Finalist: Amphion String Quartet

After playing chamber music together in different configurations and different venues over the years, Katie Hyun, David Southorn, Wei-Yang Andy Lin and Mihai Marica joined together as a quartet for a performance at Morse Recital Hall at the Yale School of Music in February, 2009. Encouraged by their reception at this venue, the four continued to develop their dynamic as a performing quartet. Despite their short time playing together, the Amphion String Quartet was awarded the First Prize in the piano and strings category as well as the Audience Choice Award at the 2010 Plowman Competition. They continue to develop their presence this spring with upcoming engagements in the New York and Connecticut areas. This summer they will be attending Music@Menlo as part of the International Program.

Violinist Katie Hyun has made solo appearances with the Houston Symphony, Dallas Chamber orchestra, Concerto Soloists Orchestra in Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and Yale Philharmonia. Katie has appeared on the television program "Good Morning Texas," and on Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion" on NPR, with bassist Nathan Farrington.  In 2006, she was invited by bassist Edgar Meyer to collaborate with him at the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Festival. She received her Artist Diploma at the Yale School of Music, studying with Ani Kavafian. She received her Masters Degree at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, where she studied with Pamela Frank, Ani Kavafian, and Philip Setzer and had studied with Aaron Rosand and Pamela Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received her Bachelors degree.

Violinist David Southorn has appeared as soloist with the SFCM New Music Ensemble, Portland Festival Symphony, the Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra and was recently invited to perform the Tchaikovsky violin concerto with the Fremont and Nova Vista Symphonies (CA). As a chamber musician he has appeared in such venues as Washington D.C.'s Kennedy Center, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, and the Lincoln Center. An enthusiastic orchestral musician, David has performed with the New World Symphony and Boston Symphony and as Concertmaster of the Yale Opera Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, SFCM orchestra, the Yale Opera Orchestra, and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. He is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a student of Camilla Wicks, Ian Swensen and Wei He. David received a Masters degree at the Yale School of Music under the tutelage of Ani Kavafian and is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at Yale.

Taiwanese violist Wei-Yang Andy Lin has won numerous competitions including Taiwan National Viola Competition, the Idyllwild Arts Concerto Competition, 2008 Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition, and subsequently made his Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall solo debut with the Juilliard. Andy is also the winner of the 2009 Stony Brook Concerto Competition. He has been a member of the International Sejong Soloists and the Carnegie Ensemble as principal violist. He has been invited to play and perform chamber music with Itzhak Perlman at Manhattan Synagogue, Princeton University, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and The Metropolitan Museum. Andy is currently a full-scholarship D.M.A. student at the Stony Brook University studying with Prof. Daniel Panner, and previously studied under Donald McInnes at the Idyllwild Arts Academy. He holds his Bachelor and Master's Degree from The Juilliard School.

Romanian born cellist Mihai Marica has won the first prize in the 2005 Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the first prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2006 "Dr. Luis Sigall" International Competition, and he received the 2006 Charlotte White's Salon de Virtuosi Fellowship Grant. Mihai has performed with orchestras such as the New Haven Symphony, the Symphony Orchestra of Chile, the Hermitage State Orchestra of St. Petersburg (Russia), and the Louisville Orchestra. He has made debut appearances in both Weill and Zankel halls at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Mihai studied with Prof. Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of music where he was awarded the Master of Music and Artist Diploma degrees, and he earned his Bachelor's Degree from Southern Connecticut State University.

[image courtesy of Sammie Scheer]