Performers 2024 - 2025
Carelle Flores, soprano
Dallas Harp Society
Amy Gustafson, piano
Ivo Ivanov, violin
Seonghun Jeong, piano
Helen Kim Quartet, flutes
Yongseok Kwon, piano
SuWon Lee, flute
Sujon Kim, soprano
Eldred Marshall, piano
Seungmin Oh, flute
Leslie Spotz, piano
Thomaz Tavares, flute
Texas Flute Society
Julee Kim Walker
Fenia Chang, piano
Pianist Fenia Chang has enchanted audiences from all over the United States with her beautiful tone in a wide range of repertoire. Her solo debut recital at Weill Recital Hall in New York was highly praised that the critics called her an “out of this world pianist”.
Dr. Chang has maintained a busy concert career in both solo and collaborative performances in Asia, Europe and the United States. She has performed extensively at different venues including Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully at Lincoln Center, Carnegie’s Weil Recital Hall, the Museum of Modern Arts in New York, the Terrace Theater at Kennedy Center, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC, the Strathmore Hall, Fairfax Auditorium, the Ellipse Arts Center,, the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and the Concert Hall in Beijing and Shanghai, China.
A winner of several major international competitions, Ms. Chang is the recipient of many prestigious awards, including the top prizes at the Elizabeth Davis International Piano Competition, Thomas Richner International competition, Concert Artists Internationals, Young Artist International Piano Competition, and the Frinna Awerbuch International Piano Competition of the United States, as well as the Composer’s Prize from Olivier Messiaen International Piano Competition in Paris, France.
Dr. Chang has collaborated with such notable musicians as violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, Reiko Watenabe, Michael Shih, Charles Stegman, Cellist Bion Tsang, Karen Basrak, Eugene Osadchy and Pianist Anton Nel and Brian Ganz. In 2005, Dr. Chang became the first local pianist to be invited to perform at the prestigious Greenville Entertainment Concert Series in Greenville, Texas. She also appeared as a collaborative pianist at the National Music Teachers Conference in Texas and Nebraska Music Teachers Convention Concert, Academy of the West in California, Fox Valley Spring Festival in Chicago, French Piano Institute at Ecole Normale de Paris in France. As an active chamber musician, she is a frequent guest artist of the Taipei Chamber Music Players which included a concert tour across Asia and China. She also toured with the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Festival and appeared in the International Chamber Music Festival in Taiwan.
A Steinway Artist, Dr. Chang received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music Degrees from the Juilliard School, and Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance from the University of Maryland. She currently serves as music faculty at Eastfield College in Dallas, and the collaborative pianist at Southern Methodist University. In addition, she maintains a private piano studio in Plano, where she resides with her husband Eugene and two lovely children Warren and Declan.
Dallas Harp Society: TBD
Dallas Harp Society will present the winner of its annual competition.
Amy Gustafson, piano
Praised for her “exquisite sensitivity” and a “style filled with class and elegance” by La Voz de Asturias (Asturias, Spain) and recognized as a “talented player who doesn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold” by Lucid Culture (New York City), American pianist Amy E. Gustafson has performed across the United States and in both Western and Eastern Europe. Her debut album, Reverie, consists of music by Claude Debussy and was released in June 2017.
Recent performances include replacing legendary pianist Abbey Simon in Los Angeles at LACMA’s series, Sundays Live, an appearance with the Sofia Sinfionetta in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a concert tour in Dallas, Texas with her piano duo, Duo Azul. Other recent engagements have taken her to Spain, China, and Canada, and she has also performed New York City venues, such as Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Trinity Church Wall Street, the Tenri Cultural Institute, CAMI Hall and the Kosciuszko Foundation.
Born into a musical family, her talent was evident at an early age, and she received much of her beginning piano instruction from her grandmother. By the age of 15, she had won several local competitions, including MTNA’s Baldwin Competition, and her success led her to move to New York City to continue her studies.
Since then, Gustafson has won numerous awards, including the second prize in the International Young Artists Piano Competition, second prize in the Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation Competition, and the Special Presentation Award and the Alumni Award from Artists International Presentations, Inc.
Gustafson completed her studies at the Manhattan School of Music, New York University, and the University of Texas at Austin. Her major teachers have included Julian Martin, Andre-Michel Schub, Anton Nel, Constance Keene, and Miyoko Lotto, and she has benefited from the advice of many renowned pedagogues, including Solomon Mikowsky, Arie Vardi, Veda Kaplinsky, Robert McDonald, Paul Badura-Skoda, Marc Durand, Martin Canin, Leslie Howard, and Luiz de Moura Castro.
In addition to her performing career, Gustafson taught at the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York City for 10 years and is Director and Faculty of the Gijón International Piano Festival in Gijón, Spain, as well as Director of the Palmetto International Piano Festival in South Carolina. Previously, Dr. Gustafson directed The Stony Brook International Piano Festival in Stony Brook, New York.
Amy E. Gustafson is a Yamaha Artist.
Helen Haeun Kim Quartet, flutes
Helen Haeun Kim is a flutist and music educator in Dallas, Texas and plays with the Dallas Asian Winds Ensemble. Her performances appeared on premier venues such as London’s Royal Albert Hall, BBC Radio 3 & 4, TBN UK, and Prague’s Církev československá husitská. She actively performs with the Kim Quartet, the chamber ensemble comprised of her musician siblings. Ms. Kim is a music faculty at Dallas College, teaching music appreciation and flute lessons. She also works as a site leader and woodwind teaching artist for Dallas Symphony Orchestra's Young Musicians Program. She is also a children's music director at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas. Ms. Kim serves on the board of directors of the Texas Flute Society. She also works as a flute instructor at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. In 2022, Ms. Kim joined the DalAsian Flute Choir and performed at the National Flute Association Conference.
Ms. Kim has won numerous competitions and auditions: Carolina Band Festival, Dallas Symphony Festival, Raleigh Area Flute Association Competitions, Raleigh Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and many more. Ms. Kim has also appeared as a soloist with the Carolina Philharmonic and the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kim studied flute performance under Tadeu Coelho and Nicolas Duchamp at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where she obtained her Bachelor of Music and her further flute/piccolo studies were taken in London under William Bennett, Kate Hill, and Patricia Morris at the Royal Academy of Music, University of London, where obtained her Master of Music.
Ivan Ivanov, violin
Ivo Ivanov, violinist, has been a full-time member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1997. He was born in Rousse, Bulgaria where he began to study violin at age of 6 with Anelia Popova. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from the State Academy of Music in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he studied violin with Georgi Badev, Chamber Music with Vladimir Avramov and Orchestral Studies with Alipi Naydenov.
Soon after his graduation, he joined the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra where he worked for two consecutive seasons before moving to the United States where he studied at Southern Methodist University with the legendary concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Emanuel Borok earning his Master’s degree in Violin Performance. He also studied in a DMA program at University of Houston with Fredell Lack.
While a member of the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Prof. Ivanov toured and performed in concert halls throughout Europe such as the City of Birmingham Symphony Hall (UK); the City Halls of Leeds, Bristol and Nottingham (UK); Prinzregententheater (Munich, Germany); and Teatro dei Rinnovati (Siena, Italy).
He took part in the 1990-1994 editions of “Settimana Musicale Sienese” in Siena, Italy. He has appeared in Potsdam, Germany (1980); Athens, Greece (1993); Ravello, Italy (1993). In 1980 Prof. Ivanov participated in a governmental cultural exchange delegation including solo performances in Pyongyang, North Korea.
He has participated in the January 2008 Carnegie Hall Tour in New York City and the 2018 Shift Festival at Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
In his solo appearances he has performed J.S. Bach’s Double Violin Concerto and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto with Rousse Philharmonic Orchestra in Rousse, Bulgaria; Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the State Academy Symphony Orchestra in Sofia, Bulgaria and Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavillion in Houston, Texas.
Prof. Ivanov has been on the music faculty of Tarrant County Community College, S.E. campus since 2016 and joined the music faculty of Tarleton State University as an Adjunct Violin Professor in the Fall of 2022.
He and his wife reside in Arlington with their two daughters.
Seonghun Jeong, piano
Born in South Korea in 1996, Seonghun Jeong started playing the piano at the age of 14. Considering his relatively late start, he made an extra effort to catch up with his peers. Six months later, he was accepted to Gyeonggi Art High School. There his talent and passion for music became evident, and he deeply studied tone and musical atmosphere, which was his strength.
Jeong has won many competitions, including the Korean. Liszt Association Competition, Music Journal National Competition, Music Chunchoo Competition, Nanpa Piano Competition, Music: Education News Competition, Buam Music Competition, Korea Universal Competition, and many others.
As a soloist and collaborative pianist, he has performed at Lotte Concert Hall. Kumho Art Hall, Youngsan Art Hall, Mozart Hall, Lium Studio, Buam Art Hall, Concert Hall at Yonsei University, Korea National University of Arts, Ewha Womans University, and Seoul National University.
In addition, Jeong's interest in chamber music has led to frequent collaborations with other musicians. He has been recognized and chosen to perform in the Meadows Chamber Music Honors concerts. As a 2023-2024 Winner of the SMU Concerto Competition, he will play the Schumann Piano Concerto with the Meadows Symphony Orchestra in the spring of 2024.
Jeong holds his Bachelor of Music degree from Yonsei University in Seoul with a full scholarship and excellent grades. He is currently on full scholarship in Performer's Diploma program at SMU Meadows, in the studio of Dr. Carol Leone.
Yongseok Kwon, piano
Korean pianist Yongseok Kwon started his piano studies at the age of seven. After graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree from Chugye University for the Arts in Seoul, Korea, Yongseok moved to North Texas to continue studying at the University of North Texas. There, he earned Master of Music degrees and is currently pursuing his doctorate degree under the guidance of Adam Wodnicki.
Yongseok Kwon has appeared in several recitals and concerts as both a soloist and collaborative pianist in both Korea and North Texas. He has also played in the UNT Symphony, Concert Orchestra, Wind Symphony, and Wind Ensemble, as well as the NOVA Ensemble.
SuWonLee, flute
Eldred Marshall, piano
Eldred Marshall began studying the piano at age six and played in public by age seven. His prodigious and inquisitive mind allowed him to master large swaths of the piano repertoire quickly as well as consistently win top prizes at the competitions he entered as a child. By 16, he debuted with orchestra, playing Brahms’s Piano Concerto no. 2 in B-flat Major with the Victor Valley Symphony Orchestra. Before entering into Yale University, where he graduated with honors with a B.A. in Political Science, he had already performed all over the United States.
The critically-acclaimed pianist has performed in Spain, Italy, the Republic of San Marino, Belgium, Germany, Romania, Bulgaria, the Ukraine, the People’s Republic of China, and Canada. He has performed the entire cycle of 32 Piano Sonatas of Beethoven in public, from memory, as a concentrated series, twice. Other notable tour projects include all-Bach piano recital programs including the Goldberg Variations, the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, and Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.
As an orchestral conductor, Marshall has led the Ukrainian State Academic Orchestra (Kiev, Ukraine), the Kharkiv Youth Symphony (Kharkiv, Ukraine), the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra (Pleven, Bulgaria), the Vidin Philharmonic Orchestra (Vidin, Bulgaria), the Filharmonica Oltenia di Craiova (Craiova, Romania), and the Constanta “Black Sea” Philharmonic Orchestra (Constanta, Romania). Additionally, he has led several opera productions, such as Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, Le Nozze di Figaro, Die Zauberflöte, as well as Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande.
The 2023-2024 Season featured Marshall making his debuts as a pianist with the East Oregon Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4) and with the National Symphony Orchestra of Teleradio-Moldova as pianist and conductor. He returned to Bulgaria to tour three cities with the Pleven Philharmonic Orchestra, doubling as pianist and conductor in May 2024. Further, he performed another tour of China in the summer of 2024.
Marshall earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance degree from the University of North Texas (UNT) in 2018. Additionally, he earned three Master of Music degrees from Southern Methodist University (SMU): piano (2011), organ (2012) and orchestral conducting (2013). Institutions at which he has taught include Grambling State University, Texas A&M Commerce, UNT, SMU, and North Texas Central College. His doctoral dissertation topic was on the art of conducting piano concerti from the piano – performance practice, discipline and whether or not it is “real conducting.”
Presently, Marshall serves as the Artistic Director/Conductor of the Mansfield Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, he serves as Associate Director of Music at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church in Rockwall, TX. He is also the Music Director/Conductor of the Music Ministry Conservatory Choir, the founding Artistic Director/Conductor of the Lucas Chorale, and the Organist/Music Director of Grace Fellowship Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lucas, TX.
Jieun Lee, piano
Dr. Jieun Lee is originally from Seoul, South Korea, where she started her piano studies at the Sunhwa Arts Middle and High School and made her orchestral debut at the age of 14 with the Gangdong Symphony Orchestra. When she holds her bachelor's degree from the Chugye University for the Arts, she received the honor scholarship for outstanding academic performance. She received a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance under the guidance of Professor Gustavo Romero from the University of North Texas, where she holds her Master’s degree.
Seungmin Oh
Seungmin Oh, born in South Korea, had her first U.S. debut recital in Pittsburgh and performed in multiple invited recitals since, including as the Byron Hester Artist in Houston in 2019, a recital at the Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2021, a full recital at the Mid-Atlantic Flute Convention in 2020 and 2022 and the 2023 Texas Flute Festival. She has also performed in London and Seoul at the Elgar Hall in the Royal Albert Hall and Seoul Arts Center and plays with the Dallas Asian Winds Ensemble.
She obtained bachelor’s degree from the Seoul National University, after which she moved to the United States to continue studies at Carnegie Mellon University in Jeanne Baxtresser’s studio as a scholarship recipient for the Advanced Music Studies and MM. As the final academic accomplishment, she graduated from the Peabody Conservatory’s Artist Diploma Program with Marina Piccinini.
Leslie Spotz, piano
Leslie Spotz, an award-winning concert pianist and retired college piano professor, enjoys an international performing career that spans four continents and five decades, and has included solo performances in Moscow at Tchaikovsky Hall of Moscow University, South Bank Center of London, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the famed Academy of Music in Philadelphia, her highly acclaimed tours of Germany, concerts in Italy at the Lorenzo de’Medici Institute, solo recitals in Taiwan and Brazil, and her performance at the inaugural opening of Philadelphia’s magnificent performance venue, the Kimmel Center.
She performed remotely throughout the pandemic of 2020-2021, including the MTNA Convention, receiving the Texas Music Teachers Association “Outstanding Collegiate Teaching Achievement” Award in 2017. Recent seasons include solo recitals throughout Texas, Rio de Janeiro and Il Encontro Internacional de Pianistas de Brazil and performances at the Music by Women Festival at Mississippi University for Women.
She has performed solo recitals in New York City’s Tenri Cultural Institute, Indiana Wesleyan University, Dallas Public Library, and chamber music concerts in Dallas, TX, Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, and Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. She performed in New York and the Tenri Cultural Institute for the Leschetizky Association Annual Living Composers Concert May, 2016. She returned to Italy in June 2013 for performances at the Conservatorio di Milano and the Ambrosianeum Foundation. She performed in Buenos Aires, Argentina and returned to London in May 2011. February 2010 included an all-Chopin Bicentennial recital in New York City. December 2010 she performed in Germany in a solo recital at the Heilig–Kreuz–Kirche in Berlin. Hailed by the prestigious Süddeutsche Zeitung of Munich, Spotz’ Beethoven was described thus: “Stripped of veneer, revealing all the edges and corners, Spotz earnestly confronted Beethoven’s tempi and dynamic indications, leaving mediocrity and shallow beauty behind and bringing out truth. In all, a concert of the highest critical standard, further proof of the high carat quality of this series.” Spotz has performed extensively throughout the U.S. from coast to coast. Concert highlights include her 2007 performance as soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony, her performances of twenty Beethoven Sonatas at Rutgers University and recitals for the Bach Festival of Philadelphia.
Receiving a full scholarship to the Curtis Institute of Music, Spotz studied for five years with the legendary, Mieczyslaw Horszowski, part of a heritage that is only three musicians-students-teachers away from Beethoven. She completed her doctorate at Rutgers University in 2002. Her appearances as soloist include the Fort Worth Symphony, Mozart Society of Philadelphia, South Jersey Symphony, Curtis Symphony, Kinhaven Symphony in Vermont, the Piedmont Chamber Orchestra in North Carolina, the Old York Road Symphony in Abington, PA, and the Clear Lake Symphony in Texas. March 2013 she was soloist with the University of Texas – San Antonio Symphony. Spotz has been International Piano Performance Examination Committee (IPPEC) Artistic Coordinator of Piano Examiners since 2016.
Spotz has become an advocate for women musicians through her performances, collaborating with flutist Adeline Tomasone on the critically acclaimed CD Fantasias, and women composers are featured on her solo CD, issued by Leonore Records in 1999. Published recordings also include the three sets of 5 CDs each of solo piano literature, representing the repertoire for 13 graded levels, 2019-2021, 2016-2018 and 2010-2012 for the IPPEC based in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
She has collaborated with violinists: Ivo Ivanov, Sophia Jieun Park, Semmy Stahlhammer, Maria Bachmann, Joseph Genualdi, and Mark Steinberg; flutist Laurel Zucker; David Wetherill, former co-principal horn of the Philadelphia Orchestra; Frank Kaderabek, former principal trumpet of the Philadelphia Orchestra; and Joseph Depasquale, who was longtime principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Among the notable international singers for whom Spotz has accompanied are sopranos Amanda Squitieri, Julianne Baird, Heather Hawk, Gwendolyn Bradley and Donna Connolly, and tenors Martin Dillon and Robert Guarino.
According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "Miss Spotz commands the resonant sound and the elegant gesture… playing of great color, boldness, and suavity… most engaging…"
Thomaz Tovares, flute
Julee Kim Walker
A native Houstonian, flutist Julee Kim Walker remains an active performer and pedagogue in the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. She is Professor of Flute and Assistant Head at Texas A&M University-Commerce School of Music, where she has taught since 2012. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin, her Master’s degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of North Texas. She is Artistic Director of the Texas Summer Flute Symposium.
As soloist, she has performed with the Dallas Asian Winds, American Wind Symphony Orchestra, Southeastern Symphonic Winds, Texas A&M University-Commerce Wind Ensemble and Banda Sinfônica de Cubatão in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Julee has also performed with notable flutists such as Ian Clarke, Amy Porter, Christina Jennings and Carol Wincenc.
An esteemed teacher, Dr. Walker was the 2016 and 2020 recipient of the Paul W. Barrus Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching, and is sought-after as a clinician, adjudicator, and for masterclasses and lectures all over the world, including University of North Texas, CU Boulder, Florida State University, Shanghai Normal University in China, and Sao Paulo State University in Brazil.
Dr. Walker performs regularly with FlutAria! trio, The Dallas Winds, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Stage and Abilene Philharmonic. She has also performed with The Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Chamber Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, South Arkansas Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Amarillo Symphony and Sherman Symphony.
Texas Flute Society
The Texas Flute Society is a registered nonprofit organization, organized for the purpose and objectives as follows:
- to further the activities and education of flutists in North Central Texas
- to sponsor concerts, workshops, clinics, masterclasses, and festivals at which members and guest artists can perform and disseminate information, and
- to direct our efforts toward cultural and educational values in and for the general community, striving for activities with a public interest wider than that of members and contributors.
For more information, please visit www.texasflutesociety.org.