YSM Alumni and Student News Round-Up | February 2026

Countertenor Jay Carter ’08MM, soprano Estelí Gomez ’08BA, and violinist Adelya Nartadjieva ’16MM performed together in Handel’s Messiah with the Jacksonville Symphony.  

Flutist Hyeonjeong Choi ’23MM won first prize at the 2025 NFA Young Artist Competition. She also received the Best Performance of Newly Commissioned Work Award for her performance of a new piece by Angélica Negrón. 

Tubist Bridget Conley ’23MM won Principal Tuba position with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. 

Guitarist and composer Neal Fitzpatrick ’98MM released Comprehensive Modern Classical Guitar Studies, a book containing over 50 pieces of new music for guitar (Mel Bay Publications). 

Composer Robert Honstein ’10MM ’14DMA was one of twelve composers awarded a 2025 Fromm Music Foundation commission. He will compose a percussion quartet for the UK-based Colin Currie Quartet.   

Pianist Salome Jordania ’21MM ’22MMA had an eventful 2025, signing with a French label (La Dolce Volta), recording her first solo album, and being named one of Forbes’s 30 Under 30 Georgia. Salome also appeared at many festivals (Grachtenfestival, Piano en Valois, Chipping Campden Music Festival, among others), and had debut concerts at Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, Kings Place, and the Concertgebouw Grand Hall. 

Violist Brian Isaacs ’22BA ’23MM won first place (ex aequo) at the Concours de Genève International Viola Competition. 

Composer Jeeyoung Kim’s ’98MMA ’01DMA piece “Tiger Chasing the Wind” for flute, viola, and harp was performed at the Seoul Arts Center in Korea; excerpts from her opera From My Mother’s Mother were presented at Carnegie Hall, as part of the Yonsei Alumni Concert; and her “The Garden of the Wind” for solo flute was premiered by SuYeon Ko at the 53rd Annual Convention of the National Flute Association in Atlanta, GA.  

Following two years as a member of the Opernstudio of the Vienna Volksoper, tenor Seiyoung Kim ’24MMA was promoted to join the company’s ensemble as a soloist starting in the 2026–27 season.  

Composer and violist Leilehua Lanzilotti ’08MM received multiple awards in 2025: they were a USA Fellow, a Creative Capital Awardee, and part of the inaugural cohort of Wehiwehi, a residency-based gathering of artists working at the intersection of Indigeneity & contemporary performance supported by the Doris Duke Foundation. Lanzilotti’s orchestra work, of light and stone, opened the 2025–26 New York Philharmonic season, marking Gustavo Dudamel’s first concert as the orchestra’s Music & Artistic Director designate.   

Violinist Ruda Lee ’15MM ’17MMA presented her global project Four Seasons: A Journey of 1725–2025 at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, following two full-house concerts in Hong Kong. Serving as both producer and soloist, Lee featured ANIMA Ensemble in a program that bridged centuries of music and cultures. The program was supported by Hong Kong government partners. Alongside her recent album, My Home, she continues to explore the emotional power of music to connect people across borders, sharing stories of memory, identity, and belonging through international collaborations.   

Oboist Ari Cohen Mann ’16AD released their debut album VORTEX on Orchid Classics. The album amplifies voices that have been overlooked and showcases the oboe’s expressive range within contemporary sound worlds. VORTEX includes a new arrangement for Stravinsky’s Pulcinella, created with bassoonist Cornelia Sommer ’16MM.  

Violinist Emma Meinrenken ’24MM ’25MMA won an associate first violin possitionposition with New York City Ballet. 

Flutist Rafael Méndez ’26MM won firsts prize at the Nancy Clew Eller Artist Competition, held at the Florida Flute Association’s 50th Annual Convention. He received a cash prize and was invited to perform at the convention’s final concert. 

Guitarist Alexander Milovanov ’13AD was inducted as an Honored Listee by Marquis Who’s Who.  

Baritone Dean Murphy ’17MM made multiple debuts this season: house debut at San Diego Opera in the title role of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, house and role debut at Des Moines Metro Opera as Slim in Of Mice and Men, house debut at Berkshire Opera Festival as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and role debuts at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Il Conte d’Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and as Giorgio Germont in La Traviata.  

Violist Ayano Nakamura ’25MM ’26MMA received the prize for best interpretation of a sonata by Bohuslav Martinů, awarded by the B. Martinů Foundation in Prague. 

In December, pianist Mei Rui ’06MM ’07AD and violinist Stella Chen performed at the EBRAINS Summit in Brussels. There, they used real-time Brain-Computer Interface (BSI) mapping on audience members to highlight the powerful impact live music has on the brain.  

Tubist Antonio Underwood ’87MM was named an influential entrepreneur shaping the next generation of business by MSN.  

Oboists Libby Van Cleve ’87MM ’88MMA ’92DMA and Kirsten Hadden Lipkens ’92MM and pianist/composer Neely Bruce —  working together in the newly formed ensemble, Oboedacious — created a new arrangement for Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra (K. 364) for oboe, English horn, and piano. The piece was published by Trevco Music Publishing.  

Kevin Vondrak ’30DMA served as co-producer and assistant conductor on The Crossing’s Grammy Award-nominated project, poor hymnal, which was composed by David Lang ’83MMA ’89DMA.  

Tenor Brian Vu ’14MM ’15AD received his first Grammy Award nomination for the title role in Huang Ruo’s An American Solider (Best Opera Recording).   

Pianist and composer Althea Waites ’65MM received the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Award for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Teaching. She also took part in a residency in New Orleans that focused on the music of African American composers in November.  

Conductor Amanda Weber ’13MM was awarded the Avivo Prize, a $5,000 award given annually to a music educator who demonstrates noteworthy creativity in teaching and the ability to provide students with a strong foundation in musicianship skills. Weber is in her eighth year as Director of Worship and the Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis, MN, and is the Founder and Artistic Director of Voices of Hope, an organization that creates singing communities in Minnesota prisons. 

Violinist and violist Miranda Werner ’24MM ’26MM received the Walter Witte Prize for best interpretation of commissioned piece at the Second International Hindemith Viola Competition in Munich.  

Bass-baritone Justice Yates ’25MM ’26MMA won first place at the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition New England regionals, qualifying him for the competition’s semifinals in April. 

Dr. Tiange Zhou ’16MM, Research Associate Professor and Director of the Art and Technology Lab at the School of Future Design, Beijing Normal University, was recently named to the Forbes China 100 Returnee Elites Selection. Forbes highlighted her work as “navigating the intersection of academia and art,” noting that she provides “robust theoretical and technical foundations for cultural innovation.” 

 

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These news updates feature current students and alums. Submit your news by April 30, 2026 to be included in the next YSM Alumni & Student News Round-Up.