Kingston Chamber Music Festival

Violinist Zachary DePue has enjoyed a distinguished career as an orchestral leader, chamber musician, and soloist. He became one of the youngest concertmasters in the United States when he was appointed to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in 2007, a position he held for more than a decade, serving as a passionate and dedicated musical leader both on and off the stage.

DePue rose to international prominence as a founding member of the string trio Time for Three, with whom he performed for 15 years in venues around the world. Earlier in his career, he was a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra, performing in the first violin section for five seasons.

A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, DePue served as concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and studied with Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo. Beyond his performing career, he has been recognized for his leadership and community engagement, including his selection for the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series in Indianapolis.

Korean-American violinist Julian Rhee is widely admired for his refinement, beauty of sound, and expressive presence onstage. Winner of the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Rhee has been praised by The Strad for “the kind of poise and showmanship that thrills audiences,” and is recognized for his soulful lyricism, interpretive insight, and passion for collaboration across a wide-ranging repertoire.

Rhee has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including the Calgary Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, and Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, among others. He has collaborated with conductors such as Leonard Slatkin, Nicolas McGegan, Alexander Shelley, Valentina Peleggi, and Rune Bergmann. Recent and upcoming engagements include debuts with the Richmond Symphony, Pacific Symphony, Gürzenich Orchestra, and Arkansas Symphony, alongside return performances with the Madison Symphony and ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.

Rhee rose to international prominence following his prize-winning performances at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition and his Silver Medal at the Indianapolis International Violin Competition. He is also a First Prize winner of the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition and Astral Artists’ National Auditions, and has received numerous honors including the Dorothy DeLay Fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival, the Manfred Grommek Prize from the Kronberg Academy, and recognition as a U.S. Presidential Scholar.

A devoted chamber musician, Rhee is the newest member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program, performing regularly at Alice Tully Hall and on national tours. He has appeared at leading festivals including Marlboro, Music@Menlo, Ravinia’s Steans Institute, Bridgehampton, Rockport Music, and North Shore Chamber Music Festival. This season marks his debut at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival and his appointment as Artist in Residence at the Durango Music Festival.

Rhee earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the New England Conservatory, where he served as a teaching assistant to Miriam Fried, and currently studies with Christian Tetzlaff at the Kronberg Academy. He performs on the 1699 “Lady Tennant” Antonio Stradivari violin, on extended loan through the generosity of the Mary B. Galvin Foundation and the Stradivari Society.

Violist Che-Hung Chen joined The Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 20, when he was hired by then-Music Director Wolfgang Sawallisch, becoming the first Taiwanese citizen ever to join the Orchestra. He has also served as acting associate principal viola under former Music Director Christoph Eschenbach.

Mr. Chen was the first-prize winner at the Seventh Banff International String Quartet Competition as the founding member of the Daedalus Quartet; the Quartet was also awarded the Pièce de Concert prize for the best performance of a commissioned work and the Székely Prize for the best performance of a Beethoven quartet. A three-time, top-prize winner at the Taiwan National Instrumental Competition, Mr. Chen is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with the legendary Joseph dePasquale. Mr. Chen has served as principal viola of the Curtis Symphony and recently appeared as guest principal viola with Japan’s Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra, the San Diego Symphony, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Chen’s recording of Chiayu’s Twelve Signs for solo viola on the Naxos Label was praised in Gramophone magazine’s Awards 2015 issue for its ‘“mesmerizing intensity.’”

As a chamber musician, Mr. Chen was a participant at Marlboro Music, performing in its 50th anniversary concerts in Boston and New York’s Carnegie Hall, and in several “Musicians from Marlboro” national tours. He performs annually at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Rhode Island with his wife, pianist and Artistic Director Natalie Zhu, and has also participated in such festivals as Ravinia, Caramoor, Saratoga, Bridgehampton, and Music from Angel Fire. With Ms. Zhu, Philadelphia Orchestra colleague and First Associate Concertmaster Juliette Kang, and cellist Clancy Newman, he is a member of the Clarosa Piano Quartet, dedicated to exploring and enriching the piano quartet repertoire. Their debut performance earned praise from the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a combination of easy cohesion and unfettered, expressive freedom.” In the Fall of 2019, Mr. Chen founded Quartet Iris with Philadelphia Orchestra colleagues violinists Christine Lim, Julia Li, and cellist Yumi Kendall, eager to delve into the challenging realm of string quartet playing.

Mr. Chen serves on the faculty of Temple University’s Esther Boyer College of Music. He performs on a viola made by Carlo Antonio Testore in Milan, Italy, c.1756. He and Natalie reside in Narberth, PA, with their daughter, Clara.

Violist Burchard Tang, a native of Maryland, has been a member of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 1999. He began his musical studies on the violin at age three before switching to viola at sixteen, studying with Choong-Jin Chang, principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Tang received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Joseph dePasquale, former principal viola of The Philadelphia Orchestra. During his time at Curtis, he served as principal viola of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and later held the same position with the New York String Seminar.

As a soloist, Tang was a winner of the Philadelphia Orchestra’s Albert M. Greenfield Student Competition and performed with the Orchestra as part of its Student Concert series. His honors also include prizes from the Temple University Preparatory Division Concerto Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

An active chamber musician, Tang has appeared at leading festivals including Marlboro, Ravinia, Caramoor, Music from Angel Fire, and Seattle Chamber Music Festival. He is a founding member of the Dolce Suono Ensemble and has also performed with the Brandenburg Ensemble.

Known for captivating interpretations of a wide repertoire Natalie Zhu is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and Astral Artists Award. The Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Ms. Zhu in recital as a display of “emotional and pianistic pyrotechnics”. Selections from her live performances are frequently broadcasted on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”

Ms. Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In the U.S. she has appeared as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Haddonfield Symphony, The Curtis Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Princeton Chamber Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Riverside Symphony Orchestra, and the Colorado Philharmonic National Repertory Orchestra. Ms. Zhu made her European debut in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d’Orleans in France, she has also given solo recitals at the Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Hall in New York City, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, New York’s Steinway Hall and Merkin Hall, Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Series in Fresno, Portland Piano Festival in Oregon, Munich’s Herkulessaal in Germany, and Beijing Concert Hall in China. She has performed with the Daedalus, Dover, Miami, Vermeer Quartets, and collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Orion, Mendelssohn, and Ying Quartets, as well as the Beaux Arts Trio and Time for Three. Ms. Zhu had been a touring recital partner with renowned violinist Hilary Hahn, and have maintained an ongoing partnership, most noticeably a Mozart Violin Sonatas recording with the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2005, as well as Suzuki Violin Books 1-3 in 2020.

As an active chamber musician, she has appeared in Marlboro Music Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Curtis-On-Tour, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Maestro Foundation Concert Series, Skaneateles Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Crested Butte Chamber Music Festival, The Friends of Chamber Music Reading Concert Series, and Brooklyn Library Chamber Music Series. Since 2009, Ms. Zhu has been the artistic director of the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Rhode Island.

Natalie Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the age of six in her native China and made her first public appearance at age nine in Beijing. At eleven she emigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and studied with Robert Turner and Li Ming-Qiang. By age fifteen was enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received the prestigious Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman. She received both Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music where she studied with the late Claude Frank. Ms. Zhu lives in Philadelphia suburbs with her husband and daughter.

Cellist Priscilla Lee joined The Philadelphia Orchestra as Associate Principal Cello at the start of the 2016–17 season. A 2005 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, she began studying at age five and made her solo debut in 1998 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

A native of California, Lee studied with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn School of Performing Arts and continued her studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with David Soyer. She earned her Master of Music from the Mannes College of Music, where she studied with Timothy Eddy.

An active chamber musician, Lee has participated in festivals including Marlboro, Santa Fe, Seattle, Delaware, St. Denis in Paris, Kingston, Lexington, Burlington, and Taos. She was a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two from 2006 to 2009 and a founding member of Trio Cavatina, which won Grand Prize at the 2009 Naumburg International Competition. Prior to joining The Philadelphia Orchestra, she served as Principal Cello of Opera Philadelphia and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia.

Lee resides in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, with her husband, violist Burchard Tang, and their two daughters.

Praised by The Cleveland Classical Review for his “astonishingly confident technique” and The New York Times for “thrilling [and] triumphant” performances, pianist Henry Kramer is developing a reputation as a musician of rare sensitivity who combines stylish programming with insightful and exuberant interpretations. In 2016, he garnered international recognition with a Second Prize win in the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. Most recently, he was awarded a 2019 Avery Fisher Career Grant by Lincoln Center – one of the most coveted honors bestowed on young American soloists.

Kramer began playing piano at the relatively late age of 11 in his hometown of Cape Elizabeth, Maine. One day, he found himself entranced by the sound of film melodies as a friend played them on the piano, inspiring him to teach himself on his family’s old upright. His parents enrolled him in lessons shortly thereafter, and within weeks, he was playing Chopin and Mozart.

Henry emerged as a winner in the National Chopin Competition in 2010, the Montreal International Competition in 2011 and the China Shanghai International Piano Competition in 2012. In 2014 he was added to the roster of Astral Artists, an organization that annually selects a handful of rising stars among strings, piano, woodwinds and voice candidates. The following year, he earned a top prize in the Honens International Piano Competition.

Kramer has performed “stunning” solo recital debuts, most notably at Alice Tully Hall as the recipient of the Juilliard School’s William Petschek Award, as well as at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. At his Philadelphia debut, Peter Dobrin of The Philadelphia Inquirer remarked, “the 31-year-old pianist personalized interpretations to such a degree that works emerged anew. He is a big personality.”

A versatile performer, Kramer has been featured as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartford Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestras, among many others, collaborating with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Gerard Schwarz, Stéphane Denève, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Hans Graf. He has also performed recitals in cities such as Washington (Phillips Collection), Durham (St. Stephens), Hilton Head (BravoPiano! festival), and Seattle (Emerald City Music and the Seattle Series) and made summer appearances at the Anchorage, Lakes Area, Rockport, and Vivo music festivals. Appearances in the 2022-23 season include a debut with New York’s Salon Séance, recitals with Newport Classical, Ravinia, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, Vancouver Chamber Music Society, and additional appearances in Seattle, Chicago, Detroit, Ithaca, and Montreal. Highlights of the current season include performances with the Adrian Symphony and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, a return to the Phillips Collection, further appearances with Salon Séance, and recital debuts with Cecilia Concerts in Halifax, Chapelle Historique du Bon-Pasteur in Montréal, Bargemusic, Northwestern University’s Winter Chamber Music Festival, and Music Mountain Summer Festival together with the Borromeo String Quartet.

His love for the chamber music repertoire began early in his studies while a young teenager. A sought-after collaborator, he has appeared in recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Mainly Mozart Festival, the Mostly Mozart Festival, and La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest. His recording with violinist Jiyoon Lee on the Champs Hill label received four stars from BBC Music Magazine. This year, Gramophone UK praised Kramer’s performance on a recording collaboration (Cedille Records) with violist Matthew Lipman for “exemplary flexible partnership.” Henry has also performed alongside Emmanuel Pahud, the Calidore and Pacifica Quartets, Miriam Fried, as well as members of the Berlin Philharmonic and Orchestra of St. Luke’s.

Teaching ranks among his greatest joys. In the fall of 2022, Kramer joined the music faculty of Université de Montréal. Previously, he served as the L. Rexford Whiddon Distinguished Chair in Piano at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. Throughout his multifaceted career, he also held positions at Smith College and the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory of Dance and Music.

Kramer graduated from the Juilliard School, where he worked with Julian Martin and Robert McDonald. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Yale School of Music under the guidance of Boris Berman. His teachers trace a pedagogical lineage extending back to Beethoven, Chopin and Busoni. Kramer is a Steinway Artist.