Formal Concert 2025-01-11

The Fortnightly Music Club In cooperation with The City of Palo Alto Arts and Culture Division
Palo Alto Art Center
1313 Newell Road

*guest performers

Pianist Wenchun Ku is a major prize winner of the 2021 King’s Peak International Music Competition, 2021 International Music Award (Vienna,Austria), and Harrison Winter Concerto Competition. Dr. Wen-Chun Ku has performed extensively in the United States including the Friedberg Concert Hall at Peabody Conservatory, Le Petit Trianon Theatre in San Jose, Recital Hall at Santa Clara University and the prestigious venues in her native Taiwan, such as the National Concert Hall in Taipei. Wenchun received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Taipei National University of the Arts, and Master of Music, Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University where she was awarded as a merit scholarship student under the guidance of the pianists Benjamin Pasternack and Boris Slutsky. In addition, Wenchun has worked closely with her mentor Menchieh Liu at Curtis Institute for many years. She is currently an active pianist in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Violinist Sue-mi Shin, a native of Korea, has been an avid chamber musician, orchestral player, and educator in San Francisco Bay area. Currently she is a member of Opera San Jose orchestra and Monterey Symphony, and often performs with Symphony Silicon Valley and San Jose Chamber Orchestra among many others. As a chamber musician, she was a founding member of the LEAF piano trio and has served as a music director of SF Sonnet Ensemble. Currently, she teaches at Norte Dame Namur University in Belmont while she maintains a dedicated private studio and coaches young musicians under many youth orchestra organizations in the bay area. The winner of the Henry Janiac Young Artist’s Competition, Ms. Shin has given numerous solo and chamber music concerts in New York, Connecticut, Georgia, South Carolina, and California as well as overseas concerts in Spain, France and South Korea. She holds a BM degree from Manhattan School of Music and a MM degree from Yale University in Violin Performance. She also attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia where she has worked on DMA program and conducting.

Cellist Katie Youn has appeared in concerts throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, in venues such as Boston’s Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall, Japan’s Suntory and Minatomirai Hall, Vancouver’s Orpheum Hall, and Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Basilica. She is the founding member of San Francisco based Shoreline Piano Trio and regularly appears with Sound Impact, Chamber Music Silicon Valley, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and Sonnet Ensemble. Passionate about teaching, Katie is on cello facul ty at Santa Clara University and has an active private cello studio in San Jose. Born in Korea and raised in Canada, Katie began cello le ssons at the Vancouver Academy of Music at the age of 7. She moved to Boston to earn her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at the New England Conservatory and at Boston University with a Doctorate of Musical Arts.

Pianist Menghua Lin is a native of Taiwan. She was the winner of Yamaha Piano Competition Junior Division, Chautauqua Music Festival. Concerto Competition, Pennsylvania Music Teacher Association Piano Competition, Steinway Piano Competition, and Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Audition. Menghua has given more than 100 performances in the USA, Europe, and Asia. She is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently she serves as piano faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan and Community School of Music and Arts in Mountain View.

Soprano Keiko Kagawa serves as the artistic/general director/performer for Silicon Valley Opera. Keiko will reprise Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” on 2/25 at the fundraiser for Pomeroy Recreation and Rehabilitation Center in San Francisco and Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly” in Fall at Historic Hoover Theater in San Jose. Keiko teaches piano/voice to about 55 students weekly, conducts COSMO www.choralcosmo.com and Aldersgate United Methodist Church Choir. She has a Master of Vocal Performance degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Her Undergraduate degree, a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance and a Teaching Credential in Music Education are from Tokyo’s Kunitachi College of Music. She has performed over 15 operatic rol es. Keiko also gives recitals here and in Japan.

Pianist Kumiko Nishikawa was born in Nara, Japan. She started to play piano at the age of 6. She graduated from Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts as a valedictorian and finished a post-graduate Certificate Program in Music. She moved to San Jose with her family in 2008 after working as a music teacher and an accompanist/pianist and giving recitals in Japan for many years. While living in San Jose she joined the church choir as a singer, and occasionally played the piano for worship services. She moved back to Japan for 5 and 1/2 years and returned to the Bay Area again in 2017. She is a regular accompanist for Mixed Chorus Kakehashi, Chorus Nagi, and San Francisco Japanese School Parent’s Chorus and works with many musicians as a pianist/singer. She recently got a Pilates instructor certificate to pursue her study of performance technique.