CMB is thrilled to welcome returning artists Zenas Hsu, Janny Joo, Jessica Chang, and Laura Gaynon for its tenth season in 2023!
Zenas Hsu, violin
With a sound palette ranging from a ‘commanding tone’ to ‘delicate sentiment’ (Calgary Herald), Taiwanese-American violinist Zenas Hsu leads a vibrant career filled with chamber music, orchestral leadership, and education. He is a founding member of Chamber Music by the Bay, a California-based interactive music series that reaches over 2,000 people annually. He is also a founding member and concertmaster of Phoenix, an orchestra based in Boston focused on providing social and accessible concert experiences in creative venues. Zenas is a member of A Far Cry, a frequent guest artist of the Wellesley Chamber Players, and has performed as a featured musician at Bard Music West, Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, Hayden Chamber Music Series, Halcyon Music Festival, and Monadnock Music Festival.
A native of California, Zenas received his early training in the preparatory division of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He was accepted at age sixteen to the Curtis Institute of Music for his Bachelor of Music degree, and received his Master of Music and Graduate Diploma degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. His teachers include Wei He, Ida Kavafian, Nicholas Kitchen, and Donald Weilerstein.
Janny Joo, violin
Violinist Janny Joo is a multifaceted musician who is equally at home in chamber, orchestra, and solo recital settings. She is a founding member of the Meadowlark Piano Trio, a recent semi-finalist of the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, and enjoys performing works from the established repertoire as well as championing works from contemporary composers with the trio.
An active chamber musician, Janny has studied chamber music with the members of the Chiara, Muir, and St. Lawrence String Quartets, the Triple Helix Piano Trio, and violist Kim Kashkashian. She has also performed with such artists as Bayla Keyes, Cho-Liang Lin, Kim Kashkashian, Hsin-Yun Huang, Desmond Hoebig, Rhonda Rider, William Fitzpatrick, and Norman Fischer.
She has served as the concertmaster of numerous orchestras, which includes Brockton Symphony Orchestra, and she was the Principal 2nd Violin of Phoenix Orchestra and the Assistant Principal 2nd Violin of the Cape Symphony. She also performs with Chorus Pro Musica, BMOP, Cantata Singers, and guests with A Far Cry, Boston Pops, Boston Lyric Opera, and Boston Ballet.
Janny is passionate about teaching and coaching the next generation of musicians and has taught at Boston University as a Lecturer. She received her Doctorate degree in Violin Performance at Boston University, her Master’s degree from Shepherd school of music at Rice University, and her Bachelor’s degree with minors in Math and History from University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Believing that an artist is also a citizen who has a duty to further social justice, she is serving as the Co-Executive Director for the Music for Food, which is a musician-lead initiative for local hunger relief. She will be working with the artists in the organization to benefit food pantries all around the United States, as well as in Canada and Taiwan. Her primary teachers include Bayla Keyes, Cho-Liang Lin, Hye-Yung Yoon of the Chiara String Quartet, and Hal Grossman.
In her free time, she enjoys ballroom dancing, horseback riding, traveling, and photography.
Jessica Chang, viola
Violist Jessica Chang leads a versatile career as a chamber musician and educator. As the Founder and Executive Director of Chamber Music by the Bay, Jessica directs and performs interactive concerts for diverse communities throughout the San Francisco Bay Area which reach over 2,000 young audience members annually. Her work as a teaching artist has led to concert residencies with Project 440, the Savannah Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, and Music Beyond the Chamber. She has also served as violist of the Afiara Quartet, with whom she toured North America, including a visiting faculty residency at The Banff Centre in Alberta and residency as the Glenn Gould School Fellowship Quartet-in-Residence at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada.
Jessica has performed as a chamber musician in concert tours throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Her performances have been broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today, WYNC, WHYY, and WQXR Public Radio. Highlights include collaborations with Roberto Díaz, Pamela Frank, Scott Yoo, Christoph Richter, William Bennett, Itzhak Perlman, Joseph Silverstein, Toby Appel, James Campbell, members of the Orion and Guarneri Quartets, and members of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Berlin Philharmonic. Her festival appearances include Festival Mozaic, Juneau Jazz and Classics, Bard Music West, Music from Angel Fire, International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, Open Chamber Music Prussia Cove, Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, Tanglewood Music Center, Taos School of Music, Verbier Festival, the National Arts Centre of Canada, and Aspen Music Festival.
Jessica is a graduate of Yale University, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors and distinction. She also holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music as the recipient of the William A. Loeb Fellowship, and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School. Her primary teachers include Heidi Castleman, Steven Tenenbom, Roberto Díaz, Michael Tree, Misha Amory, Daniel Panner, Jodi Levitz, Jesse Levine, and Jenny Rudin.
A sought-after chamber musician and teacher, Jessica maintains a private studio in the San Francisco Bay Area. She performs frequently with ensembles including Ensemble Illume, Ensemble San Francisco, the Ives Collective, and Chamber Music Silicon Valley, and has also performed as principal viola with the Santa Cruz Symphony and San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. She also serves as a board member of the American Viola Society, leads a dual career in information security, and is an industry-recognized speaker and presenter globally on building and scaling security culture.
Laura Gaynon, cello
Laura Gaynon is a passionate performer of both modern and baroque cello based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Laura has performed with the American Bach Soloists, with the conductorless orchestra One Found Sound, and as a member of the baroque ensemble MUSA. As a chamber musician, she has collaborated with Vera Beths, Tanya Tomkins, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Kim Kashkashian, Krista Bennion-Feeney, Geoff Nuttall, Bonnie Hampton, Paul Hersh, and Ian Swensen. She is also Artistic Director of Bay Area Concerts at Home, a chamber music series that takes place entirely in the living rooms around the Bay Area. Festival appearances include the Valley of the Moon Music Festival, American Bach Soloists Academy, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Taos School of Music, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, and the 2012 International Piatigorsky Cello Masterclasses at USC.
Laura has degrees from Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with an M.M. in cello performance and an Artist Certificate in chamber music as a student of Jennifer Culp. She earned an added emphasis in Historical Performance through her studies with baroque cellist and viola da gambist Elisabeth Reed and harpsichordist Corey Jamason, and in 2013 won the Baroque Concerto Competition. Other important mentors include George Neikrug, Ole Akahoshi, Carolina Singer, Mikhail Gelfandbein, Irene Sharp, and members of the Brentano, Cleveland, St. Lawrence, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, and Borromeo String Quartets.
A devoted teacher, Laura has an active studio in San Francisco and enjoys bringing her love of music to developing musicians. As faculty with California Music Preparatory Academy, the Pacific Crest Music Festival, Chamber Music by the Bay, and Music Beyond the Chamber, she has performed for and taught students in and around Portland, OR, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Dunsmuir, CA. She also adores coaching at her orchestra alma mater, the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra (PACO).
Chamber Music by the Bay 