The Heifetz Holiday Homecoming

Get ready for the Heifetz Holiday Homecoming, featuring the brilliant young alumni of the Heifetz International Music Institute, returning to Francis Auditorium for a program featuirng favorites of the season along with glittering solo works, chamber masterworks, and some special Yuletide treats for listeners of all faiths.

TICKETS
Individual Tickets: $30
Free Admission for MBU Students
$5 tickets for all other students (must register in advance & present valid student ID at the door)
Free Admission for Children 12 and under

Groups welcome – please email tickets@heifetzinstitute.org to inquire about group rates.

MEET THE ARTISTS

Praised for her sensitivity and incredible tone, Hong Kong-born violinist Angela Sin Ying Chan is a two-time Heifetz Institute alum, and a frequent Heifetz On Tour performing artist. Angela is the winner of 2024 Joseph Joachim Violin Competition in Hannover, Germany, and recipient of the prize for the best interpretation of commissioned work, First Prize and winner of the best interpretation of concerto prize in the 2017 Louis Spohr Violin Competition, and laureate of the Singapore International Violin Competition and Shanghai Issac Stern International Competition. Angela is also the founder and violinist of the AYA piano trio, First Prize winners of the WDAV Chamber Music Competition and Yellow Spring Chamber Competition.  Ms. Chan is fast emerging as one of the most unique and polished violinists of her generation. As a soloist, Angela has appeared with numerous orchestras. As an active chamber musician, Ms. Chan has collaborated with world famous artists such as Nobuko Imai, Phillip Setzer, Hsinyun Huang, Peter Wiley, Gary Hoffman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, and Marcy Rosen.

Born in Hong Kong, Angela started playing the violin at the age of 3 under her mother. She continued her violin studies with Michael James Ma, Vera WeiLing Tsu in Beijing, China, and Heifetz faculty member Shmuel Ashkenasi, Pamela Frank, and Aaron Rosand at the Curtis Institute of Music. With full scholarship granted, she received her master’s degree with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory of Music. She is currently an Artist-in-Residence at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel in Belgium. Ms. Chan is the first awardee of the Music and Dance Distinguished Performance Commendation Scheme of the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, and the scholarship recipient of the Hong Kong Jockey Club Music and Dance fund and the Lin Yao Ji Foundation.

Violinist Marina Alba López attended the Heifetz Institute in 2023 and joined the Heifetz on Tour roster in the spring of 2024.  Marina graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance and Minor in Jazz Studies focused on Voice (and Violin) at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, last May, and is now enrolled in graduate studies with Pinchas Zukerman at the Manhattan School of Music. Marina was born in Madrid to a family of musicians and started to play the violin at the age of 7. Her musical training began with singing, when she joined the Madrid Community Choir at the age of 5. She sang in several operas at the Royal Theater of Madrid, including Tosca, Boris Godunov and Der Rosenkavalier. At IU she holds the Young Premier Artist Scholarship and the E H Claus Scholarship. She is also the recipient of Madrid’s Community Overseas studies Grant. As a Jazz vocalist, singing a wide range of styles, including Bossa Nova and salsa, as the lead singer of Wayne Wallace’s Latin Jazz Ensemble.

2022 Heifetz alumnus and Heifetz on Tour artist Joseph Skerik is a member of the Vega String Quartet, which holds an endowed residency at Emory University in Atlanta, GA. His 2024-25 quartet season includes performances with Amy Schwartz-Moretti, David Coucheron, Ettore Causa, Aloysia Friedmann and Jon Kimura Parker in the US and Mexico, a commission project for the PBS program ‘Songs About Buildings in Moods,’ featuring works by David Gardner and Emily Koh, the premiere of a new viola quintet by Paul Coletti, and concerts in Atlanta and Carnegie’s Zankel Hall with Mark and Maggie O’Connor, presenting their program “Beethoven and Bluegrass” in April 2025. In 2024, the Vega Quartet was featured in concerts at the National Gallery in Washington, DC in conjunction with a rare exhibition of Mark Rothko works, and collaborated with Zuill Bailey, Ransom Wilson and the Juilliard Quartet. Joseph has recently been a guest artist at the Heifetz Institute’s Hear and Now concert series and the festivals of Methow Valley, Highlands-Cashiers, Lake George, Vivace and Kneisel Hall. He has performed chamber music with Ani Kavafian, Edward Arron, Ilya Kaler, Erin Keefe, Colin Carr, Andrew Shulman, Brook Speltz and Zuill Bailey. Joseph is a prize-winner at the AVS Competition and the 2022 Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague. He is the co-founder of Viridian Strings, an ongoing summer chamber music festival in the Grand Traverse region of Michigan. Joseph studied at the Interlochen Arts Academy with Renee Skerik, Cleveland Institute of Music with Jeffrey Irvine, and at the Yale School of Music with Ettore Causa.

Cellist Andres Sanchez-Linares attended the Heifetz Institute in 2019 and has subsequently performed as a Heifetz on Tour artist on many occasions. Andres was born in Allentown PA, and began his cello studies at the age of eight years old under the wing of former Puerto Rico symphony cello principal Miguel Rojas. After two years he continued his studies with cellist Jesus Morales, member of the Dali Quartet and former principal of the Puerto Rico Symphony. At 10 years of age, Andres made his first solo debuts in the Midwest Clinic of Chicago and the Ocean City Pops orchestra. Three years later, he made his Carnegie hall debut as soloist with the ArCoNet chamber orchestra. At age 16, Andres was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 where he studied with cellists Peter Wiley and Carter Brey. Andres graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020 and is continuing his studies at the New England Conservatory under the guidance of Paul Katz. Andres has made solo appearances with the Kennet Square Symphony, the Central Jersey Symphony, the Summit Symphony, Pennsylvania Sinfonia, and the Gabrieli Ensemble. As a member of the AYA Trio, he made his Beethoven triple concerto debut with the Waterbury Symphony. As cellist of the AYA trio, he has performed across the country in esteemed series including Concerts International in Memphis TN, the Schneider Concert series at the Mannes School of Music. The trio recently made its debut in the Brevard Music Center and New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall.

Chinese pianist Ying Li is the pianist in the AYA trio First Prize Winner of the 2021 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, as well as recipient of The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize and the Tri-I Noon Recitals Prize. She has received top awards in numerous national and international competitions including the inaugural Antonio Mormone International Prize, Sarasota Artist Series Piano Competition, Brevard Music Festival, International Liszt Piano Competition for Young Pianists, and was a finalist at Concours musical international de Montréal. Ying has performed with many leading orchestras such as The Philadelphia Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, L’Accademia Orchestra del La Scala, NWD-Philharmoniker, and the Stuttgart Philharmonic with conductors such as Lina Gonzalez-Granados, Xian Zhang, Dan Ettinger, Eric Jacobsen, and Jonathon Heyward. During the 24-25 season, Ying will make appearances with the Minnesota Orchestra, Kansas City Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, Eugene Symphony, Aiken Symphony, and the Salisbury Symphony, among others. As an avid chamber musician, Ying has appeared at prestigious festivals around the world including the Verbier Festival Academy, ClassicheFORME International Chamber Music festival in Lecce, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, La Jolla Music Society, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Artists Series Concerts in Sarasota, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. After receiving her Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2019, she received her Master of Music at The Juilliard School in New York with Robert McDonald, and continues her studies with Mr. McDonald at The Juilliard School’s Artist Diploma Program.

This concert is sponsored by: