A recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions, Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician and educator. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”

Lee has appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Tacoma Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic and many others. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Steinway Hall’s Salon de Virtuosi, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Ravinia Festival, Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live, (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing at Lincoln Center in New York and on tour with CMS throughout each season, as well as a member of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, sitting as the Bernard Gondos Chair.

Recent and upcoming highlights include concerts presented by the San Francisco Symphony with Itzhak Perlman, Amarillo Symphony, Chamber Music Sedona, a tour with the Silk Road Ensemble, Music@Menlo, Parlance Chamber Concerts, Moab Music Festival, Music in the Vineyards, Town Hall Seattle, Lyra Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, North Carolina New Music Initiative and the Leicester International Music Festival, as well as performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Camerata Pacifica.

Lee’s many honors include awards from the 2015 Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, 2011 Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. She is also the unprecedented First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at the Juilliard School: in the Pre-College Division in 1997 and 1999, and in the College Division in 2007.

Born in Seoul, Lee began studying the violin at the age of five, and within one year won First Prize at the prestigious Korea Times Violin Competition. In 1995, she moved to the United States and continued her musical studies under Sonja Foster. Two years later, she became a student of Catherine Cho and Dorothy DeLay in the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division. In January 2000, she was chosen to study with Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from the Juilliard School. She is the co-founder and artistic director of Emerald City Music in Seattle.

Tara Helen O’Connor is a charismatic performer noted for her artistic depth, brilliant technique, and colorful tone spanning every musical era. Winner of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a two-time Grammy nominee, she was the first wind player to participate in the CMS Two program. A Wm. S. Haynes flute artist, she is a regular participant in the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, the Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, Mainly Mozart, Spoleto USA, Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, the Banff Centre, Ocean Reef Chamber Music Festival, and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival.

She is a founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning New Millennium Ensemble, a member of the woodwind quintet Windscape and the Bach Aria Group. She has appeared on A&E’s Breakfast with the Arts and Live from Lincoln Center. She has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon, EMI Classics, Koch International, and Bridge Records. Dr. O'Connor is the Area Head of the Wind Department at Purchase College School of the Arts Conservatory of Music and is the Chair of Classical Music Studies. Additionally she is on the faculty of Bard College Conservatory and the contemporary program at Manhattan School of Music. Her yearly summer flute master class at the Banff Centre in Canada is legendary.

Violist Paul Neubauer's exceptional musicality and effortless playing led the New York Times to call him “a master musician. Mr. Neubauer exults in his instrument’s dark, rich, sumptuous tone.”

He recently made his Chicago Symphony subscription debut with conductor Riccardo Muti as well as his Mariinsky Orchestra debut at the White Nights Festival. He also gave the U.S. Premiere of the newly discovered Impromptu for viola and piano by Shostakovich with pianist Wu Han.

Appointed principal violist of the New York Philharmonic at age 21, he has appeared as soloist with over 100 orchestras including the New York, Los Angeles, and Helsinki philharmonics. He has premiered viola concertos by Bartók (revised version of the Viola Concerto), Friedman, Glière, Jacob, Kernis, Lazarof, Müller-Siemens, Ott, Penderecki, Picker, Suter, and Tower and has been featured on CBS's Sunday Morning, A Prairie Home Companion, and in Strad, Strings, and People magazines. A two-time GRAMMY nominee, he has recorded on numerous labels including Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, RCA Red Seal, and Sony Classical. Mr. Neubauer is the artistic director of the Mostly Music series in New Jersey and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School and Mannes College. 

Harpist Bridget Kibbey has won the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Classical Recording Foundation's Young Artist Award, Concert Artist Guild's International Competition, and Astral Artist Auditions. Her debut album, Love is Come Again, was named one of the Top Ten Releases by Time Out New York. She may also be heard on Deutsche Grammophon with Dawn Upshaw, on a recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ayre and Luciano Berio’s Folk Songs. She most recently recorded an album for SONY Records with Placido Domingo, to be released this season. Her solo performances have been broadcast on NPR'sPerformance Today, on New York's WQXR, WNYC'sSoundcheck, WETA’s Front Row Washington, WRTI’s Crossover, and A&E's Breakfast with the Arts.

Last season she spearheaded a five-orchestra world-premiere Harp Concerto Consortium, for which she performed a new harp concerto by Juno Award-winning Vivian Fung alongside standard harp concertos with the Alabama Symphony, Karlsruhe Badische Symphoniker, The Phillips Collection with the Phillips Camerata, and the Metropolis Ensemble. This season's appearances include the Savannah Music Festival, Bravo Vail, Bridgehampton, Bay Chamber, Saratoga, Portland Chamber, and the Pelotas festivals, along with multiple performances with Camerata Pacifica, the International Contemporary Ensemble, San José Chamber Orchestra, and solo recitals across the United States. She is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society and a former member of CMS Two.