2025-2026 Season Tickets Now Available!
to another intimate event featuring Paul Huang, Danbi Um, and Dawoon Chung
To purchase your attendance at the house concert, we ask you to
make a $150 donation per attendee. Your name will be added to the guest list.
All proceeds from this special fundraiser will enable us to inspire, educate,
and enrich our audiences through exceptional, professional
musical performances and community outreach.
Thursday, August 27, 2026
4:15 Wine and Hors d’oeuvres
5:00 concert
6:00 Post-Concert Q & A
$150 donation per person
Donate soon because seating is very limited.
To donate click below
or 828.884.4221
Recipient of the prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists, violinist Paul Huang is considered to be one of the most distinctive artists of his generation. The Washington Post remarked that Mr. Huang "possesses a big, luscious tone, spot-on intonation and a technique that makes the most punishing string phrases feel as natural as breathing," and further proclaimed him as "an artist with the goods for a significant career" following his recital debut at the Kennedy Center.
Known for his "unfailing attractive, golden, and resonant tone" (The Strad), Mr. Huang's recent highlights have included acclaim debut at Bravo!Vail Music Festival stepping in for violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter in the Mozart’s Violin Concerto No.4 with Chamber Orchestra Vienna-Berlin, Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani, BBC Symphony Orchestra with Marie Jacquot, Detroit Symphony with Leonard Slatkin, Houston Symphony with Andres Orozco-Estrada, NHK and Dallas Symphonies with Fabio Luisi, Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev, Baltimore Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic with Markus Stenz, San Francisco Symphony with Mei-Ann Chen, and recital debuts at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland and Aspen Music Festival. In Fall 2021, Paul also became the first classical violinist to perform his own arrangement of the National Anthem for the opening game of the NFL at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina to an audience of 75,000. An exclusive recording artist with France's Naïve Records, his second album “Mirrors" was released worldwide to critical acclaim in January of 2025 with Gramophone Magazine remarked as "musical storytelling of such virtuosity and conviction". June 2026 will see the release of his third album of the Korngold and Barber's Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2026-27 season will include Mr. Huang's Carnegie Hall debut with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, subscription debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony, China Philharmonic, Guangzhou Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, as well as returns to Rotterdam Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Buffalo Philharmonic, Tucson Symphony, and National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan (both in Taiwan and on a U.K. and Germany Tour).
2026-27 season recital, chamber music, and festival performances will include Mr. Huang’s return to the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Washington Performing Arts, The Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, and his return to the Jorden Hall in Boston with duo partner Helen Huang. In January 2027, Mr. Huang will launch the 5th edition of "Paul Huang & Friends" International Chamber Music Festival in Taipei, Taiwan, in association with the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.
A dedicated advocate for contemporary music, Mr. Huang has recorded John Harbison's solo violin work "Four Songs of Solitute" for Harmonia Mundi, Toshio Hosokawa's Violin Concerto No.1 "Genesis" for Naxos, and has given premieres and champion works by Huw Watkins, Tan Dun, Lera Auerbach, Kenji Bunch, Chris Rogerson, and Jessie Montgomery.
A frequent guest artist at music festivals worldwide, he has performed at the Seattle, Music@Menlo, Savannah, Caramoor, La Jolla, Santa Fe, Moritzburg, Kissinger Sommer, Sion, Orford Musique, Miyazaki, and the PyeongChang Music Festival in South Korea. His chamber music collaborators have included Gil Shaham, Cho-Liang Lin, Nobuko Imai, Mischa Maisky, Jian Wang, Lynn Harrell, Yefim Bronfman, Kirill Gerstein and Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Huang made critically acclaimed recital debuts in New York at Lincoln Center and in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center. Other honors include First Prize at the 2009 Tibor Varga International Violin Competition Sion-Valais in Switzerland, the 2009 Chi-Mei Cultural Foundation Arts Award for Taiwan’s Most Promising Young Artists, the 2013 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and the 2014 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award.
Born in Taiwan, Mr. Huang began violin lessons at the age of seven. He is a recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where he earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees under Hyo Kang and I-Hao Lee. He plays on the legendary 1742 “ex-Wieniawski” Guarneri del Gesù on extended loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago and is on the faculty of Taipei National University of the Arts. He resides in New York.
Praised by The Strad as an “utterly dazzling” artist, with “a marvelous show of superb technique” and “mesmerizing grace” (New York Classical Review), violinist Danbi Um captivates audiences with her virtuosity, individual sound, and interpretive sensitivity. A Menuhin International Violin Competition Silver Medalist and winner of the prestigious 2018 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, she showcases her artistry in concertos, solo recitals, and in collaboration with distinguished chamber musicians.
Known for her "virtuoso interpretations that evoke the grace and depth of a musical Golden Age" by the Strings Magazine, Ms. Um's recent and upcoming engagements include appearances with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia (Kimmel Center), Ridgewood Symphony, and her Washington D.C.'s recital debut at the Phillips Collection. This season will also see Ms. Um's return to People's Symphony, Saratoga Performing Arts (SPAC), Rockport Music, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Perlman Music Program, North Shore Music Festival, as well as La Musica Festival (Sarasota).
An avid chamber musician, Ms. Um returns to Chamber Music San Francisco, the Society of Four Arts in Palm Beach, Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Linton Chamber Music, Chamber Music International, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for both national and international tours. Ms. Um's chamber music collaborators have included Anthony Marwood, Vadim Gluzman, Pamela Frank, Cho-Liang Lin, Paul Neubauer, Frans Helmerson, David Finckel, David Shifrin, Wu Han, and Gilbert Kalish. A recording artist for Avie Records, Ms.Um's debut album, Much Ado: Romantic Violin Masterworks, was released worldwide in fall of 2023. Her second album, Poème Mystique, was released in February 2025.
In 2018, Ms. Um made her New York recital debut at Lincoln Center presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. After winning the 2014 Music Academy of the West Competition, Ms. Um made her concerto debut in the Walton Violin Concerto with the Festival Orchestra, conducted by Joshua Weilerstein. Past concerto engagements include appearances with the Israel Symphony, Auckland Philharmonic, Vermont Symphony, and the Dartmouth Symphony. She also recently appeared in recital and in chamber music performances in such venues as the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Harris Theatre in Chicago, Wigmore Hall in London, and at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
Born in 1990 in Seoul, South Korea, Ms. Um began violin lessons at the age of three. In the year 2000, she moved to the United States to study at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree. She also holds an Artist Diploma from Indiana University. Her teachers have included Shmuel Ashkenasi, Joseph Silverstein, Jaime Laredo, and Hagai Shaham. Ms. Um is a winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions. She plays a 1683 “ex-Petschek” Nicolo Amati violin, on loan from a private collection.
Praised for her “enthralling performances” (Culver City Observer), Dr.Chung has enjoyed an international career encompassing several continents. She has appeared as a soloist with the Indiana University Orchestra and the Gwangju Philharmonic in addition to receiving numerous awards as a winner of the Choon-Choo, Suk-Myung University, and Indianapolis Matinee competitions. This season, Dr. Chung will make her Kennedy Center debut, appear in concerts with the Solera Quartet in Los Angeles, and give recitals in Washington D.C, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.
Passionate about social justice and educational outreach events, Dawoon is a guest artist of Project: Music Heals Us, a non-profit organization that presents interactive classical music performances to diverse audiences in order to provide encouragement, education, and healing with a focus on elderly, disabled, rehabilitating, incarcerated, and homeless populations.
An avid chamber musician, Dr. Chung has made appearances at the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, International Chamber Festival in Paris, Scotia Chamber Festival, Kirishima International Chamber Festival, Eumak Choo-Choo festival, and Boonville Festival. While performing at the Boonville Festival it was noted that “during the performance all eyes and ears were mesmerized by the tone coming from the stage.” (Boonville Daily News).
Dawoon graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree as a Dean’s scholarship recipient. Most recently, she completed her Doctorate degree at the University of Southern California under the tutelage of Jefferey Kahane. Her past teachers have included Shigeo Neriki, Edward Auer, Evelyn Brancart, Emile Naoumoff, Norman Krieger and Jefferey Kahane.
