Christopher Russell
Christopher Russell is Associate Professor and Chair of the Music Performance department at Azusa Pacific University (APU) in Southern California. He is conductor of the APU Symphony Orchestra and leads their graduate instrumental conducting program. The Los Angeles Times called him “a forcefully dramatic conductor with a strong technique”. The Herald Times said Russell's performance “both tamed and enticed the orchestra to create a texture at once controlled and impassioned”.
Guest conducting appearances include the MasterWorks Festival in Ohio and Indiana, the Orquestra Sinfônica Heliópolis in São Paulo, Brazil, the International Orchestra Festival and the Yellow River Symphony in Zhengzhou, China, the Harbin Symphony, the Shenzhen Symphony, and the Shenzhen City Philharmonic. He has also conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and prestigious concert halls in London, Vienna, Prague, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg. Russell was on the jury for the final round of the 4th and 5th Hong Kong International Music Festival.
As a music lecturer, he is a regular pre-concert speaker for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has also presented lectures for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County and the Pacific Symphony. Internationally, he presented lectures at the openings of two new theaters in China: the Florence Culture and Arts Exchange Center in Dalian and the Sound of the Phoenix Theater in Qingdao. For the LA Phil, he has interviewed many famous classical artists including Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jaap van Zweden, Emanuel Ax, Leila Josefowicz, and John Adams.
Russell’s musical interest also extends to performing rarely-heard older music including the U.S. or California premieres of many works from the early and mid-20th century including music by Havergal Brian, Rued Langgaard, Bohuslav Martinu, and Allan Pettersson. An advocate for conducting American music abroad, he conducted the Australian and Brazilian premieres of Ives’ 2nd Symphony and the Russian premiere of Peter Mennin’s Symphony No. 5. Russell conducted the world premiere of the Symphony in A composed in 1878 by Leopold Damrosch with the APU Symphony. They recorded an all-Damrosch disc which was internationally released on the British record label Toccata Classics.
For over 20 years until 2019, he conducted the Orange County School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra where he regularly received accolades for the orchestra’s quality and adventurous programming. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers has awarded him their prestigious Award for Programming of Contemporary Music for youth orchestras on ten occasions. Seven of those times, he was awarded first place in the United States.
Meredith Johnson, DMA
In her career, Mississippi native Dr. Meredith Melvin Johnson, has coached singers of all ages in multiple genres as well as trained future music educators in diction, pedagogy, and literature. She specializes in both classical and belt techniques and is an active adjudicator and vocal clinician, offering workshops for choral groups, show choirs, musical theatre students, and church ensembles. She maintains a thriving private studio catering to a wide variety of musical styles and is the creator of the online courses “Virtual Vocal Academy” and “Audition Bootcamp” at VirtualVocalAcademy.com.
Maintaining an active performing career is a vital part of Dr. Johnson’s teaching philosophy. She has graced the stage in numerous musicals, operas, operettas, and concerts across the region.
In her current role as a voice professor at The University of Southern Mississippi, Johnson teaches applied voice and vocal pedagogy courses and serves as vocal coach to the musical production.
Dr. Johnson holds a master of music and a doctor of musical arts in vocal performance from The University of Southern Mississippi. She resides in Laurel with her husband, Tony, and their cute little dog, GusGus. Connect with her on Instagram @meredithmelvinjohnson.
Lishan Hung, DMA
“A major musician of tremendous stature, a deeply probing artist.” (Dr. Tom Wendel, late Chair of the American Beethoven Society.)
“What a paradise life would be if all the concerts I reviewed were as good as this one. Pianist Li-shan Hung gave a truly extraordinary performance…, making music at the highest level….” (New York Concert Review)
As a winner of the Artists International Li-shan Hung made her New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2003 to great acclaim, which led to a return in 2005. Her performance of Cesar Franck’s Prelude, Chorale, and Fugue was sited as “perhaps the finest performance of this piece I’ve ever heard” by Timothy Gilligan in the New York Concert Review. She has also received high praises from reviews by the Washington Post and Baltimore Sun.
An active soloist and a chamber musician, Li-shan Hung has appeared internationally in such venues as Salle Gaveau in Paris, Cultural Center in Munich, Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow, Shriver Hall Concert Series in Baltimore, Orpheus Classical Music Series in Chicago, Steinway Society of the Bay Area Recital Series in San Jose, Sejong Cultural Arts Center in Seoul, and National Concert Hall in Taiwan. Lishan has made guest appearances with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Stockton Symphony, MasterWorks Festival Orchestra, Palo Alto Philharmonic, Sheboygan Symphony, and Hunan Symphony Orchestra in China. She has collaborated with many distinguished artists including Menahem Pressler, Roberto Cani, and Delta David Gier. Her performances have been broadcast on Television and Radio stations in Wisconsin, San Francisco, Seoul, and so on.
Hung has been invited as a guest artist and presented master classes at universities and festivals in the U.S. and Asia, including Vanderbilt University, Ball State University, Youngstown State University, Bowling Green State University, University of Northern Florida, Chinese University of Hong Kong, National Taiwan Normal University, and Xinghai Conservatory in China. She was also a MTNA Indiana State Conference artist in 2015. During the summer she teaches at MasterWorks Festival in Kentucky and Cremona International Music Academy in Italy.
A native Taiwanese, Hung obtained her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University, where she studied with the renowned pianist Ann Schein. In addition, she worked with Jorg Demus, Grant Johannessen, and the Alban Berg String Quartet, and performed in master classes with Abbey Simon, Paul Badura-skoda, Sergei Dorensky, and Evgeny Malinin.
Dr. Hung now serves as Professor of Piano and the Director of the Keyboard Area at Biola University.
Michael Bunchman, DMA
Pianist Michael Bunchman maintains a fulfilling schedule as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician with both singers and instrumentalists throughout the United States. He is currently on faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi as the director of the Collaborative Piano Program, where he is honored to coach, teach and guide the next generation of collaborative pianists in both vocal and instrumental repertoire. He has given masterclasses at Texas Christian University, University of Texas at El Paso, Illinois State University and the University of Albany. Prior to working at the University of Southern Mississippi, Dr. Bunchman served as coordinator of Collaborative Piano at Truman State University from 2015 to 2017.
Dr. Bunchman maintains an active performance schedule outside of his work in academia. He has spent five seasons as a principal coach and pianist at the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater, as well as appointments with the Natchez Festival of Music and Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra. His many collaborations with opera companies include Santa Barbara Opera, Opera Saratoga, the Princeton Festival and El Paso Opera. Also active as a concerto soloist, Dr. Bunchman has performed with the Ridgefield Symphony, the Breckenridge Music Festival, the Antara Ensemble in New York City, the Utah Festival Opera Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra. He and wife, singer Jessica Medoff, have been invited to opera houses and theaters nationwide to perform their highly acclaimed cabaret show ‘The Truth About Love…and the Usual Lies”. Dr. Bunchman had the honor to be counted among the amazingly diverse and talented group of artists of A Prairie Home Companion, hosted by Garrison Keillor, on their multi-city European cruise.
Dr. Bunchman holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, a Master of Music in Piano Performance from the Peabody Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the University of Texas at Austin. He spent three summers at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival. His teachers have included Anne Epperson, Rick Rowley, Marian Hahn, Joseph Kalichstein, Antoinette Perry, Adrienne Sielaff and Doris Pridonoff-Lehnert.
Heaven Fan, DMA
Currently serving on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, Valparaiso University, Indiana University South Bend, and Anderson University, Dr. Heaven Fan is also a member of the artistic faculty of the MasterWorks Festival. Fan’s performances have been featured on National Public Radio (NPR), TV and radio stations in the US, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has been featured on the recordings including the prizewinning album A Ceremony of Carols with the Notre Dame Children’s Choir; Ami Maayani’s The Harp Concerti (Fons) as the First Harp of the Pacific Harp Quartet; The Best of Festival of Carols, Volume 1, and Festival of Carols (Naxos) with Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, Soprano Maria Jette, and the Grammy Award-winning soprano Sylvia McNair.
A prizewinner in the national Anne Adams Competition of the American Harp Society and the Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship Award of the Arts Council of Indianapolis and Lilly Endowment, Fan was invited internationally as a featured soloist in the MasterWorks Festival, the Festival of Chinese Performing Arts in Boston, the Boston Harp Festival, the World Harp Congresses in Czech Republic and Switzerland, the International Harp Festival of Mexico, and the New Year Concerts of the Qingdao Municipal Opera and Dance Drama Theater Orchestra in China.
Fan is an avid advocate of contemporary and chamber music and has worked with composers in numerous projects and given world premieres in the US, Taiwan, and Australia. She has collaborated in contemporary and chamber music concerts with members of NY’s MET orchestra, Boston, Atlanta, St. Louis, and National symphonies, as well as faculty members of Julliard, Manhattan, and Eastman schools of music among others.
A sought-after teacher, Fan was selected by the Arpas sin Fronteras (“Harps Without Frontiers”) to be featured in a series of interviews, compiled by the National University of the Arts in Argentina, as one of the world-renowned harp professors of the most recognized and prestigious conservatories and universities of the world. She has also been featured as one of the speakers in the 2023 Buenos Aires Harp Week sponsored by Nueva Escuela Argentina de Arpa. In 2017 Fan was invited by the Central Illinois Roslyn Rensch Chapter as the advisor for the first Auditions and Evaluations program sponsored by the American Harp Society. In addition, she was the first harp scholar to publish an in-depth analysis on the New Method for the Harp by the early 19th-century English harp virtuoso Elias Parish Alvars. Since 2024 Fan has been inducted into the prestigious Marquis Who's Who Biographical Registry. She has also been elected as a member to Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Music Honor Society, and classified by the US Government as an Alien of Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts.
Fan has served on the judging panels for the 2007 National Harp Competition in Taiwan, the 2008 and 2012 Young Artist's Harp Competitions, the FY2012 Individual Artist Program of the Indiana Arts Commission, the 2013 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Collegiate Scholarship Competition, the 2016 International Harp Competition of Mexico, the 2019 Indiana University Harp Concerto Competition, the 2021 Kansas City Lyra Chapter Harp Competition, the 2021 Ruth Inglefield Composition Contest of the USA International Harp Competition, the 2023 and 2024 Marker and Pioneer International Music Competitions, and the 2024 California Youth Harp Competition. She has moderated the Competition Forum at the 2017 International Harp Competition of Mexico. Fan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the prestigious USA International Harp Competition.
Born in Taiwan, Fan received her bachelor's degree with highest distinction in both harp and piano from Queensland Conservatorium of Griffith University in Australia, and her master's, Artist Diploma, and doctorate in harp performance from Indiana University under the tutelage of Distinguished Professor Susann McDonald.
Mary C. Irwin
Violinist Mary C Irwin has a long family heritage of amateur pianists and violinists, starting piano lessons with her aunt at age 4; she is the first of her family to have a career as a professional violinist, which began when she was invited to play in her local symphony at age 15. Ms. Irwin has a B. Mus with Distinction in Performance from Converse University School of Music and an M. Mus from Northwestern University. Her principal teachers were Jerrie Lucktenberg, James Ceasar and Myron Kartmann; with additional work with Marge Pardee and Josef Gingold. Throughout her schooling, Ms. Irwin won numerous competitions to play concertos with orchestras, including the Brevard Music Center; but her primary ambition was to be a symphony player. She played with the Greenville and Wichita Symphonies, was concertmaster at the 1980 Spoleto Festival, and principal 2nd violinist of the Knoxville Symphony before winning a position with the Columbus Symphony in 1986. In 1998, Ms. Irwin joined the faculty of the newly established Masterworks Festival, serving as concertmaster, soloist, teacher and orchestral strings coordinator, a position which she continues to hold today. In 2011, she left Columbus, OH to return to her hometown of Spartanburg, SC, where she was promptly hired as concertmaster of the Hendersonville Symphony and also guest concertmaster of the Brevard Philharmonic. In addition to her symphonic career, Ms. Irwin has performed continuously throughout her career as a recitalist and chamber musician in China, Japan, Europe and many venues across the United States. Her piano trio played in Alice Tully Hall; and she was a regular member of the Quattro Corde String quartet for 8 years.
Ms. Irwin also has a great passion for teaching; in the last 25 years, she has helped many students reach a professional skill level; among them is Jeffrey Myers, the first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Calidore string quartet. In 2017, she founded the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra, a mentoring orchestra which pairs exceptional local high school students with professional musicians in three concerts per year, and features students as concerto soloists.
Jackie Tso
Violinist Jackie Tso has been heard as a soloist with orchestras around the world such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Santa Fe Concert Association Orchestra, and the Beijing Broadcasting Orchestra. Ms. Tso has also played in many of the world’s most prestigious competitions including the Premio Paganini, Yehudi Menuhin, Shanghai Isaac Stern, Zhuhai Mozart, and Cooper. She was a semifinalist of the International Jascha Heifetz Competition as well as the Irving M. Klein.
Jackie studied with Li Lin at The Juilliard School. Past principal teachers include Glenn Dicterow, Kurt Sassmannshaus, and Almita and Roland Vamos.
Tso started playing the violin when she was four and was part of Cincinnati’s Starling String Program as well as the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy program. She has served as Concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and MasterWorks Festival Orchestra. When she was fifteen, Jackie had the pleasure of collaborating with acclaimed pianist Christopher O’Riley on National Public Radio’s From the Top.
Jackie has spent summers at the Great Wall International Music Academy, National Arts Center Young Artists Program, Meadowmount School of Music, Bowdoin Music Festival, Salzburg’s Mozarteum Summer Academy, MasterWorks Festival, Aspen Music Festival as an orchestral fellow, and the Heifetz Institute of Music.
She joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s violin section for their 2022-2023 season and is currently the Concertmaster of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra. Aside from music, Tso enjoys time with her family, puppy, and friends as well as being outdoors.
Fung Ho
Fung Ho, violinist, served as Concertmaster for the West L.A. Symphony Orchestra from 1992-2001 and was Concertmaster for the Burbank Chamber Orchestra (now Burbank Philharmonic Orchestra) from 1992-97. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the Olympia Philharmonic Orchestra and Olympia Youth Orchestra. He has also guest-conducted concerts being held at the University of Southern California (USC). World premieres of works by Darren Bloom, Hong Diep, Amanda Harberg, Dr. John M. Kennedy, Dr. Daniel Kessner, Frank Ezra Levy and Masatoshi Mitsumoto were also given to his credit in conducting different orchestras in venues such as the Walt Disney Concert Hall and Zipper Hall. Mr. Ho moved to Los Angeles in 1984 from New York City where he served as Concertmaster for both the Brooklyn Chamber and Queens Philharmonic Orchestras. He has also given solo and chamber music recitals in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Minnesota.
Besides keeping a busy schedule performing, Mr. Ho also maintains a studio of young and talented students. He was President of the Los Angeles Section of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) and also served as President of the West San Gabriel Valley Branch of the Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC). Mr. Ho holds a Master’s Degree in Music in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York where he studied with the late Carroll Glenn. Later on, in Los Angeles, he researched pedagogy and repertoire with the late Noumi Fischer. Besides his music degrees, Mr. Ho also holds an MS degree in Hematology and BS degree in Biology.
Currently, Fung Ho is on the violin faculty of Azusa Pacific University as well as the string and chamber music faculty of the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA). Previously, he was on the violin/viola and orchestra faculty at Cal State Univ. Los Angeles (CSULA) for the past 15 years. Mr. Ho has also served on the faculty of the International Institute for Young Musicians (IIYM) at KU Lawrence and UC Santa Barbara during the summers for 8 years. This year will also mark one of his many annual involvements in teaching at the Cal State Fullerton Violin Camp in the summers.
In the summer of 2001, he was invited by the Music Office of the Hong Kong Government to be the guest conductor at the Hong Kong Youth Music Camp, and a concert with the Hong Kong Youth String Orchestra was presented at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre on July 29, 2001, receiving critical acclaim. On March 8, 2008, under the direction of Mr. Ho, the Olympia Youth Orchestra performed in Walt Disney Concert Hall as a result of being selected as one of the Youth Orchestra Partners of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In the summer of 2013, Mr. Ho led a successful 5 city concert tour throughout China with a chamber orchestra comprised of members of the Olympia Youth Orchestra. In the Spring of 2016, he also led an elite group of students from the Olympia Youth Orchestra (Olympia Chamber Society) on a tour in China and Hong Kong, well received by local audiences.
Mr. Ho was invited as one of the adjudicators at the Hong Kong International Music Festival Music Competition Finals in previous years. He has also given masterclasses in the US as well as Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Many of his violin/viola students have gone on to further their musical studies in music conservatories all over the country. In 2020, Mr. Ho was recognized as the Outstanding Studio Teacher of the Year by the California Chapter/Los Angeles Section of the American String Teachers Association.
Lisa Boyko
Lisa Boyko joined The Cleveland Orchestra in 1991, after serving as a member of the New Orleans Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and the Minnesota Orchestra. Born in Cleveland and raised in Tucson, Arizona, Ms. Boyko studied for two years in Vienna at the Musikgymnasium and the Hochschule für Musik. In 1985, she received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), where she was a student of Robert Vernon.
Ms. Boyko has appeared as alumni soloist with the Cleveland Institute of Music Chamber Orchestra in the Cleveland premiere of Darius Milhaud’s Concertino d’été and continues to perform regularly in solo recitals and chamber music concerts. She is a faculty member at CIM and Case Western Reserve University and has taught at the Encore School for Strings in Hudson and the Masterworks Festival in Spartanburg, SC.
Ms. Boyko is active in local organizations that support and promote music and arts education, including the CIM Alumni Association, Cleveland Chamber Collective, Ohio Viola Society, and Inlet Dance Theatre. In her spare time, she is an avid traveler who also enjoys gardening, reading, and languages.
Seth Russell, DMA
Dr. Seth Russell performs internationally as a chamber musician, soloist, and orchestral player. Audiences have praised his technical wizardry, adventurous programming, and inspiring musicianship. He has performed solo and chamber music recitals in venues such as Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, Eastman's Kodak Hall, and Taipei’s Elite Performance Hall. In 2017 and 2019 he was awarded a top prize in the New York International Artists Competition. He is currently in his second season as Principal Cellist of the Greenville Symphony Orchestra in South Carolina. Seth holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance and a Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music, a Master’s degree in Cello Performance from New England Conservatory, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
