The 2022 Semifinalists

Hayoung Choi is a twenty-year-old violinist from Daejeon, South Korea. Hayoung is currently in her third year at the McDuffie Center for Strings as a student of Amy Schwartz Moretti, Robert McDuffie, and David Kim. She began violin lessons at five years old, and she is currently earning a Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance. She has performed with Neo-Strings, Sangrok Orchestra, Seoul Symphony Orchestra, and Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra. Hayoung has won prizes in many competitions in Korea. Recently, she won first prizes at the Hong Kong Generation Next ArtsInternational Music Competition, and the MTNA Competition. She has performed in recital twice at Seoul and Daejeon. She has participated in Erato Ensemble Winter Music Festival in Jeju, QingDao Music Festival in China, Takayama Music Festival in Japan, Innsbrook Institute Summer Festival, and Vivace Music Festival.

Hailed by CBC Music as one of the “Top 30 Hot Canadian Classical Musicians Under 30.” 17-year-old Jacques Forestier began playing the violin at the age of two, and has since delighted audiences around North America, Europe, and Asia. Presently a student of Patinka Kopec, Jacques is also a student of Itzhak Perlman, Li Lin, and Catherine Cho at the Perlman Music Program and will be attending the Curtis Institute of Music in fall 2022. Jacques has performed as a soloist with orchestras on multiple continents making his orchestral début with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11. Jacques is a laureate of many national and international competitions -most recently, 1st Prize at the 2021 International Shean Strings Competition and 3rd Prize at the 2022Johansen International Competition. In March 2015, Jacques was invited to perform as a soloist at Carnegie Hall. In May 2019, Jacques toured Asia with the award-winning European ensemble –LGT Young Soloists. Jacques is grateful for the support of many and would like to extend his gratitude to the Edmonton Community Foundation, Mount-Royal University Conservatory of Music, and the Perlman Music Program.

Emily Hwang is a 16 year-old violist from the San Francisco Bay Area. She began playing the viola at age 8 under Ms. Sujung Seok, and has been studying with Mr. Dimitri Murrath at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College Division since 2018. In 2021, Emily placed 1st in the national round of the World Vision Junior Music Contest, received the Strings category Virtuoso Prize from the New Talent British International Music Competition, and won 2nd prize at the 2021 Houston International Music Competition. Emily has also appeared in NPR’s From the Top Show 407, and was named a 2022 Young Arts winner for Classical Music. As a soloist, Emily has performed with the California Youth Symphony at their 2021 Season Opener Concert, with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra at their 2018 Gala Concert, and with the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra in 2017. Emily has also participated in various summer programs such as Music@Menlo in 2019 and Morningside Music Bridge in 2020 and 2021. This year, she will be attending NYO-USA and the Chamber Music Northwest Summer Institute.

Han Lee, a Japanese-born Korean cellist, started the cello when he was 7 years old in New Zealand. He was accepted into the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School in 2013 where he studied under the tutelage of Clara Minhye Kim. He was the winner of the Juilliard Pre-College Concerto Competition in 2015 and 2018, the 1st prize winner at the 17th New York Music Competition, and received the Grand Prize at the 1st International Grande Music Competition. Han has attended the Great Mountains Music Festival, the Blackmore International Music Academy with David Geringas, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and will be a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center this summer. He was a recipient of the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award in 2018 and is a proud recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship at the Juilliard School. He is currently in his 4th year of undergraduate studies under the guidance of Joel Krosnick.

Andromeda Kepecs is an eighteen year-old violinist from the United States, and is a senior at Menlo School. She began her violin studies at age three with Joel Pattinson, and currently studies with David Chernyavsky of the San Francisco Symphony. Her orchestral studies began in 2008 with the Golden State Youth Orchestra. She joined the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra in 2017, and has been concertmaster since 2019. Andromeda is a five-time winner of the Golden State Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, prizewinner of the Fremont Symphony Young Artist Competition, winner of the California Youth Symphony Young Artist Competition, and recipient of a fellowship to the Aspen Music Festival and School. She was a prize winner of the Galante Chamber Music Competition with the Atlas Quartet of Young Chamber Musicians, and currently plays first violin for Quartet Cabaletta. She has attended Meadowmount, Online Solo Strings Intensive, and Music at Tateuchi. Most recently, she studied at the Perlman Music Program with Itzhak Perlman, Li Lin, and Catherine Cho. She will be attending Columbia University and will be studying with Li Lin in the Columbia-Juilliard Program.

Gaeun Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea in 2002, and began to play the cello at four years old. She received first and audience prizes at the Washington International Competition in 2022, both first prize and the special award in the 2012 Antonio Janigro Competition, and has won first prizes in the 2014 Liezen International Competition, and the 2015 David Popper International Cello Competition. She was selected as a “Samsung Rising Star” and one of “30 rising stars in Culture & Arts Industry on Republic of Korea.” Gaeun was the youngest participant in the 2018 Isang-Yun International Competition and the 2019 XVI Tchaikovsky International Competition. Recently she was one of six winners of the ‘Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle’, led by cellist Gautier Capucon with whom she studies, and served as the Louis Vuitton Foundation Artist until 2021. Gaeun placed first at the Seoul Classic Music, Music & Chunchu, Little Mozart, Yewon, Youngsan Music, Sungjeong Music, Ehwa and Kyunghyang Competitions. She has played with the Zagreb Soloists, Euro-Asian Philharmonic, Suwon Symphony, Incheon Symphony, Bucheon Symphony, Seongnam Symphony, and the New World Philharmonic Orchestras. Since 2020 she has studied with Richard Aaron at the Juilliard School.

Violinist Jaewon Wee recently won First Prize and the Audience Prize at the 2022 Washington International Competition Second Prize, and the Special iPalpiti Prize at the 2020-21 Enescu International Competition. She has been invited to the 2022 Verbier Festival, Soloist and Ensemble program. In 2021, she was invited as a soloist at the Palermo Classica Festival and the iPalpiti International Music Festival. As a winner of the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition 2019, she made her New York debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Jaewon was awarded first prizes at the KBSKEPCO Music Competition, Journal of Music Euriope Debut Concours, Great Mountains International Music Festival Concerto Competition, Ishikawa International Music Award, among others. She also won top prizes at the Vladimir Spivakov International Violin Competition, Menuhin International Violin Competition, Tchaikovsky International Competition for young musicians, and Kloster Schöntal International Violin Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with the George Enescu Philharmonic, Italy Palermo Festival Symphony, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Seong-Nam Philharmonic, Busan Philharmonic, and Juilliard Orchestras. Jaewon earned her Master of Music at Juilliard under the tutelage of Ronald Copes, and is pursuing a Graduate Diploma on the Dean’s scholarship at a New England Conservatory, studying under Donald Weilerstein.