2025 Faculty & Guest Artists

Richard Goode

Richard Goode has been hailed for music-making of tremendous emotional power, depth and expressiveness, and has been acknowledged worldwide as one of today’s leading interpreters of Classical and Romantic music. In regular performances with the major orchestras, recitals in the world’s music capitals, masterclasses in person or online, and through his extensive and acclaimed Nonesuch recordings, he has won a large and devoted following.

An exclusive Nonesuch recording artist, Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and has been ranked among the most distinguished recordings of this repertoire. Other recording highlights include Mozart piano concerti with Orpheus, with whom he launched the 2021 season at New York’s 92nd St Y.

A native of New York, Richard Goode studied at the Mannes College of Music and the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award for the Brahms Sonatas recorded with clarinetist Richard Stoltzman.

Mr. Goode served, together with Mitsuko Uchida, as co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Marlboro, Vermont from 1999 through 2013. Participating initially at the age of 14, at what the New Yorker magazine recently described as “the classical world’s most coveted retreat,” he made a notable contribution to this unique community over the 28 summers he spent there. In Fall 2021, Mr. Goode joined the Peabody Conservatory as Distinguished Artist Faculty. For the 2025-26 season, Mr. Goode joins The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra as its newest artistic partner.

He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld, and, when the Goodes are not on tour, they and their collection of some 5,000 volumes live in New York City.

Sofya Gulyak

In 2009, Gulyak was awarded first prize and the Princess Mary Gold Medal at the 16th Leeds International PianoCompetition, the first woman to achieve this distinction.Since then, she has appeared internationally to great critical and publicacclaim. Other prestigious prizesshe has won include first prizes at the Kapell, Maj Lind,Tivoli,Isangyun, and San Marino international piano competitions, second prize(first not awarded)at Busoni, and third prize at the Long–Thibaud–Crespin Competition.

Gulyak has performed insuch venues as La Scala Theatre in Milan, Herculessaal in Munich,Salle Cortot,Salle Gaveau and Salle Pleyel in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, MoscowConservatory, Konzerthaus in Berlin, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Hong Kong City Hall, Shanghai Grand Theatre, and Tokyo OperaCity Hall.

She has played with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Royal LiverpoolPhilharmonic, Hallé, BBC Scottish and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras, Helsinki Philharmonic, St. Petersburg Philharmonic,Budapest Philharmonic,Orchestre National de France, and Shanghai Philharmonic.

Conductors with whom Gulyak has collaborated include Mark Elder, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari Oramo, Donald Runnicles, Vasily Petrenko,Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Theodor Guschlbauer, Lahav Shani, Karl-Heinz Steffens, and Alan Burybaev, among others.

Gulyak’s 2013 recording of Russian piano music on Champs Hill Records received a five-star review in Diapason magazine and glowing reviews in Gramophone and The Guardian,while her 2015 all-Brahms CD (on Piano Classics) led the American Record Guide to draw comparisons withthe young Martha Argerich and Fanfare magazine to hail her as “a natural Brahmsian, whatever his moods.”

Her latest CD (on Champs Hill Records) of piano chaconnes was welcomed by The Arts Desk as “a fascinating collection, superbly realised andbeautifully recorded.”

Born in Kazan, Russia, Gulyak studied at the Kazan State Conservatoireunder Elfiya Burnasheva before continuing her studies with Boris Petrushansky at Imola Piano Academy in Italy and Vanessa Latarche at the Royal College of Music in London. Sofya Gulyak serves on faculty at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. She was previously a piano professor at the Royal College of Music in London.

Meng-Chieh Liu

A recipient of the 2002 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Meng-Chieh Liu first made headlines in 1993 as a 21-year-old student, when he substituted for André Watts at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia with three hours’ notice. His acclaimed performance was followed by a recital at the Kennedy Center, among other highly praised appearances.

He has appeared with orchestras under conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Gustavo Dudamel, and Alan Gilbert, among others. His concerts have been broadcast around the world, and Taiwanese National Television has aired a documentary on his life. A dedicated chamber musician, he has collaborated with Shmuel Ashkenasi, James Buswell, Bernard Greenhouse, David Soyer, Wendy Warner, and the Borromeo and St. Lawrence string quartets. He was artistic director of Chicago Chamber Musicians from 2011 to 2014; and has also collaborated with artists in other disciplines, including Mikhail Baryshnikov and his White Oak Dance Project.

Mr. Liu received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Jorge Bolet, Eleanor Sokoloff, and Claude Frank. He won first prizes in the Stravinsky, Asia Pacific Piano, and Mieczyslaw Munz competitions.

Mr. Liu has been a member of the Curtis Institute of Music faculty since 1993 and also serves on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

Yukiko Sekino

Praised for her “thrilling, inspirational performance” (Florida Sun-Sentinel) and “elegance of line, leaping energy” (San Jose Mercury News), pianist Yukiko Sekino has forged a career that encompasses a wide range of interests. A soloist noted for her performances of Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, and Scriabin, she frequently collaborates in chamber music and performs some of the most challenging twentieth and twenty-first century works.

Sekino is the Gold Medalist of the 2006 International Russian Music Piano Competition and a winner of the S&R Foundation’s Washington Award. She has performed as a soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra. Recital highlights have included the Jordan Hall in Boston, Overtures Series in Washington, D.C., Dame Myra Hess Concerts in Chicago, Hitomi Memorial Hall in Tokyo, Japan, Northeast Asia International Piano Festival in China, and U.S. college campuses such as Eastman School of Music, MIT, and Ithaca College.

With an extensive repertoire spanning five centuries, Sekino has undertaken various performance projects. Recent projects include performances of Chopin’s complete Op. 10 and Op. 25 Etudes and the Four Ballades, late works by Alexander Scriabin, and world premieres of compositions by David Rakowski and Ross Bauer. In 2023, she undertook a commissioning project with support from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. In this project, composers Mari Kimura and Joseph Di Ponio wrote new works for piano and electronics for Sekino, taking inspiration from the music of Scriabin and Debussy. Committed to the music of our times, Sekino has performed as a soloist in major 20^th century works such as Elliott Carter’s Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano, Messiaen’s Oiseaux Exotiques, and Xenakis’ Eonta and Palimpsest at venues including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Theatre in Miami, and Tanglewood Music Center.

Active as an educator, Sekino has given masterclasses at universities and conservatories in the United States and serves as an adjudicator in various competitions. Her prize-winning students regularly participate in festivals and competitions and continue further studies at top schools. During the summers, she has been faculty and guest artist at East Carolina Piano Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and Northeast Asia International Piano Festival (China). Having previously taught at Colby College, she is currently an Affiliate Artist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and serves as piano faculty at New England Conservatory Prep School and School of Continuing Education.

Sekino is a graduate of Harvard University and the Juilliard School and holds a doctoral degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her principal teachers were Gilbert Kalish, Seymour Lipkin, and Robert Levin.

Alan Woo

Praised by the New York Times as a pianist with “assurance and vitality,” Alan Woo made his Lincoln Center debut at Alice Tully Hall performing with the Juilliard Orchestra under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He has since collaborated with conductors Daniel Hege, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, and Tito Muñoz in solo appearances with the Houston Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, and Music Academy of the West Festival Orchestra.

Woo’s recent engagements include solo recitals throughout the US, Brazil, Europe, and Asia. He has been featured on The McGraw Hill Financial Young Artists Showcase broadcasted on WQXR in New York and has performed in venues such as Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Recital Halls. As chamber musician, he has made appearances at the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, Lake George Music Festival, Chamber Music Athens, Brooklyn Chamber Music Society, and La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest series, among others.

Born in Arlington, Virginia, Woo is a graduate of The Juilliard School and Peabody Conservatory where he completed degrees in piano performance under Robert McDonald and Yong Hi Moon. He currently teaches at the University of Georgia as an assistant professor of piano, having previously held positions at Elizabeth City State University and Peabody Institute.

Samuel Gingher