Performance Today Announces Five Students for 2024-2025 Young Artist in Residency Program

Oct 15, 2024

ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 15, 2024— YourClassical’s Performance Today, America’s most popular classical music radio program, has announced the five musicians who will make up this year’s Performance Today Young Artists in Residence program (PTYA).  

Performance Today works with the top music conservatories from around the country to identify their most promising talent to take part in the PTYA Program each year. 

The program provides young musicians the opportunity to interview and perform for broadcast with Performance Today host Fred Child. The musicians will also participate in outreach to elementary and middle-school students.  

“For three decades, our Young Artist in Residence program has been a core of Performance Today’s annual activities. So many past Young Artists have gone on to stellar careers as leaders in today’s classical music world,” said Fred Child, host of Performance Today. “This year’s incoming group represents the best of the best of young artists from top conservatories around the country. I can’t wait to share their talent and their stories with listeners, who will get to meet future classical stars in this season’s broadcasts.” 

Short bios of each young artist can be found below.  

Nina Bernat, double bass - The Julliard School 

Double bassist Nina Bernat, a recipient of the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the CAG Elmaleh Competition is acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity. She was hailed by the Star Tribune as a “standout” for her recent concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, praising her performance as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical… technically precise and impressively emotive.” She is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Bowers Program and has spent summers at Marlboro Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Music@Menlo and Chamber Music Northwest. She joins the faculty of Stony Brook University in the Fall of 2024. 

Emad Zolfaghari, viola – The Curtis Institute 

Described as “An enthralling young viola soloist overflowing with imagination and conviction” by the Violin Channel, Canadian violist and VC artist Emad Zolfaghari recently came to international attention after being the first ever Canadian to be awarded first prize and audience prize at the 2024 Primrose International Viola Competition. He was accepted into the Curtis Institute of Music at age 16, where he currently studies with Hsin-Yun Huang. Emad has appeared as a soloist with several major symphony orchestras, and solo engagements this upcoming season include The Peninsula Symphony, Master Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra, and Santa Cruz Symphony. In May 2023, Emad served as principal viola for the Curtis Symphony Orchestra on their West Coast Tour. Emad was also selected for Curtis On Tour in February - March 2024. 

Samuel Frois, violin – Bard College 

Samuel, a Brazilian violinist based in New York, currently serves as Concertmaster for The Orchestra Now and frequently collaborates with renowned ensembles like the Nashville Symphony and Richmond Symphony. He earned his Bachelor's degree from the Mannes School of Music, studying under Wen Qian and Ming Feng, and is now pursuing a master's degree in Bard's orchestral program. Among his accolades, Samuel was a recipient of the Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation scholarship for four consecutive years and was recently awarded second prize in the 2023 Sphinx Orchestral Excerpts Competition. Samuel is deeply passionate about the power of music to foster community and connection. He believes that the collaborative, vulnerable, and trusting nature of music-making is what makes it so captivating and deeply reflective of the human experience. 

David Lai, piano – Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University 

Jiajun (David) Lai is a doctoral piano student at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, studying with Norman Krieger. Blind from birth, Lai started lessons at age four in his hometown of Hangzhou, China. In 2005, with the assistance of the late Chinese pianist and pedagogue Guangren Zhou, he moved to Beijing and began studying with pianist Dongli Mao. In 2019, he graduated from Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music with a B. A. degree in Piano Performance. In 2021, he earned an M. M. degree in Piano Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. In 2020, Lai won second place and was honored as “audience’s favorite” at the Boulder Bach Festival World Bach Competition in 2020. In 2021, he won first place in the Mozart Concerto Competition at the Jacobs School. In 2022, he won first place at the Brevard Music Festival Piano Solo Competition. 
 
When he is not at the piano bench, Lai enjoys Broadway shows, film soundtracks, and occasionally fiddles with technology. Lai envisions breaking barriers by sharing music through his performance and instruction.  

Zhiwei “Victor” Ni, clarinet – Eastman School of Music 

Zhiwei Ni started playing the clarinet at the age of 9, under the famous clarinet educator, Fan Lei. In 2016, Zhiwei studied in Interlochen with Emil Khudyev. He also studied and graduated from Colburn Music Academy with Yehuda Gilad. In March 2020, he was admitted to the Eastman School of Music which he studied under professor Michael Wayne and received a full scholarship. From 2019 to 2020, he was selected for the China Youth Symphony Orchestra (NYO-China) twice and toured Europe. In 2020, Zhiwei won the second prize of the Vandoren Emerging Artist competition. In 2022, he was selected as a candidate for the Carl Nielsen International Competition. He became the prize winner of the 2023 International Clarinet Association young artist competition. Recently, Zhiwei was participant in Schleswig- Holstein Musik Festival in 2024. 

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