Yves Dharamraj's Website Regarded as "a strikingly mature and gifted musician" (Edmonton Sun), the young Franco-American cellist enjoys a career that takes him to major venues across the United States and abroad. Since his professional concerto debut at 16, performing Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with the Florida Orchestra, Yves has performed with many orchestras, and for the Juilliard School's Centennial Celebration, he was invited to perform William Schuman's A Song of Orpheus at Avery Fisher Hall with James DePriest and the Juilliard Orchestra. Mr. Dharamraj's festival appearances include La Jolla's Summerfest, iPalpiti, Music@Menlo, Canada's National Arts Centre, Ravinia, Banff, Sarasota, and the Museum of Modern Art's Summergarden. He made his radio broadcast solo debut on WFMT 98.7 FM Chicago on the Dame Myra Hess Series. Chosen to attend the Perlman Music Program's inaugural season he recently had the honor of collaborating with the world-renowned violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium. A founding member of the Moet Trio, in chamber music he has collaborated with members of the Orion, Cleveland, Guarneri and Tokyo Quartets and has performed at the Kennedy Center, 92nd St Y, and Carnegie's Weill and Zankel Halls. He performs regularly in France, recently toured Japan, and had the diplomatic honor of performing and teaching in Thailand in celebration of HRH Princess Galyani Vadhana's seventh cycle birthday. Winner of top prizes in the Ima Hogg, Klein, and Juilliard Competitions, Yves participated in master classes. Yves began his cello studies at age four and performed in public soon afterward. A Cum laude graduate from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History, a Master of Music degree, and an Artist Diploma under the guidance of the renowned pedagogue Aldo Parisot, he has participated in master classes with Yo-Yo Ma, Bernard Greenhouse, William Pleeth, Frans Helmerson, Christoph Eschenbach, Gilbert Kalish, Claude Frank and Pinchas Zukerman, the Beaux Arts Trio, and the Tokyo and Juilliard String Quartets. He further studied at the Juilliard School as the recipient of the 2004 Victor Herbert Scholarship and the prestigious 2005 C.V. Starr Doctorate of Musical Arts Fellowship. While at Juilliard, Yves played a 1719 Stradivari cello, the "Duke of Marlborough," a generous gift to The Juilliard School from Daniel Saidenberg, lent to him from the Juilliard Rare Instrument Collection. He now teaches cello at Juilliard as assistant to Mr. Krosnick.

Julie Jung's Website

Born in Toronto, Korean-Canadian cellist Julie Jung has performed throughout the world, both as a soloist and as a member of the award-winning Jung Trio with her two sisters Jennie and Ellen. A prizewinner in the 2000 Eckhardt-Gramattee Competition, she has been presented in recitals by the Debut-Young Concert Artist Series in Montreal and the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC Radio) across Canada and has also performed as soloist with the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Chamber Academy, State Symphony of Tatarstan, Korean Philharmonic, Taejon Philharmonic, University of Toronto Symphony, Korean-Canadian Symphony and East York Symphony Orchestras. She has also performed in Germany, Malaysia and Japan and has participated in festivals including the Banff Centre for the Arts, the Norfolk and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festivals, the Manchester Cello Festival (England), New York String Seminar and the Verbier Academy (Switzerland). Ms.Jung has performed with iPalpiti in the International Laureates Festival in Los Angeles since 2007 and appeared with the ensemble in Carnegie Hall, Disney Hall and the Kimmel Center. The Jung Trio, selected as iPalpiti Debut Artists in 2007, recently made their European debut with concerts in Germany and Austria. They regularly perform throughout the Los Angeles area and have also performed internationally in Russia, South Korea, Kenya, Mauritius and Canada. The trio completed studies in the Artist Diploma program at Yale and recently recorded their first album on the Groovenote Label that was released in July 2009. They are currently Trio-in-Residence and Head of Chamber Music at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA. Julie received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Toronto where she studied with Shauna Rolston. She received her Master of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she studied with Laurence Lesser and most recently completed studies at the Yale School of Music with Aldo Parisot in the Artist Diploma Program. Ms. Jung currently resides in Los Angeles and is on faculty at Vanguard University.

Kian Soltani's Website First prize winner of the First prize winner of the international Karl Davidof Cello competition in Latvia and the National Austrian Competition “Prima la Musica,” he has received numerous awards, including 2nd prize at the international Dotzauer Cello Competition in Dresden, Germany. Born in 1992, Kian had his first cello lesson at the age of four. Currently he is studying at the Musikakademie Basel with Professor Ivan Monighetti. Kian Soltani took part at masterclasses with Wolfgang Boettcher, Gerhard Mantel, Valter Despalj and Frans Helmerson. Since 2006 he has been part of the foundation “Musik & Jugend” at Liechtenstein. Kian has performed in concerts in Mexico, Hungary, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Croatia, and Latvia. His most recent solo appearances with orchestras were with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra under Ivan Monighetti, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Soloists and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, under David Geringas. He was invited to the Cellofestival 2007 in Kronberg where he worked with Bernard Greenhouse and took part in the Remembrance concert for Mstislav Rostropovich. Kian first joined the acclaimed iPalpiti orchestra ensemble of international laureates in December 2008, when he was selected to perform on its tour of Switzerland. Most recently he was the soloist in the Haydn C Major Concerto with the The Zagreb Soloists in Croatia and Switzerland.

Ecuadorian-Spanish cellist Francisco Vila has performed extensively in the United States, Canada, South America and Europe. Vila’s curiosity for new music has paired him in collaboration with Grammy-Award winning composer Osvaldo Golijov, and Grammy-nominated composer/classical guitarist Apostolos Paraskevas. He has received instruction from cellists Aldo Parisot and Gary Hoffman at the Banff Centre and Mozarteum Sommerakademie festivals, respectively. Recent concert activities include such venues as Carnegie Hall as a member of the New York String Orchestra directed by Jaime Laredo, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and Disney Hall in Los Angeles with iPalpiti Artists International, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall with Apostolos Paraskevas in a performance of the composer/guitarist’s modern works, Dudley House at Harvard University, and Boston’s Seully Hall in recitals with pianist Sergey Schepkin. Vila has been the recipient of several honors including the Presidential Scholarship at The Boston Conservatory (Boston, Massachusetts), the National Society of Arts and Letters scholarship award for Performance (Bloomington, Indiana), the Olimpia Barbera and the Eva Heinitz Fund Scholarships at Indiana University, and also a prize in the Latin American Music Competition for a unique performance of Latin American and Spanish repertoire for solo cello. He studied chamber music with Menahem Pressler and the cello with Professors Janos Starker and Sharon Robinson at Indiana University where he was also the first-prize winner of the ’09-‘10 cello concerto competition. He was recently selected to be a part of Gary Hoffman’s new class in Manchester, England at the Royal Northern College of Music. Vila’s instrument is a 1770 Benjamin Banks cello crafted in Salisbury, England.