Sydney Lee has established herself as a cellist of refined elegance and depth, drawing audiences in with her artistry and sincerity. She won 1st prize at the 2022 Washington International Competition and 2nd prize at the Classic Strings International Competition, where British cellist Julian Lloyd Webber praised her performance of Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante as “mesmerizing” and “a performance to treasure.” Recently, she received the $50,000 Gurrena Fellowship from Meadowmount School of Music.
Since making her debut at age 13 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Sydney has continued to perform extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia in many of the world’s leading venues. She recently performed Shostakovich Concerto No. 1 with the New Hampshire Music Festival Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Yaniv Dinur as part of their Classics Series and was invited to the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki to perform and teach masterclasses as part of CelloFest.

Sydney founded the Galvin Cello Quartet, which earned international recognition after winning the silver medal at the 2021 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Galvin has been represented by Concert Artists Guild as winners of the esteemed 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition.

A New York City native, Sydney is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern University, where she is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with Hans Jorgen Jensen. She currently serves as Adjunct Cello Professor at the McDuffie Center for Strings.

Praised by The Herald Times as a pianist who “strokes and strikes the keyboard pristinely and with elegance”. Taiwanese pianist Liang-yu Wang has performed in major concert halls across four continents. The legendary violinist Ruggiero Ricci enthusiastically endorsed her as “A terrific pianist!”

Ms. Wang is currently based in Chicago and serves as the collaborative pianist at the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music. An enthusiastic chamber musician, she has been featured as guest artist with notable chamber music organizations including performances at the Morgan Library & Museum, Red Rocks Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Schlern International Music Festival, Chamber Music on the Fox, and Académie Musicale Internationale “Barbara Krakauer”. Her playing has been broadcasted on WFMT, the Violin Channel, PBS, and Klara (Belgium). The debut CD she recorded with with cellist Thomas Landschoot, “Balabille: Cello Sonatas by Debussy, Poulenc & Chopin” (ArchiMusic) was nominated as “The Best Classical Music Album” by the Golden Melody Awards in Taiwan. Ms. Wang was a recipient of the Collaborative Piano Fellowship from the Bard Conservatory of Music, working closely with the renowned soprano Dawn Upshaw. Ms. Wang has also served as Visiting Assistant Professor (Collaborative Piano/String) at the Indiana University-Bloomington and was on faculty at Western Illinois University School of Music. During summers, she is on staff at the prestige music program, Meadowmount School of Music. As a passionate advocate of contemporary music, her ongoing concert tours and recording project in collaboration with the Belgian leading composer Frank Nuyts has been one of her recent career highlights.