of Music attending the Cleveland Institute of Music, Master of Music from the Colburn Conservatory, and a Graduate Certificate under Lina Bahn at the University of Southern California.

Misha is forever grateful to the great contributions a number of prominent pedagogues have made to his career, including Elena Zaitseva, Kurt Sassmannshaus, Mauricio Fuks, former Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Zachary DePue, acclaimed concert violinist Joan Kwuon, ex-first violin of Tokyo String Quartet Martin Beaver, Professor Lina Bahn, his grandmother Alla Zhokhova, and his mother, Anna Vayman. 

Qiele (Cello) Guo - Cello

“且乐” is a Chinese name, which shares the same pronunciation as the English word "Cello." Qiele’s name was given to him by his musician parents who hoped that he would “follow in the footsteps” of his father’s cello career, as the former principal cellist of the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra. Qiele’s musical career began at the age of 14, when he won the “Ten Talented Young Artists of China” award in ShenYang, China. Two years later at age 16, Qiele won the second prize at the prestigious “Ai Qin Bei” Cello Competition in Beijing. In 2013, Qiele won the first prize at YSTCM Concerto Competition in Singapore with the Robert Schumann Cello Concerto in A Minor. In 2018, as part of the Benefic Piano Trio, with violinist Misha Vayman and pianist Sunhwa Kim, he won the Grand Prize of the ENKOR International Chamber Music Competition.

Qiele Guo recieved his music degrees with full scholarship awards from both the National University of Singapore (Bachelor of Music) and Colburn Conservatory of Music (Master of Music, Artist Diploma) with the “Dean’s List” Honor. He studied with the Internationally well-known Cellists Li-Wei Qin, Tokyo Quartet Cellist Clive Greensmith, and proudly became the very last Art Diploma candidate of Legendary Cellist Ron Leonard.

Qiele has performed throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. In 2013 he collaborated with Gina Medina, the concertmistress of the Manila Symphony Orchestra, and pianist Mary Anne Espina in Manila, Philippine. The following year he was invited to play in a series of chamber music concerts in 2014 with Seiji Ozawa in Japan.

In 2015 he was invited to Weimar Germany and played as principal/solo cello in the baroque ensemble under the baton of legendary baroque music maestro Helmuth Rilling. In 2016 he was back to Germany again to Stuttgart and played a series of chamber music concerts at the Hohenstaufen International Chamber Music Festival. In 2017 Qiele was appointed as artist in residence for the Philharmonic Society of Myanmar and has given masterclasses and performances in Yangon. In the same year, he also became a Lincoln Center Stage chamber musician and has performed with many other LCS musicians since. In 2019, He and the benefic piano trio’s performance of the Beethoven triple concerto with Poway symphony became a huge success. During the 2020 Covid crisis, Qiele became the core member of Project Mainstream™ and production director of Hawaii Chamber Music Festival focusing on generating online music content for the public.

As a dedicated orchestral player, he also served as principal cellist in the YSTCM Symphony Orchestra and the Young Artists Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles, as well as guest principal in Santa Monica Symphony. In 2018 he joined the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra and became the youngest member of the cello section.

 Sunhwa Kim - Piano

Pianist Sunhwa Kim is the winner of the 12th Seoul Student Award for enhancing Korea’s national prestige from the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education. At age 11, she had her solo debut concerts, including Seoul Arts Center Prodigy Concert, The Kumho Prodigy Recital and performed with the Hanmi Orchestra at age 12 at Seoul Arts Center’s Concert Hall. She was a finalist and received the Honorable Mention Prize at the 2013 International Paderewski Piano Competition in Poland and the 20th Ile de France International Piano Competition in 2018. She got the opportunity to participate in the Interpretation Master Course in 2014 by the European Krzysztof Penderecki Centre for Music.

Ms. Kim is the winner of the 2020 New York Paderewski International Piano Competition, Yamaha Music Korea Scholarship Audition, the 15th Korea Chopin Competition, the All Japan Art International Competition (in which she was also awarded the Brilliant Technique prize), the International Chopin Piano Competition in Asia and the Kerikeri International Piano Competition.

As a chamber musician, she has played the Brahms Piano Quintet with the Silesian Quartet in Poland and performed the Brahms Piano Quintet during the Spirit of SNU Strings II Chamber Concert, held in the IBK Chamber Hall of the Seoul Arts Center. Most recently, Sunhwa Kim has participated in numerous concerts such as the Colburn Young Artist Series Concert and has performed with singers from the 2018 LA Opera Young Artists at the Steinway & Sons gallery, Beverly Hills in Los Angeles. In addition, she has collaborated with renowned Percussionist She-e Wu in the Colburn School’s CCMS concert in Zipper Hall.

She has had masterclasses with renowned pianists Menahem Pressler, Arie Vardi, Ralf Gothoni, Christopher Elton, Andrzej Jasinski, Piotr Paleczny, John O’Conor, Joaquin Soriano, Boris Petrushansky, Alexander Braginsky, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Pavel Gililov, Jacques Rouvier, Joaquin Soriano and Richard Goode.

Ms. Kim received her Artist Diploma at the Colburn Conservatory of Music studying under Mr. Fabio Bidini. She graduated with honors and received her Bachelors degree from Seoul National University with Mr. Hyoung-joon Chang. Previously, she has studied with Soo-jung Shin, Jin-woo Chung, Hae-jeon Lee, Sook-Ryeon park and Choong-mo Kang. Currently, she is working towards her Masters degree, studying with Mr. Phillip Kawin at the Manhattan School of Music with a scholarship provided by the MSM music department.