Paul W. Ogle Cultural & Community Center

Rose Armbrust from Wayne, IL began studying the viola at age 2. She immediately began performing and competing until she entered The Juilliard School in 2002. During her youth, she was principal violist of the Midwest Young Artist, Dupage Youth, and Scotland's International Youth Orchestra. She was a prizewinner in the Chicago Viola Society, Rembrandt Chamber players, and Fischoff International Chamber competitions. In 2006, she received her Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School studying with Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Haung. During her undergraduate years she attended the Music Academy of the West Festival where she served as principal violist of the orchestra as well as attending The Orford Arts Center, Domaine Forget, The Perlman Music Program, Music from Angelfire and Ravinia's Steans Institute for Young Artists. In 2005 she was invited by Itzhak Perlman to perform with him at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and returned in 2009 as part of the Center's Conservatory Project. In 2006 she was accepted into The Curtis Institute of Music where she held the James and Betty Matarese Annual Fellowship and studied with Roberto Diaz and Michael Tree. While at Curtis, she served as the principal of The Haddonfield Symphony. In May 2008 she graduated with an Artist Diploma. Ms. Armbrust attended the Manchester Music Festival in 2007 and was then invited on their northwest tour that fall. She is currently a member of the Chicago Camerata and the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City. Ms. Armbrust annually teaches and performs at Fort Hays University in Hays Kansas as part of the Cottonwood Festival. The summer of 2008 she was a guest artist at The Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Kingston, RI where she performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra's concertmaster David Kim and then went on to solo with The Bogota Philharmonic in Bogota, Colombia under Maestro Rossen Milanov. In 2009 she soloed with the Indiana University Chamber Orchestra after winning the annual solo competition. Ms. Armbrust is currently pursuing her Master's at Indiana University where she holds the merit-based Viola Associate Instructorship while studying with Atar Arad. 

Susan Chou was born in Taipei Taiwan, and has lived in the United States since she was sixteen. She attended Northwestern University and was greatly inspired by Professor Alan Chow.  She had worked with famous musicians such as Julian Martin, Ursula Oppens, Angela Cheng, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Sylvia Wang, Miriam Fried, Ik-Hwan Bae, Mauricio Fuks, Mark Kaplan, Alan de Veritch, Janos Staker, and Victor Yampolsky. Ms. Chou has performed in solo and chamber recitals, and with the Good Samaritan Symphony Orchestra, IU Student Orchestra, IU University Orchestra and Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Chou was awarded first prize in the Elizabeth Harper Vaughn Concerto Competition and performed with the Symphony of the Mountains. She was one of the six semifinalists of the 2007 Rolf and Brigitte Gardey International Piano Competition and was a recent prize winner in the National Society of Arts and Letters Music Competition. She is currently a doctoral student and an Associate Instructor at Indiana University studying with Menahem Pressler of the Beaux Art Trio.

Danbi Um started playing violin at age two and a half. Now 19, she has played in many countries around the world, starting at age 7, when she won the grand prize at the Korea National Journal Competition and won a New York Music Foundation award in the same year. In 2000, at the age of 10, she was the youngest student ever admitted to Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and soon thereafter, made a special guest appearance in Carnegie Hall. In 2002, she gave a solo recital at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival and also made solo appearances with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra and the Main Line Symphony Orchestra in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Her most recent performance was with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in New Zealand. She is currently an Artist Diploma student at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.