Sam Ou      

    Sam Ou came to the United States from Taiwan at age 4 and began his cello studies at age 9.  He has been a pupil of several renowned cello teachers, including Gretchen Geber, Eleanore Schoenfeld, and Aldo Parisot.  After completing his bachelor of arts and master of music degrees in New York from Columbia University and The Juilliard School in their double degree program, Mr. Ou moved to Boston to study with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he graduated with a doctorate of musical arts.  His dissertation was entitled "In Felix's Footsteps: An Examination of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel's Approach to Her Chamber Music."

    Some awards and scholarships that Mr. Ou has won include the Rome Festival Concerto Soloist Award, the Rosemary Scales Prize for best cello concerto performance at the Kingsville International Young Performers Competition, the Chi-Mei Music Scholarship from Taiwan, the ARTS Level II Award from the National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts, and the Joseph Schuster Memorial Cello Scholarship from the Young Musicians' Foundation.

    Mr. Ou has performed in music festivals such as Tanglewood, Sarasota, Musicorda, Santa Fe, and La Jolla.  He has been a visiting lecturer, performer, and cello teacher at Fu-Jen University in Taipei, Taiwan, where he conducted solo and chamber music master classes and performed with Fu-Jen faculty musicians.  As a participant of Fu-Jen’s 18th Century Piano Literature Symposium and the International Strings Literature Symposium, he presented papers on the chamber music of Beethoven and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel.  Mr. Ou has also coached undergraduate chamber ensembles and orchestral cello sectionals at Tufts University.

    Mr. Ou is extremely fond of playing chamber music.  While a student at NEC, he founded the NEC String Trio, which won the Honors Ensemble Competition at NEC, was featured on Boston’s WGBH radio, and was resident chamber ensemble at the Musicorda Music Festival.  As a former member of the Huntington Piano Trio, Mr. Ou performed extensively throughout New England and traveled to Poland, giving concerts in Poznan and Zakopane.  He has studied with several inspiring chamber music coaches including Toby Appel, Emanuel Ax, Neil Black, Earl Carlyss, Norman Fischer, Felix Galimir, Christoph Henkel, Lewis Kaplan, and Emma Tahmisian.  He has also collaborated and performed with the Borromeo String Quartet, James Buswell, James Dunham, Patricia McCarty, Paul Neubauer, Heiichiro Ohyama, and Marcus Thompson.  Mr. Ou performed Yehudi Wyner's "Tanz and Maissele" with violinist Lucy Chapman, clarinetist Bruce Creditor, and the Pulitzer prize-winning composer at the piano in New York City's Center for Jewish History.

Mr. Ou is currently a faculty member at NEC’s Preparatory School.  He also maintains a private teaching studio, and in the summer, he teaches in Belmont, MA at Music on the Hill, a chamber music program for young musicians.

Nara Shahbazyan 

    Originally from Yerevan, Armenia, Nara Shahbazyan began studying the piano at age five and cello at age seven. A highly accomplished solo and chamber musician, she received her undergraduate degree in cello performance from the Yerevan State Conservatory where she was an active member of their Contemporary String Quartet.

    She continued her education at Miami University where she was awarded a full scholarship to pursue her Master’s degree. While there, she performed as a principal cellist for the University Symphony Orchestra and was a member of the Armenian String Trio. She then continued her education at Florida State University where she performed with the Eppes String Quartet.

    Currently, Nara has a full scholarship at Boston University where she will receive her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree in cello performance this May. She plays with the New Bedford Symphony and Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, teaches cello at Brookline Music School and at the Musical Arts Academy.

    Nara has performed and recorded extensively throughout Armenia, Europe, the Middle East, and the United States. She has served as a principal cello with Alan Hovhaness Chamber Orchestra, Miami University Symphony, Florida State University, Boston University Symphony/ Chamber Orchestras, and the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra. She has participated in numerous music festivals such as the Salzburg Summer Music Chamber Institute, the Bach 2000 Festival, Seville Opera Festival, the Babylon International Festival, New York City InCite Festival, and the Echternach Orchestra Festival.

Masanori Taniguchi

    Cellist Masanori Taniguchi has a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Science in Chronobiology from Kyoto University, Japan, and also holds a Master of Music and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Cello Performance from The Boston Conservatory. After some musical experiences through playing the piano, Masanori began to play the cello at the age of 18, and decided to pursue music as a career when he was 23 years old. His former teacher is Hiroshi Kondo, the principal cellist of the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan. Masanori has often appeared as a substitute player in major professional orchestras in Osaka, and was also selected to join a national concert tour produced by Joe Hisaishi in the spring of 2003.

     Since Masanori came to Boston in the fall of 2004 to study with Professor Andrew Mark, Chair of Strings and Cello Faculty at The Boston Conservatory, he has made numerous performances in New England area especially as an active chamber musician, and received many honors at The Boston Conservatory. One of his chamber groups, Three Colors Trio, won the first prize from the CMFoNE First International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, and performed in the First Prize Winners Concert at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in May 2005. Masanori was also awarded the second prize from the same competition in May 2008 as a member of Parnassos String Quartet, the Honors Quartet of The Boston Conservatory in the 2007-2008　season. Masanori is also one of the founders of the Boston String Quartet, an active contemporary classical ensemble, and has been participating in many projects and businesses through this ensemble, including US national tour ‘Xibus’ in the winter of 2008. As an educator, Masanori bas been a cello faculty of Vuk School of Groove in Cambridge since the spring of 2007, and he also led the Youth & Muse 2008, an international music camp for youth at The Boston Conservatory, as the chair of faculty. In the September of 2007, Masanori became the member of Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.

     Masanori's chamber music coaches include Roger Tapping, Rhonda Rider, Patricia McCarty, Rictor Noren, Jonathan Cohler, Max Levinson, and Jonathan Bass. Masanori also studies with Timothy Eddy from Juilliard and Natasha Brofsky from New England Conservatory.