Jury Members
Donn-Alexandre Feder
Piano competition jury
Donn-Alexandre Feder has performed throughout Europe, Asia, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. He made his New York Town Hall debut as the recipient of a Martha Baird Rockefeller Award and earned Kosciuszko Foundation awards for his acclaimed Chopin-Szymanowski recital at Alice Tully Hall and his pioneer recording Szymanowski Piano Music for Protone Records. Dr. Feder has also recorded for the BBC, Poland’s Radio Polska, and with the Netherlands Philharmonic under Franz Allers and Willem van Otterloo.
During a two-year residency in Warsaw through a U.S.-Polish Government grant, Dr. Feder was the first American pianist to perform in the house of Chopin’s birth at Zelazowa-Wola and was a finalist in the Seventh Chopin International Competition. He served for many years thereafter as an adjudicator for the Kosciuszko Foundation’s Chopin Scholarship Competition in New York.
A member of the Manhattan School of Music piano faculty since 1969, Dr. Feder has presented master classes in Korea, Japan, and the Republic of China.
Daniel Epstein
Piano competition jury
Pianist Daniel Epstein made his orchestral debut with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1973. A graduate of the Juilliard School, where he studied with Adele Marcus, he was presented in his Carnegie Hall debut recital by the Concert Artists Guild. Winner of many awards and prizes including the Kosciusczko Chopin Award, the National Arts Club Prize, the Prix Alex de Vries in Paris, Epstein has appeared as guest soloist with major symphony orchestras including those of Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, and Rochester.
He has given recitals at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the 92nd Street Y as well as in major cities throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia, complemented by master classes and intensive seminars for pianists.
Recent performances include two tours to China for recitals and master classes; performances and teaching at Intituto Musicale Vaccaj in Tolentino, Italy; solo and duo concerts at the Festival of the Canary Islands; and performances of both Brahms piano concerti in New York.
As the pianist and founding member of the famed Raphael Trio since 1975, Daniel Epstein has performed virtually the entire piano trio repertoire. He has collaborated with renowned string quartets, including the Ying, American, Chiara, New Zealand, and Talich as well as with the members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, and many other distinguished chamber musicians and soloists.
Daniel Epstein is a member of the piano faculties of Manhattan School of Music as well as the Precollege Division and Rutgers University.
Wen Qian
Violin competition jury
Ms. Wen Qian was hailed by China Daily as “one of China’s most promising young violinists,” and in a 2004 Strad magazine review, titled “Rare Thrill” featuring Ms. Qian after her Carnegie Hall recital, music critic Dennis Rooney commented, “It was performed with enough insight and panache to thrill a listener while at the same time raising the question of why such results are so rarely achieved.”
Ms. Qian currently serves as the Assistant Concertmaster at the Metropolitan Opera and has been a first-violin section player with the Metropolitan Orchestra since 1997. On top of her busy schedule at the Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Qian also enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, and educator throughout China, America, and Europe.
Ms. Qian began to shine as concertmaster under Valery Gergiev in 1994 at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra; her solos in “Scheherazade” had brought her to the front page of German newspaper “Kieler Nachrichten.” The featured review read: “Whose tenderness was as much musically correct as it was sensual; as much technically perfect as it was expressive, Wen Qian, the young concertmistress, demonstrated a true sensibility and self-confidence.” Since then, she has been invited to be a guest concertmaster with the Philharmonia of the Nation of Germany, Jupiter Symphony of New York, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Tianjin Symphony Orchestra and Shenzhen Symphony. As a soloist, Ms. Qian has performed with orchestras such as the Central Philharmonic of China, Beijing Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, South Shore Symphony, the Centre Symphony, the Metropolitan Orchestra Ensemble, and the Mannes Orchestra.
Ms. Qian has also been an avid chamber musician. She has performed in music festivals and concert series including the Marlboro, Tanglewood, and Sarasota festivals. She has also performed at the Metropolitan Chamber Music series at Carnegie Hall and the Young Concert Artist Series presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She has collaborated with numerous world-renowned musicians including Andras Schiff, Mitsuko Uchita, Leslie Parnas, Nobuko Imai, James Levine, and the members of the Beaux Arts Trio, Guarneri Quartet, and Juilliard Quartet. In the past few summers, Ms. Qian performed and coached at the Talis Music Festival in Switzerland and Cadenza Festival in Beijing, China.
Now a Violin Professor at Mannes College of Music at the New School University, the demands for Ms. Qian’s teaching have brought her to masterclasses and coachings at the New World Symphony in Miami, New York Youth Symphony, New York University, the Central Conservatory of Beijing, Shanghai Conservatory, and various music schools in Taiwan. Since 2000, Ms. Qian has taught the Violin Class at Mannes, which focuses on orchestra auditions. Some graduates of her class have won jobs at the Metropolitan Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony and New Orleans Symphony. In 2019 she was the Artist in Residence at the National Youth Orchestra of China, coaching the country’s top young musicians. During the pandemic, Ms. Qian went to Taiwan with her family, where both she and her husband Ming Feng Hsin (an accomplished Taiwanese violinist and conductor) were invited to give over 40 masterclasses in top music schools, and together, were the Artists in Residence in National Tsinghua University.
Ms. Qian studied with Felix Galimir at the Mannes College of Music in New York City where she obtained her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees as well as her Professional Studies Diploma. Upon her graduation, she received the highest honor: The Excellence in Performance Award. Ms. Qian has served as the vice president of the William Lincer Foundation and has been on the panel of the New York State Council of the Arts.
Ming-Feng Hsin
Violin competition jury
Hailed by the Scotsman as “destined to be one of the giants of the next generation” after winning the first prize at the Glasgow International Violin Competition at age 15, Ming-Feng Hsin has enjoyed a unique and rich journey as a multifaceted musician. He has lived through roles as a child prodigy, soloist, chamber musician, orchestra musician, and conductor. Having experienced a major setback from a career-ending accident at the cusp of a very promising solo career, he later triumphed over such upheaval which brought him the grounding to become a revered artist and an insightful mentor for the next generation.
Ming-Feng Hsin began his musical journey as a child-prodigy national hero in Taiwan. At age 13, he was discovered by his mentor Lord Menuhin with whom he has performed throughout Great Britain and in Washington D.C., where Ming also starred as a soloist playing for President Ford and Queen Elizabeth during America’s bicentennial celebrations. Later, he soloed with orchestras such as the Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra to rave reviews. After coming to the U.S. to study with Ivan Galamian and Jascha Brodsky at the Curtis Institute of Music, he won top prizes in several competitions including the Montreal International Violin Competition, but he was soon sidelined by an injury that took years to heal. After realizing that he could not live a life without music and being on stage, he decided to pursue conducting and graduated from the conducting class of Otto Werner Mueller at The Juilliard School. In the 1990s, Ming was the Music Director of the South Shore Symphony of Long Island, while also conducting orchestras throughout the US and Taiwan. As his finger healed gradually, he often led these orchestras as soloist and conductor.
In 1994, despite not being a violinist for 10 years, Ming won a first violin position at the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and began his 24-year tenure there. Even with the rigorous schedule at the Metropolitan Opera, Ming started to play more and more solo and chamber music concerts as well as keeping up with his conducting career. During this time, he conducted performances such as full opera productions of Aida, The Flying Dutchman with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, and concerts with the Prometheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Curtis Orchestra at Rockefeller Center. He also frequently appeared as the guest conductor with the top orchestras in Taiwan and worked with many youth and college orchestras in the New York area. In 2018, Ming retired from the Metropolitan Opera to spend more time with his children and to devote his energy to more playing, conducting, and teaching. He has recently been appointed a violin faculty member at the Mannes School of Music.
During the 2020-2021 season, Ming gave a trio debut in the National Concert Hall in Taipei with his pianist sister Hsing-Chwen Hsin and Swiss-based cellist Pi-Chin Chien prior to their trio tour in Germany. While in Taiwan, where the pandemic could not penetrate, he was invited to conduct and solo in a series of concerts with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, as well as giving more than 40 masterclasses and workshops at top colleges and music schools. Mr. Hsin is also a founding member of the jury for the biannual Sylvia Lee Violin Competition since its inauguration six years ago
Rafael Figueroa
Cello competition jury
Principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1995, Rafael Figueroa has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the United States, Europe, South and Central America, and Japan. He is the winner of many distinguished competitions and awards including the First Prize at the Gregor Piatigorsky Competition in Boston, the Bronze Medal at the International Pablo Casals Competition in Budapest and the Concerto Competition at the Third American Cello Congress.
Rafael has been a frequent soloist with the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico as well as the Casals Hall Festival in Tokyo, The Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Aspen Music Festival, Marlboro Music Festival, the “Musique et vin au Clos Vougeot” Festival in Burgundy, France and the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.
His solo work with the Met Orchestra can be heard and seen worldwide at the popular Met HD broadcasts to movie theaters over several continents as well as the legendary Met radio broadcasts on Saturday afternoons and at the Met Orchestra Carnegie Hall Series. Together with Maestro James Levine and his colleagues from the Met Orchestra, Rafael is heard frequently at the Met Chamber Ensemble Series at Weill and Zankel Halls where he has performed a large range of repertory starting from the baroque and extending to world premieres of works by Elliot Carter, John Harbison, and Charles Wuorinen.
Mr. Figueroa has appeared in recitals at the Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, Merkin Hall, Jordan Hall and nationwide on National Public Radio. In 2003 Rafael made his Carnegie Hall solo debut performing the Brahms Double Concerto with Concertmaster David Chan and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under James Levine to critical acclaim. Mr. Figueroa and Mr. Chan can be heard in their critically acclaimed CD of music for violin and cello which includes the Duo by Zoltan Kodaly and the Sonata by Maurice Ravel.
Rafael completed his studies under the legendary Janos Starker and Gary Hoffman at the Indiana University School of Music where upon graduation he became a member of the cello faculty. Mr. Figueroa currently serves in the faculty of The Mannes School at the New School in New York City. He performs on a cello by Roger / Max Millant, Paris 1937.
Katie Schlaikjer
Cello competition jury
Cellist Katie Schlaikjer is an accomplished chamber musician, having performed throughout the United States, Canada, England, Australia and Israel. A former member of the Colorado String Quartet (2009-2013), Katie joined the Penderecki String Quartet and the faculty of Wilfrid Laurier University in 2013. Her tenure with the Colorado Quartet included performances at Symphony Space and The Kennedy Center and cycles of the complete Beethoven and Bartok Quartets. Her recent solo engagements include a premiere of J Mark Scearce’s cello concerto “Aracana” and Haydn’s D major cello concerto with the Wuhan Symphony Orchestra in China.
Katie has taught cello at the University of Connecticut (2010-2013), the Hartt Music School, Bard Conservatory’s Preparatory music program and coached chamber music at New England Conservatory’s Extension Division, Stony Brook University’s pre-college program, and at the Colorado Quartet’s intensive summer quartet institute, Soundfest. Ms Schlaikjer received her Doctoral and Master’s degrees from Stony Brook University and her Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory where her teachers included Timothy Eddy and Laurence Lesser.