Trio Nomad: NEC Honors Ensemble

Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians and faculty selects a few exceptional student ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. The ensembles work with a faculty coach and are given an opportunity to perform a spring recital in NEC's Jordan Hall.

The members of tonight's Honors Ensemble are Felicitas Schiffner (violin), Jihyeuk Choi (cello), and Shalun Li (piano).  Their coach this Spring semester is violist Kim Kashkashian. The trio worked with cellist Merry Peckham during the Fall 2023 semester.

Trio Nomad liberates the spirits of composers stuck in sheet music with their distinct interpretations and quasi-impromptu spontaneousness. Founded in 2023, Trio Nomad is actively building their reputation by leaving nomadic footsteps across the country. “Absolutely beautiful and compelling in every aspect. Wonderfully conceived, and the trio plays as if they have been together for ages.” -Seth Knopp, Artistic Director of Yellow Barn Festival. The members of the trio are current graduate students at the New England Conservatory, where enthusiasm toward the chamber music of each member was compelled. Sharing different backgrounds from China, Germany, and Korea/USA, Trio Nomad presents sincere music with interpretational diversity, musical vibrance, and kaleidoscopic timbre. 

Shalun Li has been given the honor of receiving top prizes in the 16th US Open Music Competition, the Japan National Piano Competition, the 21st Chopin International Piano Competition ASIA, the 4th Asia Toyama Piano Competition, and the 4th Wiesbaden Piano Competition. Li has collaborated with world’s leading musicians as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Aspen Music Festival. With his profound love toward music with multi disciplines, Li creates emotionally-driven storytelling through music, underpins an illustrious career- hosting the 2018 ‘Multi-Art Exhibition Series’ which introduced his passion for music, painting and poetry, essentially creating a unique, cross disciplinary art experience. The exhibition series is being critically praised for its innovation as a new medium of artistic expression.Born in 1997, Wuhan, China, Li was conferred the Bachelor of Music and the Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of pianist Meng-Chieh Liu, and is currently pursuing the Graduate Diploma under the tutelage of pianist Vivian Weilerstein and Cameron Stowe.

Felicitas Schiffner won top prizes in the Washington International Competition, the Schoenfeld International Competition, the Rubinstein Competition for Strings, and the Isaac Stern Violin Competition. Having the honor of receiving the EMF Career Prize, Schiffner is a sponsored young artist of the Thomastik Infeld Vienna. From her debut with the HR Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, the Göttingen Symphony Orchestra, and the Harbin Symphony Orchestra, Schiffner actively appears as a soloist and a chamber musician with experiences from Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Kronberg Academy Festival, Schiffner is anticipated to join the Marlboro Festival in 2024-2025 season. Born in 1997, Lübeck, Germany, Schiffner studied with Erik Schumann in Frankfurt, and is currently pursuing the Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory in Boston under the tutelage of violinist Donald Weilerstein. 

Jihyeuk Choi is rapidly building his reputation as a soloist and a chamber musician, with the honors of winning the 6th New York International Competition, the 4th Hong Kong International Competition, and the 2019 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Young Musicians Ensemble. From his debut with the Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Choi has appeared in venues including Weill Hall/Zankel Hall at the Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Hylton Performing Arts Center, Hong Kong City Hall, and the IBK Chamber Hall at the Seoul Arts Center. Born in 2000, South Korea, raised in New York City, Choi had been sponsored by the Kaufman Music Center where Choi studied with teachers from the Juilliard School Pre-college, and the Mannes School of Music. Choi was conferred the Bachelor of Music degree at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University under the tutelage of cellist Amit Peled, and is currently pursuing the Master of Music degree at the New England Conservatory, as a recipient of the Donald and Alice Noble Scholarship, under the tutelage of cellist Lluís Claret.

This is an in-person event with a public live stream: https://necmusic.edu/live