Canadian-born violinist Martin Beaver was First Violin of the world-renowned Tokyo String Quartet from June 2002 until its final concert in July 2013.  As such, he appeared to critical and public acclaim on the major stages of the world including New York’s Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall and the Sydney Opera House.

As a member of the Tokyo String Quartet, Mr. Beaver was privileged to perform on the 1727 Stradivarius violin from the “Paganini Quartet” set of instruments, on generous loan to the quartet from the Nippon Music Foundation.  Recordings of the Tokyo String Quartet during his tenure notably include the complete Beethoven string quartets on the Harmonia Mundi label.

Mr. Beaver’s concerto and recital appearances span four continents with orchestras such as the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra and under the batons of Kazuyoshi Akiyama, Raymond Leppard, Gilbert Varga and Yannick Nézet-Séguin among others.  Chamber music performances include collaborations with such eminent artists as Leon Fleisher, Pinchas Zukerman, Lynn Harrell, Sabine Meyer and Yefim Bronfman.

Mr. Beaver is a regular guest at prominent festivals in North America and abroad. Among these are: the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest, La Jolla SummerFest, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Edinburgh Festival (U.K.) and Pacific Music Festival (Japan).  Additionally, he was a founding member of several notable chamber ensembles including Triskelion and the Montrose Trio.

Mr. Beaver’s discography includes concerti, sonatas and chamber music on the Harmonia Mundi USA, Biddulph, Naim Audio, René Gailly, Musica Viva, SM 5000, Toccata Classics and Naxos labels.  His recorded repertoire ranges from Bach, Beethoven and Brahms to the music of 21^st century composers Alexina Louie, Gerard Schurmann and Joan Tower.

Following his early studies with Claude Letourneau and Carlisle Wilson, Mr. Beaver was a pupil of Victor Danchenko, Josef Gingold and Henryk Szeryng.  He is a laureate of the Queen Elisabeth, Montreal and Indianapolis competitions. Subsequently, he has served on the juries of major international competitions including the Queen Elisabeth and Montreal violin competitions, the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition.

Over the course of his career, Mr. Beaver has been the grateful recipient of generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts.  This includes Arts Grants for his studies at Indiana University, Career Development Grants and the 1993 Virginia-Parker Prize.  In 1998, through the generosity of an anonymous donor, the Canada Council awarded Mr. Beaver the loan of the 1729 “ex-Heath” Guarnerius del Gesù violin for a four-year period.

A devoted educator, Mr. Beaver has conducted masterclasses throughout North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.  He has held teaching positions at the Royal Conservatory of Music, the University of British Columbia and the Peabody Conservatory.  More recently, he served on the faculty of New York University and as Artist in Residence at the Yale School of Music, where he was awarded its highest honor - the Sanford Medal.

Mr. Beaver joined the faculty of the Colburn School in Los Angeles in August 2013 where he is currently Professor of Violin and Chamber Music.

Esteemed violist Cynthia Phelps’s wide-ranging career has taken her to stages across the world as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. Principal Violist of the New York Philharmonic for over two decades, she is a regularly featured soloist with the orchestra both at home and abroad, in a variety of repertoire, including two world premieres written solely for her. Other concerto appearances have been with the Minnesota Orchestra, Shanghai, Vermont, Santa Barbara, Eastern Music Festival, and San Diego Symphonies, Orquesta Sinfonica de Bilbao, and Rochester and Hong Kong Philharmonics.  Known for her emotional nuance, virtuosic technique, and plush tone, she is a founding member of both the New York Philharmonic String Quartet and Les Amies trio and is a frequent guest with chamber series across the globe. She has been featured in several nationwide "Live from Lincoln Center" telecasts, on National Public Radio, Radio France, Italy‘s RAI, and in regular broadcasts from the 92Y, including collaborations with Emanuel Ax and Daniil Trifonov. She is on the faculty of The Juilliard School Shanghai Academy, Music Academy of the West, and Mannes College of Music.

Ms. Phelps attended the Music Academy in 1979 and 1983, and was named a recipient of the Music Academy's Distinguished Alumni Award in 2001.

Natasha Kislenko has performed extensively as a soloist and a collaborative pianist across Europe, Middle East and the Americas. A highly sought after collaborator, Ms. Kislenko has enjoyed a varied performing career as an active chamber musician, an orchestral keyboardist with the Santa Barbara and San Diego Symphony, and recitalist with singers and instrumentalists. Her distinguished partners include Michelle Bradley, Leone Buyse, Tadeu Coelho, David Cohen, Marcus Groh, Frank Huang, Chavdar Parashkevov and Zvi Zeitlin.

Natasha gave a solo recital at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and has appeared as a concerto soloist with Orquesta del Congreso Nacional (Paraguay), the Varna Chamber Orchestra (Bulgaria), the Eskisehir Municipal Symphony Orchestra (Turkey), New West Symphony, and the Santa Barbara Symphony.

Ms. Kislenko has been on the piano faculty of UC Santa Barbara since 2007. Previously, she served on the faculties of California State University Fresno and Meadowmount School of Music (New York). An alumna of the Music Academy of the West (2001), Ms. Kislenko has been a member of the faculty since 2004. Ms. Kislenko holds graduate degrees in piano from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Southern Methodist University (Dallas, TX) and Stony Brook University, NY, where she completed her doctorate with Gilbert Kalish.

Pianist Margaret McDonald, a native of Minnesota, is an Associate Professor of Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder.  She joined the College of Music keyboard faculty in the fall of 2004. She helped to develop the College’s graduate degree program in Collaborative Piano and the undergraduate collaborative curriculum. Praised for her poetic style and versatility, Dr. McDonald enjoys a very active performing career and has partnered many distinguished artists including the Takács Quartet, Kathleen Winkler, Zuill Bailey, Paula Robison, Carol Wincenc, Ben Kamins, David Shifrin, David Jolley, Ian Bousfield, Joseph Alessi, Steven Mead, and Velvet Brown.  She has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe.

Dr. McDonald received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of California – Santa Barbara.  Her principal teachers include Lydia Artymiw and Anne Epperson.  She received fellowships to study at both the Music Academy of the West and the Tanglewood Music Center where she worked closely with Dawn Upshaw, Robert Spano, and Osvaldo Golijov.

Dr. McDonald is active throughout the country giving master classes at institutions including The Juilliard School, Indiana University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Arizona State University, University of California - Santa Barbara, and Louisiana State University.  She has released recordings with Velvet Brown, tuba, Aaron Tindall, tuba, and Erika Eckert, viola for Potenza Records and Meridian Records.

Dr. McDonald has been a staff accompanist at the Meadowmount School for Strings in New York and an official accompanist at the Music Teachers National Association competition and the National Flute Association annual convention. McDonald is an alumna of the Music Academy of the West and has been a member of the Music Academy faculty since 2005.

MITSURU YONEZAKI 26, born in Yokohama, Japan, has recently completed her graduate certificate at New England Conservatory, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein. She has recently performed with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, in a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste.

TSZ CHING JOYCE KONG 24, born in Hong Kong, China, is earning her master's degree at Hochschule für Musik Würzburg, Germany, studying with Tianwa Yang. She won the Mendelssohn Competition in 2025, and recently performed Sibelius' Violin Concerto with Hochschule Orchester Würzburg. Tsz Ching is affiliated with the Hong Kong Musicus Society.

DANIEL PARK ('24) 22, born in Tampa, Florida, is earning his bachelor's degree at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with James Ehnes and Stephen Rose. He won the 2024 Indianapolis Matinée Musicale Competition and serves as concertmaster of the IU Chamber Orchestra.

AVIV DANIEL 25, born in Jerusalem, Israel, is earning his undergraduate degree at Park University International Center for Music, studying with Ben Sayevich. He received the American Indian College Fund (AICF) Scholarship in 2019, performed on Kansas City Public Radio in 2024, and participated in the Keshet Eilon Summer Festival in 2019.

DAVID HUNG 21, born in Glendale, California, is earning his bachelor's degree at Rice University Shepherd School of Music, studying with Cho-Liang Lin. He won 1st Prize at the 2019 Pacific Palisades Orchestra Competition and the Grand Prize at the 2020 Satori String Competition. He has performed as a soloist with the Colburn Youth Orchestra.

SOOBEEN NAM 27, born in Parkville, Missouri, recently completed her graduate certificate at Park University International Center for Music, studying with Ben Sayevich. She won the Kansas Music Club competition in 2023, is a substitute with the Kansas City Symphony, and teaches for the Harmony Project.

YUBIN KIM 20, born in Vancouver, British Columbia, is earning her bachelor's degree at The Juilliard School, studying with Hyo Kang. She won the 2023 Vancouver West Coast Music Society Bursary Competition and has performed with the Juilliard School Orchestra under Charles Neidich, and in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto with pianist Chiharu Iinuma.

KATE LEE 20, born in Irvine, California, is earning her bachelor's degree at The Colburn School of Music, studying with Robert Lipsett. She won second prize in the 2022 SoCal Philharmonic Competition and was as a soloist with the South Coast Symphony. She has collaborated with renowned artists Pinchas Zukerman, James Ehnes, and Augustin Hadelich.

HIRO YOSHIMURA 19, born in Silver Spring, Maryland, is earning his bachelor's degree at Columbia University, studying with Masao Kawasaki. He won the 2024 YoungArts National Arts and the 2023 San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra Annual Concerto competitions. He has performed with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony.

YIHANG LI 19, born in Beijing, China, has recently completed her bachelor's degree at Northwestern University, studying with Hans Jensen. She won the Southwestern Youth Music Festival Concerto Competition in 2016, and she has performed as a soloist in Haydn's Cello Concerto in D Major at the Summit Music Festival with the Summit Chamber Orchestra.

JOSHUA AUGUST MHOON 21, born in Chicago, Illinois, is earning his bachelor's degree at The Juilliard School, studying with Emanuel Ax and Julian Martin. He won the 2023 Nina Simone Piano Competition Silver Medal, and is a quarterfinalist in the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition. Mhoon is a Young Steinway Artist and a MENSA member since 2014.