Solomon Liang and In Hwa Lee win Alexander & Buono String Competition
Cellist In Hwa Lee ’06MM, ’07AD and violinist Solomon Liang ’12MM were selected as two of the first prize winners in the Alexander & Buono International String Competition. They will be featured as soloists in the winner's concert on Sunday, November, 20, 2011 at Carnegie Hall.
The other first-prize winners in the college/professional division were Erno Kallai, violin, and Jay Song, cello. The second-prize winners in the division were Ann Bermont, violin; David Gale, violin; Dmitry Volkov, cello; and Hye-ri Jang, cello.
Designed to help artists further their careers, the Alexander & Buono Competitions present selected winners of the competitions in concerts throughout the world, and also as part of the annual Alexander & Buono Festival of Music. Career guidance is also offered, as well as seminars designed to help artists better understand how to manage their careers.
Violinist Solomon Liang is currently pursuing a Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music, where he is a student of Syoko Aki. Recent performances include Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 4 with the New Valley Symphony. As a soloist, Solomon has appeared with the Antelope Valley Symphony Orchestra, Pasadena Community Orchestra, and the Brentwood-Westwood Symphony, performing the Sibelius Violin Concerto. He received the grand prize at the Music Teachers’ Association of California Statewide VOCE Competition, Southwest Youth Music Festival, California Concert Artists Competition, as well as second prize at the junior division of the Taiwan National Violin Competition.
Solomon received his Bachelor of Music degree from Cole Conservatory at California State University (Long Beach), where he studied with Linda Rose. He was the concertmaster of the Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, a winner of the annual concerto competition, and a member of the Conservatory String Quartet. Solomon has participated in the Music Academy of the West and the Bowdoin, Aspen, and Summit Music Festivals, and has worked with renowned artists Joel Smirnoff, Midori Goto, Mikhail Kopelman, Zvi Zeitlin, and the Tokyo String Quartet.
In Hwa Lee, a native of South Korea, began her musical education on piano at age four and began studying the cello at the age of seven. She received her bachelor's degree from the Korean National University of Arts, where she studied with Myung-Wha Chung. Ms. Lee then earned both her master's degree and artist diploma studying with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music.
Ms. Lee has been the top prize winner of many competitions, including the Moscow Virtuoso International Competition for Youth in Russia, Five Towns Musician and Arts Foundation Music Competition in New York, and the Joong-Ang ilbo, Ewha Kyunghyang, Segye Ilbo, Hankook Ilbo, and Segye Ilbo music competitions in Korea.
She gave a Kumho Young Artist Recital supported by the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation and has been featured on TV and radio broadcasts including Korean Broadcasting Station and Seocho Cable TV. Ms. Lee performed in master classes with cellists such as David Geringas, Bernard Greenhouse, Ko Iwasaki, Ralph Kirshbaum, Laurence Lesser , Shauna Rolston, Irene Sharp, Jian Wang, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet.
