The Virtuoso Pianist Masterclass
About the VPMC Teachers
Dr. Hao Huang
Currently, the endowed Frankel Chair in Music at Scripps College, Dr. Hao Huang has served as a four-time United States Information Agency Artistic Ambassador to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. He has been warmly acclaimed in twenty-eight countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. Winner of the David Bruce Smith National Competition, the Overman Foundation first prize, the Van Cliburn Piano Award at Interlochen, and the Frank Huntington Beebe Grant for European Study, he was a featured performer at the George Enescu International Music Festival and the Barcelona Cultural Olympiad. Huang appeared as a soloist with the Brevard Music Center Symphony Orchestra, the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the Xiamen Philharmonic, the Lake Tahoe Music Festival Orchestra, the Albuquerque Philharmonic, the Sinfonietta Hungarica, and others. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary, and held the Leonard Bernstein Scholarship at Harvard University, an MM piano scholarship at the Juilliard School, and was a DMA Graduate Council Fellow at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.
Dr. Jennie Jung
A member of the Scripps College and Pomona College faculty, Dr. Jennie Jung debuted with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra at the age of 11 and performed as a soloist with the Republic of Tatarstan, Korean Philharmonic, Taejon, Korean-Canadian, University of Toronto, Hart House, and Cathedral Bluffs Symphony Orchestras. As a collaborative pianist, she has performed in North America, Asia, Africa and Europe, and has been on staff at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Aspen Summer Music Festival, Gregor Piatigorsky Seminar for Cellists, Banff Centre for the Arts and Center Stage Strings. She was a member of the Jung Trio with her sisters Ellen (violin) and Julie (cello), which was the Grand Prize winner at the 2002 Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and Bronze Medal winner at the 2002 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Jung has degrees from the University of Toronto, Yale School of Music, and the Juilliard School.
Dr. Grace Xia Zhao
Professor and Chair of Music at University of La Verne, Dr. Grace Xia Zhao is an international solo and chamber music artist with performances in the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and China. Zhao was a top-prize winner in the Los Angeles International Liszt Competition, Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists, first place in the California Music Teachers’ Association Solo Piano Competition, and Brentwood/Westwood Symphony Concerto Competition. Awarded with a full-tuition scholarship to study at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, she went on to earn a BM, MM, and Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance, with minors in Music Education, Ethnomusicology and Electro-Acoustic Media. She holds a master’s degree in Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and has strong research interests in the intersections of music and psychology.
Dr. Tatiana Thibodeaux
A member of the University of La Verne piano faculty and past Scripps piano faculty, Dr. Tatiana Thibodeaux has gained a critical acclaim in Russia, Asia, Europe, South and North America. The winner of the Liszt International Piano Competition (Germany), Association Musicale Mérignac Aquitaine (France), The Young Artist National Piano Competition (Russia), the PTNA Piano Competition for Promising Artists (Japan), Thibodeaux appeared as a concerto soloist with Lyric Orchestra, St. PetersburgSymphony Orchestra, Ekaterinburg Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador, Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestra of Catalonia, Chiba Symphony Orchestra, and others. Thibodeaux holds degrees from Saint Petersburg Conservatory and Claremont Graduate University, where she was a Graduate Council Fellow. She was honored by selection as a Fulbright Scholar in Music and American Studies at Ural State Pedagogical University, Russia and at Astany State Conservatory, Kazakhstan, and is a respected published scholar on piano teaching in Russian and English language academic journals.