Trio Members

VIOLIN

Itamar Zorman is one of the most soulful, evocative artists of his generation, distinguished by his emotionally gripping performances and gift for musical storytelling. Since his emergence with the top prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition, he has wowed audiences all over the world with breathtaking style, causing one critic to declare him a “young badass who’s not afraid of anything.” His “youthful intensity” and “achingly beautiful” sound shine through in every performance, earning him the title of the “virtuoso of emotions.

Awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award for 2014, violinist Itamar Zorman is the winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Russia.

Mr. Zorman has performed as a soloist with such orchestras as the Mariinsky Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, KBS Symphony Seoul, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Kremerata Baltica, RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin) and American Symphony. He has worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson-Thomas, David Robertson, Valery Gergiev, James DePreist, Karina Canellakis, Yuri Bashmet, and Nathalie Stuztmann. Mr. Zorman has performed around the world in halls such as Avery Fisher Hall, Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Zurich Tonhalle, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, and Teatro Massimo Palermo. As a recitalist he performed at Carnegie Hall's Distinctive Debut series, Wigmore Hall, People's Symphony Concerts, Merkin Hall, the Louvre Museum, Suntory Hall Laeiszhalle Hamburg and HR-Sendesaal Frankfurt.

Mr. Zorman was invited to the Verbier, Marlboro, Rheingau, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brevard, Classical Tahoe, MITO SettembreMusica, and Radio France Festivals. He has also collaborated with a number of legendary artists such as Richard Goode (including performances at Carnegie Hall and Library of Congress), Mitsuko Uchida, Steven Isserlis and Jörg Widmann.

Mr. Zorman’s latest CD, “Violin Odyssey”, a collection of works for violin from five continents, was released in 2022 by First Hand Records to critical acclaim. As part of an ongoing exploration of the music of Paul Ben-Haim, Mr. Zorman released a CD of the works for violin and orchestra with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Philippe Bach for BIS Records, in April 2019, entitled “Evocation”. His first solo CD recording, entitled “Portrait”, features works by Messiaen, Schubert, Chausson, Hindemith, and Brahms and was released by Profil - Editions Günther Hänssler.

Described as a “poet of the violin”, Itamar Zorman is also a committed chamber player. He is a founding member of the Israeli Chamber Project and a member of the Lysander Piano Trio, with which he won the 2012 Concert Artists Guild Competition, the Grand Prize in the 2011 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, 1st prize in the 2011 Arriaga Competition, and a bronze medal in the 2010 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Born in Tel-Aviv in 1985 to a family of musicians, Itamar Zorman began his violin studies at the age of six with Saly Bockel at the Israeli Conservatory of Music in Tel-Aviv. He graduated in 2003 and continued his studies with Professor David Chen and Nava Milo. He received his Bachelor of Music from the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance as a student of Hagai Shaham, and his Master of Music from The Juilliard School in 2009, where he studied with Robert Mann and Sylvia Rosenberg. He then went on to receive an Artist Diploma from Manhattan School of Music in 2010 and an Artist Diploma from Julliard in 2012 under the tutelage of Sylvia Rosenberg, and he is an alumnus of the Kronberg Academy where he studied with Christian Tetzlaff and Mauricio Fuks. He is also the recipient of scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and has taken part in numerous master classes around the world, working with Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Shlomo Mintz, Ida Haendel, and Ivry Gitlis.

Mr. Zorman has guest teaching positions at the Eastman School of Music and Indiana University. He plays on a 1734 Guarneri del Gesù, from the collection of Yehuda Zisapel.

For more information about Itamar, visit www.itamarzorman.com

PIANO

Praised by The New York Times for her “thoughtful musicality” and “fleet-fingered panache,” Liza Stepanova is in demand as a soloist, collaborator, and educator. In the 2023-24 season, she performs and teaches at the Bowdoin, Brevard, Music in May in Santa Cruz, CA, and Songfest at Vanderbilt summer festivals, directs the Chamber Music Athens Festival, and prepares to host the 2024 American Liszt Society national conference.

In 2020, Stepanova released her second solo album "E Pluribus Unum" (Navona Records) celebrating contemporary American composers with an immigrant background. The CD, which features a commission and three world-premiere recordings, received universal acclaim with reviews in the top three British classical music journals: Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and International Piano, as well as The Whole Note in Canada and Piano Magazine in the US. The album was broadcast widely on national and international radio including "Album of the Week" on Canada's public radio, several plays in Australia, and across the US. Following the release, Stepanova was profiled as Musical America Worldwide's "New Artist of the Month," a distinction celebrating her body of work to-date. Stepanova’s debut solo album “Tones & Colors: Music and Visual Art” (CAG Records, 2018), recorded in New York City with Grammy-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, brought together music from Bach to Ligeti that was inspired by visual art. This record was also praised in international media and continues to be regularly played on American Public Media's Performance Today, including multiple features as a headliner.

Stepanova has performed extensively in Europe, most recently, as a soloist with the Southwest-German Philharmonic and in chamber music performances at the Berlin Museum of Musical Instruments, at the Copenhagen Music Festival, and in Belgrade’s Kolarac Hall. In the United States, she has appeared in Weill and Zankel Recital Halls at Carnegie; Alice Tully Hall, Merkin and Steinway halls in New York City; at the Kennedy Center and The Smithsonian in Washington, DC; and live on WQXR New York, WFMT Chicago, and WETA Washington. Stepanova was twice featured as a soloist with the Juilliard Orchestra led by James DePreist and Nicholas McGegan and was a top prizewinner at the Liszt-Garrison, Juilliard Concerto, Steinway, and Ettlingen competitions. As a soloist and chamber musician, she has been invited to international festivals at Castleton, La Jolla, Music@Menlo, Mostly Mozart, Copenhagen (Denmark), and Davos (Switzerland), where she had opportunities to collaborate with leading artists including violinist Cho-Liang Lin, violist James Dunham, clarinetist Charles Neidich, soprano Lucy Shelton, mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer and members of the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and the Atlanta Symphony. Deeply committed to new music, she has premiered works by Jennifer Higdon and Libby Larsen and worked with composers William Bolcom, Gabriela Lena Frank, and John Harbison.

Liza Stepanova studied art song collaboration with Wolfram Rieger in Berlin and was invited by the late Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau to perform in several of his master classes including the Hugo-Wolf-Tage festival in Austria. Since 2010, Stepanova has been on the faculty at SongFest, formerly in-residence at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and also served as the festival’s Associate Artistic Director and Piano Program Director for two years.

Stepanova received her DMA from The Juilliard School with a Richard F. French Award for outstanding doctoral work. Previously a graduate of the Hanns Eisler Academy in Berlin, Germany, she studied with Joseph Kalichstein, Seymour Lipkin, Jerome Lowenthal, and George Sava, and performed in master classes for Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, and András Schiff. Following teaching positions at The Juilliard School and Smith College, she is currently an associate professor of piano at the University of Georgia, Hugh Hodgson School of Music, where she also co-directs the biannual Chamber Music Athens festival featuring acclaimed artists performing and teaching alongside UGA faculty and students. Her UGA students have been invited to the Aspen, Bowdoin, Brevard, Chautauqua, and Salzburg Mozarteum summer programs and received scholarships to elite graduate programs. Recent student successes include top prizes at the Liszt-Ohio International Competition, GMTA, MTNA, Atlanta Music Club, and Atlanta Mozart Society competitions, and a finalist award at the Wideman International Piano Competition.

For more information about Liza, visit liza-stepanova.com.

CELLO

Lauded by The New York Times for his “admirable purity of tone and accuracy,” James Kim has appeared as soloist with the Boston Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Wallonie Royal Chamber, and Juilliard Orchestra working with conductors such as David Zinman, Michael Sanderling, Alexander Shelley, Keith Lockhart, and Frank Braley onstage at Carnegie Stern Auditorium, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, and Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Kim has given solo recitals at Carnegie Weill Hall, IBK Hall of Seoul Arts Center, Midday Masterpieces Series at the Greene Space, McGraw Hill Young Artist Showcase hosted by Robert Sherman, Beautiful Thursday Series at Kumho Art Hall, and Garden City Chamber Music Series curated by Bruce Adolphe. His performances have been broadcasted on radio stations NPR and WQXR. 

His Carnegie Weill Hall debut in 2013 garnered praise from Harris Goldsmith of New York Concert Review: “There are debuts and debuts: the blood bank of human endeavor is forever bringing new musical talent to the fore. But I daresay, the recital of a 19-year-old cellist at Weill Hall on February 3rd was more than merely excellent, it was an historical coming of a fully honed master virtuoso; one is compelled to formulate new standards for the golden instrument. But all of this foregoing is commonplace: after a few astonishing and beautifully tapered, long spun phrases of Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata, D. 821, this astonished and experienced connoisseur realized that James Kim is a miracle. Never mind my hyperbole; the absolute perfection of his playing, technically, musically. . . Never before, have I encountered such winged ease, such airborne joy, such silken smooth bowing and tone production. All of these facets were present at the service of stylistic knowledge, bracing rhythmic thrust and most importantly, an inviting warmth and modest honesty.”

In his native Korea, Kim has performed concertos with Daegu, Korean, Gwacheon, and S.O.N.G. Symphonies; Incheon, Daejeon, Goyang, and Wonju Philharmonics; and TIMF and KBS orchestras, engagements which have brought him to Seoul Arts Center, Tongyeong Concert Hall, Daegu Concert House, DITTO Festival, and Lotte Concert Hall, where he is the first soloist in its history. A champion of Korean composer Shinuh Lee, Kim premiered her Cello Concerto in 2021 and released Death and Offering , an album of her works dedicated to him, through Sony Classical in the same year. In 2023, he presented that program in recital at Seoul Arts Center. Other collaborations include Sejong Soloists, with whom he has toured Korea performing J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations arranged for string trio by Dmitry Sitkovetsky on numerous occasions. He has also served as guest principal cellist of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. 

Winner of the 2006 David Popper International Cello Competition and 2012 Salon de Virtuosi’s Sony Career Grant, Kim is a laureate of the 2015 Isang Yun International Cello Competition and 2024 Naumburg International Cello Competition. From 2016 to 2021, Kim performed on a Matteo Goffriller cello from Venice ca. 1715, generously loaned by Samsung Cultural Foundation and Stradivari Society® of Chicago, Illinois. 

Under his tutelage, Kim’s private students have won top prizes at major international cello competitions. He regularly gives guest lectures at Seoul National University’s College of Music. His co-edition with Daniel Morganstern of the Locatelli Sonata in D Major for cello, published by International Music Company in 2020, provides his technical guidance in its preface. He holds an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts from Manhattan School of Music. His former teachers include Susan Moses, János Starker, Laurence Lesser, Aldo Parisot, Joel Krosnick, and Philippe Muller. Kim currently serves as Assistant Professor of Cello at University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music. 

For more information about James, visit https://www.jameskimcello.com/