Adé Williams and Chelsea Wang
Violin and Piano
Violinist Adé Williams is a two-time Sphinx Competition laureate (1st place, Junior Division, 2012; 2nd place, Senior Division, 2019). She has won numerous other competitions in the US and Europe, beginning at age eight, and has placed in several chamber music competitions.
Adé has enjoyed a thrilling solo career, from her debut with the Chicago Sinfonietta at age six to her concerts with over 50 orchestras including the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, the Detroit, Pittsburgh, New World, Indianapolis, and Nashville Symphonies, and Buffalo and KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonics (South Africa) by age 18. Most recently, she made her debut with the Chineke! Orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London (2021). In 2017, Adé premiered Guardian of the Horizon: Concerto Grosso for Violin, Cello, and Strings by Jimmy Lopez, a work commissioned by Carnegie Hall and New World Symphony. The NY Concert Review praised her as “an absolute winning champion of the work.” Adé made her White House debut in 2015 and Carnegie Hall debut in 2013 where she has since returned five times. She has attended the Pacific Music Festival (Japan), the Astona International Music Festival (Switzerland), Cambridge International String Academy (England), and the Chautauqua Institution (US).
She is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she served as concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and studied with Ida Kavafian. Prior to Curtis, Adé studied with Almita and Roland Vamos, Marko Dreher, and Rachel Barton Pine.
Adé Williams, 17, had John Corigliano’s impetuous “Red Violin Caprices” all to herself and played it stunningly. – NY Times
A Chicagoland wunderkind … known not only as a one-name performer but also as one singular sensation … played with a sweet tone and strength of character. – The Grand Rapids Press
Praised by the New York Times as an “excellent young pianist”, Chelsea Wang has appeared as a soloist and chamber musician throughout North America in venues including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Merkin Hall, Kimmel Center’s Perelman Hall, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, Benjamin Franklin Hall, Guarneri Hall, and more. She has also performed extensively in Europe and Asia, appearing in venues including Konzerthaus Berlin, Munich’s Allerheiligen-Hofkirche, Konzertsaal at Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden Hochschule fur Musik, Chamber Hall of Warsaw Philharmonic, Seoul Arts Center, Taipei National Concert Hall, Kaohsiung Weiwuying Center for the Arts, Hong Kong City Hall, and Taitung Cultural Performing Arts Center. She is a prizewinner and finalist of many national and international piano competitions including the Seoul International Piano competition, Washington International Piano Competition, New York International Piano Competition, and many more.
Ms. Wang made her orchestral debut at the age of six and has performed with many orchestras since then including the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony Orchestra, musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New Orleans Civic Symphony, Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, Fort Dodge Symphony Orchestra, Northwestern University Chamber Orchestra, among others. Her festival appearances include the Music@Menlo, Ravinia Steans Institute, Bravo!Vail, Tippet Rise, Music Academy of the West, Orford, PianoTexas, Fontainebleau, Music from Angel Fire, Four Seasons, Banff, Amalfi Coast, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals. Chelsea has performed as a guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Manhattan Chamber Players, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Hong Kong Intimacy of Creativity, and the Dame Myra Hess Series.
Among the numerous musicians with whom she has collaborated include Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Steven Tenenbom, Peter Wiley, Roberto Diaz, Anne-Marie McDermott, Anton Nel, Hsin-Yun Huang, Bright Sheng, Arnaud Sussmann, Kristin Lee, Matthew Lipman, Yoojin Jang, Dmitri Murrath, Jose Franch-Ballester, Sebastian Manz, Bright Sheng, and many others. She has had the honor of playing for many notable musicians and chamber groups including Sir András Schiff, Richard Goode, Gary Graffman, Robert McDonald, Seymour Lipkin, Jonathan Biss, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Leonidas Kavakos, Arie Vardi, Aldo Ciccolini, eighth blackbird, Emerson Quartet, and Tokyo String Quartet, among others. Radio appearances include “What Makes It Great” with host Rob Kapilow, NPR’s “From the Top”, along with programs on New York’s WQXR, Chicago’s WFMT, Philadelphia’s WHYY Public Radios, Sarasota’s WSMR, and other programs in Iowa, Kansas, and Minnesota.
A native of West Des Moines, Iowa, Ms. Wang is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she studied with Meng-Chieh Liu and Ignat Solzhenitsyn and was awarded the prestigious Sergei Rachmaninoff Award upon graduation. She received her Master of Music degree and Graduate Performance Diploma at the Peabody Conservatory under the tutelage of Leon Fleisher and Yong-Hi Moon, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music with James Giles. Additionally, Ms. Wang is a member of the prestigious New York-based Ensemble Connect, a highly selective two-year fellowship program under the joint auspices of Carnegie Hall, The Weill Institute, and The Juilliard School.
