Gwendolyn Mok was destined to be a piano prodigy. As is custom in Chinese-American families, her parents gave her a Chinese name before she was born. Her name Ko-Chin translates to “Can Play Piano.” Her parents discovered that she had perfect pitch as a toddler and she began playing the piano at the age of two.

“It is inevitable that the more you learn, the more you pass on.”

“At four, my parents thought maybe it would be good to put me in a school like Juilliard,” she says. “I got to my audition and they thought I was too little and said to come back when I was six.”

Mok is currently professor and coordinator of keyboard studies in the College of Humanities and the Arts, School of Music and Dance—and a leading expert in the music of French composer Maurice Ravel (1875-1937). However, she did return to Juilliard as a youth and studied there on Saturdays for 12 years before going to Yale University and graduate school at SUNY Stony Brook, where she first discovered Ravel’s music. In 1993, Mok received a grant from the French Ministry to study in Paris with Vlado Perlemuter, one of Ravel’s former students.

She returned this fall fresh from a sabbatical that took her to back to Paris—and to Amsterdam, Vienna and London, where she visited historic keyboard collections and performed concerts. She also visited Taiwan, where she taught students from middle school to graduate school.

The director of the music department’s Historic Keyboard Collection, Mok’s latest CD, “LEGACY: The Spirit of Beethoven” was recorded on two historic keyboards from the School of Music and Dance and one from SJSU’s Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies. The CD was produced with support from SJSU and the Stuart Hughes Fund for a series called “The Composer’s Pianos.”

Mok has appeared with the London Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Symphony Silicon Valley, and among many others in many prestigious venues. Here at San Jose State, she says people are driven by their work. “We are all passionate about what we do and that’s what really keeps me going.”

Surrounding herself with inspiration also helps keep her going. On a trip to Amsterdam, Mok happened across a historic piano, an Erard, from the time period of Ravel and was able to play a piece on it. It brought out nuances in the music she had been unable to create on a modern piano. The Erard now resides in a special room next to her office.

Soprano Jennifer Lien, lauded for her “sonorous, clear voice” and her dramatic range, has been seen on opera and concert stages in California, Florida, New York, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Singapore. She is a keen collaborator in chamber music, a proponent of contemporary music, and is known for her innovative recital programming. In February 2020, Ms. Lien appeared as soprano soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra in Joe Hisaishi’s East Land Symphony. During the pandemic season, her performance in Poulenc’s one-woman opera La Voix Humaine, originally performed in 2018 to wide acclaim with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s chamber series, was streamed internationally.

Ms. Lien has appeared in operatic roles with companies including Mission City Opera, West Bay Opera, Oakland Opera Theater, West Marin Music Festival, Berkeley Opera, Solo Opera, and San Francisco Lyric Opera. Oratorio engagements include Haydn’s The Creation and The Seasons; Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio; Handel’s Messiah; Vivaldi’s Gloria; Haydn’s Mass in Time of War; and Mozart’s Requiem. Ms. Lien has premiered numerous works by contemporary composers, and has performed in recital series in New York state, California and New Hampshire, and at the prestigious Esplanade arts center in Singapore.

Ms. Lien made her operatic debut in the role of Papagena (The Magic Flute) with Singapore Lyric Opera, where she also appeared as Princess Stephanie in The Student Prince. She received further operatic training as a resident artist with Central Florida Lyric Opera, a young artist with the Seagle Music Colony, an apprentice artist with Bel Canto at Caramoor, and as a member of the OperaWorks Advanced Accelerated Singer program.

Returning to music after a career as a newspaper journalist, Ms. Lien first began her vocal studies at Dartmouth College, where she was an English major. Under the guidance of soprano Erie Mills, she later received her Master of Arts in Music at San José State University. Ms. Lien holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Voice and an M.A. in Historical Musicology from the University of Wisconsin- Madison. A seasoned vocal educator, Ms. Lien taught voice to majors and non- majors at UW-Madison and at Beloit College before assuming her current role at the College of Saint Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota.

Omri Shimron is Associate Professor of Music at Cal State, East Bay where he is Piano Area Coordinator. He teaches applied piano, group piano, piano ensemble, as well as courses in musicianship. His debut solo album, featuring Frederic Rzewski's iconic 36 Variations on "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!” was released in July 2014 on New Focus Records.

Dr. Shimron is active with local and national music organizations and is currently the Concerto Competition Chair and Board Member At-Large (NorCal) for the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT). Also a member of the Music Teachers Association of California (MTAC), Shimron was one of three adjudicators for the 2020 Panel auditions. He frequently adjudicates and presents for CAPMT, MTAC and has done so previously, with sister organizations, in North Carolina.

A seasoned piano pedagogue, he was on faculty at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival from 2013-2017 where he taught an international group of students from elite music schools worldwide. Prior to CSUEB, he taught at Elon University (NC), Hillsdale College (MI), and Eastern Mediterranean University (Cyprus). In his piano teaching, Shimron embraces a holistic approach to music that integrates expression and physical awareness with an historically informed approach to style and sound.

Dr. Shimron holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Performance and Literature (Piano), a Master of Music (Piano) and a Master of Arts in Music Theory Pedagogy from the Eastman School of Music. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Music (Phi Beta Kappa, magna cum laude) from the University of Rochester. In addition to his academic credentials he also trained at the Chautauqua Institution, the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, the Banff Center for the Arts, and the Jerusalem Music Center.

Born in the United States but raised in Israel, he appeared at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and the Tel Aviv Museum. In the US, he won prizes from the Hoffman Competition and the Chautauqua Institution. Collaborative and solo concerts also included appearances at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage, and live radio broadcasts for WBFO, WXXI, and WUSF stations. Dr. Shimron is frequent guest artist and clinician at universities across the U.S. and abroad.

Outside the U.S., Shimron has participated in the Felicia Blumental Festival (Tel Aviv) and has presented recitals at Wolfson College (Oxford, UK) and the Bursa State Conservatory (Turkey). In 2008, he performed ‘anisotropie’, a work for prepared piano by Michael Quell, at SoundsCAPE—a contemporary music festival in Italy.

As a musician in academe, Dr. Shimron presented multiple lectures and lecture-recital for the College Music Society (CMS), where he also briefly served as President-Elect of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter. His work as a performer-scholar focused on traditional and contemporary piano music by Liszt, Stravinsky, Larsen, Chen Yi, Crumb, Dietz, and Rzewski. Shimron also pursued several projects in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) as it relates to flipped-classroom methodologies (in foundational music theory courses) and faculty-student partnerships on course design.

David Goldblatt, occupant of the Christine & Pierre Lamond Second Century Chair, joined the SFS cello section in 1978, having previously played in the Pittsburgh Symphony. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Mr. Goldblatt has also been a cellist with the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia (now the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia) and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra. He is currently a coach for the SFS Youth Orchestra.

Diane Nicholeris has been a member of the SFS since 1984. She studied violin with Joseph Silverstein and Sylvia Rosenberg and graduated from the Eastman School of Music. Ms. Nicholeris has appeared as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic, Boston Pops, Boston Symphony Esplanade Orchestra, and the Monterey Symphony Orchestra, where she was also concertmaster. She has served as an SFS Youth Orchestra coach for many years, and she has also coached at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, UC Berkeley, the New World Symphony, and the Greater Boston Youth Symphony. She was previously on the faculty of San Jose State University. Learn more about Diane Nicholeris at sfsymphony.org/dianenicholeris.

(February 2019)

Jeffrey LaDeur is known for his for his rare blend of insight, spontaneity, and approachable, communicative stage presence. Having inherited a rich tradition of pianism and interpretation from Annie Sherter, student of Vlado Perlemuter and Alfred Cortot, LaDeur has established himself as a compelling exponent of classic and new repertoire. In March of 2018, LaDeur made his solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall on the centennial of Claude Debussy’s death. He appears regularly with orchestra and maintains a repertoire of over 40 concerti. LaDeur is the founder and artistic director of the San Francisco International Piano Festival and president of the American Liszt Society, San Francisco Bay Area Chapter. 

The 2021-2022 season includes LaDeur's San Francisco Performances debut, joining the Alexander String Quartet in two concerts devoted to Dvorak's chamber music. Other season highlights include appearances with the Vallejo Symphony and Marc Taddei in Rachmaninoff's Concerto in F-sharp Minor, recitals with mezzo-soprano Kindra Scharich for Neskowin Chamber Music, Four Seasons Arts, and Lieder Alive!, and the release of new solo album of music by Liszt on the Music & Arts label. 

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A chamber musician of distinction, Jeffrey’s collaboration with mezzo soprano Kindra Scharich has produced To My Distant Beloved, an album exploring the connections between Beethoven and Schumann through cycles in song and solo piano works. LaDeur has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Robert Mann, Bonnie Hampton, Ian Swensen, Axel Strauss, Geoff Nuttall, and the Alexander String Quartet. 

An active educator, Jeffrey offers masterclasses frequently as guest artist in universities throughout the United States and coaches gifted pre-college piano and string ensembles at Young Chamber Musicians in Burlingame, California. LaDeur holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music and San Francisco Conservatory of Music in piano performance and chamber music, respectively. Jeffrey counts among his teachers Mark Edwards, Douglas Humpherys, Yoshikazu Nagai, and Robert McDonald.

JeffreyLaDeur.com SFPIANO.ORG 

Originally from Toronto, Canada, Alexander Etherington obtained his Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from San Jose State University, under the instruction of Dr. Gwendolyn Mok. In the fall of 2016, he was admitted into the Chamber Music Silicon Valley (CMSV) young artist program led by Dr. Ray Furuta, a program that promotes the performance of chamber music throughout the Bay Area. From 2017 to 2019, Alexander studied under the guidance of Dr. Namiq Sultanov. From 2019 to 2021, he studied under the direction of Dr. Jacques Despres at the University of Alberta, during which time he completed his Master of Music in Piano Performance (MM Piano Performance). Alex now makes his home in San Jose and has opened up a music school.

Clarinetist Rafael Maldonado is an active performer and educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Based in the South Bay, Rafael has collaborated with local groups, such as Quinteto Latino, Chamber Music Silicon Valley, and the San Jose Chamber Orchestra.

An avid educator, Rafael was awarded a teaching assistanship at San Jose State University where he taught Woodwind Fundamentals, Clarinet Pedagogy and Clarinet Ensemble (for a semester). Rafael is passionate about woodwind pedagogy and is proficient on flute and saxophone, in addition to his clarinet studies. He maintains a studio of clarinetists, ranging from beginning to advanced levels.

Rafael received his bachelors and masters degrees in clarinet performance at San Jose State University under the tutelage of Dr. Janet Averett. He also earned a Professional Studies Diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the studio of Jeffery Anderle.