Pianist Sumi Kim began playing the piano at the age of five in Seoul, South Korea. She continued working intensively even while completing a degree in Food Science. During this time she won the Grand Prize in the at the Virtuoso International Competition held in Seoul. This led to a recommendation from the selection committee that she pursue further studies abroad.
Relocating to the Yukon, Canada, Sumi Kim became an active as a recitalist and collaborative pianist in the Whitehorse music scene. She appeared regularly at the Gallery Recital Series at the Yukon Arts Centre, and the Rotary Music Festival. She also collaborated with the Whitehorse Community Choir.
Her passion for music and desire to deepen her knowledge propelled her to seek further instruction. She is presently completing her Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at the University of Toronto studying with Dr. Younggun Kim.
As a recipient of various awards, she acknowledges and values the Richard Iorweth Thorman Jazz Scholarship, the Mary-Margaret Webb Piano Performance Award, and the Greta Kraus Scholarship. An avid chamber musician, her Trio recently won the Felix Galimir Award at the Faculty of Music, University of Toronto.
Ms. Kim has been featured at various venues and with orchestras in the Greater Toronto area as well as further afield in other provinces within Canada. She finds that maintaining an active performance schedule is a great means of exploring the deeper meanings of the musical languages found in the piano repertoire.
Sofia Mycyk is currently completing her Masters degree in Piano performance at the Université de Montréal under the tutelage of the renowned pedagogue Prof. Marc Durand. Previous teachers included Patricia Zander at the New England Conservatory in Boston as well as Bonnie Nicholson, Kathleen Solose and Nadia March in Saskatoon. She received her Royal Conservatory of Music Performer’s ARCT Diploma in 2004 with First Class Honors with Distinction.
Catherine Manoukian won the grand prize at the 1994 Canadian Music Competition at the age of twelve and has never looked back. She was born in Toronto, began violin studies with her father, and made her first stage appearance at the age of four. From 1994 to 2000, Catherine studied with the late, world-renowned violin pedagogue Dorothy Delay of New York.
A student of the Curtis Institute of Music, Katya Poplyansky started her violin studies with Professor Oleg Pokhanovski in Winnipeg in 2002. Five years later, at the age of fifteen, she began her Bachelor of Music at Peabody Conservatory, studying with Victor Danchenko. Although the youngest student at the school, she was runner-up in Peabody’s William Marbury Competition, open to all string majors. Still studying with Professor Danchenko, as well as with Atis Bankas, she then continued her BM at the Glenn Gould School, before moving to Curtis in 2009. Over the last few years, she has also had the opportunity to play for leading violinists such as James Ehnes, Oleh Krysa, Martin Beaver and Aaron Rosand.