Ensemble-in-Residence
The Balourdet Quartet (www.balourdetquartet.com) is currently in residence at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. They received Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award and the Grand Prize at the 2021 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, as well as top prizes in international competitions including the Banff, Premio Paolo Borciani, Carl Nielsen, Fischoff, and Yellow Springs Competitions. As recent graduates of the New England Conservatory’s Professional String Quartet training Chamber program, the group received Music America’s 2021 Commissioning grant with composer Karim Al-Zand, and a 2023 grant from the Barlow Endowment with Paul Novak.
Co-Ensemble-in-Residence
Yang Liu and I-Hsuan Olivia Tsai 劉揚-蔡宜璇 Duo www.yangandolivia.com
Global Music Silver Medalist Yang and Olivia are a violin-piano duo who create unforgettable storytelling programs featuring Chinese and western classical music. This married couple has performed and taught in the US, Canada, China, Taiwan, Portugal, Brazil, amongst other places. They are both faculty of Vandercook College of Music. Yang Liu (violin) is a prize winner of the Twelfth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and a first prize winner of China’s National Violin Competition. Dr. Olivia Tsai (piano) is a frequent presenter of MTNA, CMS and other music festivals and conferences.