Violin
Jecoliah Chien
Jecoliah Chien made her solo debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the age of fifteen performing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. In the following year, Jecoliah led her string quartet to a silver medal at Fischoff’s National Chamber Music Competition.
Other notable accomplishments include performing at the Kennedy Center, the Aspen Music Festival, Caroga Lake Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, the Innsbrook Institute, the Rome Chamber Music Festival, CityMusic Cleveland, the Atlanta Chamber Players, the Georgian Chamber Players, and the Ariel Concert Series. She has collaborated with artists such as Gil and Orli Shaham, Lawrence Dutton, and members of the Atlanta, Minnesota, St. Paul, Boston, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Met Opera orchestras.
Jecoliah was accepted into the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at the age of sixteen and completed her Master’s Degree at the University of Michigan. Currently, she teaches, mentors aspiring violin teachers, is a member of the Greenwich Symphony Orchestra, and performs regularly with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Michael Chien
Michael’s musical career began at age 14, when he was featured in Terry George’s film Reservation Road as the concertmaster of an orchestra. The musical experiences of his youth, studying privately, playing chamber music at Bowdoin International Music Festival, performing with New York Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall inspired him to pursue a career in the arts, which includes performances with the St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Opera, Columbus Symphony, and several other orchestras in the Midwest. He is especially fond of the summers he spent performing as a fellow at Colorado festivals in Aspen and Breckenridge, and more recently as a resident artist of Caroga Lake Music Festival's concert series, which is held around the scenic lakes of upstate New York.
Michael discovered his passion for teaching when he was still just in high school, volunteering as a coach at Greenwich Summer Music Camps. He has been teaching ever since, as a college student, where he became certified to teach beginning Suzuki violin, and as a graduate student in Cleveland, where he maintained a studio of 25-30 students for several years as a faculty member at the Aurora School of Music. Michael looks forward to building his teaching studio in his hometown.
Michael earned his Bachelor’s degree in music and economics from Vanderbilt University, and his masters degree in violin performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music.