Tchaikovsky’s Serenade

Acclaimed as “a wonderfully talented violinist…whose sound and technique go well beyond her years,” violinist, Yoonshin Song was born in South Korea, where she began her musical studies at age 5. Making her solo debut with the Seoul Philharmonic at age 11, she has since built a successful performing career throughout Korea, the United States, and Europe. In April 2019, the Houston Symphony named Yoonshin as its new concertmaster beginning in August 2019. From 2012 to 2019, she was the concertmaster of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, where she has enjoyed close collaborations with inspiring guest artists such as Gil Shaham, Joshua Bell, and Jamie Laredo.

Yoonshin has earned many prestigious prizes throughout her career, including top prize awards in the Lipizer International Violin Competition in Italy; the Lipinski & Wieniawski International Violin Competition in Poland; the Henry Marteau International Violin Competition in Germany; and first prize at the Stradivarius International Competition in the United States. In her native South Korea, Yoonshin has won virtually all of the major violin competitions.

As a soloist, she has performed with many orchestras around the world, including the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Utah Symphony, the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra,the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra, the Paul Constantinescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and the KBS Philharmonic Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in numerous music festivals, including the Marlboro, Deer Valley, Great Lakes, and Aspen music festivals in the United States; the Miyazaki Chamber Music Festival in Japan; and the Verbier, Lucerne, and Bayreuth festivals in Europe. Her engagements as a soloist throughout next season include concertos by Beethoven, Mozart, Shostakovich, and Bruch.

Rodica Gonzalez is an accomplished violinist who has been studying and performing since the age of 4. She has been a member of the first violin section of the Houston Symphony since 1990.

Originally from Romania, Gonzalez studied, as a child, at the George Enescu Music School, giving her first solo performance with an orchestra at the age of 11. As a teenager, she studied with the acclaimed Romanian music teacher, Modest Iftinchi, at the Ciprian Porumbescu Conservatory in Bucharest. In the mid-eighties she was awarded scholarships at prestigious music academies in Italy and Switzerland. It was then that she had the opportunity to meet and study with Sergiu Luca, who was at Houston’s Rice University. Her life took an exciting turn when Luca invited her to study with him at Rice’s Shepherd School of Music. She received her master’s degree in music at Rice University in 1990.

Early in her career, Gonzalez performed with the Houston Ballet Orchestra and was concertmaster and soloist with the National Repertory Orchestra in Keystone, Colorado. She was winner of the Shepherd School Concerto Competition as well as the Campanile Orchestra Concerto Competition. She has been soloist with the Houston Symphony on many occasions, including the Sounds Like Fun! music festival.

In the spring of 1996, Gonzalez embarked on her first solo tour of Switzerland and her native Romania. Since then, she has performed extensively as a recitalist and in chamber ensembles in Romania, Italy, Canada, Mexico, and the United States. She has performed as a soloist with the Bucharest and Constanta Philharmonic, Doctor’s Orchestra of Houston, Galveston Symphony, the Houston Civic Symphony, and Houston Chamber Orchestra, where she was concertmaster. She is the founding violinist of the Tre Voci Trio and the Fidelis Quartet, ensembles that perform extensively in Houston and other parts of the United States.

Gonzalez has had the great honor of performing at Carnegie Hall several times. She performed her debut recital at Carnegie Hall in 2002 with her colleague John Hendrickson and had the privilege of returning twice with Tre Voci and pianist Ilgin Aka. She performed again in Carnegie Hall with the Fidelis String Quartet and was privileged to be invited back to perform with her sister Mihaela and pianist Ilonka Rus. In June 2011, Gonzalez performed a program of Brahms and Piazzola in Carnegie Hall with the Fidelis Quartet, flutist Judy Dines and clarinetist Danny Granados.
Music is the centerpiece of Gonzalez’s life, more than a profession, it is her avocation and passion. Of her playing, Atencion San Miguel wrote that she “uses the most delicate and articulate phrasing in her playing, yet her capriciousness at times yields the exciting singing of strings that audiences revere…her playing shows a polished and confident style.”

In addition to her performing duties, Gonzalez enjoys teaching young, aspiring musicians. She taught for many years at Houston Baptist University and is now on the faculty of The University of Saint Thomas. She and her husband Robert are proud parents of their son, Matthew.

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. In his spare time, he likes playing tennis and enjoys traveling with his wife Sherry and two young children, Luke and Alice.

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.

Originally from Valencia, California, Matthew Roitstein joined the Houston Symphony in 2014 as associate principal flute, the first appointment made by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He was previously a member of the Honolulu Symphony and Sarasota Opera Orchestras, as well as a fellow of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida, where he inaugurated the Solo Spotlight recital series in 2011 in the newly-built New World Center.

Roitstein has performed as guest principal flute with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. He has also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Louisiana Philharmonic. During the summer, he has participated in the Tanglewood Music Center, Music Academy of the West, and Aspen and Sarasota Music Festivals. Roitstein has twice appeared on the PBS series Great Performances from Tanglewood and the New World Center, and he can be heard on recordings with the Houston Symphony and New World Symphony, as well as on Gloria Estefan’s album, The Standards.

An enthusiastic educator, Roitstein has taught extensively in the United States as well as throughout South and Central America. He received his bachelor’s degree in both architecture and music from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was the 2007 winner of the MIT Symphony Concerto Competition. While at MIT, he studied flute with Seta Der Hohannesian. He received his Master of Music in Flute Performance with Leone Buyse at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Other influential teachers include Mark Sparks, Stephen Kujala, Gary Woodward, Pedro Eustache, and his mother, Rosy Sackstein.

Mark Nuccio began his position as principal clarinet with the Houston Symphony in the 2016–17 season after 17 years with the New York Philharmonic. He also serves as clarinet faculties at both Northwestern University in Chicago and the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music. Nuccio joined the New York Philharmonic in 1999 as Associate Principal and Solo E-flat Clarinetist and served as Acting principal Clarinet with the New York Philharmonic from 2009 to 2013. Prior to his tenure in New York, he 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, Bernard Haitink, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, André Previn, Christoph von Dohnányi, and Gustavo Dudamel. A Colorado native, 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.

Maki Kubota was appointed a member of the Houston Symphony in 2017 by Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He has made appearances with the Dallas Symphony, Charleston Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, performing with conductors such as Thomas Ades, Edward Gardner, Alan Gilbert, Osmo Vanska, Edo de Waart, and Christoph von Dohnanyi. As a chamber musician, he has performed at the Library of Congress, Morgan Library, and Embassy of Singapore, collaborating with artists such as Jeremy Denk, Richard O’Neill, and Lynn Harrell.

Prior to joining the Houston Symphony, Kubota toured Mediterranean Europe and Central America with Lincoln Center Stage, Holland America Line’s partnership with Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

Kubota first began cello lessons while in high school as a student of Stanley Sharp. After completing his undergraduate studies with Alan Stepansky at the Peabody Conservatory, he graduated from Rice University under the tutelage of Desmond Hoebig. His training includes fellowships at the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, and Takacs String Quartet Seminar, as well as studying abroad at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore with Li-Wei Qin and in residence with the New York Philharmonic as a Zarin Mehta Fellow.

Outside of music, Kubota enjoys weight lifting and has recently picked up a liking of fine whiskey.

Scott Holshouser, principal keyboardist with the Houston Symphony, has been a member of the orchestra since 1980. He began his musical training in Athens, GA and attended Florida State University before moving to Houston to continue his studies at the University of Houston. He is now a member of the faculty at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music.

He is a former staff pianist with the Houston Ballet and the Houston Grand Opera and presently is the accompanist for the Houston Symphony Chorus, the Ima Hogg National Young Artist Competition and the Corpus Christi Young Artist Competition.