Praised for her “full-bodied, rich, and warm tone” (Cleveland.com), violinist and educator Ann Yu draws endless inspiration from exploring multiple genres and musical styles in the historical and modern musical traditions, leading her to unique and groundbreaking projects with Apollo’s Fire, the Poiema Trio, the Caroga Arts Collective, Project: Music Heals Us, CLE Concierto, and the Resonance Master Series. Ann earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Jaime Laredo, Jan Sloman, and William Preucil, and was the 1st prize winner of the 26th Annual Darius Milhaud Competition and Concerto Competition and the recipient of the Fortnightly Musical Club Award. Her training also includes prestigious programs such as Thy Masterclass, Kneisel Hall, the Perlman Music Program, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the National Youth Orchestra-USA, and the Credo Festival, where she later served on faculty for four summers. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, the CIM Orchestra, and the National Repertory Orchestra. In Cleveland, Ann performs regularly with Apollo’s Fire, Forest City Strings (Candlelight Concerts), and in local chamber music settings. She teaches privately and through the Cleveland Orchestra’s Crescendo Program at the Cleveland School of the Arts and Campus International School. She also enjoys jamming with local bluegrass, old-time, blues, tango, and swing jazz musicians. In her free time, Ann loves sight reading chamber music, hiking in the national park, and dancing lindy hop and blues.

-“…lets the notes ring, as if painting with the reverberation.  Like a gradually cresting wave, the intensity peaks…”

–Cleveland Classical

Dr. Irwin Shung, whose playing has been praised by State Magazine for its “ease, technique, and musicianship,” has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.  Shung teaches keyboard ensembles at Case Western Reserve University, in addition to serving as Artistic Director of The Resonance Project since its founding in Seattle.  He maintains an active musical profile both on the American West Coast and in Northeast Ohio, where he was recently selected as Heights Arts’ Artist of the Month.  As President of the Northeast Ohio Music Teachers Association, Shung oversaw the development of dynamic new programs for hundreds of regional precollegiate music students in Cuyahoga, Geauga, and Lorain Counties.

Shung received his D.M.A. in Piano Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2015, where he studied with Dr. Daniel Shapiro. Other teachers include Marian Hahn (Peabody Conservatory), Leon Fleisher (Peabody Conservatory), Herbert Stessin (Juilliard School), Gabriel Chodos (New England Conservatory), and Victoria Bogdashevskaya (Moscow Conservatory). Awards received include the Pauline Favin Memorial Award from the Peabody Conservatory of Music and a win in the Darius Milhaud Competition.  Shung recently premiered his work for solo piano, Seven Chinese Characters, alongside a live painting by the internationally renowned artist Li Qian.  In October 2026, he will present a recital inspired by with the Cleveland Museum of Art in conjunction with its upcoming exhibition Ten Kings of Hell.

Born in Qingdao, China, Qian Li bridges Eastern and Western artistic traditions through a practice that spans painting, digital print, video, interactive installation, and mixed media. Her work evokes the delicate balance between the material and the spiritual, the intimate and the universal. Li received her BFA from the Central Academy of Art and Design (now the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University) in Beijing and her MFA from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She is a Professor of Art at Cleveland State University.

Her works have been exhibited widely across the United States, Europe, and Asia. She is a two-time recipient of the Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council (2008, 2015), a CAN Triennial Winner (2022), and a Distinguished Art Alumni of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. She has also curated exhibitions introducing contemporary Chinese art to American audiences at the Galleries at CSU in 2015 and 2018.