Violinist Benjamin Hoffman has been heard across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania, collaborating with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Ani Kavafian, Soovin Kim, Yura Lee, Wolfram Christ, Jorja Fleezanis, and Gary Hoffman. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Wiener Konzertverein, the National Centre for the Performing Arts Beijing, and the Seoul Arts Center, and has performed at many summer festivals including Yellow Barn, Chamber Music Northwest, Aspen, the Ojai Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West. Benjamin is an enthusiastic concertmaster and has led much of the symphonic repertoire both with and without conductor. As an orchestral musician, he has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the London Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, and the San Diego Symphony. Benjamin holds a doctorate from the Yale School of Music and was recently appointed to the faculty of Bowling Green State University.

Violinist Chiai Tajima enjoys a versatile career as a performer, mentor, and collaborator. She has performed in venues across the world such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Suntory Hall, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Musik-und Kongresshalle Lübeck and most recently held a residency at the Arnold Schoenberg Center in Vienna as a member of the Webern Quartet. She has held concertmaster and principal positions at numerous festivals including the Pacific Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. As an orchestral musician, she has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony and Pacific Symphony. Chiai holds degrees from The Juilliard School and USC Thornton School of Music.

Hailed as “superb” by the San Francisco Classical Voice, Alex Granger has premiered numerous works as a soloist, concertmaster, and chamber musician, working directly with some of the world’s foremost musicians and composers. Alex’s chamber music performances have been featured on National Public Radio and in the New Yorker, and he has recorded on major labels such as Warner Classics and the Belgian label Etcetera. Alex regularly performs on different concert series around Los Angeles including The Music Guild, Le Salon de Musiques, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Noon to Midnight, and with Street Symphony, to name a few. Alex also performs as a guest with the Pacific Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and as a member of the Long Beach Symphony. Alex holds degrees from Biola University and USC’s Thornton School of Music and is on faculty at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.

South Korean cellist Stella Cho made her London solo debut at the Royal Albert Hall at fifteen years old. Since then, she has performed both as soloist and chamber musician throughout the USA, UK, South Korea, and Europe in prestigious venues such as Royal Concertgebouw, Slovak Philharmonic Hall and Jordan Hall to name a few. Stella has participated in numerous renowned music festivals around the world including Yellow Barn, Ravinia Steans Institute, Aspen Music Festival, Casals Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Banff Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program, IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music and Piatigorsky International Cello Festival. She has also collaborated with eminent musicians such as Ralph Kirshbaum, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson, Joseph Kalichstein, Joseph Silverstein, and Borromeo Quartet.

Stella currently divides her time between teaching and performing. She holds positions as cello faculty at Loyola Marymount University and Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, and she is also the director of Junior Chamber Music’s Los Angeles branch. As an active performer, she regularly performs in the SAKURA Cello Quintet, Webern Quartet,  and the self-conducted chamber ensemble Delirium Musicum, with whom she recently recorded their debut album with Warner Classics.

American soprano Diana Newman brings “fresh and intense” performances to opera houses and concert stages across the United States and Europe. Newman begins the 2019-20 season in her debut with the Dallas Opera as First Lady in The Magic Flute conducted by Music Director Emmanuel Villaume, and joins the Metropolitan Opera Roster for the first time in December covering the role of Papagena in the same title. A recent graduate of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, she returns this season for the company’s Ring Cycle reprising her roles as Woglinde in Götterdämmerung and Woodbird in Siegfried, conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. In August Diana was seen as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl for America in Space in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

During her tenure at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Diana performed the roles of Frasquita in Carmen, Pedro in Don Quichotte, Clorinda in La Cenerentola, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, and as the Page in Verdi’s Rigoletto, a role she debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Hollywood Bowl. Additional recent performances include her house and role debuts at Palm Beach Opera as Adele in Die Fledermaus, as well as concert performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra for Carmina Burana and the Alabama Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.She made her house and role debuts covering the role of Sophie at the Glyndebourne Festival in the summer of 2018.

On the concert stage, Diana has recently appeared as a soloist in Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks at the Lucerne Festival, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Eastern Sierra Symphony Summer Festival, and Vivaldi’s Gloria in Havana, Cuba. Additional concerts include Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate with the USC Alumni Orchestra, Bach’s “Coffee” Cantata with the Whittier Bach Festival, and Mahler’sSymphony no. 4 in her debut with the American Youth Symphony. Her debut with the Grant Park Music Festival came in 2016, appearing as Curly’s Wife in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men.

Committed to the performance of art song and new works, Diana has attended numerous programs including the Ravinia Festival Steans Music Institute, SongFest, and the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar run by Stephanie Blythe. In 2014 she performed at Carnegie Hall in a master class led by legendary mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig as part of the Marilyn Horne Song Continues series. She performed George Crumb’s Madrigals Book IV at Music Academy of the West, Frank Ticheli’s Songs of Love and Life and Angels in the Architecture with the UT New Music Ensemble, and Lukas Foss’s Time Cycle with faculty members of the Aspen Music Festival, where she also covered the role of Daisy Buchanan in John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. She has given multiple premieres of works by living composers, including Francesco Cilluffo, Dr. Alan L. Smith, and David Newman.