Joseph Lin

A renowned performer and teacher, Joseph Lin appears regularly throughout the U.S., Asia, and Europe. He was first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet from 2011 to 2018, and he continues to teach violin and chamber music at the Juilliard School. Lin’s recent projects include a collaboration with Robert Levin featuring Beethoven and Schubert on period instruments, performances of Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto, Beethoven’s late string quartets, and the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Helen Huang at Juilliard.  Marking the 300th year of Bach’s Violin Sonatas and Partitas in 2020, Lin presented complete cycles in Boston and Philadelphia.  Recent seasons have included baroque and classical period instrument performances on both viola and violin.   In 2025, Joseph Lin presents a special Beethoven program (Op. 95 “Serioso” Quartet, Op. 96 Sonata, and Op. 97 “Archduke” Trio) in numerous cities around the U.S.

From 2007 to 2011, Lin was a professor at Cornell University, where his projects included the inaugural Chinese Musicians Residency, as well as a collaboration with Cornell composers to study Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas and create new works inspired by Bach. 

Lin was a founding member of the Formosa Quartet, which won the 2006 London String Quartet Competition. In 1996, he won first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition and was named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. In 1999, he was selected for the Pro Musicis Award and, in 2001, he won first prize at the inaugural Michael Hill Violin Competition in New Zealand. His recordings include the music of Korngold and Busoni with pianist Benjamin Loeb; an album of Debussy, Franck, and Milhaud with pianist Orion Weiss; and the complete unaccompanied works of Bach and Ysaÿe. His recording of Mozart’s A Major Violin Concerto with original cadenzas was released in 2017. With the Juilliard Quartet, he recorded Schubert’s Death and the Maiden and Elliot Carter’s Fifth Quartet, as well as the Quartet’s recent album of Beethoven, Davidovsky, and Bartók. During the summer season, he is a regular artist at the Tanglewood, Ravinia, and Marlboro festivals. 

Joseph Lin graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 2000.  In 2002, he began an extended exploration of China, where he studied Chinese music, including the guqin, as a Fulbright scholar. 

https://www.juilliard.edu/music/faculty/lin-joseph

Helen Huang

Born in Japan of Taiwanese parents , Helen Huang has enjoyed to date a multi-faceted career as a soloist and chamber music player and has appeared with such orchestras as the Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Saint Louis Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, and the Fort Worth Symphony. Abroad she has appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the London Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Helen developed a close relationship with Maestro Kurt Masur upon winning the Young People’s Competition, resulting in engagements with the New York Philharmonic and a recording contract with the Teldec record label. Known for immaculate technique and eloquent sensitivity, Helen is one of the youngest recipients of the Avery Fisher Career Grant. She especially enjoys chamber music, and has appeared at the Marlboro Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, and Ravinia’s Steans Institute For Young Artists. She co-founded the Formosa Chamber Music Festival with the vision of bringing the art of chamber music playing to students in Taiwan. 

Helen has several recordings with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, including Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Mozart’s Piano Concertos K. 488 and K467, Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2. She also recorded an album titled “For Children” of works inspired by the theme of children. She collaborated with Cho-Liang Lin on a recording of the works of Georg Tintner released on the Naxos label as well as a recording of the music of Zhou Long with Cho-Liang Lin and Hai-Ye Ni, released on the Delos label. 

Helen received the Arthur Rubinstein Prize upon graduating from the Juilliard School in 2004, where she was a student of Yoheved Kaplinsky. She went on to pursue her Master’s degree from Yale, where she studied with Peter Frankl. A dedicated teacher, she served on the faculty of the Juilliard PreCollege until 2022. She currently resides in New Jersey with her husband and two daughters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Huang

Raman Ramakrishnan

Cellist Raman Ramakrishnan enjoys performing chamber music, old and new, around the world. For two decades, as a founding member of the Horszowski Trio and the Daedalus Quartet, he toured extensively through North and South America, Europe, and Asia, and recorded for Bridge Records and Avie Records, including the complete piano trios of Robert Schumann and the complete string quartets of Fred Lerdahl. Mr. Ramakrishnan is currently an artist member of the Boston Chamber Music Society, and is on the faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music. 

[Text Wrapping Break]Mr. Ramakrishnan has given solo recitals in New York, Boston, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., and has performed at Caramoor, at Bargemusic, with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, and at the Aspen, Bard, Charlottesville, Four Seasons, Kingston, Lincolnshire (UK), Marlboro, Mehli Mehta (India), Oklahoma Mozart, Portland, Skaneateles, and Vail Music Festivals.  He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and has performed, as guest principal cellist, with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. As a guest member of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, he has performed in New Delhi and Agra, India and in Cairo, Egypt.  He has served on the faculties of the Kneisel Hall, Norfolk, and Taconic Chamber Music Festivals, as well as in the Music Performance Program of Columbia University. 

Mr. Ramakrishnan was born in Athens, Ohio and grew up in East Patchogue, New York.  His father is a molecular biologist and his mother is the children’s book author and illustrator Vera Rosenberry.  He holds a Bachelor’s degree in physics from Harvard University and a Master’s degree in music from The Juilliard School.  His principal teachers have been Fred Sherry, Andrés Díaz, and André Emelianoff.  He lives in New York City with his wife, the violist Melissa Reardon, and their son.  He plays a Neapolitan cello made by Vincenzo Jorio in 1837.

https://www.bard.edu/faculty/details/?id=3239

Claire Bourg

Violinist Claire Bourg has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in many of the world’s
leading venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, Kimmel Center, and Jordan
Hall. Most recently, she was a soloist with the Camerata Bern in Hannover, as part of the
Joachim International Violin Competition. Ms. Bourg was granted the 2021 Luminarts
Fellowship, awarded second prize at the 2020 Barbash J.S. Bach Competition, and winner of the
New England Conservatory Competition. She performs regularly with Jupiter Symphony
Chamber Players, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Music for Food, Chameleon Arts Ensemble,
Curtis on Tour and currently serves as concertmaster of Symphony in C. A passionate chamber
musician, Claire has attended festivals such as Marlboro, Yellow Barn, Ravinia, Taos, among
others. A native of Chicago, Ms. Bourg’s primary teachers have been Miriam Fried, Pamela
Frank, Arnold Steinhardt, and Joseph Lin at the New England Conservatory, Curtis Institute of
Music and the Juilliard School, where she held a Kovner Fellowship. She is now pursuing her
Doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center with Mark Steinberg. Claire currently performs on a
violin by Zosimo Bergonzi of Cremona, c. 1770 on generous loan through Guarneri Hall NFP
and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago.

https://www.clairebourg.com/

Natalie Loughran

Twenty-six year old American violist Natalie Loughran is quickly establishing herself as one
of the most versatile young artists of our time. Natalie was awarded First Prize at the 2021
Primrose International Viola Competition, along with the Audience Award, as well as the
BIPOC Composer Prize for her arrangement and performance of William Grant Still’s
‘Mother and Child’. She has also appeared as a finalist for the 2020 Young Concert Artist
Auditions, and was awarded a special prize for her performance of the Bowen Viola Sonata
in C Minor at the Tertis International Viola Competition. Natalie has also been awarded with
the William Schuman prize for her outstanding leadership and achievement in music, from
the Juilliard School.

As the newest violist of the Castalian String Quartet, Natalie has appeared in many
internationally renowned chamber music series, including The Heidelberg Frühling
Musikfestival, 92NY, San Francisco Performances, and Dallas Chamber Music Society.
Additionally, she has performed extensively at Marlboro, Yellow Barn, The Perlman Music
Program Chamber Workshop, and Kronberg’s Chamber Music Connects the World. Natalie
has collaborated with renowned chamber musicians such as Mitsuko Uchida, Stephen
Hough, Itzhak Perlman, Dénes Várjon, Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Tabea
Zimmermann, and Nobuko Imai.

In addition to solo performance and chamber music, Natalie holds a deep love of the
orchestral repertoire, and has worked as principal violist under the batons of Simon Rattle,
Valery Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. She has performed with the Verbier
Festival Chamber Orchestra, under Gábor Takács-Nagy; toured internationally with the
Budapest Festival Orchestra, directed by Ivan Fischer; and performed regularly with the
Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York Philharmonic.

Natalie earned her B.M. and M.M. in Viola Performance at The Juilliard School, under the
tutelage of Roger Tapping, Misha Amory, where she was a proud recipient of the Kovner
Fellowship. Natalie is continuing her professional studies at the Kronberg Academy with
Tabea Zimmermann.

Natalie plays on a 1976 viola by Sergio Peresson.

https://www.natalieloughran.com/