K. Chang, piano and H. Khuong‑Huu, violin

Kai-Min Chang, born in 2001 in Taiwan, won first prize in the 1st Ljubljana Festival International Competition – Piano in 2023, convincing jury members with his performance of Piano Concerto No. 3  by Sergei Rachmaninoff. He most recently returned to Slovenia to perform Piano Concerto No. 2  by Johannes Brahms with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra at the opening concert of the 7th Winter Festival in 2024. Chang is currently a student of Dang Thai Son at the New England Conservatory. He was a quarterfinalist of the XVIII. Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 2021. In 2018, he won second prize in the Cooper International Competition at Oberlin Conservatory, and the jury’s special prize in the 4th Asia-Pacific International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition. He has performed with many orchestras, including the Cleveland Orchestra, RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

Hina Khuong-Huu, the first-prize winner of the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, has performed around the globe, appearing as both a soloist and collaborator with many of today’s leading musicians. One of the centrepieces of Hina’s 2023/24 season was her Kennedy Center debut performing Anna Clyne’s The Prince of Clouds  alongside Grammy Awardwinner Jennifer Koh, with who she has also collaborated in her Alone Together  series. In the same season, Hina was a featured soloist with the Symphonia in Boca Raton, Florida, under the direction of Alastair Willis, for Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir d’un lieu cher,  and dazzled audiences with her interpretation of Ravel’s Tzigane  when she appeared with the Northbrook Symphony Orchestra under the leadership of Mina Zikri and Vadim Gluzman. Hina has appeared as a soloist with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Geneva, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Mitteleuropa Orchestra, and the Musica Mundi Orchestra. She shared the stage with Maxim Vengerov at Carnegie Hall and Buckingham Palace. She has performed on NPR’s From the Top programme, and was a recipient of the Salon De Virtuosi Career Grant. In 2018 she placed fifth in the Junior Division of the Menuhin Competition for Young Violinists. Hina performs on a violin made by Antonio Stradivari – c. 1722 “Lord Wandsworth” – which is on loan from the Ryuji Ueno Foundation and Rare Violins In Consortium, Artists and Benefactors Collaborative.

In collaboration with the Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition