2024 Workshop Faculty

Emily Taubl | Program Director

Cellist Emily Taubl has been called “an outstanding cellist with a bright future” (Hartford Courant), and her playing has been described as “sheer poetry” (Rutland Herald). She currently serves as the Principal Cellist of the Springfield Symphony (MA), on the faculty of the University of Vermont and Middlebury College, and maintains a busy schedule of solo, chamber music, and orchestral performances.  

Emily has appeared as a concerto soloist with the Hartford Symphony, Boston Virtuosi, New England String Ensemble, Nashua Chamber Orchestra, Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Granite State Symphony, Vermont Philharmonic, University of Vermont Symphony Orchestra, and the Juilliard Pre-College Symphony. She has performed recitals at the University of Vermont, Amherst College, Dartmouth College, and Williams College. 

She performed as a soloist at the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival in Los Angeles and on the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Prelude Concert Series. She performs regularly on Vermont Public Radio, and was a featured performer for The Colors of Claude Debussy: A 150th Birthday Celebration on Boston’s WGBH that was broadcast internationally. She has also performed chamber music at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Scrag Mountain Music, Faulkner Chamber Music Festival, and Capitol City Concerts. 

In addition to teaching at the University of Vermont and Middlebury College, Emily founded and directs the Conservatory Audition Workshop – an annual summer program that prepares top string students from around the world for auditions at elite music schools. Her articles about audition preparation and pedagogy been published in Strings Magazine on several occasions. Additionally, she has served on the faculties of the Faulkner Chamber Music Festival, the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and the Lyra Music Festival. In 2020, Emily joined the Champlain Trio and the ensemble went on to produce a six-part documentary series entitled “Empty Stages” where they toured venues across Vermont highlighting the impact that COVID-19 has had on artists, venues and arts organizations. The series aired on Vermont PBS in spring 2021. In spring 2022 the trio was awarded a Vermont Arts Council Grant to record the Croatian composer, Dora Pejačević's Piano Trio in C Major which is now available on all major streaming platforms.

Having studied at The Juilliard School, Yale School of Music and the New England Conservatory, her major teachers include Paul Katz, Aldo Parisot, and Ardyth Alton. Emily is based in Burlington, VT and performs on a cello made by Tetsuo Matsuda in 1984. 

VIOLIN

Danielle Belen | University of Michigan

Appointed in September 2014 as associate professor and full-time violin faculty at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance in Ann Arbor, Danielle Belen is already making a name for herself as a seasoned pedagogue with a strong studio of young artists. While she was part of the violin faculty at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, California, her students won national and international competitions including the Stulberg and Klein competitions, as well as being accepted into major conservatories and universities across the country.

Winner of the 2008 Sphinx Competition, Belen has appeared as a soloist with major symphonies across the U.S., including the Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Nashville and San Francisco Symphonies, the Boston Pops, and the Florida and Cleveland Orchestras. Zachary Lewis from the Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote “Violinist Danielle Belen… captivated every ear with an assured, impassioned performance of Ravel’s Tzigane, knocking off the daunting showpiece as if it were a trifle.” She has recently enjoyed working with conductors such as Franz Welser-Mostt, Robert Spano, Keith Lockhart, Yehuda Gilad, and Carl St. Clair.

Belen released her debut Naxos recording of works by living composer Lawrence Dillon in 2009 to much acclaim. Soon after, she commissioned Multiplicity, a piece by Dillon for six virtuoso violins, which was premiered along with her students at the Colburn School.

A graduate of the USC Thornton School of Music and the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, where she studied with Robert Lipsett, Belen joined the faculty of the Colburn School in 2008. In addition to maintaining her own violin studio, she was also the teaching assistant to Lipsett for over five years, working with talent of the highest caliber from around the world. Additionally, she served as the director of the Ed and Mari Chamber Music Institute in the Colburn pre-college division. Belen frequently enjoys teaching master classes and leading community engagements across the country in conjunction with her professional performance appearances. She served as Concertmaster of the New West Symphony and performed as soloist with the orchestra numerous times.

In 2010, Belen founded Center Stage Strings, a summer camp and performance festival for gifted young musicians in Three Rivers, California that has gained national attention. As artistic director and string faculty chair, she has attracted students and seasoned artists from around the world. Artists including Lynn Harrell, James Ehnes, Arnold Steinhardt, Sarah Chang, and Stefan Jackiw have joined to perform in support of Center Stage Strings. More information can be found at Center Stage Strings website.

Lynn Chang | New England Conservatory, Boston University,Boston Conservatory at Berklee, MIT

A top prizewinner of the International Paganini Competition in Genoa Italy, violinist Lynn Chang has enjoyed an active and versatile international career as soloist, chamber musician, and educator for over thirty years. A native of Boston, Mr. Chang began his violin study at the age of seven with Sarah Scriven and Boston Symphony Orchestra violinist Alfred Krips. He continued his studies at the Juilliard School with Ivan Galamian, and then went on to receive his Bachelor's Degree in Music from Harvard University.

For twenty five years Lynn Chang performed as a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society. He has also appeared at the Wolf Trap, Great Woods, Marlboro, and Tanglewood Music Festivals, and as soloist with orchestras in Miami, Salt Lake City, Oakland, Seattle, Honolulu, Beijing, Taipei, and Hong Kong. He has performed with members of the Juilliard, Tokyo, Cleveland, Vermeer, Muir, and Orion String Quartets. In December 2010 Mr. Chang performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo to honor Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

Mr. Chang has collaborated with cellist Yo-Yo Ma on numerous occasions. Their performance of Leon Kirchner's "Tryptich" has been recorded for Sony Classical. Their world premiere performance of Ivan Tcherepnin's Double Concerto with the Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra received the Grawmeyer Award for best new composition in 1995. In 2010 he participated in Ma's Silk Road Project residency at Harvard University. He also collaborated with Dawn Upshaw on her Grammy Award winning CD, "Girl with the Orange Lips."

In 2001 Mr. Chang was honored with the first Distinguished Leadership Award from the Institute for Asian American Studies of the University of Massachusetts Boston for his achievements as educator and musician. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and in June of 2008 he was elected to the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.

Mr. Chang teaches at the New England Conservatory, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His former students now perform in such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in New York. His former student Joseph Lin was recently named first violin of the Juilliard String Quartet.

Kristopher Tong | New England Conservatory

Kristopher Tong has enjoyed an extensive career as a performer and teacher, playing hundreds of concerts around the world as a member of the Borromeo String Quartet, New England Conservatory's quartet-in-residence. A member of the chamber music and violin faculties, he also serves as co-Chair of strings.

Tong has been hailed as a performer of "exceptional insight and creative flair" (Boston Globe). As second violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet, he has performed across the United States and around the world to critical acclaim. In addition to his concertizing with the Borromeos, Tong is an active recitalist, chamber musician, and teacher. He has taught and performed at numerous festivals, including the Taos School of Music, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, NOI+F, Music@Menlo, and at the Heifetz Institute. Tong has performed on such radio programs as NPR’s "Performance Today," WGBH’s "Classical Performance," and was featured on WGBH’s "Classical Connections" in a series entitled "Why Mass.?"

From 2002-2004, Tong was Principal Second Violin with the Verbier Festival Orchestra, with whom he toured throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Tong began his violin studies in a public elementary school program in Binghamton, N.Y., later moving to Salt Lake City, Utah, where he became a student of Leonard Braus. He received his degrees at Indiana University in Bloomington and at the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Franco Gulli, Yuval Yaron, and Miriam Fried. He currently resides in Brighton, MA with his wife Miki Sawada, a pianist, and their dog Shakira. He is a 2:51 marathoner. 

VIOLA

Steven Laraia | Boston Symphony Orchestra

Steven O. Laraia joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra viola section in the fall of 2019 after serving as principal viola of the Sarasota Orchestra from 2015 to 2019. He has performed at music festivals including Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Yellow Barn Music Festival, and Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and has toured in the U.S., Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, the Czech Republic, and Cuba with Sejong Soloists, A Far Cry, and Sphinx Virtuosi. Laraia has garnered top prizes at many competitions including the 2014 Hellam Competition, 2012 NEC Concerto Competition, 2012 MUSICCAS International Young Artists Competition, the Sphinx Competition, and he received the 2014 Borromeo Guest Artist Award. He holds a bachelor degree and Master of Music from New England Conservatory, where he received the Abraham Skernick Memorial Presidential Scholarship. Laraia’s principal mentors include Kim Kashkashian, Dimitri Murrath, Cathy Basrak, Byrnina Socolofsky, and Che-Hung Chen.

Mai Motobuchi | New England Conservatory

Mai Motobuchi has earned distinction as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Since joining the Borromeo String Quartet in 2000, Ms. Motobuchi has performed in the world’s most renowned concert halls, and she has collaborated with esteemed musicians including Leon Fleisher, Gary Graffman, Bernard Greenhouse, Kim Kashkashian, Ralph Kirshbaum, Larry Lesser, Midori, David Shifrin, Richard Stoltzman, Dawn Upshaw, and the Brentano, Colorado, Ying and Ysaye String Quartets. As a soloist, she has performed with such renowned performers as Yo-Yo Ma and Seiji Ozawa.

Since retiring from performing in July 2022, Ms. Motobuchi is in demand as a teacher in two countries, serving on the Viola and Chamber Music faculty at both the New England Conservatory of Music and at the Tenrikyo Institute of Music in her native Japan. She has given Master Classes in conservatories and festivals around the world and served as a member of the jury at the Primrose International Viola Competition in 2021, and will be a member of the jury at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in 2023.

As a member of the Borromeo String Quartet, Ms. Motobuchi has been awarded the 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award (2001), and has served as Quartet-in-Residence at New England Conservatory of Music, Taos School of Music, and Heifetz International Music Institute.

Ms. Motobuchi first gained recognition in Japan as First Prize winner in the 1989 MBS Youth Music Competition, and in the 1990 and 1991 Ensemble Competition. Upon coming to the United States, she won First Prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition Junior Division and the Henri Kohn Memorial Award from the Tanglewood Music Center.

Born in Tokyo, Japan, Mai Motobuchi started playing violin at age five. Her teachers have included Joseph Fuchs, Robert Dan, Raphael Hillyer, Martha Strongin Katz, Paul Katz, and Yoko Washio Iwatani.

Ms. Motobuchi is also a renown essayist in Japan, and her first book was published and released in July 2022 under Doyusha Publications.

CELLO

Blaise Déjardin | New England Conservatory of Music

Strasbourg-born cellist Blaise Déjardin was appointed principal cello of the Boston Symphony Orchestra by BSO Music Director Andris Nelsons in spring 2018, having joined the BSO’s cello section in 2008. He is the 14th principal cello in the history of the orchestra. In making the appointment, Nelsons praised Déjardin as “an absolute complete musician with an exquisite breadth of tone, beautiful musical phrasing, and inspired creativity and imagination, only matched by his supreme dedication to conveying the true spirit of the music.”

Déjardin made his highly acclaimed concerto debut with the BSO and Nelsons in spring 2022 with Saint-Saëns’ Concerto for Cello No. 1. He has also performed as soloist around the world with such ensembles as the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, Kuopio Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Longwood Symphony Orchestra, Cape Ann Symphony, and Melrose Symphony Orchestra. Recent solo performances featured concertos by Dvořák, Brahms, and Shostakovich.

A dedicated chamber musician, he spent two summers at Ravinia's Steans Institute and has been a member of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players since 2018. Previously, Déjardin was a member of the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester. He was also a founding member of A Far Cry and the Boston Cello Quartet.

Déjardin has arranged numerous pieces for cello ensembles which have garnered him five ASCAP Plus awards and has received commissions from Yo-Yo Ma, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and A Far Cry. In 2013 he launched Opus Cello, his online sheet music publishing company. He has served as artistic director of the Boston Cello Society since its creation in 2015.

Déjardin made his solo debut with orchestra at age 14 performing Haydn’s Concerto for Cello No. 1 in C Major at the Corum in Montpellier, France. Among his numerous awards and honors, he was awarded first prize at the Maurice Gendron International Cello Competition and was also the youngest prizewinner at the Sixth Adam International Cello Competition in New Zealand. In 2007 he made his Paris recital debut at Le Petit Palais as a graduate of the Déclic program, which supports emerging young soloists in France.

In 2019 Déjardin released the album Mozart: New Cello Duos with cellist Kee-Hyun Kim, featuring his own transcriptions. He also appears on both Boston Cello Quartet albums Pictures and The Latin Project. His first album as principal cello of the BSO, Adès Conducts Adès was released by Deutsche Gramophone in 2020.

Déjardin holds a degree in cello with highest honors from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique of Paris, as well as a Master of Music and a graduate diploma from New England Conservatory in Boston. His main teachers were Philippe Muller, Laurence Lesser, and Bernard Greenhouse. He serves on the cello faculty of the New England Conservatory and is regularly invited to give masterclasses in Europe, China, and North America. His instructional book Audition Day was published by Opus Cello in 2022.

Edward Arron | University of Massachusetts Amherst

Cellist Edward Arron has garnered recognition worldwide for his elegant musicianship, impassioned performances, and creative programming. A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Mr. Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Since that time, he has appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician, throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

The 2023-24 season marks Mr. Arron’s 11th season as the co-artistic director with his wife, Jeewon Park, of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Mr. Arron tours and records as a member of the renowned Ehnes String Quartet and he is a regular performer at the Boston and Seattle Chamber Music Societies, the Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, Bargemusic, Caramoor, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival in Korea, Music in the Vineyards Festival, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, Manchester Music Festival, and the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland. He has appeared as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and has performed numerous times in Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Halls, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully and David Geffen Halls, New York’s Town Hall and the 92nd Street Y. Other festival appearances include Salzburg, Ravinia, Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart, PyeongChang, Bravo! Vail, Bridgehampton, Spoleto USA, Santa Fe, Evian, La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Chesapeake Chamber Music, and the Bard Music Festival. He has participated in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project as well as Isaac Stern’s Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters. Mr. Arron’s performances are frequently broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today. In 2021, Mr. Arron’s recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics Record Label. The recording received the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Artists Award from the Classical Recording Foundation.

In the May of 2022, Mr. Arron stepped down after 15 years as the artistic director of the acclaimed Musical Masterworks concert series in Old Lyme, Connecticut. In 2013, he completed a ten-year residency as the artistic director of the Metropolitan Museum Artists in Concert, a chamber music series created in 2003 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Museum’s prestigious Concerts and Lectures series. Mr. Arron was also the artistic director of the USCB Chamber Music Series in Beaufort, South Carolina from 2009-2021, and the Chamber Music on Main concert series at the Columbia (SC) Museum of Art from 2009-2018.

Edward Arron began playing the cello at age seven in Cincinnati and continued his studies in New York with Peter Wiley. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School, where he was a student of Harvey Shapiro. In 2016, Mr. Arron joined the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst, after having served on the faculty of New York University from 2009 to 2016. 

Rhonda Rider | Boston University and Boston Conservatory at Berklee

For over two decades, cellist Rhonda Rider was a member of the Naumburg Award-winning Lydian Quartet and Triple Helix Piano Trio. Rider’s numerous chamber music and solo recordings have been nominated for Grammy Awards and cited as Critic's Choice in both the New York Times and Boston Globe. With the Lydians she was awarded numerous prizes at Banff, Evian, Fischoff and Portsmouth Competitions. As a soloist, she won the Concert Artists Guild Award as well as an Aaron Copland Recording Grant. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Corcoran Gallery, Wigmore Hall (London), Symphony Space, Library of Congress, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and has been a guest artist with the Boston Chamber Music Society, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Castle of Our Skins, New Gallery Series and Shelter Music Boston. Dedicated to the performance of new music, Ms. Rider has premiered and recorded works by such renowned composers as John Harbison, Lee Hyla, Yu-Hui Chang, Raven Chacon, Laura Kaminsky and Elliott Carter. 

Rider has given numerous masterclasses at schools including Yale School of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Tainan University for the Arts and Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. She has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, American String Teachers’ Association, Music Teacher’s National Association and Chamber Music America. She has also adjudicated at the Concert Artists Guild, Stulberg and Fischoff Competitions. 

Always interested in bringing classical music to unusual and essential places, Rider was named Artist-in-Residence at Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest National Parks. Eighteen works for solo cello were commissioned for these residencies. The works have been performed, by numerous cellists, across the U.S. in a wide variety of venues from Boston and Dallas to Wupatki National Monument and rural New York State. 

During the summer months, she performs and teaches at festivals including Music from Salem, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood, Chosen Vale, Harvard Chamber Music Festival and is the cello coach for the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong. Each June, she holds a Cello Seminar dedicated to contemporary music in Washington County, New York. 

Rider has degrees from Oberlin and Yale. Her teachers have included the renowned cellists Aldo Parisot, Zara Nelsova and Richard Kapuscinski. Her chamber music coaches have included Robert Koff, Simon Goldberg, Raphael Hillyer and Louis Krasner. She is currently on the faculties of Boston University and Boston Conservatory at Berklee where she was twice awarded Outstanding Teacher of the Year/Best of Berklee.

Additional Faculty

John Zion | President & CEO of MKI Artists

John Zion serves as the President & CEO of MKI Artists where he oversees the careers of its prestigious roster of artists, ensembles, and composers. He is also a co-founder of OurConcerts.live, a streaming platform and technology company that produced more than 300 virtual concerts during the pandemic in collaboration with Spivey Hall, the University of Connecticut’s Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts, Washington Performing Arts, and many other presenting organizations. OurConcerts.live continues to provide access to live music for audiences around the world.

Also an active consultant, John works with artists, administrators, and arts organizations on career development, project management, and digital marketing. John serves on the board of Chamber Music America and has taught and presented on arts-related issues at the Colburn School of Music, University of Michigan, Manhattan School of Music, Netherlands String Quartet Academy, Banff Centre, APAP|NYC, and Chamber Music America’s National Conference. In 2012, he was named one of the “Rising Stars in the Performing Arts” by Musical America.

John studied at Lawrence University and the Hartt School of Music; before coming to MKI Artists, he performed regularly as a violinist with orchestras throughout New England, taught public-school music, and toured Vietnam with his string quartet. He lives in Burlington, VT with his wife Emily and enjoys cooking, reading, and traveling in his spare time.

Maya Jacobs | Director, Instrumental Music at Philadelphia Orchestra Association, Former Admissions Counselor at the New England Conservatory of Music

Maya Jacobs is a Philadelphia-based arts administrator and a violist. She is currently the Director of Instrumental Music Education of the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ensemble Arts, where she develops and executes educational programs for the community. She often found ways to combine her administrative passion with her performance schedule, such as her work with the Boston Philharmonic where she was part of the viola section from 2011-2019, and Personnel Manager for four seasons. Maya also helped found the Phoenix Orchestra in 2013, a chamber orchestra located in Boston focused on revamping the way classical music concerts are presented. Up until her move to Philadelphia in March 2019, she was the Associate Director of Admissions at the New England Conservatory. A native of Tel Aviv, Israel, Maya was a member of the Israeli Defense Force in the representative string quartet of the army after finishing high school. She completed her bachelor's degree at Tel Aviv University, Buchmann-Mehta School of music, a master’s degree under Martha Katz at the New England Conservatory, and her Doctor of Musical Arts at Boston University.