pianist
Kseniia
Praised for her “artistry of the highest order,” Ukrainian-born pianist Kseniia Vokhmianina is an international performer, educator, and musical ambassador.
Kseniia has captivated audiences across continents — performing in premier venues from the Seoul Arts Centre and Mendelssohn-Haus Leipzig to the Pablo Casals Festival in France. A winner of multiple international competitions, she opened the 27th Singapore International Piano Festival “…with a grand manner of pianism in the tradition of her birthplace’s classical greats, such as Shura Cherkassky, Emil Gilels and Sviatoslav Richter…”
Kseniia began her musical training at a young age in Ukraine. At 18, she received the Lee Foundation Scholarship to pursue a Diploma in Music Performance at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), followed by a Bachelor of Music (Hons) in partnership with the Royal College of Music (UK), under Professor Boris Kraljevic. She graduated with the “Best Graduate (Degree)” and “Embassy of Peru” awards. She later pursued a Master of Arts (MA) in Music at H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University (Ukraine) and further studies at Zurich University of the Arts (Switzerland).
As a concerto soloist and chamber musician, she has played with orchestras in Lithuania and China, and her recent tour with flutist Roberto Álvarez brought their acclaimed album The Whirlwind Within to stages in New Zealand and Australia.
Beyond the stage, Kseniia is a passionate educator. She has taught at institutions like SOTA and NUS, and now leads as Piano Teacher and Music Programme Director at Madison Academy of Music. A sought-after masterclass clinician and jury member, she also serves as President of the World Piano Teachers Association (Singapore Affiliate).
Soprano
Joyce
Soprano, Joyce Lee Tung graduated from the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, studying piano. At the same time, she studied voice privately with Lim Shieh Yih. Later, she graduated with Master of Arts in Voice under KS Joanna Borowska-Isser; and Masters in Concert Singing under Christine Whittlesey and Robert Heimann from the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, Austria.
Joyce was finalist and winner of several international singing competitions, including the 2nd International Singing Competition, Maribor, Slovenia (2018) – 2nd Place (1st Prize). She was heard on several occasions on the European radio with music ranging from the early to new music repertory, including the premiere of Americ Goh’s composition.
Joyce is also co-founder of the collective, The Art Song Coterie, which is dedicated to promoting the art song and its refined performance. Her notable concert appearances include solo performances with NAFA Orchestra, Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Winds Orchestra Singapore; and international appearances at The 14th Annual Chamber Music Festival of the Central Conservatory of Music 2023, Beijing and The 42nd Daegu International Music Festival 2023, Korea.
Her professional operatic engagements include Tonina(Salieri’s Prima la musica), Madame Herz (Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor), Frasquita (Bizet’s Carmen), Zerlina (Mozart’s Don Giovanni – abridged version) and Adele (J. Strauss’ Die Fledermaus) with Singapore Lyric Opera;Queen of the Night (Mozart’s The Magic Flute) with Kuala Lumpur City Opera; Marzelline (Beethoven’s Fidelio – abridged version) with The Opera People; Isabella(Rossini’s L’inganno felice) with Lirica Arts; and Gilda (Verdi’s Rigoletto) with New Opera Singapore.
Currently, she is adjunct principal study lecturer for voice at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and adjunct voice teacher at School of The Arts, Singapore.
flutists
Roberto
Cellist
Jamshid
Born in Tashkent city, Uzbekistan, Jamshid Saydikarimov started learning the cello at the age of 7. In 2003, he entered Uspensky Specialized Music School, where he studied with Madina Galiulina for 12 years. In 2015, he entered Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore where he pursued his Bachelor’s degree and studied with Ng Pei-Sian (Principal Cellist of SSO). In 2014, Jamshid won First Prize in the Knushevitsky International Cello Competition (Russia, Saratov).
He has had masterclasses with Jan Vogler, Alexander Buzlov, Qin Li-Wei, Ni Hai-Ye, Alexei Seleznyov, Tsutsumi Tsuyoshi, Vladimir Tonkha, Johan van Iersel, Jonathan Manson, Tillman Wick. Chamber masterclasses and collaborations with Gábor Takács-Nagy, London Haydn Quartet, Endellion Quartet, Amber Quartet, Takács Quartet, Alexander Sitkovetskiy, New Zealand Quartet, Shanghai quartet, The Juilliard String Quartet, and Shlomo Mintz.
As an orchestra musician Jamshid has been invited as a Guest Principal Cellist to the Sun Symphony Orchestra in Vietnam, Hanoi. He has performed in Uzbekistan, Russia, Ukraine, Austria, Switzerland, Korea, Singapore, Vietnam, France, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Jamshid performs on a 2020 Paolo Vettori cello, Firenze.
violinist
Ani
Ani Umedyan began her study on the violin in one of the finest Music Schools in Armenia with professor Paris Yerkanyan. Due to fine skills and natural musicality she was admitted to Music College after R.Melikyan in 1995. In 1999 Ani was granted a full scholarship for her outstanding talent, allowing her to pursue her musical training at the Yerevan State Conservatory under professor Bagrat Vardanyan,an outstanding musician and teacher. She graduated YSC in 2004, specialising in solo violin and chamber music with a Master Degree.
Since being a student, Ani played a great number of concerts in Armenia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East as well as participated in various music festivals and master courses across the globe. She also did several recordings that were produced by “Naregatsi” Art Center.
Ani collaborates with such notorious musicians such as Philippe Graffin (France), Maria Egelhoff (Germany),Levon Chilingirian (UK) Charles Avsharian (USA), Robert Masters (Australia), Sven Arne Tepl (Netherlands), Asdis Vladimirsdottir (Iceland), Usi Wiesel (Israel), Michaela Martin (Romania), Victor Correa Cruz (Spain) and others.
Since 2005 Ani Umedyan is a wanted guest artist at important concert halls in Germany, Netherlands, UAE and Australia. She is in professional co-operation with many orchestras, conductors, pianists and chamber ensembles. Also, Ani is a co-founder of the “Armenian Heritage Ensemble, Singapore” a group of Armenian artists, living and performing in Singapore.
In addition to her performances, Ani Umedyan has an intensive career in teaching. From 2004 till 2008 she did chamber music assistantship at the Yerevan State Conservatory. Since 2008 she has been running violin classes in Singapore.
Ani is playing on a rare antique violin built in the 1800’s by Ifrael Kaempfens & Soehne in Neunkirchen, courtesy of GPA Holding, Singapore.
Dizi
Bian
Bian Tong started learning Dizi at the age of 10, and has since then participated in numerous performances locally and abroad. He is currently the General Affairs Manager of the Singapore Dicapella Dizi Ensemble, South-East Asia’s First and Largest Chinese Bamboo Flute Ensemble. Bian Tong is also an alumnus of the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra.
Bian Tong was the Grand Champion in Senior Category of the 2016 Mediacorp Symphony 92.4 Young Talents Project, a locally renowned classical music competition; he was also the only Chinese Instrumentalist shortlisted to proceed into the Semi-Finals. Bian Tong also attained the Gold Award for the Singapore Raffles Music College Cultural Arts Festival 2016. He was also selected to perform as a soloist with the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra in their 2018 production Oriental Winds, and actively performs with Victoria Chinese Orchestra as well.
Apart from local concerts and community performances, Bian Tong also frequents overseas stages. In 2017, Bian Tong attained the Gold and Silver awards in the China West Lake International Youth Music Festival Professional Category, participating with Dicapella and as a soloist respectively. He also led Dicapella to attend the 2016 China-ASEAN Music Week, and 2018 Taipei Dizi and Woodwinds Music Festival, representing Singapore. Bian Tong was also given the honor of accompanying the Singapore National Youth Chinese Orchestra to participate in the 2017 Macau International Youth Music Festival.
Harp
Gulnara
Gulnara Mashurova was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan. She began to play the piano at the age of 6, and by the age of 9 she was chosen to study the harp at the Moscow Conservatory under Natalia Sibor. In 1991–93 she studied with Vera Dulova at the Moscow Conservatory. Ms. Mashurova earned her BA and MA in harp from the Juilliard School as a Jerome Green research assistant with Nancy Allen, Principal Harpist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. She received her second master’s degree in orchestral performance with a full scholarship from the Manhattan School of Music under the direction of Deborah Hoffman, former Principal Harpist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.
Gulnara regularly replaced the New York Philharmonic Orchestra both in concerts, and also toured extensively with the orchestra. She has performed with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Suspeso Contemporary, Absolute Ensemble, Stamford Symphony Orchestra, Empire State Opera and Silk Road Ensemble with Yo Yo Ma.
Gulnara Mashurova can be heard performing with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, The Silk Road Ensemble, NHK Japan and the Absolute Ensemble. She appears as a soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra and Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1994 she became a finalist for the World International Harp Competition in Wales, Cardiff. She has participated in the Pacific Music Festival, the Norfolk Music Festival, the Spoleto Festival, USA, and the Spoleto Festival, Italy. In 2003, Ms Mashurova joined the Singapore Symphony Orchestra as Lead Harpist and as a faculty in Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music.
narrator
Chris
Chris Joslin-Kelly is an American living in Asia for the past 36 years. She has loved being on stage since her first role as a teen. She currently teaches diction to voice students and has coached performers in a number of local productions.
Chris has sung with many Singapore choirs, including several opera seasons in the Singapore Lyric Opera Chorus, and currently with Vocal Associates Chorus, where she is often called upon to be the narrator in musical productions.
She has enjoyed being the MC for Symphony of Motherhood since its inception in Singapore.
vocal coach, choral conductor and singer
Kateryna
Alumni of the Kharkiv National University of Arts and Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (Spain) Kateryna Fedorova is an established vocal coach, choral conductor and singer.
After obtaining her first Bachelor’s degree, she continued her education at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore) in the Voice Department.
Kateryna has also participated in numerous festivals, competitions, and concerts in Europe and Asia. She has teaching experience working with vocal ensembles, choirs and in individual lessons of voice and beginner-level piano. Importantly, Kateryna has solid knowledge of the phonetics of over eight languages and possesses a basic proficiency in several languages herself.
She has participated in masterclasses and projects with renowned artists such as TwoSet Violin, Lyanne Dawson, Roger Vignoles, Tina Nilssen, Paul Weigold, among others.
Kateryna recently joined Madison Academy of Music as a vocal and choir teacher as well as piano associate.
