Yoonshin Song was appointed as Concertmaster of the Houston Symphony in August 2019. Prior to that, she held the same position with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for seven seasons. In Europe, Yoonshin has served as guest concertmaster of the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Iván Fischer for several years, and she has led the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under numerous top-tiered conductors, such as Sir Simon Rattle, Klaus Mäkelä, Daniel Harding, Mikhail Pletnev, and Antonio Pappano. She also served as guest concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra.

Beyond her first chair duties, Yoonshin has performed as a soloist with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the KBS Symphony Orchestra, among many others.

She has also participated as a soloist and a chamber musician in various roles in leading music festivals, including the ones in Verbier, Lucerne, Samos, and Bayreuth in Europe; and the Marlboro, Great Lakes, and Deer Valley in the United States.

Yoonshin has earned many prestigious prizes throughout her career, including top prize awards in the Lipizer International Violin Competition, the Lipinski and Wieniawski International Violin Competition, the Henry Marteau International Violin Competition, and first prize at the Stradivarius International Competition in the United States.

She studied under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory and with Robert Mann, Glenn Dicterow, and Lisa Kim at the Manhattan School of Music.

A winner of international competitions, Tong Yan has claimed first prize at the International Music Competition of Union Francaise des Artistes Musiciens in Paris, International Violin Competition in Kazakhstan, International Chinese Violin Competition in New York, and string winner at the Gisborne International Orchestral Instruments Competition in New Zealand. She has also placed in the top three at the Andrea Postacchini International Violin Competition in Italy and the Brahms International Violin Competition in Austria. Yan has had many recitals and solo performances with orchestras in Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, China, Canada, and the United States.

Yan is currently an active chamber musician and has participated in festivals such as the Summer Strings Academy in Australia, Canada’s Morningside Music Bridge, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Bar Harbor Music Festival in Maine, Pacific Music Festival in Japan, Spoleto Music Festival in South Carolina, Britt Music Festival in Oregon, and the Meadowmount Summer School in New York.

Yan joined the Houston Symphony in 2012 while pursuing her Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein. She also holds a Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory, and a split bachelor’s degree from the Vienna University of Fine Arts, Joseph Haydn Conservatory, and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Her teachers include Elisabeth Kropfitsch, Klaus Maetzl, and Marilyn McDonald.

A native of Taiwan, Annie Chen began her musical studies at age 6 on piano and at age 8 on violin. At age 14, she moved to the United States to continue her music education at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the New England Conservatory Preparatory Program in Boston.

Chen has been a participant of numerous summer music festivals including the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Music Academy of the West, where she was a winner of the 2011 concerto competition, and the Tanglewood Music Center. She has toured with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and was a regular member of Discovery Ensemble, a Boston-based chamber orchestra that provides outreach concerts to inner-city schools with no music programs. She has also been featured as a soloist with the Dorchester Symphony Orchestra.

Chen holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston and a master’s degree from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she held the Shepherd School Distinguished Fellowship in Violin. Her principal teachers have included Lynn Chang, James Buswell, and Kathleen Winkler.

Violinist Alexandros Sakarellos has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician across five continents and in 25 countries.

A native of Greece, Sakarellos received his early musical training at the Athens Conservatory, Greece's leading musical institution. While in Greece he enjoyed a satisfying performing career from a very early age. Before turning 20 he was already appearing frequently as a soloist and recitalist, serving as Concertmaster of the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra and as a first violinist with the Athens State Orchestra.

In 2005 Alexandros moved to New York. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music with New York Philarmonic's Concertmaster Glenn Dicterow, Assistant Principal Lisa Kim and Professor Isaac Malkin.

During his years in New York, his activities included performances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Concertmaster appearances under renowned artists such as Kurt Masur and Pinchas Zuckerman, performances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Museum Of Modern Arts, the Onassis Foundation and other such venues.

Sakarellos is a leading violinist with the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Gabor Takacs Nagy and has worked closely with artists such as Martha Argerich, Maxim Vengerov and Yuri Bashmet.

Other appearances include the Festivals of Ravello in Italy, Miyazaki in Japan, Bellerive in Switzerland and Santo Domingo. In 2009 he was privileged to be invited by the prestigious Athens-Epidaurus Festival to give the Greek premiere of several works by the awarded American-Greek composer George Tsontakis.

Before joining the Houston Symphony, Sakarellos has been a member of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra since 2014. Prior to that he played for two years in the 1st Violin section of the San Francisco Opera.

Since 2022 he has been working very closely with world renowned violinist Leonidas Kavakos as part of the ApollΩn Ensemble , under the leadership of the great artist.

He is playing on violins by Joseph Gagliano (made in 1760) and Stephan von Baehr (made in 2020).

Born in China, Wei Jiang began studying violin with his father at the age of 5 and began studying viola after being admitted to the prestigious Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Having graduated with the highest honor, he was subsequently offered a teaching position at the conservatory as the youngest member of the music faculty. During his five-year tenure at the Central Conservatory, Jiang was actively involved in performing both solo and chamber music and toured extensively with his string quartet in Asia and Europe. He was also a founding member of the Eclipse Ensemble, a unique performing group that showcases music by contemporary Chinese composers throughout China.

Jiang came to the United States in 1996 to further his musical training at the Oberlin Conservatory and later at the University of Maryland. In 1999, he became a member of the Houston Symphony. Jiang is also a member of the Fidelis String Quartet which performed in recital at Carnegie Hall in 2005 and toured Puerto Rico in 2006.

Hailed by audiences across North America and Europe for his commanding and expressive performances, Venezuelan/American violinist and violist Paul Aguilar currently resides in Houston, Texas. As an orchestral musician, he was recently appointed as a member of the Houston Symphony viola section, and he also maintains an active solo and chamber music
performance schedule of over 40 recitals every year.

As a chamber musician, Paul has appeared on concert series and in concert halls across North America and internationally, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Ravinia Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, La Jolla Summerfest, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Schneider Concert Series, the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival, and the Emilia-Romagna Festival. Equally comfortable on both violin and viola, Paul has won top prizes in nearly every major chamber music competition, including the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne International String Quartet Competition, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. He was selected as the only Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performance Fellow for the 2020-2021 season, and he also performs regularly as a member of the Astralis Chamber Ensemble. His chamber music collaborators have included artists such as James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Phil Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Desmond Hoebig, Jon Kimura Parker, Frank Cohen, and Shirley Brill.

Bringing total dedication and commitment to everything he does, Paul strives to educate the next generation on the importance of true excellence in every area of life, and of classical music’s role as simply a tool along that path. As an educator, Paul has appeared as guest artist faculty at festivals and institutions across the United States including Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music Young Artist Program, the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, and the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC. He is actively involved with the Sphinx Organization in both performance and outreach and was a 2019 MPower Grant recipient.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Paul counts Jaime Laredo, Jan Mark Sloman, and Si-Yan Darren Li as some of his most formative musical influences; he also holds a degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he participated in their String Quartet Residency. Paul pursued further chamber music studies in Europe at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where he was fortunate to study under Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Johannes Meissl, and Avri Levitan.

In addition to his busy travel and performance schedule, Paul is committed to regularly sharing music in schools and organizations throughout his community. When not involved with music, Paul enjoys running, reading, and spending time with his family. Paul plays on a very fine violin and viola that were commissioned from master luthier Kevin Lee.

Described as “mesmerizing” by The Burlington Hawkeye Times and “transportive” by the Santa Barbara Voice, 25-year-old violist Keoni Bolding has established a career across the United States and Europe. He has toured Europe with the New York Philharmonic and Rome Chamber Music Festival as well as performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra and London Symphony. Last year, he won the Transcription Prize at the Primrose International Viola Competition with his transcription of Tosca Act II. Earlier this year, he oversaw the premiere of his electronic chamber opera 52 Hz at Lincoln Center.

Christopher French is the associate principal cellist of the Houston Symphony. Before joining the orchestra in 1986, he held titled positions in both the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra and the Honolulu Symphony. French is the seventh of a full octave of musical siblings. He enjoys performing with the Bad Boys of Cello, the alter ego of the Houston Symphony cello section. The Bad Boys have played in homeless shelters and elementary schools in an effort to eliminate the classist misconceptions about classical music.

French is a graduate of North Park University in Chicago, where he won the Performance Award. In addition to three concerto performances with the Houston Symphony, he has appeared on the Chamber Players series, and with Da Camera of Houston and the Greenbriar Consortium. He participates in the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego, Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado, and the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

French teaches orchestral repertoire at Rice University.

Louis-Marie Fardet was appointed cellist with the Houston Symphony in January 2015. Previously, he served as assistant principal cellist for the Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet. Prior to moving to Houston, he was a tenured member of L’Opéra de Paris Orchestra for five years. Born in Rochefort, the south-west coast of France, Fardet moved to Paris to pursue his cello studies at the prestigious Paris Conservatory and then came to Houston in 1999 to study with Paul Katz at Rice University.

Fardet has won top prizes at several international competitions, including the Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Zagreb, Croatia and the Ima Hogg Competition in Houston, and has participated in numerous international music festivals such as the Ravinia Festival, Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall, and Chamber Music Encounters in Jerusalem.

Cellist Charles Seo was appointed cellist of the Houston Symphony in the summer of 2018 at age 22. Previously, he served as principal cellist in the Colburn Orchestra. Charles, who made his solo orchestral debut at age 10, has performed as guest soloist with the Houston Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and San José Chamber Orchestra.

He is silver medalist of the 2014 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and bronze medalist of the 2014 Stulberg International String Competition. In 2013, he was the gold medalist of the Houston Symphony League Concerto Competition, the Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, the Schmidbauer International Competition, and the 30^th Pasadena Showcase House Instrumental Competition. Charles performed Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen with Christopher O’Riley on NPR’s From the Top.

Charles has collaborated with cellists Lynn Harrell, Robert deMaine, Clive Greensmith, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt, David Geringas, Steven Isserlis, Jian Wang, Myung-wha Chung, Lluís Claret, Li-Wei Qin, Bion Tsang, and Laurence Lesser. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Colburn School, where he studied with Ronald Leonard and Clive Greensmith.

Robin Kesselman was appointed Principal Bass of the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 2014. He has performed as Guest Principal Bass with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic, travelled internationally with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and appeared with the National, Atlanta, and Baltimore symphonies.

Kesselman has appeared multiple times as soloist with the Houston Symphony, in subscription performances of the Koussevitzky Concerto for Double Bass, Missy Mazzoli’s concerto Dark with Excessive Bright, and Bottesini’s Gran Duo Concertante with Gil Shaham. Previous season highlights include Krzysztof Penderecki’s Duo Concertante during the composer’s Carnegie Hall residency in collaboration with the Curtis Institute and Bottesini’s Concerto No. 2 with the Houston Civic Symphony. Recent festival engagements include leading the bass sections of the Grand Teton, Mainly Mozart, Arizona Musicfest and Aspen Festival orchestras.

Kesselman frequently performs as a soloist and chamber musician and presents recital programs and masterclasses at the Nation’s top universities. He has also served as faculty for the National Youth Orchestra – USA, Curtis Institute’s Summerfest, the Richard Davis Bass Conference, and the summer residency of the Youth Philharmonic of Colombia. He recently released Bow Speed Geography, a method book and video series dedicated to the improvement of legato and sustain from the standpoint of bow speed. Kesselman holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. His primary teachers have included David Allen Moore, Harold Robinson, Edgar Meyer, Paul Ellison, Chris Hanulik, and Virginia Dixon.

Critics have praised clarinetist Mark Nuccio for both his solo and chamber appearances,  describing him as “the evening’s highlight”, full of “mystery and insight” and “shaping his phrases beautifully with a rich, expressive tone.” (New York Times)

Mr. Nuccio is currently the Principal Clarinetist of the Houston Symphony since 2016.  Prior to that, he was a member of the New York Philharmonic having joined in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo  E-flat Clarinetist. During Nuccio’s 17 years in the NYP, he served as Acting Principal Clarinet for four years from 2009-2013. Prior to his service with the Philharmonic, he has held positions with orchestras in Pittsburgh, Denver, Savannah, and Florida working with distinguished conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Mariss Jansons, Riccardo Muti, Zubin Mehta, Erich Leinsdorf, Alan Gilbert, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, Valero Gergiev, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa Pekka Salonen, Andres Orozco Estrada, and Juraj Valcuha. Additionally, Mr. Nuccio has toured extensively with the Houston Symphony, the New York Philharmonic and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and in numerous countries, recorded with all three orchestras, and performed regularly with the Philharmonic on the award-winning series, Live from Lincoln Center, broadcast on PBS. Recent highlights include the Philharmonic’s historic and newsworthy visits to North Korea and Vietnam.

An active solo and chamber musician, Mr. Nuccio has been featured with various orchestras in the United States and made multiple appearances as a featured performer at the International Clarinet Association conventions. He made his subscription solo debut with the Houston Symphony in 2018 with several other appearances since then, with the subscription solo debut with the New York Philharmonic on Feb. 10, 2010 and returned to perform the Copland Concerto with the NY Philharmonic under the baton of Alan Gilbert on May 31 and June 1 of 2013. Other highlights include a New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall in 2001, his Japanese recital debut in 2002. He continues to regularly perform recitals in  Asia and Europe as well as across the United States and in New York, he can often be heard at Merkin Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y, Carnegie Hall, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Nuccio also participates in the chamber music series at the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, performs/teaches at Festival Napa Valley, and teaches at ARIA Music Festival, among others.

As a studio musician, Mr. Nuccio is featured on numerous movie soundtracks, including Failure To Launch, The Last Holiday, The Rookie, The Score, Intolerable Cruelty, Alamo, Pooh’s Heffalump, Hitch, The Manchurian Candidate, as well as various television commercials, Super Bowl music and the Master’s Golf Tournament. Additionally he has performed on the Late Show with David Letterman and on the 2003 Grammy Awards. His own debut album featuring the clarinet quintets of Mozart and Brahms, Opening Night, was released in November 2006.

A Colorado native, Mr. Nuccio was recently awarded the “Distinguished Alumni Award” from his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado. He also holds a master’s degree from Northwestern University where he studied with renowned pedagogue Robert Marcellus. Beyond his active performing schedule, Mr. Nuccio is committed to training the next generation of musicians and currently serves as music faculty for Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music in Evanston, IL.  He also teaches masterclasses in the U.S. and abroad. Mark Nuccio is a D’Addario Advising Artist & Clinician and a performing artist/clinician for Buffet Music Group.

Principal bassoonist Rian Craypo has been with the Houston Symphony since 2007. Born in Virginia, she moved to Texas at 10 months of age and grew up east of Austin in a small intentional community.

After studying at the University of Texas at Austin with Kristin Wolfe Jensen, she attended Rice University, where she received her master’s degree under former Houston Symphony Principal Bassoon Benjamin Kamins.

In 2001, she was awarded a Federation of German/American Clubs Scholarship, which led to a year of study and performances in Germany and was a finalist in the Gillet-Fox International Bassoon Competition in both 2004 and 2006. Rian serves on the board of Third Space Music, which presents Houston Symphony musicians several times a year in intimate and engaging chamber settings. Rian is also the author of a book about bassoon reed making, published in 2017. She and her husband Sean have three children.

Robert Johnson enjoys a growing career as an orchestral and chamber musician, soloist, and teacher of horn. Before joining the Houston Symphony in 2012 as Associate Principal Horn, Johnson was Assistant Principal/Utility Horn of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, Principal Horn of both the Dayton Philharmonic and Richmond Symphony, and Fourth Horn of the Honolulu Symphony. He has also performed with the Houston Grand Opera, IRIS Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Saint Louis Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, and both the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Disney Hall and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as a guest Principal Horn.

Johnson has performed as a Concerto Soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, New World Symphony, Texas Music Festival, at Chicago’s Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, and nationwide as a recitalist and chamber musician. In the summers, he has performed with the AIMS, Aspen, Cascade, Colorado, Strings, and Tanglewood Music Festivals, as well as the Perlman Music Program and Sun Valley Summer Symphony. He can be heard performing on numerous recordings, commercials, and soundtracks made with the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras, Dayton Philharmonic, Nashville String Machine Studio Orchestra, and the Houston Symphony.

In the Fall of 2013, Johnson joined the faculty of the Moores School of Music as an Affiliate Artist at the University of Houston, thus fulfilling a long-held dream of expanding his teaching to the collegiate level. Also a faculty member at the Texas Music Festival, he is in demand to lead masterclasses and lectures nationwide, most recently at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Johnson’s previous students have enjoyed acceptance and appointment to a multitude of prestigious universities, conservatories, summer music festivals, and professional ensembles. Acceptances include the Banff Centre for the Arts, Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States, Interlochen Arts Camp and Academy, Yamaha’s Young Performing Artist Program, as well as the Brevard, Domaine Forget, Hot Springs, Lucerne, Pacific, Sarasota, and Texas Music Festivals. Collegiate acceptances include Carnegie Mellon, DePaul, Indiana, Northwestern, Rice, and Roosevelt Universities, the New England, Oberlin, and San Francisco Conservatories, as well as the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music, and Peabody Institute. His students have performed with a number of professional ensembles, including City Music Cleveland, Hawaii Symphony, Houston Symphony, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.

A graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, he studied with William VerMeulen and received further training as a fellow with the New World Symphony. Johnson is a lifetime member of the International Horn Society and has authored for The Horn Call magazine. He is married to flutist and teacher Ariella Perlman, with whom he chases their twin boys, Ezra and Reuben.