South Korean pianist Sungkyeong Kim has established herself as a versatile solo pianist, collaborative pianist, and educator. She has performed internationally both as soloist and guest collaborative artist in Korea, Europe, across the US, and Canada. Her primary teachers include Noel McRobbie, Moon Jung Kim, and Svetozar Ivanov. As a collaborative pianist, she enjoys competitions, performing, recording, and coaching varied instrumentalists including strings, brass, and saxophone. An educator with over 15 years of teaching experience, Ms. Kim is a highly sought-after piano teacher in the Tampa area. Her students consistently score among the highest ranks in state festivals and competitions. A cornerstone to Ms. Kim’s pedagogical approach includes strong foundational technique and technical skills, as well as notational reading in early stages of development. Ms. Kim currently lives in Tampa, Florida where she maintains a large private studio and is the collaborative pianist for USF Cello Studio of Professor Scott Kluksdahl.

Cellist and ethnomusicologist Ashton Chen is an avid chamber musician and believes it is at the heart of musicianship. His passion for diverse repertoire has led him to perform in a wide spectrum of solo and ensemble performances across the United States and Europe, including consortiums and commissions for new composers. As an ethnomusicologist, his current research interests include exploring the social practices of minority music during The Cultural Revolution in China, music and migration, constructions of identity and multiracialism, and traditional and popular fusions in modern string music. His previous research surveyed perceptions of

intonation and the related issues in cello pedagogy.   He received his MM in cello performance and chamber music from the University of South Florida in 2017, where he studied with renowned pedagogues Helga Winold and Scott Kluksdahl. Since then, he has joined the faculty at his alma mater, the State College of Florida, where he runs a cello studio and coaches chamber music, continuing the legacy of his late mentor, Nancy Streetman. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at the University of Florida.

Mexican-born pianist Fernando Lopez began his piano studies with Omar Salazar, University of Sonora, at age 7. Early in his career, Mr. Lopez was the recipient of an artist grant from the government of Sonora, Mexico. Mr. Lopez holds performance as well as pedagogy degrees from the University of Arizona and the University of South Florida. His primary teachers include Pedro Vega, Tannis Gibson, and Svetozar Ivanov. As a soloist, he has participated in various music festivals such as the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, the Piano Academy & Festival International in St. Andrews, Canada, and the Brancaleoni International Music Festival in Piobbico, Italy. Additionally, Mr. Lopez is an active collaborative pianist and organizes events and small venue concerts for piano, chamber ensembles, and opera favorites. Mr. Lopez’s unique adaptive pedagogical approach and style is rooted in a deep understanding of sound production through strong foundational technique, notational literacy and fluency, and multi-level theory building blocks. Mr. Lopez is a piano adjunct faculty at the State College of Florida, where he teaches class piano and applied lessons.

Violinist Michelle Kim-Painter has established herself as an in-demand artist along the east coast. Known for her “lively confidence,” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Michelle brings personality, spirit, and energy to each performance. As a chamber musician, she has performed across the United States, Europe, and South Korea, taking part in series including Music from Salem, The Lighthouse Chamber Players, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Robert Helps International Music Festival. Michelle has performed in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, Castello Brancaleoni, Teatro Cagli, and The United Nations. She has recorded the world premiere of Robert Helps Quintet and Symphony No. 2 for Albany Records and has performed several world premieres by Pulitzer Prize Winning Composers as well as Guggenheim Fellows.

Dr. Christina Adams is Instructor of Violin, Viola, and Chamber Music at the University of South Florida, and serves as the Assistant Director of Strings and Chamber Music at the Brancaleoni International Music Festival and faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival. She holds degrees from the University of South Florida, Boston University, and a D.M.A. from the University of Michigan. 

Dr. Adams appears frequently as a solo, chamber, and orchestral musician. She has collaborated with leading artists from around the country, including New York Philharmonic principals Frank Huang, Michelle Kim, Cynthia Phelps, and Carter Brey, and has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Festival appearances include the Killington Music Festival, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Hot Springs Music Festival. She has previously held positions with both the Ann Arbor and Jackson Symphony Orchestras, and served as Assistant Principal Viola with the Venice Symphony. Her performances have been heard on radio stations throughout the U.S., including several appearances on Florida Classical WSMR. 

One of Dr. Adams’s main areas of focus is making classical music relatable and accessible. She previously served as the artistic director of "If Music Be the Food...Lansing," a concert series that directly benefits the Greater Lansing Food Bank. Additionally, she was a member of Chamber Music Michigan, an initiative that focuses on outreach concerts within the Ann Arbor community. Currently, she is a member of the Musicista Collective, a community concert series in the Tampa area spearheaded by violinist Sungho Jung.

Dr. Adams is an enthusiastic advocate for contemporary classical music and has worked closely with composers Augusta Read Thomas, David Del Tredici, Salvatore Sciarrino, Michael Timpson, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and has premiered and recorded pieces for Taiwanese composer Chihchun Chi-Sun Lee. She is the violinist/violist of the Four Corners Ensemble, a new music group that focuses on the universal nature of music and cultivates pieces from diverse backgrounds, and can be heard performing Shuying Li's "Peace House" on Navona Records with the Four Corners Ensemble on their album, “World Map.”

Cellist Michael Amos currently resides in Tampa, Florida, where he graduated with both Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Cello Performance from the University of South Florida where he studied under the direction of cellist Scott Kluksdahl. An avid performer of chamber music, Michael plays with the Fifth Avenue Chamber Players and The Bach Ensemble, which are both located in Naples, FL. Also, in recent years, Michael has attended Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival in Keene, New Hampshire, and the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont, where he was featured as an Emerging Artist.  As an active performer in the Tampa Bay area, Michael has been a featured soloist with both the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay in live concerts and on their most recent album “Light of the Midnight Sun”. Michael currently plays with The Florida Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra, Opera Tampa, among others throughout the state.

Christopher Bolduc was born in Boca Raton, Florida. From an early age, he was exposed to various genres of world music ranging from Brazilian Bossa Nova, African Fusion, Western and Indian Classical, and American Jazz. He began studying violin at the age of 11. Soon after he became concertmaster of his respective school orchestras and participated in regional academic orchestras like All-County and All-State Orchestras, securing the concertmaster position of both during his senior year. During previous summers, Mr. Bolduc attended Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Brancaleoni International Music Festival, the DaPonte String Quartet Institute and Bad Leonfelden Sommerakadamie receiving lessons from pedagogues Mimi Zwieg, Rictor Noren, I-Hao Lee, Bayla Keyes, Marcus Thompson and Mark Gothoni. Mr. Bolduc graduated with a BA in Violin Performance from the University of South Florida in 2020, a Masters Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Massachusetts in 2022 as concertmaster and violinist in the UMass Graduate String Quartet and with a Masters Degree in Chamber Music from the University of South Florida in 2024. In the fall he will be attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison for DMA in Violin Performance as a School of Music Fellow studying under the direction of David Perry. Mr. Bolduc hopes that his listeners always leave feeling better than they did before, even in a small way.

Kosuke Uchikawa is a Japanese cellist who performs a wide range of repertoire from Baroque to Contemporary music. In 2022, he represented two contrasting solo recitals at University of South Florida; one featuring 11 cello solo caprices by a Baroque composer, Joseph Dall'Abaco, and the other focusing on 24 preludes for cello and piano by a living composer, Lera Auerbach. As a chamber musician, he joined Rebecca Penneys Graduate Collective when he studied at University of South Florida in 2022, and performed standard repertoire, such as Brahms and Shostakovich as well as new music by Henry Kelder. As a collaborative musician, Uchikawa has been involved in many projects with a variety of artists. In 2018, he played String Quartet No. 2 by David L. Rappenecker, as a part of the choreography project “Distance” at Western Illinois University. “Concert Under The Stars” was a concert inspired by Jessey Murry’s and Lisa Yuskavage’s exhibition “Rising and Necessary Angels” at USF Contemporary Art Museum in 2022. He also collaborated with composers, such as Texu Kim and Ivette Herryman. Uchikawa has recently started exploring historical informed performance. In 2022, he first performed caprices by Dall'abaco and toccata by Supriani with a historical setting instrument. He also played the fifth ricercar by Domenico Gabrielli in his recital in 2023. He is now pursuing a master’s degree in historical performance at Juilliard School since 2023, and specializing in music from the 17th and 18th Century.