Meet Our Faculty Advisors
Our highly qualified and dedicated teachers are here to guide to having a strong foundation for each and every student. Our teachers are also supportive in helping our students to prepare for auditions and other outside school performance engagements such as Royal Conservatory Music Development exams, ABRSM exams, NYSSMA exams and orchestra programs.
Sergio Dvornichenko, clarinet
Sergiy Dvorcnichenko currently holds the position of Second Clarinet with The Glens Falls Symphony orchestra. Mr. Dvorcnichenko has performed with the Albany Symphony, New Haven Symphony, Greater Bridgeport Symphony, Camerata New York, Metro Chamber Orchestra, Dicapo Opera Theater, New England Symphonic Ensemble, and Red Light New Music Ensemble. His appearance as a soloist include performances with Orchestra Slobozhansky and Kharkov Philharmonic in Ukraine.
Mr. Dvorcnichenko has appeared in prestigious concert venues such as the Isaac Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Kennedy Center Opera House, Boston Symphony Hall, Severance Hall, The National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Lviv National Opera and Ballet Theater, and the Kharkov State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater.
Winner of numerous international clarinet competitions, including the International Competition in Lvov, Ukraine, the Second International Clarinet Competition in Moscow, Russia, the Selmer-Paris International Competition in Kiev, Ukraine, and the Concursal International de Muzica in Bucharest, Romania, Mr. Dvorcnichenko is also the Co-Founder of the "Muzichna Maysternya" music festival in Kharkov Ukraine.
In addition, as a passionate pedagogue, Mr. Dvorcnichenko serves as a member of faculty at the Mahanaim Music School in Long Island, New York and also at Luzerne Music Center in Lake Luzerne, New York.
Rapidly earning recognition as a young artist of uncommon musical depth and versatility, clarinetist Yoonah Kim is a winner of the 2016 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. The first solo clarinetist to win CAG in nearly 30 years, this Korean-Canadian artist joins the ranks of prominent solo clarinetists discovered by CAG, including David Shifrin, Michael Collins, and David Krakauer.
2017-18 solo performances include Yoonah’s New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall on the CAG New York Series, as well as debut recitals for Chicago’s Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts series, Washington Performing Arts’ Music in the Country series, Chamber Music Society of Little Rock and Union County Performing Arts Center (NJ). She also appears as concerto soloist with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra near Chicago, Arkansas Symphony Youth Orchestra, and the Chesapeake Youth Symphony. In summer 2018, Yoonah will appear at Bay Chamber Music Festival in Maine, and on tour to Greece at the invitation of composer Lowell Liebermann.
In 2016, Yoonah became the first woman to win first prize at the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition, leading to her world premiere performance of Pocket Concerto by American composer Dag Gabrielsen at The Music for All National Festival in Indianapolis, presented by Yamaha. Other honors include first prize at the 2017 George Gershwin International Competition. She has also been a featured soloist at Juilliard’s Focus Festival, performing Donald Martino’s A Set for Clarinet at Peter Jay Sharp Theater in New York City.
Beginning in fall 2016, Yoonah became a member of Ensemble Connect (formerly Ensemble ACJW), a highly selective two-year fellowship program under the joint auspices of Carnegie Hall, The Weill Institute, and The Juilliard School. With Ensemble Connect, she performs regularly at Carnegie Hall, often in collaboration with renowned conductors and guest artists. One recent Zankel Hall performance was conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, and in December 2016, she performed in France at the Philharmonie de Paris, featuring soprano Natalie Dessay.
As principal clarinetist of The Juilliard Orchestra and The Mannes Orchestra, Yoonah has performed at prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Symphony Space. Yoonah has also served as principal clarinetist of the New York Youth Symphony and the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra, with whom she appeared in the closing ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, televised across the world. Also an active chamber musician, Yoonah tours regularly with the ensemble FOUNDERS and Frisson, and has appeared at chamber music festivals, including the Chautauqua Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, The Banff Centre Music Festival, and Caroga Lake Music Festival. She has been invited to participate in the prestigious Marlboro Music Festival beginning in summer 2019.
In addition to her appearances on stage, Yoonah is also committed to teaching. Through her extensive educational outreach working with Ensemble Connect, she serves as an education ambassador for Carnegie Hall at New York City public schools.
Born in Seoul and raised in British Columbia, Yoonah Kim holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Mannes College of Music at The New School, where she studied clarinet under Charles Neidich.
Yoonah Kim, clarinet
Violinist Youngsun Kim received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Manhattan School of Music with the dissertation “The Solo Violin Caprice: A Survey of its Evolution from the Eighteenth Century to the Present.” Prior to her doctoral studies, Ms. Kim graduated Summa Cum Laude from Seoul National University and holds her Master’s degree and Artist Diploma from Yale University.
A native of Korea, Ms. Kim is an active soloist as well as chamber musician in Korea and the United States. She has performed in places such as Hoam Art Hall, Kumho Art Hall, Seongnam Arts Center, and Seoul Arts Center in Korea, and Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and Woolsey Hall in the United States
As an avid chamber musician, Ms. Kim gave performances in Connecticut and New Jersey, and has performed at various chamber music festivals including Kneisel Hall and Norfolk Music Festival. As an orchestra musician, she’s been a part of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, and Seoul Classical Players.
Ms. Kim’s primary studies were under Sylvia Rosenberg, Hyo Kang, Youngmi Cho and members of the Tokyo String Quartet.
Youngsun Kim, violin
Mina Kusumoto is highly acclaimed as a piano soloist and collaborative pianist. A native of Japan, Ms. Kusumoto began studying solfege at the age of three and the piano at the age of six. She earned her Bachelor of Music Degree at Musashino Academia Musicae in Tokyo where she studied with Yuriko Moriyama and Konstantin Ganev who was a pupil of legendary piano teacher Heinrich Neuhaus in Moscow Conservatoire. Mina Kusumoto was awarded the highest distinction in her graduation class, and was chosen to perform her graduation piano recital. She has given concerts each season in many world wide venues, such as Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Yamaha Salon in NY, Tokyo Metropolitan Arts Hall, Minatomirai Hall in Japan, Oxford Town Hall, and Jacqueline De Prez Memorial Hall in the United Kingdum.
Ms. Kusumoto was invited in various music festivals, including the 100 pianists at the Kennedy Center under conductor Maestro Leonard Slatkin, the International Summer School in Tokyo, and the Oxford Piano Festival in the U.K. She has also constantly performed as an active collaborative pianist in numerous concert tours with singers, instrumentalists, and dancers in Japan, Taiwan, China, and the U.S., and her performance was provided CDs which were sold with recommended by the Ministry of Education of Japan. She also won many competitions such as the International Arts Federation Competition in Japan, the All Japan Soloist Competition in Japan, and the Artist International Competition in NY. In 2007, she gave a NY debut recital at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall as a winner of the Artist International Competition.
As a passionate, dedicated piano teacher, she has been teaching students and given masterclasses in Japan and the U.S. Her students received prizes both national and international competitions and accepted the prestigious precolleges such as Special MusicSchool, Manhattan School of Music and the Julliard School. As a faculty member at MSM SUMMER (Manhattan School of Music), Bloomingdale School of Music, Mina encourages students to discover the core of art through music, and improve their talent. She is a founder of New York Masterclass and Concerts which gives opportunities to learn music from legendary pedagogues and the world-class pianists and perform for young musicians.
Mina Kusumoto has been residing in New York City since 2003. She received her Master of Music Degree from the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Marc Silverman, and, was given Scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music. She has been coached chamber music by Alan Kay, and her other teachers include Masako Matsunaga, Etsuko Takeuchi,and Martin Canin.
Mina Kusumoto, piano
Born in Chicago, Philo Lee started playing cello at age eight. He continued his studies at the Juilliard Pre-Collage division in 2002. In 2008, he was accepted to Yale School of Music Certificate in Performance program where he studied under Aldo Parisot. Mr. Lee received his Bachelor of Music degree at The Juilliard School under the guidance of Natasha Brofsky, and furthered his studies at the Manhattan School of Music as a student of Alan Stepansky.
As an active performing musician, Mr. Lee performed in various venues throughout the United States including the Weill Recital Hall, Zankel Hall, and Stern Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Atlanta Symphony Hall, Copeland Hall at the Grand Opera House, and Woolsey Hall.
Mr. Lee is currently the principal cellist of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra and also is a member of the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. Also a devoted educator, he has cultivated many talented students around New York and New Jersey through his guidance.
Philo Lee, cello
Yoni Levyatov, winner of the San Jose International Piano Competition, is recognized as a soloist and chamber artist with “an appealing electricity” (The New York Times). The Russian-born Israeli pianist and composer made his recital debut at the Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and his New York City concerto debut as the winner of the Dora Zaslavsky Koch Competition performing the Schumann Piano Concerto under the baton of Philippe Entremont. He has also been heard with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, the Bogota Philharmonic, Denver Brass, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas.
His compositional oeuvre includes works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra, and has been performed throughout Europe, the United States, and Israel, with a recent orchestral premiere at Weill Hall in New York City. Beyond the classical realm, he has toured with the JP Joffre Hard Tango Band across the US and internationally. Highlights have included the Panama Canal, as well the Vermont Music Festival performing the Bacalov Triple Concerto for Piano, Bandoneon, Soprano, and Orchestra. Touring Alaska, he has been featured at the Sitka Music Festival and Juneau Jazz and Classics, presenting the first-ever concert in the Eskimo village of Chevak.
Mr. Levyatov was a recipient of the Dorothy McKenzie Artist Recognition Award, Harold Bauer Award, and was a Silver Medalist at the International Boesendorfer Piano Competition. He was awarded the Clairmont Prize in Tel Aviv and has been a scholar of the America-Israel Cultural Foundation since 1990. Recent appearances have included performances at Steinway Hall, Barge Music, United Nations and the Prestige Series at IKIF, Mannes School of Music, NYC; Music in the Mountains, Colorado; St.-Mary College of Maryland; Thornton School of Music at USC, San Francisco; Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles; Musical Instrument Museum, Phoenix; Xavier University, Cincinnati; Menora Hall in Manchester, England; Philharmonic Hall in St.Petersburg, Russia; Spiegelsaal in Rheinsberg, Germany; Auditorium de Cajacanarias in Tenerife, Spain; Jerusalem Music Center and the Tel Aviv Museum of Arts.
Yoni Levyatov, piano
Kyungmi Nam, piano
Acclaimed by New York Concert Review as "…an awareness of detail… a clear sense of compositional structure…, a lively, vibrant sound and a wide palette of dynamics and colors", pianist Kyungmi Nam enjoys a dynamic career as soloist and chamber musician.
A native of South Korea, she moved to the U.S. soon after her first appearance as soloist performing Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 with Seoul Arts Orchestra at age ten.
Kyungmi Nam gave her New York debut recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2005, as the full scholarship receipient of Young Artist Piano Award presented by Artists International Presentations, Inc. She has been awarded with prizes from international competitions across the U.S., South Korea, and Italy including the Debussy Prize from IBLA Grand Prize International Competition in 2006. Her orchestral engagements as a soloist include the World Premiere of Henry Martin's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the conductor Richard Auldon Clark and Manhattan Chamber Orchestra in New York, and appearance as pianist for Aaron Copland's Appalachian Springs with Astoria Symphony in New York.
Also as a passionate educator in music, Kyungmi Nam has served as solo and chamber music faculty in Amati Music Festival in New York, and has been invited by festivals such as Caprarola Music Festival & Competition in Italy, and International Music Festival at Villa d'Este in Italy (Tivoli), and Hindemith Music Centre in Switzerland.
Described as “inspiring,” "delightful," and “colorful," Jamie Yoo is an active soloist, orchestral and chamber music artist, and an educator. Recently she has been sponsored by the International Music Foundation to perform a solo recital at Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center. The recital was broadcast live over WFMT 98.7 FM radio and streamed live at www.wfmt.com. She has appeared as a soloist with Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in Bulgaria, Spoleto Music Festival Orchestra in United States, Seoul Symphony Orchestra in South Korea and many more. She also served in Civic Orchestra of Chicago, working closely with Yo-Yo Ma under the mentorship of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and held an orchestra fellowship at Symphony Nova in Boston. She plays in Spoleto Music Festival Orchestra every other summer.
Jamie served as an orchestral and chamber music faculty at Korean School of New England in Boston. Currently she is a flute instructor at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan, teaching flute pedagogy, technique classes, and group sectionals from 7th to 9th grade students.
As a founding member of the Boston Woodwind Quintet, she has performed recitals, presented educational programs in schools, and given masterclasses to the students of a local youth orchestra. She lives in New York City and is an active freelance musician in the greater New York area.
Jamie completed her Bachelor of Music with highest honors and Master of Music at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She then continued her musical studies under Jonathan Keeble at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, completing Doctor of Musical Arts in Flute Performance and Literature. During her doctoral studies she embarked upon research into the work of noted Baroque period composer Antonio Lotti (1666-1740). Her dissertation, “A Stylistic Analysis of Antonio Lotti’s Trio Sonata in F Major for Flute, Viola da Gamba, and Harpsichord, and Trio Sonata in A Major for Flute Oboe d’amore, and Continuo” broke new ground in understanding Lotti’s work, and acts as a springboard for future work into this noted composer.
Jaime Yoo, flute
Mialtin Zhezha, violin
Hailed by The Hartford Courant for his “expressive and warm sound, and faultless intonation,” Albanian-born Mialtin Zhezha is an accomplished violinist and violist. Since his solo debut with the National Orchestra at the age of 13 in Tirana, Albania, he maintains a broad international performing career.
Mr. Zhezha resides in New York City and concertizes extensively as a soloist and chamber musician. While being a recitalist, he serves as concertmaster of the Mozart Orchestra of New York, New York Classical Symphony Orchestra and Mid-Atlantic Symphony in Baltimore as well as an active member of New York Chamber Soloists, New York Metamorphoses Orchestra, and International Chamber Players. Furthermore, he performs regularly in music series such as Music Kitchen-Food for Soul, a charity series that brings chamber music to homeless shelters, Music Arts Alliance in New York City, Abendmusik series Morristown, NJ among others. In addition, Mr. Zhezha’s performances have taken him to the National Arts Centre Summer Music Institute in Ottawa, Moab Music Festival in Utah, Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut, Gilmore and Fontana Chamber Arts Festivals in Michigan, Summer Seminar at Western Michigan University, and SummerTrios in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Zhezha is a laureate of awards and top prizes in competitions around the world, including “Kenget e Tokes” and “Islam Petrela” International Violin competition in Tirana, Albania, as well as the “Nicola Piccini” Violin competition in Bari, Italy, Young Artist Competition in Fort Wayne, Western Michigan University Concerto Competition, and MTNA National String Competition. Most recently, he has been featured in an Albanian book titled “Success Story” after receiving “Albanian Excellency” Award, which is only given to notable and successful individuals who have contributed significantly to the country. He has also been a nominee for the “KULT” awards in Albania. In addition, Mr. Zhezha has been awarded the “Hugo Kortschak” Chamber Music Award, “Best Classical Music Performance of the Year” Award by the “Downbeat” Magazine.
As a violin and viola pedagogue, Mr. Zhezha has been a visiting artist at Western Michigan University and the International Academy of the Arts in Tirana, Albania. As a sought after adjudicator, Mr. Zhezha has judged several national and international competitions, such as Vivo International Competition, Sylvia and Jacob Handler Auditions among other. He holds violin/viola and chamber music positions at the Mozart Program at John Jay College, Hunterdon Academy of the Arts, SummerTrios Music Festival, Seminar at Western Michigan University, and Chamber Music Institute in CT. His mentors include Pinchas Zukerman, Patinka Kopec, Lawrence Dutton, and Renata Knific.
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Youngsun Kim plays Franck Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano (second movement)
