YSM Alumni and Student News Round-Up | August 2026

Double bassist Mark Bergman ’97MM received a 2026–27 Fulbright US Scholar Ukraine Beyond Borders Award. Serving in Kraków, Poland, his project combines composition, scholarship, and teaching through a chamber opera about the Baal Shem Tov, an 18th-century Ukrainian-Jewish mystic. Mark will also lecture at Jagiellonian University, collaborate with the Galicia Jewish Museum, and lead community programs. 

The Callisto Quartet — YSM’s 2022–23 Fellowship Ensemble-in-Residence — were named Bowers Program artists at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The Quartet will participate in regular CMS performances and educational activities in New York City, and will join CMS tours across the US and abroad. 

Violinist Emma Carleton ’24MMA won a trial with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as assistant principal second violin. 

Percussionist Jessie Chiang ’24MM ’25MMA was named a Bowers Program artist at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She is the third percussionist to ever be selected in the program’s 30+ years, following in the footsteps of fellow YSM alumni Ayano Kataoka ’05AD Ian Rosenbaum ’10MM ’11AD.

Violinist Laurel Gagnon ’25MMA won third place at the Concours musical international de Montréal.

Guitarist Chieko Hata ’10CERT presented the second Tuscania Summer Festival in Tuscania, Italy, continuing the festival’s mission of promoting international artistic exchange, advanced musical training, and collaboration among emerging and established musicians. As part of the festival, Chieko inaugurated the Giannotti Academy, a new artistic and educational initiative created to support young performers through concerts, master classes, and interdisciplinary programs. Both projects are being developed under the patronage of the Municipality of Tuscania.

Composer Robert Honstein’s ’04BA ’10MM ’14DMA album, Horizon Line, was released in June on New Focus Recordings. Featuring three compositions spanning a decade of creative work, the album reflects on his dual fascination with the string quartet and the concept of landscape. Album collaborators include Mivos Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, percussionist Abby Fisher, violinists Alyssa Wang and Kiyoshi Hayashi, violist Beste Niknaz Modiri, and cellist Jacques Lee Wood ’08MM ’10MMA ’18DMA.

Oboist Kemp Jernigan ’15MM was appointed Assistant Professor of Oboe at University of Massachusetts Amherst, starting fall 2026.

In the 2026–27 season, tenor Lucas van Lierop ’17MMA will return to Bayerische Staatsoper as Brighella in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos; make his Canadian Opera Company debut as Tanzmeister in the same work; appear as Victorin in Korngold’s Die tote Stadt at the Concertgebouw and as Junger Diener in Strauss’s Elektra at the Edinburgh Festival. At the 2026 Des Moines Metro Opera Festival, Lucas performed Spoletta in Puccini’s Tosca and Edrisi in Szymanowski's King Roger.

Composer Maya Miro Johnson ’26MM was awarded the Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Award at the 2026 BMI Composer Awards and an ASCAP Morton Gould Award for "(un)aspirated.” The orchestra piece will be performed by the American Composers Orchestra in 2027. Her “Lynchiana" was performed in Lucerne by IEMA, in Tokyo by Kajimoto, and in Svalbard by the Arctic Chamber Music Festival; “Waiting Room" was screened by Guerilla Opera's Underground Festival; and "bruises (disambiguation)" was performed at Tanglewood's 2026 Festival of Contemporary Music. Maya also received a commission from the Kronos Quartet and a Curtis Young Alumni Fund grant for her debut album with Protomaterial and Emma Meinrenken.

Composer Tawnie Olson ’99MM ’00AD was named Chamber Choir's Composer-in-Residence for the 2026-2027 season. In addition to programming her existing works for chorus, the VCC will commission a substantial new work to be premiered in May 2027.

Composer Udi Perlman ’26DMA was awarded the Luciano Berio Rome Prize. 

Under the leadership of bassoonist Dantes Rameau ’07MM, co-founder and CEO of the Atlanta Music Project, the AMP World Music Festival Orchestra performed as part of Atlanta’s FIFA World Cup celebrations. The June 14 concert featured conductor John Concklin ’08MM and guitarist Thomas Flippin ’07MM ’08AD as soloist.

Harpsichordist Jonathan Salamon ’17MM ‘23DMA was appointed Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Bard College.

Flutist Elvin Schlanger ’22MM was appointed Principal Flute of the Grant Park Orchestra and the Fresno Philharmonic. He was also invited to compete in the Carl Nielsen International Competition in summer 2026. 

Violist Julian Seney ’25MM ’26MMA was named as the new violist of the New York-based Ulysses Quartet. 

Bassoonist Laressa Winters ’26MM won a one-year position with Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra as second bassoon. 

ZaRiah — a wind quintet composed of flutist Ben Smith ’26MM, clarinetist Katelyn Poetker ’26MM, horn player Oved Rico ’25MM ’26MMA, bassoonist AJ Neubert, and oboist Jamison Hillian — won the Grand Prize and Wind Gold Medal at the 2026 Fischoff Competition. They are the first wind quintet to win the Grand Prize since 2002.