2026-27 Season Artists
Albert Cano Smit, piano
Praised as “a moving young poet” (Le Devoir), Spanish-Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit is building a rapidly growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Winner of the 2019 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and the 2017 Walter W. Naumburg Piano Competition, Cano Smit is renowned for his captivating performances, storytelling artistry, and nuanced musicality.
He has appeared as soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Montréal Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, Barcelona Symphony, Catalonia National Orchestra, and Manchester Camerata, among others, with upcoming concerto engagements with the Colorado Symphony and Virginia Symphony. Recital highlights include debuts at Carnegie Hall presented by The Naumburg Foundation and at Merkin Hall with Young Concert Artists, as well as performances at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Paris’ Fondation Louis
Vuitton, the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater, Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival, Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana, Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Música, and the Miami International Piano Festival.
A passionate chamber musician, Cano Smit performs regularly with violinists Catherine Cho, Paul Huang and William Hagen. His debut solo recording of Bach’s Art of the Fugue was released on Aparté in March 2025 to critical acclaim, earning five Diapasons from Diapason magazine.
Born in Geneva, he began his musical training at the Escolanía de Montserrat an holds degrees from the Colburn School and The Juilliard School, where he studied with Robert McDonald, receiving the 2020 Rubinstein Prize for Piano and completing an Artist Diploma.
Karisa Chiu, violin
Recognized for her “rare capacity to project a totally distinctive and fascinating intellect” (Spokesman Review) and easy virtuosity...humor, nuance ... [and] playful[ness]” (Cleveland Classical), American violinist Karisa Chiu first came to international prominence with her first prize win at the 2021 Isangyun Violin Competition, resulting in her debut with the KBS Symphony Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Center. She has since appeared on major stages worldwide, including Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Severance Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and the Casals Forum. A top prize winner of the Singapore, Menuhin, Leopold Mozart, and Irving M. Klein Competitions, Karisa continues to earn recognition for her artistry. Her debut album, titled Home, in collaboration with pianist Zhu Wang and Cedille Records, released to critical acclaim. Raised in a musical family, Karisa began her studies at age two with her father, Cornelius Chiu, a first violinist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She collaborates frequently with her mother and uncle, pianists Inah Chiu and Frederic Chiu. The Chiu family has given annual concerts for two decades at the Festival of the Arts at Mohonk Mountain House. Karisa continues her familial musical traditions through the Plymouth Chamber Players, a Michigan-based concert series that she co-directs with her husband, Chicago Symphony Orchestra violist Paolo Dara. Karisa received an Artist Diploma from the Juilliard School, a Master’s degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. Her mentors include renowned pedagogues Catherine Cho, Donald Weilerstein, Jaime Laredo, Malcolm Lowe, Ida Kavafian, and Almita Vamos.
Read Bethany's full bio at: https://www.bethanybobbscello.com/about
Ari Evan, cello
Praised for his “evocative, impassioned” playing and “remarkable security,” (New York Concert Review, Shostakovich Concerto No. 1) cellist Ari Evan maintains an active performing career throughout North America and Europe. From 2020-2023 he lived in Belgium, where he completed his Artist Diploma at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapelle under the tutelage of Gary Hoffman. Solo highlights from this time include a performance of Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Haydn D with Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Vienna Concert Orchestra, and a solo recital at Flagey.
A versatile chamber musician, Ari has performed with Itzhak Perlman, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Corina Belcea, Colin Carr, Miriam Fried, Gary Hoffman, Hsin-Yun Huang, Ani Kavafian, Robert McDonald, Carol Wincenc, and has toured internationally with the Rolston String Quartet and Quatuor MONA. He has world-premiered works by Augusta Reed Thomas, Aaron J Kernis, Philip Lasser, and Pieter Schuermans. As a chamber musician, he is featured on the Alpha Classics, DUX, MSR Classics, and Sono Luminus labels.
Ari has served as guest principal with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Princeton Symphony. He has also worked with many of New York’s premiere ensembles, touring with Orpheus and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), and performing with Music from Copland House, NOVUS, Metropolis Ensemble, New York Classical Players, Frisson, and Exponential Ensemble. Additionally, he serves as the co-founder and artistic director of the Forest Hills Chamber Music Series.
Anna Han, piano
American pianist ANNA HAN is a laureate of the Naumburg International Piano Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, and the New York International Piano Competition, among others. Committed to thoughtful and courageous interpretations of the highest quality in all types of repertoire, she maintains a wide range of activities including solo concerts, concerti, work with living composers and historical instruments, teaching, directing and curating, and frequent collaborations with musicians of all generations in Europe, North America, and Asia. She is a student of Sir András Schiff at the Kronberg Academy in Germany, generously funded by the Günter Henle Stiftung, and a graduate of the Barenboim-Said Akademie in Berlin, Royal Academy of Music in London, and the Juilliard School in New York, where she was a recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, the William Schuman Prize, and the Bachauer Competition Scholarship. She is also currently serving as the Education Director at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance in Canada and as a faculty member at both the Young Artist Program and the Chamber Music Residency for Non-Professional Musicians at YellowBarn in the USA. More information is available at www.annahan.net
Risa Hokamura, violin
Japanese violinist Risa Hokamura, whose playing has been praised as “both powerful and reflective, sweet and steely” (Upstage, Indianapolis), first gained international attention when she won First Prize at the 2018 Young Concert Artists Susan Wadsworth International Auditions at the age of seventeen. She also received the Tannery Pond Concerts Prize, the Ruth Laredo Memorial Prize, the Ronald A. Asherson Prize, and the Silver Medal at the 2018 International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, where she performed the Tchaikovsky Concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.
Risa's recital highlights include her debuts at Merkin Concert Hall and the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, both presented by Young Concert Artists, as well as her debuts at Kioi Hall and Symphony Hall.
She has performed with notable orchestras, including the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, East Coast Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Hiroshima Symphony Orchestra, Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra and more.
Risa began playing the violin at the age of three and started studying with Kenji Kobayashi at age seven. She is currently pursuing a Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Manhattan School of Music as a full scholarship student under the tutelage of Koichiro Harada, Lucie Robert, and additional studies with Cho-Liang Lin. She is a recipient of the Ezoe Memorial Foundation Scholarship.
Risa plays the 1715 “Joachim” Stradivarius violin, generously loaned to her by the Sasakawa Music Foundation.
Leland Ko, cello
Cellist Leland Philip Ko (b. 1998) is the kind of person who is always asking “why” — American-born but of Chinese-Canadian descent, schooled at both university and conservatory, and extremely thorough in any number of activities ranging from competitive tennis and distance-running to home-baking and origami, he wants to find the similarities between seemingly disparate things, and in doing so hopefully find something human in everything.
Described as someone with “Disarming charisma” (South Florida Classical Review) yet simultaneously as someone “Byronic” and “excelling in both poetic longing and dramatic outbursts” (Boston Classical Review), Leland has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across America and abroad. He is the first prize winner of the Concours Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the Concert Artists Guild Louis and Susan Meisel Competition and the Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition, and is an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient.
Highlights for Leland’s 2025-2026 season include debuts with the Orchestre Symphonique de Sherbrooke and the DuPage Symphony, as well as at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall, and Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall.
Leland was a long-time student of Kirsten Peltz, Ronald Lowry, and Paul Katz before attending Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in German Literature. He went on to complete an M.M. at The Juilliard School under the teaching of Minhye Clara Kim, Timothy Eddy, and Natasha Brofsky, and then earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory under guidance of Laurence Lesser, Yeesun Kim, and Donald Weilerstein. He resides in Boston, with his 14-year-old cat, Ham.
Koshiro Takeuchi, violin
21-year old Japanese Violinist Koshiro Takeuchi has emerged as one of most compelling young artists of his generation. In June 2026, he was awarded First Prize in the Montreal International Music Competition, adding to a remarkable string of international distinctions. In April 2025, he claimed First Prize at the inaugural Ion Voicu International Violin Competition. In 2023, at just 18 years of age, he won Third Prize at the Long-Thibaud International Music Competition in Paris and earned three awards at the 57th Premio Paganini Violin Competition - Fifth Prize alongside the Amici di Paganini Association Award for Best Contemporary Music Performance and the Dr. Enrico Costa Memorial Award. Earlier honors include the IMA Music Award at the Ishikawa Music Academy (2018) and First Prize at the Cecilia International Competition (2016), won at the age of ten. On the concert stage, Takeuchi has performed with Montreal Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Garde Républicaine, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, among others. In August 2023, he appeared at Suntory Hall in the “Nobuko Imai Special - 80th Birthday Anniversary Concert”, performing alongside the celebrated violist under the baton of Kazuki Yamada to wide acclaim. In 2024, he made his debut with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Tadaaki Otaka. Born in Tokyo, Takeuchi began violin studies at the age of five. A graduate of Tokyo College of Music High School, he currently holds full scholarships at both the Manhattan School of Music, where he pursues a Bachelor of Music in Classical Violin, and the Tokyo College of Music’s Artist Diploma program. He studies with Koichiro Harada, Lucie Robert, and Mayuko Kamio. He is a recipient of the 2024 Yamaha Music Support Program Scholarship, the 54th Ezoe Memorial Recruit Foundation Scholarship, and the Rohm Music Foundation Scholarship. He performs on a c. 1728-30 violin by Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù “, generously loaned by The Canimex Music Instrument Collection as a prize of the Montreal International Music Competition.