MUSICIAN BIOS

Stephanie Block (viola)

A student of  Heifetz Institute teacher Heidi Castleman and Hsin-Yun Huang at The Juilliard School, violist Stephanie Block is a 2012 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Young Arts Merit Winner and a 2012 semi-finalist in the prestigious Johansen International Competition for Young String Players.  She has performed as a soloist with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Depaul University’s Oistrach Symphony Orchestra, and the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Encore Chamber Orchestra. She was a finalist in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra youth auditions and has received top prizes in the James Glacking Concerto Competition and the Society of American Musicians Competition. In October 2013 she was invited to perform two solo recitals for the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota.

Stephanie has also received several awards as a chamber musician. This includes winning the 2010 and 2011 Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition as well as the Gold Medal in the Junior Division of the 2012 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition with Quartet Stracciatella of the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago.  In 2016, Stephanie was a member of the prestigious Ashkenasi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar. She has also attended the Sarasota Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Taos School of Music.

Stephanie performed and was featured as a soloist on Chicago radio station 98.7 WFMT’s Introductions with David Polk as well as twice on National Public Radio’s From the Top as both a soloist and with Quartet Stracciatella.

Stephanie is also working to integrate philanthropic aspects into her music. A survivor of the cancer-like disease Langerhan’s Cell Histiocytosis, Stephanie organized a benefit concert in June 2012 featuring top musicians of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Music Institute of Chicago to raise money and awareness for the Histiocytosis Association of America. She plans to continue these efforts through her music studies. Stephanie is also a triathlete and runner.

Clare Bradford (cello)

2015 Heifetz Institute student Clare Bradford began studying cello in Philadelphia at 4 years old and soon moved to Pittsburgh to study with Pittsburgh Symphony cellist Mikhail Istomin. At seven, she was invited to play as a guest soloist in a master class with Mstislav Rostropovich, and that same year she appeared as a young guest artist with the Pittsburgh Symphony.  Moving back to Philadelphia in 2005, Clare was a student of Jeffrey Solow and Philadelphia Orchestra cellist, Yumi Kendall. She has played in master classes with Orlando Cole and Peter Stumpf, and in 2012, she appeared as a guest soloist with the Ambler Symphony and the Old York Road Symphony orchestras. In 2013, she was the first place winner of the Pittsburgh Symphony/Duquesne Young Artist National Competition, which earned her a solo opportunity with the Pittsburgh Symphony in the Spring of 2013. On fellowship, Clare attended the Aspen Music Festival in 2012/13 as a student of Richard Aaron and Darrett Adkins. Clare is in her third year at the New England Conservatory of Music, and is the current student of Paul Katz, long associated with the Heifetz Institute.

Since attending NEC, Clare was invited to play in a master class with Joel Krosnick, and during her freshman year had the rare opportunity to study under such notable cellists as Gary Hoffman, Peter Wispelway, Luis Claret, and Heifetz faculty member Ralph Kirshbaum,  Clare plays on a 1767 Thomas Perry Cello on loan to her from The Colburn Collection.

Wynton Grant (violin)

American violinist Wynton Grant has performed widely across the United States. Wynton was raised in Sheridan, WY, where he began his violin studies at age seven. The following year won first place in the Stars of Tomorrow Competition. In 2011, Wynton graduated as salutatorian of his high school class, with distinctions as both a National Merit Scholar and National Achievement Scholar. That same year, he won the Ars Flores Concerto Competition and performed the Barber Violin Concerto with the Ars Flores Symphony in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. As a student of Elmar Oliveira, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Lynn Conservatory in 2015, and had the privilege of speaking at graduation. This fall he was a finalist in the Orchestra Noir’s Collegiate Concerto Competition. In past summers he has participated in the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Summit Music Festival, attended the Meadowmount School of Music, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He has also performed in Carnegie Hall as a member of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and has performed for the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York with his piano quintet. He is currently pursuing a Masters of Music degree at the Yale School of Music with Syoko Aki.

Yezu (Elizabeth) Woo  (violin)

A recipient of  “Outstanding Musician” awards from the Arts Critic Association and the Gangwon Talent Support Foundation in Korea,  Violinist Yezu (Elizabeth) Woo attended the Heifetz Institute in 2014, and returned in 2015 to join the inaugural program of the Ashkenasi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar.  At her 2004 debut at Carnegie Hall, Yezu became the youngest performer ever to play all 24 of Niccolo Paganini’s notoriously difficulty Caprices for solo violin. Since then, she has been invited to perform at the United Nations and traveled extensively for performances at Lincoln Center and Merkin Hall in New York, Smetana Hall in Prague, and the storied Musikverein in Vienna. She has appeared with such orchestras as the New Jersey Symphony, North Czech Philharmonic, Slovakian Radio Symphony, Bulgarian Symphony, Romanian National Constanza Orchestra, Venezuela Philharmonic, and the Pyongyang Symphony of North Korea, as well as the Sungnam, KBS, Jeju, Mostly Philharmonic and Gangwon Provinces Orchestras of South Korea.

For the Heifetz Institute, Yezu was also a member of the Spring 2015 Heifetz On Tour troupe performing in and around Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

Ms. Woo also enjoys collaborations with artists in other genres, including Korean traditional music and hip hop. She is the Artistic Director of  Shattered Glass, a conductorless string ensemble based in NYC,  as well as the New York in Chuncheon Music Festival in her Korean hometown of  Chuncheon,   Ms. Woo received her B.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Albert Markov, and her M.M. at The Juilliard School after studies with Catherine Cho.