Sam embarked on his musical journey at the age of 7 and quickly fell in love with music. When he was 14, he made his solo debut in front of a large audience of more than 350 people. Over the years, he has won numerous international, national, and local competitions. Since 2021, he has been taking lessons with Colleen Athparia and has continued to excel in various music competitions. Praised by Ian Parker for having “world-class artistry,” he won first place in the
2023 Canada West Performing Arts Festival. Most recently, Sam was awarded the Rose Bowl and a $10,000 cash prize at the 2024 Calgary Performing Arts Festival. He also won first place in the 2023 Amadeus International Music Competition in Salzburg, Austria, and third place in the Vancouver International Music Competition in the 18-35 year-old category, making him the youngest to ever place in the top three. Later this summer, he will compete in the finals of the
Samson François International Competition in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France. Sam will be pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on an almost full scholarship under the tutelage of Jon Nakamatsu and Garrick Ohlsson.

Sam Zefreh was generously supported by the Michael Davies Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Born in Montreal, Canada, Sabrina started learning piano and went on an international student exchange program in the United States two years later receiving a certificate of achievement for “having demonstrated exceptional ability in the concepts of music”, and made her debut in Carnegie Hall when she was seven years old. She won first prizes at the Crescendo International Competition and in the Junior Category at the McGill Concerto Competition in 2010, and won 2nd prize at the Canadian Music Competition in 2012.

She spent her pre-college years at the Montreal Conservatoire de Musique and the Phil & Eli Taylor Performance Academy. Festivals she has attended include the Philadelphia International Music Festival, Orford Academy, Amalfi and Vivace music festivals, studying with Ronan O’Hara, Jerome Lowenthal, Boris Slutsky, Hee-sung Joo and many other professors. Other artists she has played for include Alice Sara Ott, Hugh Sung, David Louie and the violinist Ray Chen.

In 2023, she traveled to London on an exchange program at the Royal College of Music, studying with Dmitri Alexeev.

She is now pursuing her undergraduate studies with Olga Kern at the Manhattan School of Music.

Sabrina Chen was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Described as a “phenomenal talent” by the Atlanta Audio Club, Peruvian pianist Priscila Navarro is the first prize winner of several international competitions, including the Liszt-Garritson International Competition in Baltimore, Maryland, Beethoven Sonata Competition in Tennessee, Chopin International Competition of Texas, Artist Series of Sarasota, Florida, Imola City Awards, Italy, and the Heida Hermanns International Music Competition in Connecticut. Priscila made her Carnegie Hall solo recital debut in 2013 and returned there in 2022 for further concerts. She received a Special Bach prize from Martha Argerich at the International City of Vigo Competition in Spain, being one of five finalists from over 400 participants. Her performances have been streamed on BBC public radio as well as the Medici TV channel.  Besides her busy performance career, Priscila is a passionate pedagogue and has been on the jury at several international competitions, including the Chopin International Competition for Latin American pianists, the Heida Hermanns International Competition, and the Parnassus International Competition. She is also the artistic director and founder of the Parnassus Music Society. In 2022, she received the Christa-Marshall Bach foundation prize at the Leipzig Bach competition. Priscila joined the roster of Astral Artists as a winner of the 2022 competition. 

Priscila Navarro was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Originally from Melbourne, Australia, Oscar moved to the US in 2016 and received his Bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, and his Masters degree from New England Conservatory of Music. His mentors include Profs. Matti Raekallio, Alexander Korsantia, Dang Thai Son, Malcolm Bilson. He has also worked with renowned artists and pedagogues including Stephen Hough, Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń, John Perry, Nikolai Demidenko, Ingrid Fliter.

His awards include the Special Prize for a Work of Chopin at the Lev Vlassenko Piano Competition, Melbourne Recital Centre Bach Competition, Thailand International Piano Competition, and Hanoi International Piano Competition. He is a recipient of scholarships from the Australian Music Foundation and the Ian Potter Foundation. 

He has performed in Australia, Taiwan, USA, Canada, the UK, Poland, and across South-East Asia, notably at the Taichung National Theatre (Taiwan), Australia House (London, UK) and Melbourne Recital Centre. He has devoted time to performing and recording on historical pianos of the 19th century, presenting recitals at the 2023 Boston Early Music Festival, participating in the 2nd International Chopin Competition for Period Instruments, and recording an album of selected works on an original 1849 Broadwood piano. He has also recorded various works with the Mason & Hamlin piano company. 
 

Oscar Jiang was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Born in Zhengzhou, 22-year-old pianist Zhuoya Zhu(Kevin) has performed in Beijing, Tianjin, Zhangjiajie, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Rome, San
Francisco, Rochester, Philadelphia, Boston, New York, Wilmington, and many other cities and has played solo concerts in many places. He began to learn the
piano at the age of eight, initiated by teacher Limu Zhang and then studied with pianist, educator and Professor Yuan Wu of the Central Conservatory of Musicfor three years. Since the end of 2012, he has studied with Chinese-American pianist, composer,educator and professor Yigiang Sun for almost seven years. Until 2019, at the age of 17, he was admitted to nine famous and prestigious music colleges, including Eastman School of Music, New England Conservatory of Music, and Oberlin Conservatory of Music, etc. These multiple conservatories also gave him very high scholarships at the same time. He eventually chose to attend the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and re-enrolled in 2023 for a graduate degree after his impressive and successful graduation recital. He is studying in the studio of professor Meng-Chieh Liu in New England Conservatory.

In addition, He also has been taught and guided by many prestigious and well-known pianists and professors in various music festivals, competitions, and master classes: including Hung-Kuan Chen, Jerome Lowenthal, Alexander Korsantia, Boris Slutsky, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Douglas Humpherys, John Perry,
J, Marc Silverman, Robert Shannon, Jerome Rose, Eduardo Delgado, and many other piano masters.

He has also won many piano competitions, including but not limited to the Gold medal of the 2013 Oushen Cup International Youth Piano Competition; Champion of the 4th China International Youth Piano Competition in 2014; In 2015, he won the gold medal of Henan TV Piano Competition and became the
contracted pianist of the TV station; The third prize in the Steinway International Piano Competition in 2016; Gold Medal of Huanglong International Music Festival in 2017 and 2018; Gold Medal of the 2018 Liszt International Piano Competition in China. He was also one of the two winners of the 2021 Artcial International Piano Competition and Festival. At the same time, he was also invited to give a solo concert at the festival.

He has participated in many famous music festivals, including the Aspen music festival, Artial music festival in San Francisco, the Vivace music festival in Wilmington, the Todi music festival in Italy, etc. He just received the full scholarship in Banff center arts festival in 2024. At these festivals, He received a lot of acclaim and many accolades. Jerome Lowenthal, the former chair of the piano department at the Juilliard School, described his playing as a very balanced and convincing performance; Pianist Yakov Kasman describes his performance as "very impressive, with the power to move people."

Zhuoya (Kevin) Zhu was generously supported by the Artemisia Foundation Artist Award.

Winner of the 2023 inaugural Bader & Overton Canadian Piano Competition, pianist Jonathan Mak first made his orchestra debut at the age of four. Since then, he has been a guest soloist with numerous orchestras, most notably the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. Jonathan’s recent accomplishments include the First Prize at the 2024 San Antonio Tuesday Musical Club Young Artists Competition, the Grand Prize at the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition with Trio Menil, and the Third Prize in the 2022 OSM Competition. Named as one of CBC’s 30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30, Jonathan is a recipient of the Canada Council for the Arts-Michael Measures award and the Sylva Gelber Music Foundation Award, along with the 2023 Walter Prystawski Prize. He has been invited to perform at various festivals including the Bravo! Vail Festival in Colorado, the Festival of the Sound in Ontario, Ottawa Chamberfest, and the Edinburgh International Festival. 

Currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts at Rice University with Jon Kimura Parker, Mr. Jonathan also holds degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Jonathan Mak was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

New York based Pianist, John Hahn has performed as a soloist in United States, Europe, and South America. His main performances on stage were in Steinway Hall(NY), Weill Hall(NY), Instituto Superior de Musica (Veracruz), Tlaqna Hall in Xalapa, Brevnov Monastery and Bertramka (Czech).

As a young artist, he has won multiple accolades from various competitions including Five Towns Piano Competition, The Prague International Piano Festival Competition, MSM Concerto Competition, and the Esperanza Cruz International Piano Competition. John has also been the recipient of the Hansoree Scholarship, Maria von Gelder Scholarship and the Vera Blacker Piano Scholarship. John has also participated in masterclasses with renown pedagogues/pianists, including Ivan Moravec, Tamas Vasary, Claudio Mendez, Phillipe Entremont, and Jorge Frederico Osorio. The major piano professors that John has worked with are Oxana Yablonskaya, Zenon Fishbein, and the late Phillip Kawin.

Recently, John performed as a soloist, performing Beethoven Piano Concerto no.5 with the Bergen Symphony and Asia Sinfonia. As for future plans this year, John is currently preparing for a solo album release with a record label based in Spain.

John Hahn was generously supported by the Artemisia Foundation Artist Award.

Equally at home as a soloist, collaborator, presenter, and educator, James Palmer is a dynamic pianist based in Houston, Texas. James is sought after across the United States for solo recitals, chamber performances, and lecture-recitals. Recent appearances have included the Piano on the Rocks Festival in Sedona, AZ, the America Viola Society Conference in Los Angeles, CA, and numerous solo recitals and performances in the Houston area.  A passionate performer of new music, James is frequently in-demand for premieres and collaborations with living composers.  James sits on the board of the Scriabin Society of America (SSA).

James is a doctoral candidate at Rice University in Houston, TX, where he studied with Dr. Robert Roux.  He previously studied with Menahem Pressler and Emile Naoumoff at Indiana University and with Sandrine Erdely-Sayo as a precollege student. James maintains a private piano studio and recently taught the Summer Piano Intensive for high school students at the AFA Texas Summer Festival in Houston.  James has been a prizewinner and finalist in numerous international competitions and created the YouTube series What is a Piano Prelude (2022-23) and Scriabin Preludes Project (2019-2020).  

James Palmer was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award.

Pianist In-Ae Ha won 3rd Prize at the 28th Epinal International Piano Competition, the 28th Janáček International Music Competition, and was Finalist at the Wideman International Piano Competition. She began her musical studies at the age of four in Kentucky and was recognized for her talent when she appeared on the NPR’s classical music program “From the Top” at the age of 10. After returning to Korea, In-Ae made her debut at Kumho Art Hall in the Prodigy Concert Series at the age of 14 and won first place at the International Piano Competition of Korea. She received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Korean National University of Arts studying with pianists Dae-jin Kim and Minsoo Sohn. She is currently pursuing her Doctoral Degree under the tutelage of pianist Arthur Greene while being appointed as Graduate Student Instructor, which provides funding for tuition during the full length of the program. In Spring of 2024, In-Ae has been invited to participate as a fellow at the Gilmore Festival, and will perform solo recitals at the Detroit Steinway Gallery, JCC Art Hall in Seoul, and for the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series produced by Classical Music Chicago. 
 

In-Ae Ha was generously supported by the Heather Edwards Artist Award. 

Ido Akov (1993) completed his bachelor's degree in piano performance at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance under Ron Regev and Allan Sternfeld.

Akov has won awards at the "Piano Forever", "Haim Kalmi" and "Young Artist" competitions in Israel, and has subsequently performed with the Ashdod Symphony Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Kfar Saba Soloists, and more.

Akov is a America-Israel Cultural Foundation scholarship recipient for 4 consecutive years, as well as an alumni of the Jerusalem Music Center's David Goldman program for outstanding young musicians. Through this program he was invited to play in master classes with Murray Perahia, Andras Schiff, Richard Goode, Steven Kovacevich, and others.

Akov is especially active as a composer and performer of contemporary music: he is an alumni of the Meitar Ensemble’s Tedarim program, and plays regularly with the Israel Contemporary Players. As a composer, Akov’s works have been performed by the Musica Nova, Modalius, Meitar and Moran Singers ensembles, as well as the Great Gehenna Choir.

Akov released a debut album of original piano works: “The triangle becomes a line”, through Kame’a music in 2020.

Ido Akov was generously supported by the Sir Jack Lyons Scholarship for the Arts.