Hui-Chuan Chen

Pianist

Pianist Hui-Chuan Chen leads a diverse career as a concert pianist, chamber musician, and educator. She has performed widely throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, and has appeared in major performance venues, including Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), The Kennedy Center Concert Hall, and The Supreme Court of the United States of America. She has featured at the Aspen Music Festival (Aspen, CO), The National Gallery of Art and The Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the Barge Music Festival in New York City, The Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy, the Walters Arts Museum and An Die Musik in Baltimore, MD, and the Heifetz International Music Festival in Staunton, VA.

Hui-Chuan has collaborated and toured with celebrated soloists, including Amit Peled, Marina Piccinini, Demarre McGill, Chee-Yun Kim, Jennifer Frautschi, and Robert McDuffie.  She returns regularly to The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University as a collaborator and is a long-term partner of the Washington International Competition, The National Symphony Orchestra Youth Fellowship Program, and the Arts Club of Washington. She served as music director for The Figaro Project in Baltimore, and First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Towson, MD.

She has earned awards from the Wonderlic Piano Competition in Baltimore, the Music Academy International in Siena, and the Kaohsiung City Competition, National Taiwan Normal University Piano Competition, and Kawai Piano Competition in Taiwan. She has also won awards and held prominent fellowships at The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

Since completing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The Peabody Institute, Hui-Chuan is devoted to teaching and academia.   She previously served as faculty for the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, Washington Conservatory of Music, and the Heifetz International Music Institute. She currently holds faculty and collaborative positions with the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Allison Freeman

Pianist

A native of North Carolina, pianist Allison Freeman is equally established as a soloist and collaborator. She earned her Master’s degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University as a student of Boris Slutsky, and completed her undergraduate studies with Alvin Chow at Oberlin Conservatory.

Allison has performed at the Southeastern Piano Festival, Meadowmount School Of Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Banff Centre, and Beijing International Music Festival, and has appeared as soloist with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and the Oberlin Orchestra. While at Oberlin, Allison was a recipient of the Rudolf Serkin Prize, the Faustina Hurlbutt Prize, and the Pi Kappa Lambda Prize. 

Allison has served as a collaborative pianist for the Castleman Quartet Program and the Heifetz International Music Institute, and currently works as a collaborative pianist at the Peabody Conservatory.

Bethany Pietroniro

Pianist

Pianist Bethany Pietroniro is a versatile collaborator whose work spans an eclectic range of vocal and instrumental repertoire. She has performed at venues including Alice Tully Hall, the Morgan Library, and the Baltimore War Memorial, and has participated in the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Bach Institute at Emmanuel Music, SongFest, and the Garth Newel Chamber Music Festival.

After completing her Master's degree at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, Bethany was a Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellow at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Bethany frequently joins Bard's resident orchestra, The Orchestra Now, as an orchestral keyboardist for numerous concerts during their 2017-2021 seasons, and has been a rehearsal pianist for opera productions at the Bard SummerScape Festival for the past three seasons. 

In addition to her work as a collaborative pianist, Bethany is currently the pianist and organist at the Old Dutch Church in Kingston, NY. She is also a staff member at Art of Problem Solving, an online community devoted to advanced mathematics education and creative, interdisciplinary problem solving.

Celeste Marie Johnson

Pianist

Pianist Celeste Marie Johnson is deeply inspired by the unique power of words and music functioning in artistic tandem and constantly seeks diverse opportunities as a collaborative performer. She is currently a Resident Artist at Minnesota Opera, where recent projects have included Albert Herring with Dame Jane Glover conducting and orchestral piano for Ópera Afuera, a concert celebration of music of the Spanish speaking world.

In previous seasons, Celeste has performed with SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, Opera Saratoga, Boston University Opera Institute, SongFest, Inland Northwest Opera, the Atlantic Music Festival, the Peabody Opera Institute, and the Occasional Symphony. She was a faculty coach at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2018 and a staff coach and pianist at Gonzaga and Whitworth universities from 2014-2017. As a choral pianist, she has performed with Coro Allegro in Boston, MA, the Massachusetts All-State Chorus, Gonzaga University choirs, and Baylor University choirs.

Celeste holds a B.M. in piano performance from Baylor University, a M.M. in ensemble arts: vocal accompanying from The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, and a D.M.A. in collaborative piano from Boston University. When she is not at a piano, she enjoys hiking, yoga, and admiring her cat Pushkin. Celeste recently decided to pursue professional coaching in order to provide additional support to her colleagues in the performing arts.  She is certified as a professional coach through the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).

Lior Willinger

Pianist

Award-winning pianist Lior Willinger performs as a solo and chamber artist in the US and abroad. At the age of 19, he made his New York concerto debut at Carnegie Hall performing Piano Concerto No. 1 by Dmitri Shostakovich. He won grand prize and audience prize in the Camerata Artists International Piano Competition following his performance of Piano Concerto No. 3 by Sergei Prokofiev at Merkin Hall.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Willinger has collaborated in recitals with musicians of the Boston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, and Minnesota Orchestra. He currently serves as Director of the Homewood Chamber Music Seminar, coaching student chamber groups at Johns Hopkins University. Passionate about the music of our time, Mr. Willinger has premiered countless works and has released a 10-part commissioning/performance/video/article series on I CARE IF YOU LISTEN called Active Listening. Each work in the project hopes to bring awareness and action to a social justice issue chosen by the composer.

Mr. Willinger earned the Bachelor of Music degree and the Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory, where he is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree with renowned artist-teacher, Yong Hi Moon. During his graduate studies, Peabody Conservatory honored Mr. Willinger with the Sidney Friedberg Prize in Chamber Music and the Presser Music Award "given to a student demonstrating excellence and outstanding promise for a distinguished career in the field of music.”

Active in the Baltimore community, Mr. Willinger performs weekly for infusion patients at Sinai Hospital’s Lapidus Cancer Institute. He is the Founder/Artistic Director of the If Music Be the Food concert series in Baltimore which acts to increase support and awareness for those struggling with food insecurity. The series, which partners with Maryland Food Bank, has raised thousands of meals for those in need. He also serves as resident pianist for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's Orchkids program which provides a free music education to students in underserved areas. In Fall 2021, Mr. Willinger joined the music theory faculty at Peabody Conservatory.