A violist of international reputation, Roberto Díaz is president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music, following in the footsteps of renowned soloist/directors such as Josef Hofmann, Efrem Zimbalist, and Rudolf Serkin.

As a soloist, Mr. Díaz collaborates with leading conductors of our time on stages throughout the world. He has also worked directly with important 20th- and 21st-century composers, including the late Krzysztof Penderecki—whose viola concerto he has performed numerous times with the composer on the podium and whose double concerto he premiered in the United States—as well as Edison Denisov, Jennifer Higdon, Ricardo Lorenz, and Roberto Sierra. His recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Viola Concerto won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 2018.

A frequent recitalist, Mr. Díaz enjoys collaborating with young musicians, bringing a fresh approach to the repertoire and providing invaluable opportunities to artists at the beginning of their careers. In addition to performing with major string quartets and pianists in chamber music series and festivals worldwide, he is a member of the Díaz Trio. His recordings include a Grammy-nominated disc of viola transcriptions by William Primrose for Naxos, as well as releases on the Artek, Bridge Records, Dorian, Nimbus, and New World labels.

In addition to his decade-long tenure as principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Mr. Díaz was also principal viola of the National Symphony under Mstislav Rostropovich, and was a member of the Boston Symphony and the Minnesota Orchestra. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music, where he continues to serve on the faculty, holding the James and Betty Matarese Chair in Viola Studies and the Nina von Maltzahn President’s Chair. Mr. Díaz plays the ex-Primrose Amati viola.

Winner of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Avery Fisher Prize, David Shifrin is in constant demand as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator.

Mr. Shifrin has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia and Minnesota orchestras and the Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Milwaukee, Detroit, Fort Worth, Hawaii and Phoenix symphonies, among many others in the United States; as well as with orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan. He has also received critical acclaim as a recitalist, appearing at such venues as Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, and the 92nd Street Y in New York City; and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

An accomplished chamber musician, he has collaborated with the Guarneri, Tokyo, Emerson, Orion, Dover and Miró String Quartets; as well as Wynton Marsalis, André Watts, Emanuel Ax, and André Previn. An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1989, Mr. Shifrin served as its artistic director from 1992 to 2004. He also served as artistic director of Chamber Music Northwest from 1981 through 2020, and is currently artistic director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Festival.

Mr. Shifrin was the recipient of a Solo Recitalists’ Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and the 2016 Concert Artists Guild Virtuoso Award. He was given an honorary membership by the International Clarinet Association in 2014 in recognition of lifetime achievement, and, at the outset of his career, he won the top prizes at both the Munich and the Geneva International Competitions. In recent years he received the Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Interlochen Center for the Arts and the Music Academy of the West, and a Cultural Leadership Citation from Yale University. He was recognized with the Richard J. Bogomolny National Service Award at the 2018 Chamber Music America Conference and in 2019 was awarded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music.

Mr. Shifrin performs on a Backun “Lumière” cocobolo wood clarinet made by Morrie Backun and Légère premium synthetic reeds. He is represented by CM Artists New York.

Takumi Taguchi is a recent graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Midori, and Aaron Rosand. His prior teachers include Simon James, Hiro David, and Mihoko Hirata. In recent summers, he has attended the Heifetz Institute in Staunton, VA, and Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, CA.

Mr. Taguchi served as co-concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in the 2021-22 season and appeared with the Princeton Symphony and Symphony in C (NJ). He has also performed as soloist with numerous orchestras in his hometown of Seattle including the Seattle Symphony. A passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated with members of the Dover and Calidore Quartets in performance and received extensive coaching from members of the Guarneri, Vermeer, Tokyo, Takacs, Orion, and Borromeo Quartets. Mr. Taguchi will join the violin section of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in the 2022-23 season.

Described as “just superb” by the New York Times, violinist Eunice Kim has made solo appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Symphony, and Saint Paul Chamber, Orchestra, amongst many others on prominent stages worldwide. Ms. Kim made her solo debut at the age of seven with the Korean Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, Korea. An avid chamber musician, Ms. Kim has attended festivals such as Marlboro Music School and Ravinia’s Steans Institute as well as teaching at international festivals including Valdres Academy in Norway and Teatro del Lago in Chile, and she is currently the violinist of the Steans Piano Trio.

Ms. Kim has an ongoing performance collaboration with award-winning double bassist/composer Xavier Foley. As a duo, they’ve performed as soloists with the Stamford Symphony, Pro Musica Columbus, New West Symphony, as well as being featured at the National Gallery of Art Concert Series, Violin Channel’s Vanguard Series at Merkin Hall, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and performing across South Korea. A strong advocate for the next generation of artists, Ms. Kim has partnered with Astral Artists and Philadelphia Orchestra’s Department of Education to perform in outreach series and has served as a teaching artist for Astral’s William Penn Residency at schools in the Philadelphia area.

Ms. Kim graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she led the Curtis Symphony Orchestra as concertmaster and was awarded with the prestigious Milka Violin Artist Prize upon graduation.

Yizilin Liang, from Ningbo, China, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2020 and studies viola with Roberto Díaz and Ed Gazouleas. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and

Ms. Liang is the Bernard M. Guth Fellow.

Ms. Liang won first prize and special prize at the 2016 lnternational Viola Competition “Villa de Llanes” (Category B), subsequently performing three recitals in Spain. Other recent competition awards include the Paul Ayres prize at the 2017 Cecil Aronowitz International Viola Competition; honorary mention at the 2019 Oskar Nedbal International Viola Competition; first prize at the 2014 Hong Kong lnternational String Competition and at Shanghai Conservatory’s 2012 “Viva La Viola” festival; and gold prize in the Guangdong Province Ma Sicong Junior Violin Competition in 2012.

Ms. Liang attended the Morningside Music Bridge from 2016 through 2019. In 2019 she appeared on National Public Radio’s From the Top. She gave a solo recital tour throughout China’s major cities in 2021.

Before coming to Curtis, Ms. Liang studied at the music middle school affiliated with Shanghai Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Nian Liu and Xidi Shen. She began playing violin at age 4 and viola at age 9.

Cellist John Lee, from Seoul, Korea, graduated from Curtis in May 2022, where he studied with Gary Hoffman and Peter Wiley. Mr. Lee was the David H. Springman Memorial Fellow at Curtis.

Mr. Lee has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Paul Hall, the New World Center, and Paine Hall. He has appeared on NPR’s From the Top and at the Young Musician’s Forum in Schenectady, New York; and he was named a 2012 YoungArts Finalist and a 2018 Karl Zeise Memorial Scholarship recipient. He has participated in the Tanglewood Music Festival, Academie Internationale de Courchevel, Orford Music Festival, Great Mountains Music Festival, and the International Holland Music
Sessions, performing in master classes with Myung Wha Chung, David Geringas, Gary Hoffman, Jian Wang, and Sung Won Yang. In addition to performing, Mr. Lee enjoys transcribing music for chamber settings.

Mr. Lee began playing the cello at age eight. He earned a bachelor’s degree in the History of Science and Statistics at Harvard University and a Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory, as part of the five-year dual-degree program. His other teachers have included Carter Brey, Minhye Clara Kim, Laurence Lesser, and Ella Toovy. This coming fall, he will be joining the cello section of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.