Invited Musicians / Guest

Yosuke Kawasaki currently serves as Concertmaster of Canada’s NAC Orchestra and Guest
Concertmaster of NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo. His versatile musicianship allows him to pursue a
career in orchestra, solo and chamber music. His orchestral career began with the Montgomery Symphony
Orchestra and soon led to Mito Chamber Orchestra, Saito Kinen Orchestra and Japan Century Orchestra
all of which he led as Concertmaster. His solo and chamber music career spans five continents,
collaborating with artists such as Seiji Ozawa, Pinchas Zukerman and Yo-Yo Ma and appearing in the
world's most prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Suntory Hall and The Royal Concertgebouw.
Kawasaki's current regular ensembles are Trio Ink and Quartet AT Mito. His passion for chamber music
led to his appointment as Music Director to the Affinis Music Festival in Japan. He is also an artistic
advisor to the chamber music festival Off The Beaten Path in Bulgaria.
As an educator Kawasaki has given masterclasses and performed side by side with students in schools
across Canada. Well versed in the string quartet literature he was entrusted by Seiji Ozawa as the
youngest faculty member of the Ozawa International Chamber Music Academy at the age of 26. He was
also an adjunct professor of violin at the University of Ottawa School of Music from 2013-2022 alongside
the beloved pedagogue, Yehonatan Berick.
Mr. Kawasaki began his violin studies at the age of six with his father Masao Kawasaki and Setsu Goto.
He was subsequently accepted into The Juilliard School Pre-College Division and further continued his
education and graduated from The Juilliard School in 1998 under the tutorship of Dorothy DeLay, Hyo
Kang, Felix Galimir and Joel Smirnoff.

Henrik Hochschild was born in Leipzig and has been an associate concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra since 1990.
He began to learn the violin at the age of 8 years at the Leipzig Music School with Gabriele Schwarz, and then at the “Hochschule für Musik Mendelssohn Bartholdy” with Professor Klaus Hertel. His studies also included chamber music (Prof. Gerhard Bosse), composition (Günter Neubert) and conducting (Prof. Volker Rohde).
In 1993 Henrik Hochschild co-founded the Gewandhaus octet with whom he performed regularly throughout Germany as well as abroad until 2003.
Since 2000 Henrik Hochschild has been the violin and orchestral coach at the International Youth Academy in Pleystein, Oberfalz, working with the young people in all areas of orchestral playing. His main area of teaching since 2002 is at the “Hochschule für Musik” in Leipzig where in 2010 he was appointed Professor for Violin.
He also works on a regular basis with other youth orchestras, such as Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, “Junge Deutsche Philharmonie”, Leipzig Hochschule Orchestra and the Leipzig University Orchestra with whom he shares his knowledge and experience of performance and sound traditional to Saxony.
Henrik Hochschild has been a regular guest for many years at the “Affinis Music Festival” in Japan, where he presents workshops and offers masterclasses in all areas of violin playing, chamber music and orchestral playing. In addition to this he was “Special Principal Concertmaster” to the “Pacific Philharmonia Tokyo” in the years 2023 and 2024.
Finally, he enjoys close ties with the “Amadeus Music School” in Jakarta/Indonesia where he is an Artistic Advisor to the “Amadeus Symphony Orchestra” since 2019.

Violinist/violist Yura Lee is one of the most versatile and compelling artists of today. She is one of the very few in the world that has mastery of both violin and viola, and she actively performs both instruments equally. Her career spans through various musical mediums: both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, captivating audiences with music from baroque to modern, and enjoying a career that spans more than three decades that takes her all over the world.
Yura Lee was the only first prize winner awarded across four categories at the 2013 ARD Competition in Germany. She has won top prizes for both violin and viola in numerous other competitions, including first prize and audience prize at the 2006 Leopold Mozart Competition (Germany), first prize at the 2010 UNISA International Competition (South Africa), first prize at the 2013 Yuri Bashmet International Competition (Russia), and top prizes in Indianapolis (USA), Hannover (Germany), Kreisler (Austria), and Paganini (Italy) Competitions.
At age 12, Yura Lee became the youngest artist ever to receive the Debut Artist of the Year prize at the "Performance Today" awards given by National Public Radio. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant given by Lincoln Center in New York City. Yura Lee’s CD with Reinhard Goebel and the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, titled ‘Mozart in Paris’ (Oehms Classics) received the prestigious Diapason d’Or Award in France.
Yura Lee was nominated and represented by Carnegie Hall for its ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) series. For this series, she gave recitals at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and at nine celebrated concert halls in Europe: Wigmore Hall in London, Symphony Hall in Birmingham, Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Stockholm Konserthus, Athens Concert Hall, and Cologne Philharmonie.
As a soloist, Yura Lee has appeared with many major orchestras, including New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, to name a few. She has performed with conductors Christophe Eschenbach, Lorin Maazel, Leonard Slatkin, Myung-Whun Chung, Mikhail Pletnev, among many others.
As a chamber musician, Yura Lee regularly takes part in the Marlboro Festival, Salzburg Festival, Verbier Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Festival, Caramoor Festival, Ravinia Festival, Kronberg Festival, Aspen Music Festival, among many others. She has collaborated with many artists including Gidon Kremer, Andras Schiff, Leonidas Kavakos, Mitsuko Uchida, Miklós Perényi, Yuri Bashmet, Menahem Pressler, and Frans Helmerson. Yura Lee is currently a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City, as both violinist and violist. She is also a member of the Boston Chamber Music Society.
Yura Lee studied at the Juilliard School (New York City), New England Conservatory (Boston), Salzburg Mozarteum (Austria), and Kronberg Academy (Germany). Her main teachers were Namyun Kim, Dorothy DeLay, Hyo Kang, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Thomas Riebl, Ana Chumachenko, and Nobuko Imai.
Yura Lee plays a fine Giovanni Grancino violin kindly loaned to her through the Beares International Violin Society by generous sponsors. For viola, she plays an instrument made in 2002 by Douglas Cox, who resides in Vermont. She holds the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld Endowed Chair at the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music.

Claes has appeared as a soloist as well as chambermusician all over the world. Soloperfomances include concertos with orchestras such as the Swedish Radio, Helsingborg, Norrköping, Malmö, Umeå and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestras as well as Royal Northern Chamber Orchestra, Musica Vitae, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Dalasinfoniettan, Värmlands Sinfonietta and S:t Petersburgh Festival Orchestra. Working with conductors as Neeme Järvi, Alexander Lazarev, Gustavo Dudamel, Nikolaj Znaider, Santtu Matias Rouvali among others.
Claes has been invited to major festivals such as La Folle Journée in Nantes, Music@Menlo in San Fransisco, Yuri Temirkanovs Winter Festival in S:t Petersburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Music Festival, Qingdao International Cellofestival and has performed in venues including Queen Elisabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, S:t Petersburg Filharmonie, Shanghai Symphony Hall and Seoul Arts Center.
In 2002, he was a founder of the pianotrio Trio Poseidon together with Sara Trobäck and Per Lundberg. Today, they are one of the most sought after chambermusic ensemble in their native Sweden.
As a chambermusician, Claes collaborate with artists including violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Nicolaj Znaider, pianists Enrico Pace, Christian Zacharias, Helene Grimaud, sopranos Barbara Hannigan and Barbara Hendricks.
Claes is currently represented by Chandos Records, BIS Records and Daphne Records. His recordings of the Weinberg Cello Phantasy and Concerto with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra as well as Brahms Double Concerto and Beethoven Triple Concerto together with Neeme Järvi has been highly recommended by the major music magazines around the world.
Since 1999, Claes is the Principal Cellist of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He’s also been guest leading orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra among others.
As a teacher, Claes has been giving masterclasses in Singapore, China, Korea, Venezuela and is currently professor in the University of Gothenburg.
Claes is playing on a cello made by D. Tecchler 1707 which is a generous loan from the Järnåkerfoundation in Stockholm.

Inn-Hyuck Cho is a South Korean clarinetist recognized as one of the leading clarinetists of his generation. He previously served as principal clarinet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra before pursuing new opportunities.
Prior to his tenure at the Met, Mr. Cho held principal clarinet positions with the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland, one of Europe’s oldest orchestras. He has also appeared as a guest musician with many world-renowned ensembles, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Zurich Philharmonia, Radio France Philharmonic, the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
As a soloist, Mr. Cho is a laureate of both the Carl Nielsen International Music Competition and the Debussy International Clarinet Competition. He has performed with orchestras such as the Odense Symphony Orchestra, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Montclair Orchestra, New York Classical Players, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Korean National Symphony Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and the PyeongChang Festival Orchestra.
In addition to his solo and orchestral career, Mr. Cho is a member of the Alma Woodwind Quintet, which won the top prize at the Henri Tomasi International Woodwind Quintet Competition in Marseille, France.
Mr. Cho studied at the Korean National University of Arts and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris under Michel Arrignon and Pascal Moragués. He currently serves as an associate professor at Hanyang University in Korea.

Malte Refardt studied with Dag Jensen and Georg Klütsch and was principal bassoonist of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra while still a student. After engagements in Munich, including as principal bassoonist at the Bavarian State Opera under Zubin Mehta, he was principal bassoonist of the NDR Radiophilharmonie from 2002 to 2018, before becoming professor at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.
In addition to playing with all the major German orchestras and the Ensemble Modern, which specializes in contemporary music, he has been invited by Seiji Ozawa to be principal bassoonist of the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Mito Chamber Orchestra since 2003, and is a guest of such renowned soloist ensembles as the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and the Deutsche Kammer philharmonie Bremen.
In addition to his solo performances, he is particularly interested in chamber music and has performed with such distinguished artists as Ana Chumachenco, Wen-Sinn Yang, Rudens Turku, Jacques Zoon, Ensemble Oktoplus and Trio Roseau. Numerous radio and CD recordings testify to his versatility. In 2025 his latest CD “Contemporary Bassoons” was released with premiere recordings of new compositions for two bassoons.
He has been appointed several times to the juries of the German Music Competition, the Muri Competition (Switzerland) and the prestigious Kyoto Prize in Japan. Since 2009 he is the artistic director of the „Domleschger Sommerkonzerte" in Switzerland.
HP: www.malterefardt.de / www.thebassoonchannel.com

Julia Pilant is currently the acting 3rd horn for the Utah Symphony/Utah Opera, and a regular guest with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra horn section and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Previously, she was the assistant principal horn for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra for 14 years and a horn instructor for the Bard College Conservatory of Music for 16 years. Prior to holding those positions, she was the principal horn of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra for 10 years. Ms. Pilant also freelanced for several decades in New York City and performed regularly with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York City Ballet, and numerous Broadway shows. She has played principal horn for the Saito Kinen/Ozawa and Tokyo Opera Nomori music festivals, the Mito Chamber Orchestra in Japan, and has participated in the Santa Fe Chamber, Affinis (Nagaoka, Japan), Sarasota, Festival Napa Valley, Classical Tahoe, Strings, Mainly Mozart, and La Jolla Music Society Summerfest music festivals. Ms. Pilant received her Bachelor’s degree from Eastman School of Music (student of Verne Reynolds), and her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from The Juilliard School (student of Julie Landsman).