Musicians

Yunn-Shan Ma 馬韻珊, Music Director

Taiwan native Yunn-Shan Ma is active as a conductor, pianist, and educator in both America and Asia. Praised as being “extremely musical” and “having the gift of keeping the orchestra tight with her hands,” Ma’s range of conducting experience bridges the gap between professional, semi-professional, collegiate, and youth ensembles.

With a passion for orchestral, operatic, choral, and contemporary repertoire, Ma has guest conducted select performances across Europe, Asia, and North America, including the Dohnányi Orchestra Budafok in Hungary; Cadaques Orchestra in Spain; North Czech Orchestra in the Czech Republic; Taipei Civic Orchestra; Evergreen Symphony Orchestra; and the Chin-Yun Choir in Taiwan. US engagements include the New York State Ballet; Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra; Genesee Symphony Orchestra; Greater Rochester Women’s Philharmonic; Geneva Light Opera; Syracuse Vocal Ensemble; Eastman School Symphony Orchestra; Eastman-Rochester Chorus; Eastman Chorale; and Eastman’s new music ensemble OSSIA. As co-founder and music director of the chamber vocal ensemble F-Sharp in Taipei, Ma led the ensemble to win the Gold Medal First Prize in the Sacred Music category, and the Gold Medal Third Prize for Mixed Choir category at the Taipei International Choral Competition in 2018.

Both on and off stage, Ma is committed to bringing new light to existing musical works. She is equally eager to present orchestral live performances in an interdisciplinary manner, incorporating new media, visual content, and special themes to interact with musicians and audiences. At the Rochester Institution of Technology, Ma has collaborated with specialists from the fields of AR/VR, Audio Engineering, Film and Animation, Illustration, Game Design, Modern Languages, and Museum Studies.

A devoted educator, Ma has served as a frequent guest clinician and adjudicator at competitions and festivals. She has been on the faculty of the Taipei International Choral Festival since 2015, led the Monroe All-County Senior High School Orchestra in 2018, and will direct the Monroe All-County Junior High School Orchestra in March, 2022. Under her astute leadership, the RIT Philharmonic Orchestra was awarded an Honorable Mention in Orchestra Performance at the American Prize 2021, while Ma herself has been a finalist in the Conducting Competition and a semifinalist for the Vytautas Marijosius Memorial Award for Conductors' Orchestral Programming.

Ma received her Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music following conducting, piano, and violin performance education at the National Taiwan Normal University and the pre-college division of the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria. Her current conducting positions include Music Director of the RIT Philharmonic Orchestra; Music Director of the St. Kateri Parish in Irondequoit NY; and Music and Artistic Director of the Taiwanese Choral Society of Rochester.

Yi-Wen Chang 張㦤文, Pianist

Pianist Yi-Wen Chang, a well-established concert pianist, has been praised for her impeccable technique and creative communicative ideas. She has appeared as a soloist and collaborative pianist in the United States, Canada, Russia, and Taiwan. Chang holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate in recognition of outstanding concert artistry. She received a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, and later returned to Eastman and earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance and Literature.

As an active concert pianist, Chang has worked with distinguished artists, such as Rebecca Penneys, Ian Bousfield, Ramon Ricker, Jeffrey Milarsky, as well as orchestras and ensembles, including Eastman Philharmonia and Eastman Wind Ensemble. She has performed in Kodak Hall at the Eastman Theatre, Taiwan National Concert Hall in Taipei, National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan, Moscow Conservatory International Summer Festival, Johannesen International School of Arts in Canada, and Women in Music Festival in Rochester, New York. Her performances have been broadcast on WXXI and WBFO radio.

Chang has developed a deep interest in exploring stylistic progression of music after the eighteenth-century and is known for creating innovative concert programs. Since 2015, she has launched the “Then and Now” concert series combining traditional and contemporary music and presenting their evolution from the past to present time. In particular, she is fascinated by new compositions and re-creative repertoire, including piano transcriptions from songs, operas, symphonies, and other musical genres. Chang recently performed her piano transcription of a Taiwanese folk song, Longing for the Spring Breeze, and premiered her compositions, Imminence and A Stream of Thought, broadcast on WXXI. She has also collaborated with renowned contemporary composers, among them Benet Casablancas, David Liptak, Jennifer Higdon, Milton Babbitt, and Zhi-Yuan Guo. Jennifer Higdon praised Chang’s playing as “incredible rhythmic sense and imagination… a superb artistry”.

In addition to performing extensively as a soloist and collaborator, Chang is a dedicated pedagogue. A native of Taiwan, Chang has been an adjudicator in numerous piano competitions, including the MTNA New York State Competition, Nazareth College Piano Competition, and Taiwan Biennial National Piano Competition. Chang currently serves on the piano faculty of Hobart and William Smith Colleges and the Hochstein School of Music, and is a collaborative pianist at Nazareth College and SUNY Geneseo. In 2016, Chang published the Chinese translation of R.O.Morris’ Figured Harmony At The Keyboard (Oxford University Press), which has become widely used in colleges in Chinese-speaking countries.

Ming-Lun Lee 李明倫, Vocal Coach

Ming-Lun Lee, a native of Taiwan, received his PhD in historical musicology and music theory from the University at Buffalo and his master’s degrees in musicology and electrical engineering from National Taiwan University. He studied choral conducting with Chia-Fen Weng and voice with Chung-Kung Lin and Chi-Ling Hong. Lee has served as music director of the Chinese Choral Society of Rochester since 2014. Besides, he has appeared as a guest conductor of Chingyun Choir and National Defense Medical Center Choir and performed as a baritone soloist with Chingyun Choir, National Taiwan Normal University Music Department Chorus, and University at Buffalo Choir. Lee participated in several masterclasses held by distinguished conductors, including Dirk DuHei, Gábor Hollerung, Edward Maclary, Robert Page, Oimer Suitner, and William Weinert. He was also frequently invited as a lecturer at the Taipei International Choral Festival.

Lee is an Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Rochester. He teaches several courses for the Audio and Music Engineering (AME) and ECE programs. His primary research interests include spatial audio, audio software design, and audio preservation. Since 2018, Lee has recorded over fifty concerts with spatial audio microphones and 360/3D VR cameras at the Eastman School of Music and several concert venues in Rochester.