Evnin Rising Stars

Marcy Rosen, cellist, has established herself as one of the most important and respected artists of our day. Los Angeles Times music critic Herbert Glass has called her “one of the intimate art’s abiding treasures” and The New Yorker Magazine deemed her “a New York legend of the cello.” She has performed in recital and with orchestras throughout Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South America, Switzerland, and throughout the United States. Sought after for her riveting and informative master classes, she has been a guest of the Curtis Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Central Conservatory in Beijing, the Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and the Cartagena International Music Festival in Colombia.  

Rosen was a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet, which toured worldwide for 31 years. Since 1986, she has served as Artistic Director of Chesapeake Music in Maryland. Since first attending the Marlboro Music Festival in 1975, she has participated in 25 Musicians from Marlboro tours, including concerts celebrating the 40th, 50th, and 60th anniversaries of the festival. 

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Rosen is currently a professor of cello at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, while also serving as Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Live concert series. She is on the faculty at the Mannes College of Music in New York City. 

Violinist Ani Kavafian continues, to enjoy a prolific career as a recitalist, chamber musician and professor. She has performed with many of  America’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, and many others. Her numerous solo recital engagements include performances at New York’s Carnegie and Alice Tully halls, as well as in major venues across the country.   

In 2025-2026, Kavafian will continue her longtime association as an artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Having taught at Mannes College, Manhattan School of Music, McGill University and at Stony Brook University, she became a full professor of Violin at Yale University in 2006 and is now the coordinator of Strings. In 2024 Kavafian received the prestigious Samuel Simons Sanford Medal for Distinguished Service to Music from Yale University. 

Kavafian has received the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions award. She is president of the YCA alumni association. She has appeared at the White House on three separate occasions, and has been featured on many network and PBS television music specials. Her recordings can be heard on the Nonesuch, RCA, Columbia, Arabesque, and Delos labels. 

Rebecca Albers is the Principal Violist of the Minnesota Orchestra. She has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. She made her New York debut at Lincoln Center performing the New York premiere of Samuel Adler’s Viola Concerto, and in January 2026 she will perform the U.S. premiere of Donghoon Shin’s viola concerto, Threadsuns, with the Minnesota Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Albers has been a frequent performer at such festivals as the Marlboro Music Festival, Strings Music Festival, the Seattle Chamber Music Society‘s Summer and Winter Festivals, La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest, and the International Musicians Seminar and Open Chamber Music at Prussia Cove. She is a member of Accordo, a Twin Cities-based chamber ensemble comprised of principal players from the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra. She is on the viola faculties of Mercer University’s Robert McDuffie Center for Strings, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and the University of Minnesota, and she previously taught at the University of Michigan, in The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, and at such summer programs as the Perlman Music Program and the North American Viola Institute. Albers studied at The Juilliard School with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang. Her childhood teachers were James Maurer, and her mother, Ellie LeRoux. 

American violinist Isabelle Ai Durrenberger is praised for her imaginative performances and her ability to communicate with sincere artistry. Based in New York City, she is first violinist of the Aeolus Quartet and a recent graduate of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program.

An avid chamber musician, Durrenberger is recognized for her unique collaborative instincts. Recent engagements include concerts with Boston Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Music Northwest, Jupiter Chamber Players, The Knights, A Far Cry, and Marlboro Music Fes9val.

Durrenberger grew up in a musical home in Columbus, Ohio, and began playing piano at age four, beginning violin lessons three years later. At age 13, she began her studies with Jaime Laredo at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She attended Meadowmount School of Music for four years, graduated from high school a year early, and at age 16 began her undergraduate program in Cleveland where she continued receiving mentorship from Laredo. Other influences include Jennifer Koh, Sharon Robinson, Joan Kwuon, Jinjoo Cho, Jan Mark Sloman, and Jun Kim. In 2022, she completed her graduate studies at the New England Conservatory in Boston with Soovin Kim and Don Weilerstein.

Durrenberger has a private violin studio in New York City and serves on the violin faculty at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School in Boston, where she teaches violin and coaches chamber music. Durrenberger performs on a 2020 Zygmuntowicz violin on private loan from a patron in New York City.

Praised for her “seductive artistry” and “rare grace” (Classical Voice North America), violinist Clara Neubauer is a recipient of the Ana Chumachenco Award from the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses and the Peter Mennin Prize from The Juilliard School. Neubauer has appeared at festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, Ravinia, Prussia Cove, Taos School of Music, Perlman Music Program, Music@Menlo, Four Seasons, Music from Angel Fire, and Olympic Music Festival, and she has toured with Taos on Tour and Musicians from Marlboro.

Winner of the National Young Arts competition, she has appeared as soloist with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Symphony of Westchester, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York Concerti Sinfonietta, the Little Orchestra Society, and Ensemble 212. Neubauer received her Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School as a student of Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin. 

She is currently studying for her Master of Music degree at Juilliard as a student of Catherine Cho and Itzhak Perlman, and she is a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. 

Violinist Cherry Choi Tung Yeung was born and raised in Hong Kong. Winning her first job in one of the major orchestras in the United States at age 21, she is currently the Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra. 

Yeung has performed with the New York Philharmonic; San Diego Symphony; Hong Kong Academy, New World, and Princeton Symphony Orchestras; Symphony in C; New Jersey Festival Orchestra. She served as Concertmaster of The Juilliard School Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra where she was awarded the loan of a fine Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin.  

A participant of the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival since 2022, Yeung has won numerous prizes including first prize at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, prompting engagements with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini di Pesaro in Italy. Her other competition awards include second prize of the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition, winner of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Concerto Competition for two consecutive years, second prize of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, and first prize of the Hong Kong Youth String Competition. In 2018 she was named a New York Philharmonic Global Academy Zarin Mehta Fellow and she was the youngest finalist of both the Philadelphia Orchestra and Pittsburgh Symphony Associate Concertmaster Audition. Yeung plays on a 1768 Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza. 

Internationally acclaimed for his generous musical spirit, violist Samuel Rosenthal delights in sharing music with audiences of all ages and collaborating with some of today’s preeminent artists. His performances are recognized for their “intimate, personal approach” (Journal of the American Viola Society) and communicative style “clearly conveying the range of human emotions” (ClevelandClassical.com).  
 
First Prize winner at the 2025 Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition and recipient of the silver medal at the 2021 Primrose International Viola Competition, Rosenthal began his musical studies as a member of the Young Artist Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. His passion for chamber music was ignited by formative work with the Cavani String Quartet and Cleveland Quartet violinist Peter Salaff. Since 2016, he has been a member of the Perlman Music Program community as a student at both the Summer Music School and the Chamber Music Workshop. He has been invited to perform at chamber music festivals across the United States and abroad including the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Musique de Chambre en Normandie, the Schiermonnikoog Festival (Netherlands), Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute. 

A graduate of The Juilliard School, Rosenthal had the honor of studying with Heidi Castleman, Misha Amory, and Hsin-Yun Huang, and he was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. He is currently studying at the Kronberg Academy under the tutelage of Nobuko Imai. These studies are funded by the Annika and Wolfgang Fink Patronage. 

Violinist and violist Luther Warren enjoys a varied career as a performer and educator. He has appeared at such festivals as Ravinia, Yellow Barn, Four Seasons, the Perlman Music Program, Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Olympic Music Festival, Norfolk, and Taos, and he will participate in the Marlboro Music Festival in 2026. He has collaborated on stage with Itzhak Perlman, Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, Miriam Fried, David Shifrin, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Daniel Phillips, Hsin-Yun Huang, and as frequent substitute violist with the Borromeo String Quartet. Luther is a founding member of chamber-music collective ensemble132 and performs regularly with LA-based chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum.  
 
As an educator, Warren serves as Director of Junior Division Chamber Music at Heifetz International Music Institute, violin and viola instructor at New England Conservatory Preparatory School and Expanded Education divisions, Merrimack College, and Thayer Academy. He has presented masterclasses and residencies for East Carolina University, Queens College, and Texas Christian University. A doctoral student at the New England Conservatory, he has worked with Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried. 

Praised for “hypnotic lyricism, causing listeners to forget where they were for a moment,” (The New Yorker), cellist Annie Jacobs-Perkins is the 1st prize winner of the Pierre Fournier Award and Buchet International Cello Competition. Highlights of her 2025-26 season include a recital debut at the Sydney Opera House, concerto debut with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, the releases of her first solo album on the Champs Hill label and trio album on the Solo Musica label, and her first season as a member of Ensemble Modern.  

Annie was Artist-in-Residence of the Austin Chamber Music Center from 2023-25 and is the cellist of Trio Brontë, 1st prize winner of the 2025 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition. She regularly performs at venues such as the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Berliner Philharmonie, Krzyzowa Music, Ravinia Steans Institute, Yellow Barn Festival, and Marlboro Music.  

Annie’s primary teachers include Frans Helmerson, Troels Svane, Laurence Lesser, Ralph Kirshbaum, and Kathleen Murphy Kemp. 

Cellist Leland Philip Ko has been described as someone with “Disarming charisma” (South Florida Classical Review) yet simultaneously as “Byronic” and “excelling in both poetic longing and dramatic outbursts” (Boston Classical Review), Leland has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across America and abroad.  He is the first prize winner of the Concours Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Concert Artists Guild Louis and Susan Meisel Competition, and the Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition. 

Highlights for Ko’s 2025-26 season include debuts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke and the DuPage Symphony, as well as at the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. 

Born in 1998 and raised in Boston, Ko attended Princeton University, The Juilliard School, and the New England Conservatory.  He performs on a G. B. Rugeri cello, Cremona, c. 1710, ex-Denis Vigay, on generous loan to him from Canimex Inc.; his professional development activities are generously supported by Marilyn G. and Joseph B. Schwartz.  He resides in Boston, with his 13-year-old cat, Ham, and enjoys activities as far-ranging as tennis, running, baking, and origami. 

American pianist Evren Ozel, praised for his “technical mastery and compelling artistry” (LaScena Musicale), is the Bronze Medalist of the 2025 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he also received the Mozart Concerto Prize. He has performed across the U.S. and abroad and is a recipient of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant. He is represented by Concert Artists Guild as an Ambassador Prize Winner. 

Ozel has appeared with major orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra and the Minnesota Orchestra, and his debut album — Mozart concertos with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony — was released in 2025 on Alpha Classics. Highlights of his 2025–26 season include solo recitals for Portland Piano International, Chamber Music Detroit, and the Chopin Society of Minnesota, plus international engagements in Germany and Lithuania. 

A committed chamber musician, Ozel collaborates with artists such as David Finckel and Wu Han, Kim Kashkashian, and Marcy Rosen. A former Marlboro fellow, he is a Bowers Program Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Based in Boston, Ozel holds three degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Wha Kyung Byun, and counts Jonathan Biss and Mitsuko Uchida among his mentors.