Violinist Janny Joo is a multifaceted musician who is equally at home in chamber, orchestra, and solo recital settings. She is a founding member of the Meadowlark Piano Trio, 2017 semi-finalists of the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, and enjoys performing works from the established repertoire as well as championing works from contemporary composers with the trio. An active chamber musician, Janny has studied chamber music with the members of the Chiara, Muir, and St. Lawrence String Quartets, the Triple Helix Piano Trio, and violist Kim Kashkashian. She has also performed with such artists as Bayla Keyes, Cho-Liang Lin, Kim Kashkashian, Hsin-Yun Huang, Desmond Hoebig, Rhonda Rider, William Fitzpatrick, and Norman Fischer. She has served as the concertmaster of numerous orchestras, which includes Brockton Symphony Orchestra, and she was the Principal 2nd Violin of Phoenix Orchestra and the Assistant Principal 2nd Violin of the Cape Symphony. She also performs with Chorus Pro Musica, BMOP, Cantata Singers, and guests with A Far Cry, Boston Pops, Boston Lyric Opera, and Boston Ballet.
Believing that an artist is also a citizen who has a duty to further social justice, she is serving as the Co-Executive Director for the Music for Food, which is a musician-lead initiative for local hunger relief. She will be working with the artists in the organization to benefit food pantries all around the United States, as well as in Canada and Taiwan. Janny is passionate about teaching and coaching the next generation of musicians and has taught at Boston University as a Lecturer. She received her Doctorate degree in Violin Performance at Boston University, her Master's degree from Shepherd school of music at Rice University, and her Bachelor's degree with minors in Math and History from University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her primary teachers include Bayla Keyes, Cho-Liang Lin, Hye-Yung Yoon of the Chiara String Quartet, and Hal Grossman. In her free time, she enjoys ballroom dancing, horseback riding, traveling, and photography.
Hyun-Ji Kwon, cellist, currently maintains an active schedule as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, Korea; Master of Music and Graduate Diploma at New England Conservatory in Boston; Doctor of Musical Arts at Boston University, in the studio of Rhonda Rider. Her other teachers have included Natasha Brofsky, Il-hwan Bai and Sungwon Yang. Kwon has performed in master classes for renowned cellists such as Natalia Gutman and Anner Bylsma. She has performed as guest alumna along with the celebrated Muir Quartet and violist Michelle LaCourse, with the Convergence Ensemble, ArtiQue in Boston Ensemble, Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and many more Boston area ensembles.
Kwon taught at Boston University as a lecturer, Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI) as a Co-director of Cello Workshop and cello coach at BUTI’s Young Artist Orchestra Program, as well as Walnut Hill School for the Arts as a chamber instructor. Currently, she serves as a cello faculty at Colby College, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Project STEP. She is a member of the Meadowlark Trio, Echobridge Cellos, and Korean Cultural Society of Boston.
Boston-based pianist April Sun enjoys a multi-faceted musical life as a performer, educator, and arts organizer who values curiosity, sincerity, and fun in her work/play. An avid chamber musician who relishes playing both modern and historical pianos, she co-founded the Meadowlark Trio and has performed with a diverse array of small ensembles, including Phoenix, Arpeggione Ensemble, and Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra. Committed to helping communities forge meaningful relationships with music, April serves as Co-Executive Director of Music for Food--an organization that brings audiences and artists together in the effort to feed the hungry--volunteers with Asian Musical Voices of America, and spent two years as an Artist in Residence as part of Judson Park's Intergenerational Living Initiative. She also teaches piano and chamber music at Brookline Music School and works as an accompanist at both New England Conservatory and Boston University. April holds a D.M.A. in collaborative piano, an M.M. in piano performance, a certificate in pedagogy, and the Bennett Levine Chamber Music Award, from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Concurrent with her time at CIM, she studied fortepiano in Case Western Reserve University's Historical Performance Practice Program. She has spent summers at Centre D'Arts Orford, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Avaloch Farm Music Residency, and Caroga Lake Music Festival. Her many incredible mentors have included Daniel Shapiro, Anita Pontremoli, Paul Barnes, Kim Kashkashian, Peter Salaff, Hyeyung Yoon, Francesca Brittan, and Susan McClary.
April was born and raised in Bozeman, MT and kept moving east before settling in MA, where she is surrounded by people and other animals she adores. Away from the piano, she fills time with stories, bikes, strong beverages, and hikes.