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.

Hailed by The Washington Post for his “poised and imaginative playing,” Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion has appeared in concert halls in Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain, Turkey and the USA, as a recitalist and concerto soloist. He played his orchestral debut at the age of 18 with the Manila Chamber Orchestra, and his New York recital debut in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in 1999. In addition, he has worked with conductors including Sergio Esmilla, Enrique Batiz, Mei Ann Chen, Zeev Dorman, Arthur Weisberg, Corrick Brown, David Loebel, Leon Fleisher, Michael Stern, Jordan Tang, and Bobby McFerrin.

A chamber music enthusiast, he has performed with artists such as Lynn Harrell, Zuill Bailey, Andres Diaz, James Dunham, Antonio Meneses, Joshua Roman, Cho-Liang Lin, Giora Schmidt, the Dover, Emerson, Serafin, Sao Paulo, and Vega String Quartets. He was on the chamber music faculty of the Aspen Music Festival, and the Garth Newel Summer Music Festival. He was also the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet for three seasons. Festival appearances include the Amelia Island, Highland-Cashiers, Music in the Vineyards, and Santa Fe.

His recordings include the complete Sonatas of L. van Beethoven with cellist Tobias Werner, Sonatas by Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff with cellist Joseph Johnson, the Rachmaninoff Sonata with cellist Evan Drachman, and the Chopin and Grieg Sonatas, also with Evan Drachman. He is featured in the award-winning recording “Songs My Father Taught Me” with Lynn Harrell, produced by Louise Frank and WFMT-Chicago.

Mr. Asuncion is the Founder, and Artistic and Board Director of FilAm Music Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to promoting Filipino classical musicians through scholarship and performance. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 2007 from the University of Maryland under the tutelage of Rita Sloan. Victor Santiago Asuncion is a Steinway artist.