Flute

Sonja Vasic

Sonja Vasic grew up in Apatin Serbia, where she studied as a child with Rade Ivanichevich at the Stevan Hristich Music School. She attended secondary music school in the city of Valjevo, and graduated with a Master’s degree in Flute at Belgrade’s University of Arts. She has won several awards spanning regional and international competitions including the Antonin Reicha Award during the International Summer Academy of the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, and the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe Scholarship. Sonja has been fortunate to work with many world-class musicians such as Aurelio Nicolet, Silvia Careddu, Emmanuel Pahud, Koffler Martin, Matej Zupan, Felih Renggli and many others. 

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As soloist and part of chamber ensembles, Sonja performed across Serbia and Europe including several years with the Simphoniko Flute Quartet and Madlenianum Opera and Theatre where she performed classics such as Madame Butterfly, La Traviata and others. From 2009 until 2014, Sonja played Flute and Piccolo in the Serbian National Television Orchestra, and worked as an associate performer in the Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra. Sonja’s teaching spans both group and private lessons with many students excelling as award recipients across both regional and international competitions. Very devoted to pedagogy, Sonja continued to improve her teaching skills by attending seminars and specialization courses on teaching, preparing young students for competitions, and improving individual music curriculum for children. 

Violin

Yoorhi Choi

Dr. Yoorhi Choi is an active soloist and chamber musician in the United States and South Korea. She is top prizewinner of numerous competitions including Kingsville International Competition, Young Artists Competition, Korean Times Competition and Artists International Competition. Recipient of full scholarship, she received degrees from The Juilliard School, Yale University, and Northwestern University.

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Dr. Choi moved to the United States when she was invited to study with Dorothy Delay at The Juilliard School at the age of fifteen. She has performed on the stages including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Center, Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, and Seoul Arts Center. She has worked chamber music with Emmanuel Ax, Garrick Ohlsson, Tokyo String Quartet, Toby Appel, Jacob Lateiner, Rohan DeSilva, Earl Carlyss, and the Juilliard String Quartet. In 2014, Dr. Choi founded Stellio Trio who is the prizewinner of national chamber competitions, and they perform throughout the United States and Asia. As an orchestral musician, she worked with numerous orchestras including Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Korean Broadcasting System Orchestra, and New Haven Symphony Orchestra. She served as resident-ensemble at Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto in Italy and toured China with the Juilliard Orchestra. In 2015, she joined the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, and she has featured as guest principal with several orchestras in South Korea.

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Dr. Choi has been invited as visiting artist for master classes at universities in the United States and South Korea. Before relocating to California, Dr. Choi served as faculty at the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra chamber music faculty and Juilliard-Nord Anglia Performing Arts Programme.

Cello

Oshagan Merjanian

Oshagan Merjanian completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Cello Performance at Cal State University, Northridge (CSUN), a Master’s in Cello Performance from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Certificate in Music Performance at the University of Houston (UH). His primary teachers include Diane Roscetti, Antonio Lysy, Anthony Kitai and Eunghee Cho. He has participated in masterclasses with Daniel Rothmuller, Robert DeMaine, Chris French, Norman Fischer, the Formosa Quartet and Quatour Modigliani. He has also played for Ron Leonard and Desmond Hoebig. His awards include the CSUN Arts Council Scholarship for Extraordinary Achievement in Music, the Gluck Foundation Scholarship, and the Mangasar M. Mangasarian Fellowship. He was principal cellist for the CSUN Symphony Orchestra as well as the UCLA Opera Orchestra. He was chosen to be cellist for the competitive Samuel Goldberg Honors String Quartet at CSUN, the UCLA Gluck Cello Quartet, and most recently at UH the highly selective AURA Contemporary Ensemble, an innovative and professional-caliber ensemble dedicated to the performance of chamber music composed in the last two decades.

Piano

Theresa Ronan

Theresa Ronan was raised in Brockton, Massachusetts, where she displayed signs of musical talent at a very early age. Her parents nurtured this talent, and she became a pupil of the late Mrs. Helen Starr. As she grew, she became involved in many musical groups in and around her school, participating as an accompanist from the time she was in 6th grade. At Brockton High School, she was the accompanist for the Concert Choir, and played piano in the orchestra for the yearly musicals. It was there that she developed a love of Broadway Musicals.​Upon graduation, Ms. Ronan attended the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. She was a student of Mr. Thomas Stumpf, and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education. Ms. Ronan worked for the Stoughton, Massachusetts school system for several years, during which she taught General Music grades K-8; directed Middle and High School Choirs, and the SHS Show Choir, “Knight Moves”. She continued to perform and work in various ensembles in the Brockton area, and also both directed and performed for many Community Theatres, earning 3 Eastern Massachusetts Association of Community Theatre (EMACT) awards for her musical direction.​In 2000, Ms. Ronan began a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance at UMass Lowell, once again studying with Mr. Thomas Stumpf. She had the distinction of performing as a pianist for a performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana with the University under the direction of Dr. Christopher McGahan. She also took a job as a Music Director at Holy Family Church in East Taunton, and then St. Colman’s Church in Brockton. There, in addition to performing on both piano and organ, she directed both adult and children’s choirs, and planned the music for all the liturgies. She also coached vocal soloists, and hired outside musicians for special events. She continued her studies with Ms. Ellie Perrone at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.​Later, Ms. Ronan fulfilled a long-time dream of performing in a classic rock band; first as a member of the band 24 South, then Moonstruck, performing keyboards and background vocals. In 2015, she joined Divas With a Twist (www.divaswithatwist.com), which performed music across many different genres. She also has contributed to several of their arrangements, and appears on their recordings. ​Ms. Ronan moved to the South Bay Area in 2021, and has been teaching here since then. She is also a member of the Santa Clara Chorale.

Soprano

Isabella Göze

Isabella Göze has been teaching and performing for more than twenty years. Her career has spanned the Bay Area region and abroad including performances at the de Young Museum, Palace of Fine Arts, Le Petit Trianon, College of San Mateo, World One Festival, and Opera Workshop Tour (San Diego). She has also appeared regularly on national TV and radio shows including the prestigious TRT (Turkish Radio Television) Polyphonic Youth Choir. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from San Francisco State University in Vocal Performance with an emphasis in Opera and has studied teaching methods at Boston Conservatory’s Vocal Pedagogy Professional Workshop. Isabella is a versatile singer, continuing to expand her ability to fluently sing in thirty-five languages within the styles of Western classical (arias, art songs, choral), jazz, world music, ethnic folk, devotional and more. 

Piano

Libby Kardontchik

Libby Kardontchik, a popular Bay Area pianist and collaborative musician, graduated with her Bachelor of Music from the Moscow State Musical Academic College, affiliated with P.1.Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and earned her M.A. from the Moscow State Musical Pedagogical Institute.

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Libby is a pianist with the NACUSA SF Chapter and frequently performs the newest works of U.S. composers. She is the staff accompanist at Stanford University and a member of Two-Piano Club of Palo Alto. With her piano-duo partners, she has performed at the International Peggy and Milton Salkind Festival at San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Libby has 30 years of teaching experience and is an active member of MTAC, preparing students for CM (Certificate of Merit) exam. Her students have performed in recitals, have won USOMC, participated in the piano duo concert at SF Conservatory, and also played at Master classes with J. Gardner and T. La Ratta. Libby was on the piano faculty of the Inter-Harmony International Music Festival in Netherlands.