Piano 2025: Jury
Robert Shannon
Director
Robert Shannon has presented solo recitals, ensemble concerts, and master classes throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Asia. His repertoire ranges from Bach to Adams. He has been especially noted for his penetrating interpretations of recent American music.
He has commissioned and premiered works by John Harbison, Charles Wuorinen, Carla Bley, and Steven Dembski, among others. Shannon’s recordings of sonatas by Charles Ives on Bridge Records have received rave reviews worldwide. His recordings of Ives’ complete works for violin and piano, and works by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Crumb are also available on Bridge Records.
Shannon has performed at the Grand Teton Music Festival, the Festival Tibor Varga in Switzerland, the Sacramento Festival of American Music, and as guest artist with the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players. In recent seasons, he has appeared in London, Paris, Glasgow, Rome, Stuttgart, New York, San Francisco, Colombia (South America), and Taiwan.
He is professor of piano at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and director and founder of the Cooper International Competition for Piano. He joined the Oberlin faculty in 1976.
Angela Cheng
Consistently praised for her brilliant technique, tonal beauty and superb musicianship, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng is one of her country’s national treasures. She has appeared as soloist with more than 100 orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Buffalo Philharmonic, and the symphonies of Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, St. Louis, Houston, San Diego, Indianapolis, Syracuse, Utah and Colorado. An avid recitalist, Ms. Cheng has performed solo and chamber recitals throughout North America, Asia, and Europe, including New York City (Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y), Wigmore Hall in London, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Disney Hall in Los Angeles, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the Mariinsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg and the Sydney Opera House, as well as in Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Montreal, Toronto, Taiwan, Italy and Australia. In 2012 she made her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the Edmonton Symphony.
Ms. Cheng has collaborated with numerous chamber ensembles including the Takács, Colorado, and Vogler quartets. Festival appearances have included Verbier, Edinburgh, Miyazaki, St. Petersburg/Stars of the White Nights, Enescu/Romania, Banff, Bravo! Vail, Chautauqua, Colorado, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla’s SummerFest, Ravinia, Vancouver, the Festival International de Lanaudière in Quebec, Toronto Summer Music Festival, the Cartegena International Music Festival in Colombia and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany.
Ms. Cheng has been invited to give masterclasses throughout North America and in Asia, including the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts, Taichung University in Taiwan, Indiana University, University of Michigan and the University of Texas. She has also served on the jury of many competitions, including the Seoul International Piano Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, Esther Honens International Piano Competition, Montreal International Piano Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Hilton Head International Piano Competition, New Orleans International Piano Competition, Young Concert Artists Competition, and the American Pianists Association Competition. In 2022, she served on the Selection Jury of the Sixteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, and was a webcast co-host for the live competition.
Ms. Cheng’s many honors include a Gold Medal at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Masters Competition, the distinction of being the first Canadian to win the prestigious Montreal International Piano Competition, additional first prizes at the William Kapell International Piano Competition and D’Angelo Young Artist Competition, the Medal of Excellence from the Salzburg Mozarteum for her outstanding interpretations of Mozart, and a Career Development Grant from the Canada Council. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, and cited for her life as a “concert pianist and ambassador for classical music.”
A native of Hong Kong, Ms. Cheng studied extensively with Menahem Pressler at Indiana University and with Sascha Gorodnitzki at the Juilliard School. She is currently on the artist faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she is the Robert W. Wheeler Professor of Piano, and the recipient of the 2011-12 Excellence in Teaching Award.
Alvin Chow
Alvin Chow has appeared throughout North America and Asia as orchestral soloist and recitalist. In addition, he has performed extensively in duo-piano recitals with his wife, Angela Cheng, and his twin brother, Alan. A native of Miami, Florida, he graduated summa cum laude and Co-Valedictorian (with his brother) at the University of Maryland, where he was a student of Nelita True. Mr. Chow received the Victor Herbert Prize in Piano upon graduation from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Sascha Gorodnitzki, and held the Joseph Battista Memorial Scholarship at Indiana University as a student of Menahem Pressler.
Mr. Chow has won top prizes in numerous competitions such as the National Symphony Young Soloists Competition, Civic Orchestra of Chicago Young Soloists Competition, William Kapell International Piano Competition, and the New York Piano Teachers Congress International Piano Competition. He has been presented as recitalist in such cities as Hong Kong, Shanghai, Vienna, Montreal, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles, and has appeared as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Pan-Asia Symphony in Hong Kong, Shanghai Philharmonic, and Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, among others. He has also been Convention Artist for the state MTNA conferences in California, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee. With Angela Cheng, he performed as Conference Artist for the 2019 National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and in 2023 they presented the Advanced Piano Master Class at the National Conference of MTNA. In 2011, a CD of music for four and six hands, recorded with Angela Cheng and Alan Chow, was released by Arioso Classics. It features music by Brahms, Dvorák, Ravel, Milhaud, Corigliano, and Copland.
Mr. Chow has presented numerous master classes and lectures at music institutions throughout the United States and abroad, including the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Taichung University in Taiwan, Colburn School in Los Angeles, Eastman School of Music, University of Michigan, and Indiana University. He has taught and performed at numerous summer festivals, including the Shanghai Piano Festival, Banff Piano Master Classes, Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival, North Coast Piano Festival, Southeastern Piano Festival, New Orleans International Piano Festival, Adamant Music School, Lake Como Summer Piano School in Italy, and the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria.
Mr. Chow has been a member of numerous competition juries, most recently serving as Chair of the Jury at the 2023 Hilton Head International Junior Piano Competition and on the Screening Jury of the 2023 Van Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition. Others include the New Orleans International Piano Competition, the Iowa International Piano Competition, the Jacksonville International Piano Competition, MTNA Student Competitions, the International Piano e-Competition, and the Cooper International Piano Competition at Oberlin.
Mr. Chow was the first Fulbright Visiting Artist in Piano at the University of Arkansas, and also taught at the University of Colorado. Mr. Chow has been a member of the artist faculty at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music since 1999, where he currently serves as Chair of the Piano Department. Mr. Chow was named the Ruth Strickland Gardner Professor of Music from 2011-14, and also received Oberlin’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2016.
André Gremillet
André Gremillet began his tenure in January 2016 as the ninth Executive Director of The
Cleveland Orchestra and was appointed its first President & CEO in 2018.
Under his leadership, The Cleveland Orchestra and Music Director Franz Welser-Möst have seen their unique partnership and artistic accomplishments gain even wider recognition, including references by the New York Times as “America’s most understatedly amazing orchestra” and “America’s Finest, Still.” The Cleveland Orchestra marked its 2018 Centennial with celebrated performances under Music Director Franz Welser-Möst in Cleveland, New York, Tokyo, and Vienna, where they presented the first staged opera performances in the history of the Musikverein with Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen.
Since his arrival, Gremillet has led a significant expansion and deepening of the institution’s education and community programs in Cleveland, as well as the creation of the Orchestra’s own record label, with the release of several critically acclaimed recordings. In the fall of 2020, the Cleveland Orchestra launched its new streaming platform, Adella, and in 2023 inaugurated its annual Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, further building upon the Orchestra’s legacy of annual opera presentation, bringing greater national and international attention to Cleveland and its fine cultural institutions.
A noted fundraiser, Gremillet has overseen a significant growth of the Orchestra’s Endowment during his first few years heading the institution. In addition, The Cleveland Orchestra, since 2018, has been the recipient of several historic gifts, including the largest donation ever made to the institution, a $50 million from the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation as well as Gustav Mahler’s autograph manuscript of his Second Symphony.
Prior to joining The Cleveland Orchestra, André Gremillet served as Managing Director of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) from 2012 to 2015. During his time in Melbourne, the MSO made several successful recordings for Chandos under Music Director Sir Andrew Davis, made its debut at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh Festival, and created in 2013 East meets West, a Lunar New Year concert that has since become one of the most important annual cultural events in Melbourne and across Australia.
Gremillet was President and CEO of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2012 after having served as President of the renowned pipe organ building firm Casavant Frères for four years, shortly following his graduation from business school. Born near Montréal, Canada, and a conservatory-trained pianist, Gremillet holds a master’s degree from the Mannes College of Music and an MBA from McGill University.
Douglas Humpherys
Since winning the gold medal at the first Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, Douglas Humpherys’ concert career has spanned four decades across four continents. Currently listed as a Steinway Artist, he has performed solo concerts and taught master classes throughout Asia, including twenty tours of China, plus engagements in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Korea.
He has presented solo concerts in Moscow, Novgorod, Berlin, Hamburg, Prague, Barcelona, Venice, Dublin, the Czech Republic, Montenegro, Serbia, and has performed throughout the United States and Canada at numerous universities and festivals. He has concertized and taught in Argentina with Teachers del Norte-Pianists del Sur, a project sponsored in-part by the U.S. Embassy.
Mr. Humpherys completed graduate degrees at the Juilliard School (MM) and the Eastman School of Music (DMA), where he served for twenty years as Chair of the Piano Department, and is currently Professor of Piano. During his student days he studied with Nelita True, Martin Canin, and Robert Smith.
In high demand as a teacher, he has taught hundreds of master classes, including the Central Music School of the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory, throughout the Chinese Conservatory system, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, the Korean National School of the Arts, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
His students have won prizes at among others, the Honens, Cleveland, Maria Canals, Scottish, Olga Kern, Virginia Waring, Hilton Head, Washington DC, Poulenc, UNISA, and Sussex (UK) International Piano Competitions, as well as five national first-prize winners of MTNA Competitions in the United States. In 2016, Professor Humpherys received Eastman's Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 2021 he was inducted into the Steinway and Sons National Teachers Hall of Fame.
Currently, he is Artistic Director and Jury Chair of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. He has been a guest artist and faculty member at the Beijing, Shanghai, Gijon (Spain), Wallace (New Zealand), Bowdoin, and Rebecca Penneys International Piano Festivals. He has also performed and taught at the Philadelphia Young Pianists Academy, the Miami, Washington DC, Interlochen, Atlantic, Northern Lights, and North Coast, Music Festivals.
Yong Hi Moon
Yong Hi Moon
Yong Hi Moon made her solo debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 10 as winner of the National Korean Broadcasting Competition. Ms. Moon has won top prizes in the Elena-Rombro Stepanow Competition in Vienna, the Viotti International Competition in Vercelli, Italy, the Vienna da Motta Competition in Lisbon, Portugal, and also received the Chopin Prize from the Geneva International Competition in Switzerland.
Ms. Moon performs extensively throughout Asia, Europe and the US as recitalist and soloist, having appeared with the Korean National Symphony and the Osaka, Seoul, and Tokyo Philharmonics.
In 1997, Ms. Moon undertook the complete solo piano works of Schubert in both Korea and the US. The summer of 2000 marked her first extensive concert tour of Korea, which included solo recitals in five cities.
In addition, she performed with all the major orchestras in Korea and participates regularly in such summer festivals as Bowdoin International Music Festival and the Art of piano in Cincinnati among others.
She has served on the juries of the Toronto International Piano Competition, Senigallia International Piano Competition, Gilmore International Piano Competition, Gina Bachauer International, Cleveland International and the Virginia Waring International competitions. She has also served as a screening judge in the William Kapell and the Hilton Head International Competition. In March of 2014, she chaired the jury at Seoul International Piano Competition.
Ms. Moon was a professor of piano at Michigan State University School of Music for fifteen years, and since 2002 she was a professor of piano at Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University until her recent retirement.
Ms. Moon studied at the Vienna Academy, graduating with the highest honors. She continued her studies in London before pursuing an Artist Diploma at Indiana University in Bloomington. Her major teachers include Dieter Weber, Maria Curcio, György Sebok, Leon Fleisher, Wilhelm Kempff and Fou T’song, who have always been inspirations in her work.
Haewon Song
Pianist Haewon Song is a member of the acclaimed Oberlin Trio. An internationally recognized artist and pedagogue, Song has performed and taught at top venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her frequent appearances include concerto performances with the KBS Orchestra in Seoul, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, and Oberlin Conservatory ensembles.
Song has appeared at numerous international festivals, among them Mexico’s Cervantino Festival, the All-American Music Festival in Stuttgart, Grand Teton Music Festival, Aria Festival, Canada’s Institute of Musical Arts, Festival de Nice in France, the Oberlin Summer Piano Festival, and the Tonghai Music Festival in Taiwan. In 2005, Song toured Korea as a member of the Oberlin Piano Quartet, which included celebrated performances in Daejun and at the Kumho Concert Hall in Seoul.
A native of South Korea, Song attended the Toho School in Tokyo, Peabody Preparatory School, and the Juilliard School, where her major teachers were Julian Martin, Martin Canin, and Shuku Iwasaki. She has taught at Tunghai University in Taiwan and Kyung Won University in Seoul, and has been a member of the Oberlin piano department since 1991. Throughout her tenure at Oberlin, her students have won major prizes in both national and international competitions, including MTNA Nationals, Wideman, Kingsville, Oberlin International Piano, Walgreen, World, and Corpus Christi, and they regularly appear with significant orchestras across the United States and Asia.