Artists
Kyle Stachnik
Co-founder of Viridian Strings, cellist Kyle Stachnik recently graduated with a masters in Chamber Music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying under Professor Jennifer Culp. Prior to his studies at SFCM, Kyle completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music with Professor Ross Harbaugh.
As a chamber musician, he has performed with artists such as Andrés Cárdenes, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Marcy Rosen, Itamar Zorman, Dimitri Murrath, William Fedkenheuer, Dennis Kim, Chauncey Patterson, and Jodi Levitz. Kyle regularly performs around the Bay Area with the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Vallejo Festival Orchestra, and Marin Symphony.
Joseph Skerik
Co-founder of Viridian Strings, American violist Joseph Skerik is a member of the Vega String Quartet, on faculty at Emory University in Atlanta.
Joseph's 2024-25 quartet activities include performances with Mark O’Connor, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Ettore Causa and Jon Kimura Parker in the US and Mexico. They will be premiering a new viola quintet by Paul Coletti and commissioning two works as part of the PBS Series "Songs About Buildings and Moods." In 2024, the Vega Quartet was featured in concerts at the National Gallery in Washington, DC in conjunction with a special exhibition of Mark Rothko works, and collaborated with musicians such as Zuill Bailey, Ransom Wilson and the Juilliard Quartet.
In addition to his studies at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale School of Music and the Paris Conservatory, Joseph has participated in the Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World and the Schiermonnikoog Festival in the Netherlands.
Joseph's 2024 summer performances include Washington’s Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia Steans Institute, Highlands-Cashiers Festival and Viridian Strings. Joseph has been a guest artist at Heifetz’s Hear and Now Series, the Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta and the festivals of Lake George, Vivace and Kneisel Hall. He has performed chamber music with Ani Kavafian, Edward Arron, Ilya Kaler, Erin Keefe, Colin Carr, Andrew Shulman, Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson.
Joseph is a prize-winner at the AVS Competition and the 2022 Oskar Nedbal Viola Competition in Prague and was recently the featured soloist for the Heifetz Institute’s 2023 tour of Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia.
Brian Isaacs
American violist Brian Isaacs is based in Berlin as a member of both the class of Tabea Zimmermann (Konzertexamen, Frankfurt HfMDK) and the Karajan-Akademie der Berliner Philharmoniker (mentored by Sebastian Krunnies).
Brian has received awards and prizes from institutions such as the Verbier Festival Academy, Yale University, Frank Huntington Beebe Fund, and international competitions including Grunewald, Nedbal, and Rubinstein. He has advanced to the semi-finals of major competitions such as ARD, Primrose, and Prague Spring. Brian has benefited from working in masterclasses with violists such as Misha Amory, Yuri Bashmet, Noemie Bialobroda, Ettore Causa, Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Steven Tenenbom, Lars Anders Tomter, and Tabea Zimmermann.
An avid chamber musician, Brian has participated in numerous festivals and concerts in the USA, Europe, and Asia. Recent festival appearances include Four Seasons, Gstaad String Academy, NUME, Taos, Thy, Verbier Festival Academy, and Viridian Strings. Brian's 2024 summer performances include chamber music festivals such as Methow Valley, Yellow Barn, and the La Jolla SummerFest Fellowship.
A native New Yorker and graduate of Yale University, Brian received his MM in Viola Performance, studying with Ettore Causa, and his BA in Sociology. He plays on a viola made in 2011 by Douglas Cox in Brattleboro, VT, on generous loan from the Virtu Foundation.
Cherry Yeung
Born and raised in Hong Kong, violinist Cherry Choi Tung Yeung won her first job in one of the major orchestras in the United States at the age of 21. She is now the Associate Principal Second Violin of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
Cherry has been an artist of the Marlboro Music Festival since 2022. She has won numerous prizes including first prize at the Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, prompting engagements with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic and the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini di Pesaro in Italy. Her other competition awards include second prize of the Juilliard Violin Concerto Competition, winner of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Concerto Competition for two consecutive years, second prize of the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition, and first prize of the Hong Kong Youth String Competition. In 2018 she was named a New York Philharmonic Global Academy Zarin Mehta Fellow.
Cherry has performed with the New York Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Hong Kong Academy, New World Symphony, Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony in C. She served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the latter of which she led on the 2020 Curtis on Tour and performed in world renowned venues including Carnegie Hall.
Cherry plays on a 1768 Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza.
Cuna Kim
Violinist Cuna Kim began her violin studies at the age of four in Pittsburgh, PA. She recently completed her bachelor's degree at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the guidance of Wonhee Bae from the Esmé Quartet. With a strong passion for chamber music, Cuna actively advocates for the accessibility of classical music, aiming to break barriers and reach underprivileged communities. She has had the opportunity to collaborate with distinguished artists such as Robert McDonald, Stefan Jackiw, David Radzynski, and William van der Sloot, as well as esteemed quartets like the Miró, Telegraph, and Jupiter Quartets. Recently, she has been a participant in the Bowdoin International Music Festival and Orford Musique Academy.
Katie Liu
Violist Katie Liu recently obtained her Master of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Ettore Causa. She will join the Seattle Symphony in the 2024-25 season as Assistant Principal Viola.
A versatile chamber musician, Katie performs with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and has participated in the NUME Academy and Verbier Festival Academy. Her 2024 engagements include the Aspect Chamber Music Series, BeethovenFestival Sweden tour with pianist Per Tengstrand, Kronberg Academy Chamber Music Connects the World, and North Shore Chamber Music Festival.
Katie received her Master of Music degree at the Colburn School and her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, concentrating in Operations Research and Financial Engineering with minors in Musical Performance and Computer Science. She commenced her viola pursuits as winner of the Princeton University Concerto Competition; as a soloist, she has performed with the Princeton University Orchestra and Colburn Orchestra. Prior to her appointment in Seattle, she was principal violist of the American Youth Symphony and a section violist at the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Katie has regularly performed with the New York Philharmonic as a substitute violist.
Matthew Hakkarainen
Matthew Hakkarainen is the first American to win first prize at the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition in Gorizia, Italy. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music studying with Pamela Frank, and currently studies at the Juilliard School with Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes.
Matthew recently won third prize at the 2024 Stuttgart International Violin Competition, and has also won the New World Symphony's Concerto Competition and the Aspen Music Festival and School's Violin Competition. He has also served as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and Curtis Symphony Orchestra, and appeared frequently as a Substitute Violin with the Philadelphia Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Matthew has performed as a guest artist at FestivalSouth, on National Public Radio's "From the Top", and as a soloist with many prestigious orchestras around the world.
Born in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Matthew is also an accomplished academic, having been recognized as a National Merit Scholarship recipient, a Kovner Opportunity Scholar, and a Sunshine State Scholar. He has attended numerous festivals and masterclasses, studying with some of the world's most renowned artists, including Zvi Zeitlin, Gordon Nikolić, and Vadim Gluzman, among others.
Oliver Leitner
Violinist Oliver Leitner is pursuing his graduate studies at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Professor Soovin Kim. He completed his undergraduate degree at Yale College earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry with additional studies in violin performance and chamber music under Professor Wendy Sharp.
A passionate chamber and orchestral musician, he has been a fellow at festivals including Music Academy, Tanglewood Music Center, Domaine Forget, Thy, and Bowdoin. A winner of the Music Academy MAX competition, he studied and performed with the London Symphony Orchestra in November 2023. He has also served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and is a section violinist in the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.
As an undergraduate Oliver received recognition for his work in music and chemistry, having been a finalist in Yale College’s William Waite Concerto Competition (2022), a recipient of junior and senior awards from the Department of Music, an intern at the National Renewable Energy Lab, and a co-author on chemistry research published in JACS and Angewandte Chemie.
