Evermay Concert Series

The Heifetz International Music Institute

Founded in 1996, The Heifetz International Music Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to the artistic growth and career development of some of the most talented and promising young string musicians in the world. As a six-week intensive summer program based in Staunton, Virginia, the Institute is founded upon the revolutionary educational concept that young musicians can be taught to communicate the emotion of music, beyond mere technical agility and beautiful playing.

The Ryuji Ueno Foundation is proud to support the Heifetz International Music Institute in offering scholarships to some of their extraordinary students to offset the cost of their summer tuition. Representatives of these extraordinary young musicians will make a stop at Evermay during their east coast tour to showcase their amazing talents!

BIOGRAPHY

Julia Angelov

Violin

2019 Heifetz Institute alumna Julia Angelov is a Bulgarian-Japanese violinist who hails from Washington, DC Julia has performed with numerous American orchestras including the National Philharmonic at Strathmore, the U.S. Army Band Orchestra, and the Arlington Philharmonic. Later this season, she will be making her debut with the State Opera Stara Zagora Orchestra in Bulgaria. She has won numerous competitions, including the Music Teachers National Association’s (MTNA) National Strings Competition, the Friday Morning Music Club Gustave N. Johansen Jr. Strings Competition, and the Washington Performing Arts’ Joseph and Goldie Feder Memorial String Competition. From 2015 to 2019, she was the Milka Violin Scholar by the Markow Totevy Foundation at the National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program. Julia Angelov currently studies at the Colburn Conservatory of Music with Robert Lipsett. Her previous teachers include Aaron Rosand, Nurit Bar-Josef, and Olga Khroulevitch.

Laura Liu

Viola

Violist Laura Liu, a native of Miami, Florida, attended the Heifetz Institute in 2018, and went on to become a proud recipient of a full-scholarship Kovner Fellowship at The Juilliard School, where she studies with Cynthia Phelps. She made her orchestral debut as winner of the New World Symphony Side-by-Side Concerto Competition. Ms. Liu also has performed with the Alhambra Orchestra as winner of their Concerto Competition and was a finalist in the Blount-Slawson Competition. Previously, she was a 2019 National Young Arts Foundation Winner, assistant principal viola of the 50th Anniversary New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the 2019 Southeastern Region winner of the NFMC Wendell Irish Viola Award. Ms. Liu has also attended the Music Academy of the West, and Music@Menlo.

Ismael Ariel Guerrero Bombut

Cello

In 2017, cellist Ismael Ariel Guerrero Bombut became the first student from Havana, Cuba to attend the Heifetz Institute. He began his cello studies at the age of 8, and won several competitions and participated in masterclasses from such renowned cellists as Carlos Prieto, Clemen Hagens, Leidi Litschauer, Frans Helmerson, Colin Carr, and Laurence Lesser. He is now in his fourth year of his undergraduate studies at the Peabody Conservatory as a student of Amit Peled. This is Ismael’s third appearance as a member of Heifetz On Tour, having performed previously on tours in Pennsylvania and Virginia. In 2019, he attended the Keshet Eilon Festival in Israel, where he performed as soloist with the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble. He has also performed in Switzerland, Mexico, Cape Cod, North Carolina, Florida, Baltimore and Washington DC. He is currently a cellist at the Mount Vernon Virtuosi Orchestra and the Peabody Peled Cello Gang, and has just been selected as a semifinalist for the 2020 Sphinx Competition.

Miki Aoki

Piano

Praised for her “genuinely memorable performance” by BBC Music Magazine, Heifetz faculty pianist Miki Aoki is widely recognized for her diverse abilities as both a solo and collaborative artist. Ms. Aoki made her concerto debut at age of 12 at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s South Bank Centre. She has also performed as soloist with London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Hamburg Camerata, the Korean Chamber Orchestra, the Washington Sinfonietta and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México. Ms Aoki holds degrees from Indiana and Yale Universities, and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Germany). She is currently a doctoral candidate at SUNY Stony Brook and a teaching assistant for Gilbert Kalish, and since September 2019 Ms. Aoki she has been staff pianist at the Juilliard School for the viola studio of Carol Rodland.