Performer Biographies

Yuri Bakker, who was born in Rotterdam, began playing the piano at the age of four, studying with Sonja Zalm. Two years later he gave his first performance, during the Rotterdamse Pianodriedaagse festival, at the Concertgebouw de Doelen in Rotterdam.

Since 2005 Mr. Bakker has participated in programs of the Musikè Summer Academy in Durham, England; the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria; the International Holland Music Sessions in Bergen, the Netherlands; the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado; and the Piano Texas Festival in Fort Worth. He has won several prizes at the Prinses Christina Concours and the Interprovincial and National SJMN competitions in the Netherlands. He also is interested in jazz, and his jazz trio received an honorable mention at the 2004 Prinses Christina Jazz Concours.

In 2007 Mr. Bakker took first place in the junior category at the Young Pianist Foundation national finals in Amsterdam, and in 2008 he was a finalist in the Williams Chorale Bacardi Fallon Competition in Massachusetts. He was a winner in the Young Artists Piano Showcase that same year and performed in the Fifth Biennial Winners' Concert at Weill Hall, marking his Carnegie Hall debut.

Prior to his enrollment as an undergraduate at The Juilliard School, Mr. Bakker attended Juilliard's Pre-College Division, where he studied with Julian Martin. He currently studies with Matti Raekallio in the College Division and holds the Kamiya Sisters Piano Scholarship, the Lola Maskiewitz Scholarship Fund, and the Pearl Bell 88's Scholarship.

Twenty-year-old Eru Matsumoto was born in Japan and began studying cello when she was six. Accepted at Juilliard when she was sixteen, she has studied there with David Soyer and Bonnie Hampton.

Her many public performances include playing live from the studios of the Albany, New York, public radio station and WARL, the AM station in Attleboro, Massachusetts; plus unique opportunities such as a Japanese television commercial, and an appearance on television with a famous Japanese pop star.

She has performed in Vienna, Tokyo, Aspen, Colorado, Los Angeles, California and New York, and gave the U.S. premiere of Eric Tanguy's Sonata for Violin and Cello, which Tanguy attended. As a chamber musician and principal cellist with several orchestras, she has performed in many venues, including
Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Matsumoto also loves to travel. She has been to Alaska to see the Aurora Borealis, to Puerto Rico to visit the museum of Pablo Casals, to China to feel the immense age of the Great Wall, to Australia to see the Southern Cross in the night sky, and to Canada to hear the call of the moose.

Described by the Boston Globe as one who "plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star," Juilliard graduate Charles Yang began his violin studies with his mother in Austin, Texas, and has since studied with world-renowned pedagogues Kurt Sassmanshaus, Paul Kantor, Brian Lewis, and Glenn Dicterow. Mr. Yang has performed as a soloist with orchestras and in recitals in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Russia, China, and Taiwan, and he is the recipient of numerous awards and honors.

Mr. Yang has been a frequent guest on the Emmy Award–winning public broadcasting show From the Top, and he also has been heard on National Public Radio in Washington, D.C., and Boston.

Not confined solely to classical repertoire, Mr. Yang's improvisational crossover abilities as a violinist, vocalist, and guitarist have led to performances with a variety of artists in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Highline Ballroom, Ars Nova, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Long Center for the Performing Arts in Austin, Texas, the Royal Danish Theatre, and the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Recent engagements have included a concert at the United Nations; an appearance alongside the ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro at the fifth E. G. Conference in Monterey, California; a performance with Guitar Hero and Rock Band creator Eran Egozy at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; a duet with the renowned dancer Marcelo Gomes at the Joyce Theater in New York; and a solo with the Orchestra of St. Lukes in New York.

Mr. Yang's career has been followed by various news media, including the New York Times, New York Post, Playbill, Boston Globe, Fortissimo, Austin American-Statesman, Shenzhen Daily, Strad, Dallas Daily, Cincinnati Enquirer, and Juilliard Journal. Mr. Yang is featured in Nick Romeo's new book, Driven, as well as Discovery Channel's Curiosity.