Allen Chang (Mar 8) is a pianist originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan. He graduated from Yale University in 2019, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in statistics and was co-president of the Yale Undergraduate Piano Collective. Allen has studied piano with Logan Skelton, Elizabeth Parisot, Donald Morelock, Sonoko Kambara, and Chao-Li Tsai. He also plays the clarinet and is currently the principal clarinetist of the Seattle Philharmonic. Outside of music, Allen enjoys traveling, eating, skiing, playing tennis, playing chess, and petting dogs.
Annie Center (guest artist, Mar 8), violist/pianist, started performing in her native Taiwan for foreign dignitaries when she was six years old. Since coming to the U.S., Annie has performed in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral musician. As a piano soloist, she performed with San Francisco Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. As violist, she performed at the Marlboro, Ravinia, Olympic, Utah, Prague, and Red Rocks Festivals, and has collaborated with members of the Juilliard, Guarneri, Emerson, Cleveland, and Philadelphia Quartets. For ten years, she was the assistant principal violist of the Phoenix Symphony, for which she performed regularly as a viola soloist. She has also played in the AZ Musicfest Orchestra, Black Pearl Orchestra, South Florida Symphony, and Seattle Opera. Currently, she plays in the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra.
Owen Cromwell (guest artist, Mar 8), violin, is very excited to debut with Ladies Musical Club Seattle. A frequent collaborator with community-led orchestras and ensembles, he is currently assistant concertmaster of the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and principal second violin of Solstice Symphony Orchestra as well an active participant with the Sound Chamber Players and Emerald City Chamber Orchestra. Previously, he served as the concertmaster of the St. Olaf Orchestra in Northfield, MN, and was a soloist on their tour in Washington and Oregon. Beyond orchestral music, he is a member of multiple string quartets including a former member of the Høyde Quartet which was a finalist in LMC Seattle’s own Frances-Walton Competition and a finalist and audience prize winner of the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition in 2022.
Erika Fiebig (Mar 21) is a Seattle native and started cello at five. She studied at Oberlin College, coaches the Bellevue Youth Symphony, and plays in the Ballard Civic Orchestra and subs with Yakima Symphony Orchestra. Teachers are Richard Aaron and Rajan Krishnaswami. Find her in the pit at many local theaters and in a quartet at many local weddings!
Ute Freund (Mar 21), lyric mezzo soprano, received her undergraduate and graduate training in classical voice, opera, and voice pedagogy at the University of Hamburg, Germany. Her career as a soloist started with Hamburg State Opera and continued with German and American opera companies. Ute equally sang oratorio and solo recitals, organized concert series (“Christmas with the Classics,” Benefit Concerts) and founded “Trio Encore.” She teaches voice out of her private studio in Edmonds after spending 10 years at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany, as a voice instructor. She loves foreign languages and extensive travel, hiking with her dog, bicycling, and playing pickleball.
Japanese pianist Yuriko Fukuda (Mar 25) spent part of her early childhood in New York State. She studied piano at Aichi University of the Arts (B.A.), the Imola International Piano Academy in Italy (Diploma), and earned her Master’s degree in Piano Performance from the Berlin University of the Arts. She is a prizewinner of numerous international competitions, including those in Palmanova, Padova, Imola, Osaka, and the Tokyo International Association of Artists, and will appear as an invited soloist at an Italian music festival in April 2026. Yuriko has performed with the Kraków Philharmonic and the Okayama Philharmonic, collaborated with the Primavista String Quartet, and recorded Schumann’s Piano Sonata No. 3 for CD release. Active as both a soloist and collaborative pianist, she made her Seattle debut in the fall of 2025 with a duo recital alongside soprano Fumi Tagata in Bellevue. Since 2025, she has been based in Seattle.
Katie Hochman (Mar 8), soprano, can be heard regularly giving recitals with Ladies Musical Club of Seattle. She has also enjoyed singing opera and oratorio with Puget Sound Concert Opera (PSCO), Opera Theater Oregon, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Columbia Chorale and Southwest Washington Symphony (SWS). Highlights include the title role of Massenet’s Cendrillon and Héro in Berlioz’s Beatrice et Bénédict performed with PSCO and Exultate, jubilate performed with SWS.
Emiko Hori (Mar 11, 17), a native of Japan, graduated from the renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Piano Performance. She studied with Shigeo Neriki, and performed at numerous places including Banff Centre, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Germany. Emiko became fascinated with and continued her study in Computer Science at Boston University. Busy working in technology companies such as CommerceHub and Microsoft, Emiko thought she would never play the piano again. She was wrong; Emiko is now actively performing piano at numerous concert venues. Emiko enjoys dividing her time between performing concerts, teaching piano, and working at Starbucks HQ’s Digital Commerce team.
Seattle-born cellist Emily Hu (Mar 25) enjoys a diverse career as an orchestral cellist, chamber musician, and recitalist, performing regularly with the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, and the 5th Avenue Theater, as well as with her duo partner of twenty years, pianist Thomas Lee. She is a former member of the Oregon Symphony Orchestra and has appeared at the Oregon Bach Festival and the Bellingham Festival of Music, along with many other ensembles throughout the Pacific Northwest and across the country. Emily is happiest as a chamber musician and has collaborated in recital with artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Lynn Harrell, and Alban Gerhardt. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she studied with Norman Fischer, and a Master’s degree from Northwestern University, where she was a student of Hans Jorgen Jensen.
Violinist Angie Kam (Mar 17) is an established teacher and performer in the Seattle area. As an orchestral musician, Angie plays with the Auburn Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Tacoma, and the Tacoma City Ballet. As a pop violinist, Angie has performed with many artists including the Eagles, Andrea Bocelli, the Trans Siberian Orchestra, The Who, Ramin Djalwadi, Amy Grant, Il Divo, Idina Menzel, Evanescence, Lindsey Stirling, Sarah Brightman, and Michael Buble. She is also an active studio-recording musician for movies and video games. Angie maintains a successful violin studio of over 30 wonderful students in Bellevue. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Violin Performance from the University of Oregon, and a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance and String Pedagogy from the Boston Conservatory. In her spare time Angie enjoys mountaineering, skiing, trail running, yoga, and eating.
Caitlin Kelley (Mar 25) enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player, and teaching artist. She is the founder and artistic director of the Cannon Beach Music Festival, a member of the Grammy-nominated modern music collective Wild Up, and a frequent performer with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Opera. Caitlin has appeared as a soloist and concertmaster across the country, and has received awards in numerous competitions. Most recently, she was a winner of the 2022 LMC Frances Walton Competition and a finalist in the 2023 George Gershwin International Music Competition in New York, where she received the prize for best performance of an American work. Caitlin has appeared many times on Classical KING FM in Seattle, and has also been featured on KUOW, KOMO TV, and NPR. A native of Seattle, WA, Caitlin received a Bachelor of Music degree and Professional Studies Certificate from the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School in New York.
Monica Kessler (Mar 17) earned her BM in piano performance from Western Washington University and MM in piano performance from Central Washington University. She has extensive teaching and accompanying experience, having taught on faculty at Wenatchee Valley College, Woods House Conservatory, Northshore Christian Academy as well as her own private teaching studio. While continuing to perform she also has a career as a full-time real estate broker.
Stasia Kulsa (Mar 8), flutist, has a Master of Arts in Music from Washington State University that she completed under the guidance of Dr. Sophia Tegart. In addition, she has undergraduate degrees in Music Performance and Mechanical Engineering from WSU. While at WSU, she performed with the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Orchestra, the Latin Jazz Ensemble, and the Crimson Flute Choir. Since graduating, she has been performing with the Bremerton WestSound Symphony and working as an Acoustics Engineer at Blue Origin.
Yoonjung Lee (Mar 21) was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to the U.S. at the age of 13. She was awarded a scholarship to study cello performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the instruction of Dmitry Kouzov. She has performed in various types of group settings covering many different genres of music. Currently, she is a cellist in the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, and has avidly performed in both the United States and South Korea as part of the Urbana Pops Orchestra, Baltimore Philharmonic Orchestra, Western Symphony Orchestra, and many others. Yoonjung’s mutual interest in science led her to pursue a doctoral degree in biological sciences from the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology (KAIST), and she is currently also working as a research scientist at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB).
Joan Lundquist (Mar 5, 8, 11, 21) has served as a collaborative pianist for Seattle area musicians and organizations for 40 years. Since moving to the area from Humboldt State University in northern California, where she was staff accompanist, Joan has worked with the Northwest Boychoir, Seattle Choral Company, has taught at Seattle University and Northwest University, and has worked with several area private music teachers. Ms. Lundquist is the retired Director of Music at Immanuel Lutheran Church in downtown Seattle and currently is the rehearsal accompanist for the Seattle Choral Company.
Kayleigh Miller (Mar 8, 25) was a member of the San Antonio Symphony and is a current member of the Pacific Northwest Ballet Orchestra and Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. She has additionally performed with the Oregon Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, the Britt Festival, and National Arts Centre Orchestra. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Eastman School of Music, and has certifications in Pilates, yoga, strength training, and Body Mapping. In her spare time, she enjoys strength training, running, hiking, and spending time with her two chihuahua mixes, Milo and Mortimer.
Erika Pierson (Mar 8) earned her bachelor’s in Cello Performance from Indiana University and her master’s in Performance from the University of Michigan. Between her degrees, Erika studied in Berlin, at the Hochschule der Kunste, and in London under Eileen Croxford, FRCM. Her other teachers included Richard Aaron, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Markus Nyikos, and Erling Blondal Bengtsson. Erika has given solo recitals in England, Germany, Spain, and in the United States, and has soloed with orchestras in Berlin, Ann Arbor, and Everett, WA. On the less classical side of things, she has also performed with Mannheim Steamroller, Rod Stewart, The Walkmen, and Deltron 3030. Currently Erika performs regularly in NOCCO Chamber Orchestra, and freelances and teaches in the Seattle area.
Caroline Rhoads (Mar 21) – Bio TBA
Emily Riesser’s (Mar 21) diverse experience encompasses opera, oratorio, theatre, and new works. She recently portrayed Elle in a staging of Poulenc’s one-voice opera, The Human Voice (Ladies Musical Club), sang Frasquita in Carmen (Kitsap Opera), and played a nun in Sister Act (Tacoma Musical Playhouse). In concert, Emily is known for her interpretation of Bach cantatas, including Wedding Cantata, which she sang recently in several venues. Favorite experiences include singing Iphigenie in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride (Seattle Opera Guild), Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata (Kitsap Opera), Tamiri in Mozart’s Il re pastore (Off-Center Opera), and soprano chorus at Seattle Opera. Emily is a graduate of Goshen College (Goshen, IN) and past participant in Bel Canto Northwest (Portland State University).
Soprano Tiina Ritalahti (Mar 5, 8) holds degrees in music and vocal performance from the University of Washington. She has performed throughout Washington with Northwest Opera in Schools Etcetera (NOISE), Puget Sound Opera, Ladies Musical Club and Puget Sound Concert Opera, as well as being a featured soloist for the Finlandia Foundation. She has sung such roles as the First Spirit and Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Despina in Cosi fan tutte, Lisa in Bellini’s La sonnambula, Änchen in Der Freischütz by Weber, Cis in Britten’s Albert Herring, and Olympia in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffman. Further, she has performed in multiple operas by Menotti: Lucy in The Telephone, Monica in The Medium, and Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief. Her passion for singing also extends to art song repertoire, which she performs regularly in recitals around Western Washington. Tiina has created unique breathing classes for young singers that combine her knowledge and experience as a massage therapist, certified yoga teacher and singer.
Valentina Rodov (Mar 5) was born and raised in Moscow, Russia, and received her music education as a concert pianist from the famous Moscow Conservatory. She performed solo and in chamber groups prior to emigrating to the United States. Once in the USA, Valentina decided to become a lawyer, which she successfully accomplished upon graduating from law school in Los Angeles and passing the California Bar. Valentina practiced law as a business litigator in Southern California for over twenty years until she and her husband moved to Seattle. With great support and encouragement from the Seattle music community, Valentina came back to piano playing, and soon became a frequent and critically acclaimed recitalist and chamber music performer at various venues in the Seattle area.
Susan Strick (Mar 8), soprano, has sung and taught in Seattle for many years. She has appeared with the Seattle Opera, Tacoma Opera, Village Theater (Maria in The Sound of Music) and as a soloist with the Seattle Bach Festival, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, and the Seattle Choral Company. Susan earned her B.A. in music from Stanford University, M.A. in music from UCLA, and an Opera Diploma from the University of Toronto’s Royal Conservatory. A regional finalist in both the Metropolitan and San Francisco Opera national auditions, she has performed leading roles with many small opera companies. Susan has been a faculty member of the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where she created and taught “Opera as Theater” in the Honors seminar program as well as teaching voice and being an active performer, music director, and coach in the theater department. Currently she teaches in Seattle and at Music Works Northwest in Bellevue.
Kathryn Vinson (Mar 11) is a mezzo-soprano known for the warmth and richness of her voice. She appears frequently in recital in Seattle in venues ranging from Town Hall to Saint Mark’s cathedral. She has an extensive repertoire of German Lieder and has appeared internationally in operas in Europe and the Middle East. Ms. Vinson is equally at home with oratorio and has been a soloist with Seattle Baroque Orchestra and Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers. Her voice can also be heard on the soundtracks of a number of major motion pictures. Ms. Vinson has been a featured singer with the Pacific Northwest Ballet, performing in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the annual Christmas production of The Nutcracker.
Colin Ward (Mar 21) is an alumnus of Western Washington University, having performed with the WWU Concert Choir and appearing in many opera productions, including as Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro. Colin has also appeared in many productions with Puget Sound Concert Opera and with the Seattle Opera Chorus, and is a regular soloist at Christian Science churches in the Seattle area.
Melet Whinston (Mar 21) studied under Maria DeRungs, and was first chair in the Portland Junior Symphony and Princeton University Orchestra. She has presented school performances as a member of the Leschi Trio and as a duo with Michael Housley, pianist. She is a performing member of the Ladies Musical Club, the Music Performance Group, and the Performers Only Night—Everyone Welcome! monthly musical nights. She has many years of experience as a chamber musician and solo performer, gives recitals regularly, and performs weekly at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church.
Sharon Wong (Mar 8) started playing piano at age four, beginning her collaborative piano journey in high school serving as the organist, pianist, and choir accompanist for her church. Sharon studied with Margaret Fabrizio on an 1812 Broadwood fortepiano while earning a BS and MS in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. She recently retired after receiving an MBA from Stanford and many years serving as a technology executive at multiple startups and major software companies. Sharon now happily plays with multiple chamber ensembles, community theater organizations, and subs at various churches around Seattle.