Gloria Chien & Soovin Kim Artistic Directors

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by the The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters.  The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR in 2020. Most recently, she released two albums - her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.

Chien studied extensively at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.

Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career regularly performing Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin, sonatas for violin and piano ranging from Beethoven to Ives, Mozart, and Haydn concertos and symphonies as a conductor, and new world-premiere works almost every season.  When he was 20 years old, Mr. Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition.  He immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet.  Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s demanding 24 Caprices, and a two-disc set of Bach’s complete solo violin works to be released in 2024. Soovin Kim is the founder and artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont.  In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin.  The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work by bestowing an honorary doctorate upon him in 2015. 

Gloria and Soovin are two of the world’s most important chamber musicians. Among their many plaudits, Gloria and Soovin are recipients of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021.

David Serkin Ludwig
Resident Composer

David is Dean of Music at the Julliard School and is considered one of the “world’s top composers.”

David Serkin Ludwig’s first memory was singing Beatles songs with his sister; sister; his second was hearing his grandfather perform at Carnegie Hall­–and a diverse career collaborating with many of today’s leading musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, and writers was to follow. His choral work “The New Colossus,” opened the private prayer service for President Obama’s second inauguration; in the next year NPR Music named him in the world’s “Top 100 Composers Under Forty.” Ludwig holds positions and residencies with nearly two dozen orchestras and music festivals in the US and abroad. Ludwig is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Pew Center for the Arts and Heritage Fellowship, and most recently the American Academy of Arts and Letters Annual Award in Music and the 2022 Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Ludwig was appointed Dean and Director of the Julliard School music division in 2021. He lives in New York City with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four beloved cats.

Marisa Kono
Education and Culture

Marisa started as a Summer Intern at the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in 2021.  She enjoys being a member of the Asian Student Union and a violinist in the University of Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Marisa has worked as the Orchestra Manager Apprentice for Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra and is a current member of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s Education Committee. She has a passion for providing musical opportunities to youth of all backgrounds. Contact Marisa at marisa@lccmf.org.

Hannah Sweet
Festival Manager

Hannah is an arts administration professional with a passion for helping facilitate world-class chamber music. She has assisted some of the countries top chamber music organizations, musicians, and composers.

In 2015, Hannah began working with LCCMF Co-Artistic Director Gloria Chien at String Theory in Chattanooga, TN as Operations Director. That same year, she interned with LCCMF and quickly fell in love with Vermont and the environment fostered by the festival. Over the course of the past several years, Hannah has taken on a larger role with LCCMF and now serves as Festival Manager, assisting in the production of the summer festival as well as the other year-round events.

Contact Hannah at hannah@lccmf.org.

Peter Espenshade
General Manager

Peter has been the Festival’s Executive Director and General Manager since 2022 and has decades of non-profit leadership experience.  He has worked in philanthropy as a Vice President at the Vermont Community Foundation and as the President of the Lake Champlain Land Trust.  He holds a master’s in religious art and architecture and has held a variety of volunteer leadership positions in the arts.  He loves paddleboarding on Lake Champlain and driving around Vermont in search of the perfect sandwich.  

Contact Peter at peter@lccmf.org.

Alan Bise
Recording Producer & Engineer

Alan is a Grammy Award winning producer and recording engineer. His most recent Grammy was the 2023 award for Chamber Music recordings

He is the chief classical producer of Azica Records and works for many clients and labels across the world. His recordings have received four Grammy nominations, appeared on the Billboard Classical chart and Amazon best-sellers list.  He studies the evolving interests of young listeners and uses his own love of rock ‘n’ roll to help create unique and appealing classical projects.