The UNLV School of Music is proud to host the inaugural Las Vegas Chamber Music Institute (LVCMI) Dec. 15-21. LVCMI was created to explore artistic dialogues through a nurturing and immersive environment where both faculty and guest artists work intimately with the selected duos and string ensembles. 

The Institute concludes with a chamber competition with a prize of a recording contract with a prestigious record label, as well as concert opportunities in Las Vegas and Europe, and opportunities to perform and compete in the Shanghai Conservatory International Chamber Music Festival for outstanding chamber groups under the age of 18. Questions may be directed here.

Schedule

Sunday, Dec. 15
Arrival and orientation, faculty and participants meet-and-greet, campus tour.

Monday, Dec. 16

Coaching, rehearsals, technique workshop, opening concert in the evening.

Tuesday, Dec. 17

Coaching, rehearsals, guest artist masterclass, faculty showcase concert.

Wednesday, Dec. 18

Coaching, half-day trip to Red Rock.

Thursday, Dec. 19

Coaching, rehearsals, guest artist masterclass, participant concert.

Friday, Dec. 20

Coaching, rehearsals, guest artist masterclass, participant concert.

Saturday, Dec. 21

Chamber competition, guest artist masterclass, group photos, winners' concert and closing ceremony.

Sunday, Dec. 22

Departure

Directors and Founders

Wei-Wei Le

Wei-Wei Le, a native of Shanghai, began her violin studies at the age of 6 and quickly garnered international recognition. Legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin once praised her as “one of the most talented young musicians I have ever seen.” Over her illustrious career, Le has won numerous prestigious violin competitions, including the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition (England), the Kloster Schoental International Violin Competition (Germany), and the Starling International Violin Competition (USA). She was also honored with the “Distinguished Artist Award” by the Department of Culture in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Le studied under world-renowned violin pedagogues, including Yehudi Menuhin, Donald Weilerstein, Almita & Roland Vamos, Dorothy DeLay, Kurt Sassmanshaus, and Wenzhou Li. She earned her degrees at the Yehudi Menuhin School, New England Conservatory, Cleveland Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory, and Cincinnati University Conservatory of Music.

Yin Zheng

Concert pianist Yin Zheng, former piano professor and director of the keyboard studies at the Virginia Commonwealth University, enjoys a vibrant career of performing and teaching across Europe, the United Sates, and Asia. She has been featured on leading music stages such as Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York City and, in worldwide reputable music festivals in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Spain, Portugal, China and Canada. She has worked with eminent pianists such as Paul-Badura Skoda, Alicia de Larrocha, and Aldo Ciccolini, and she is highly appraised by the legendary British-Chinese pianist Fou Tsong as a unique interpreter of the music of Mozart.

Natively from Shanghai, China, she earned degrees from both Royal Conservatory of Brussels and the Eastman School of Music in the U.S. She is first-prize winners in national and international competitions held in New York; she was invited as the first pianist from the North America to perform at the Kirovohrad Spring Music Festival in Ukraine. Zheng regularly appears as guest performer and teacher throughout both U.S. and international higher institutions including: University of Michigan – Ann Arbor, Shanghai Normal University, Kasetsart and Mahidol University College of Music in Bangkok, University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to name a few.

Distinguished Artists and Faculty

Martha Strongin Katz

Violist Martha Strongin Katz was a founding member of the Cleveland Quartet, performing to worldwide audiences from 1969 to 1980. During those years she performed in the world’s major concert halls as well as at the White House, the Grammy Awards, and NBC’s “Today” show. Ms. Strongin Katz’s solo appearances include a Carnegie Hall performance of Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas as well as countless recital and concerto appearances in major cities. Ms. Katz is currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music and has also taught at Rice University, the Eastman School of Music, and Interlochen Arts Academy.

Almita Vamos

Almita Vamos is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she studied with Mischa Mischakoff and Louis Persinger. Almita Vamos has won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching six times, the ASTA Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award, and has been featured on “Sunday Morning” CBS and in the New York Times best-selling book, Battle Hymn of a Tiger Mom by Amy Chua.

Vamos has served on the violin faculty of the Western Illinois University, University of Minnesota, Oberlin Conservatory, Northwestern University, and currently she is an artist teacher at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts. Additionally, she has been teaching at the Music Institute of Chicago for over 35 years and spends summers teaching at the Chautauqua Music Festival. She has also taught at many other programs including Aspen, Bowdoin, Musicorda, Meadowmount, and was co-founder of the Weathersfield Music Festival.

Angela Cheng

Consistently praised for her brilliant technique, tonal beauty, and superb musicianship, Canadian pianist Angela Cheng is one of her country’s national treasures. In addition to regular guest appearances with virtually every orchestra in Canada, she has performed with the symphonies of Saint Louis, Houston, Indianapolis, Colorado, Utah, San Diego and Jacksonville, as well as the philharmonic orchestras of Buffalo, Louisiana, London, Israel and Minas Gerais in Brazil.

Recent performances include a debut with the Fort Worth Symphony, performing Rachmaninoff’s “Variations on a Theme of Paganini,” under the baton of Robert Spano, and a return to the Vancouver Symphony, performing Ravel’s Concerto in G with Otto Tausk.

Yu-Fang Chen

A native of Taiwan, Yu-Fang Chen is currently serving as Associate Professor of Violin at Ball State University. She received her Doctoral of Musical Arts degrees on both violin and viola performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 2013, under the tutelage of Benny Kim and Scott Lee. As a sought-after performer and pedagogue, Chen has been invited to teach and perform at various music institutions and festivals, including the Sunflower Music Festival and the Heartland Chamber Music Festival in U.S.A, the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy, and Thailand International Composition Festival in Salaya, Thailand.

Chen has won many awards and competitions and her career as a performing artist is extensive. Her international performing career has taken her to more than fifteen countries on five continents, and she continues to perform as a guest musician internationally with various concert artists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras.

Christopher Harding

Pianist Christopher Harding maintains an active international career, generating acclaim and impressing audiences and critics alike with his substantive interpretations and pianistic mastery. He has given frequent solo, concerto, and chamber music performances in venues as far flung as the Kennedy Center and Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the IBK and Recital Halls of the Seoul Art Center, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, the National Theater Concert Hall in Taipei, the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary, and halls and festival appearances in Newfoundland, Israel, Italy, Romania, Russia, and China. His concerto performances have included concerts with the National Symphony and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestras, the San Angelo and Santa Barbara Symphonies, and the Tokyo City Philharmonic, working with such conductors as Andrew Sewell, Eric Zhou, Taijiro Iimori, Gisele Ben-Dor, Fabio Machetti, Randall Craig Fleisher, John DeMain, Ron Spiegelman, Daniel Alcott, and Darryl One, among others.

Mr. Harding’s chamber music and duo collaborations have included internationally renowned artists such as clarinetist Karl Leister, flautist Andras Adorjan, and members of the St. Lawrence and Ying String Quartets, in addition to frequent projects with his distinguished faculty colleagues at the University of Michigan. He has recorded solo and chamber music CDs for the Equilibrium and Brevard Classics labels. He has additionally edited and published critical editions and recordings of works by Claude Debussy (Children's Corner, Suite Bergamasque, the Arabesques and shorter works) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Viennese Sonatinas) for the Schirmer Performance Editions published by Hal Leonard.

Elisa D'Auria

Early talent, curious, and sensitive musician, Elisa D'Auria, after her studies at the Conservatory of Milan, the Fiesole Music School and the Haute École de Musique de Genève, undertook an intense concert activity which enabled her to perform in some of the most prestigious European, Asian and American venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Musikverein in Wien, Palais des Congrès in Montecarlo, Shanghai Oriental Art Center in China, Polish Baltic Philharmonic Hall in Gdansk, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, Teatro Colón in A Coruña, St.Martin-in-the-fields in London, Teatro Grande in Brescia, and Sala Verdi in Milan. A recipient of an impressive number of prizes in national and international competitions, she studied with world-renowned pianists such as Maria Tipo, Maria João Pires, Arie Vardi, Konstantin Bogino, Jerome Lowenthal and Garrick Ohlsson, who deeply influenced her artistic growth.

Young Hyun Cho

Young Hyun Cho's artistry has been showcased on the world stage, from the Great Hall (Golden Hall) of the Vienna Musikverein to the Berlin Philharmonic Concert Hall, Smetana Hall in Prague, Solti Hall of the Liszt Academy in Budapest, and Seoul Arts Center in Korea. As a featured soloist, she has performed with esteemed orchestras such as the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, Euro Sinfonietta Wien, Filarmonica della Calabria of Italy, North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Teplice, Budapest Symphony Chamber Orchestra M.A.V., Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra, Korean Symphony Orchestra, Seoul National Symphony Orchestra, Eastman Symphony Orchestra, and others. Her solo recording, "Last Three Beethoven Piano Sonatas," released under the Sony label in 2021, is a testament to her artistic prowess and has been celebrated by audiences worldwide. 

Henning Vauth

German pianist Henning Vauth serves in the School of Music at Marshall University (USA) as professor of piano, coordinator of keyboard studies, coordinator of graduate studies, and co-director of the Center for Wellness in the Arts. He is a past president of the West Virginia Music Teachers Association and was named WVMTA Distinguished Leader 2023 and Teacher of the Year 2017.

Lin He

Interviewed by the Louisiana Public Broadcasting, violinist Lin He made his Carnegie Hall solo debut in November 2014, after a performance there earlier that year with principal players from the Metropolitan Opera, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra in orchestral setting. Over the past seasons, he performed the Bruch Scottish Fantasy with the Sonoma County Philharmonic, Korngold Concerto and Vivaldi/Piazzola Four Seasons with the Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with the Shippensburg Symphony, and the Sibelius Concerto with the Lake Charles Symphony.

About the UNLV College of Fine Arts

The College of Fine Arts educates, empowers, and engages creative people to become visionary change-makers in the arts through acts of imagination. At UNLV we believe the arts are an essential good for society. We make education relevant and accessible through our programs and outreach. We create new knowledge in the arts. We celebrate independent thought and the power of bringing people together to foster creativity.