Shifrin is one of only two wind instrument players to have been awarded the Avery Fisher Prize since the award’s inception in 1974. He collaborates often as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Shifrin has appeared with numerous symphonies, performing extensively across the nation. He continues to broaden the repertoire for clarinet and orchestra by commissioning and championing the works of 20th and 21st century American composers.

Shifrin served as artistic director of the Chamber music Society of Yale and later, Yale’s annual concert series at Carnegie Hall, as well as artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

The Miró Quartet, one of America’s highest-profile chamber groups, was hailed by the New York Times as possessing “explosive vigor and technical finesse.” In its second decade, the quartet continues to captivate audiences and critics around the world with its startling intensity, fresh perspective, and mature approach.

They maintain an active international touring schedule, while also teaching chamber music as the faculty string quartet-in-residence at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.

On Jan. 22, Classical Mystery Tour will perform with the Lee University Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Robert Bernhardt at 7:30 p.m. in the Dixon Center.
The four musicians of Classical Mystery Tour look and sound like The Beatles. The full show presents 30 Beatles songs performed exactly as they were written. Audiences have heard "Penny Lane" with a live trumpet section, the rock/classical blend on the hard-edged "I Am the Walrus" and experienced the beauty of "Yesterday" with an acoustic guitar and string quartet.

Pianist Ning An, is a rare pianist who has been hailed as a musician who “combines a flawless technique and mastery of the instrument with an expressive power that is fueled by profound and insightful understanding.” (New York Concert Review) His top prizes from the Queen Elizabeth, Cleveland, and William Kapell Piano Competitions led to performances from Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Salle Verdi (Milan), to the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. He has been invited to perform at numerous festivals, including the International Chopin Festival in Duszinski, Poland, the Gina Bachauer Piano Festival in Salt Lake City, New Hampshire's Monadnock Music Festival, the Bourglinster Festival in Luxembourg, and the Interlaken Music Festival in Switzerland. A passionate chamber musician as well as soloist, Mr. An has performed with groups such as the Ysaye, Daedalus, and Takacs Quartets as well as instrumentalists James Buswell, Paul Neubauer, Andres Diaz and Soovin Kim.

Since making his orchestral debut at the age of 16 with the Cleveland Orchestra, Mr. An has been a featured soloist with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, the Stuttgart Philarmonic, Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, the Belgian National Symphony, the Flemish Radio Symphony, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra and the Taipei Symphony Orchestra under the batons of conductors such as Vladimir Fedosseyev, Jorg-Peter Weigle, Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, etc. Mr. An was also a featured soloist during the 100th Anniversary American Tour made by the Warsaw Philharmonic and Maestro Kazmierz Kord.

Ning An has also been a top prize winner of the Paloma O’Shea Santander Competition, the Tivoli International Piano Competition, the Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition and the Alfred Cortot Prize winner of the International Chopin Piano Comeptition.

Mr. An began his musical studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Olga Radosavljevich and Sergei Babayan. Subsquently, Mr. An continued his studies under the tutelage of Russell Sherman at the New England Conservatory of Music.
A frequent guest lecturer himself, Mr. An has given masterclasses throughout the United States and Asia. Currently, he is an Assistant Professor of Piano at Lee University, Tennessee. He is a Steinway Artist.
http://www.ninganpiano.com/bio.html  

Chien, an internationally acclaimed pianist and associate professor of music at Lee, has been picked by the Boston Globe as one of the Superior Pianists of the year, “… who appears to excel in everything.” She is a prize winner of the World Piano Competition, Harvard Musical Association Award, as well as the San Antonio International Piano Competition, where she also received the prize for the Best Performance of the Commissioned Work.

An avid chamber musician, Chien was chosen to join the roster of the Chamber Music Society Two of Lincoln Center from 2012. She has been the resident pianist with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston since 2000, a group known for its versatility and commitment to new music. Boston Herald praises her for “[playing] phenomenally.” In 2009, Chien was the founder and artistic director behind String Theory.
An, assistant professor of music at Lee, made his concerto debut at the age of sixteen performing the Rachmaninov Second Piano Concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra in 1993. He has since appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, Warsaw Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, among others.