If you are interested in joining our faculty, please send inquiries to info@cymg.org. *

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Lacey Bowen
Strings for Kids

Lacey began her violin studies at the age of four. Lacey entered the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music on scholarship in 2005. There she studied with Margaret Batjer, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and world-renowned soloist and teacher, Hagai Shaham. Lacey received her Bachelors in Music in violin performance from USC in May of 2009. Lacey was a substitute member of the Utah Symphony during her summers home from college. Lacey has enjoyed teaching the violin to children since the age of 15. Her students acquire excellent form and a high level of playing. Lacey started teaching for CYMG in 2012.

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Pin Chen
Music Director, Chamber Groups

Pin Chen began studying the violin with her father at age six and earned her Bachelor of   Music in music education with Department Honors from Northwestern University.  She earned her Master of Music degree in Music/Music Education with a Conducting Specialization from Colorado State University, Fort Collins at the top of her class with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She has been teaching music in public schools since 2003 and is currently the Orchestra Director of the well-known orchestra program at Arcadia High School. Chen has been teaching private violin and viola lessons since she was 14 years old and is the String Orchestra Conductor for the Pasadena Youth Symphony Orchestra.  Ms. Chen is a two-time recipient of the National School Orchestra Association Award as well as the Harry and Clarice Fine Arts Memorial and Margaret Morris Henderson Scholarships. She is a member of the Conductors Guild, Music Teachers Association of California, and Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, of which she is a past Vice President of Orchestra Education. Chen is a sought after guest conductor and clinician, including conducting the All-Southern Honor Orchestra in 2020. When she is not teaching, she enjoys performing the occasional gig, helping CYMG grow and evolve, and fencing.

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Lydia Wu
Chamber Groups

Lydia Wu started studying piano at the age of three. After moving to the United States at the age of seven, she continued her studies in New York City in the studio of Mr. Shou- Ping Chiu. By the age of seventeen, Ms. Wu gave many solo performances, including Silver Bay Festival and Cornell University in New York, and Chinese Young Artist Competition in Washington D.C.. She also studied with Maria Asteriadou, Xak Bjerken, and Jian Tian, and received master classes with Christine Dahl, Constance Keene, Graham Scott, Misha Dichter, Lydia Boguslavsky, and Barry Douglas.

Ms. Wu received her bachelor and master degrees in piano performance at the University of Georgia, under the tutelage of Russian pianist Evgeny Rivkin. In 1999 she was a winner of the UGA Concerto Competition and Atlanta Steinway Society Scholarship. A member of Pi Kappa Lambda, she received the Athon-Hughes-Cook Piano Pedagogy Scholarship Award in 2002. Ms. Wu was a member of Contemporary Chamber Ensemble at the University of Georgia. In 2005, she was winner of the Franz Liszt Award, and Outstanding Performer at GMTA Senior College Division. Most recently in 2017, Ms. Wu was an Honorable Mention at the James Ramos International Video Competition.

In her most recent collaboration with composer Sarah Wallin-Huff, the EP “Crystallization” was awarded Bronze Medal for the category of Classical Crossover. Solo appearances include the Chinese Christian Herald Mission Center in Flushing, New York, PepsiCo Concert Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, Bonneville Chamber Music Festival in Ogden, Utah, and Franz Liszt Festival in Athens, Georgia. A member of the piano faculty at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in the summer months, Ms. Wu currently lives in Los Angeles, California where she is a Music Teacher at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA), Teaching Artist for Crescendo Young Musicians Guild (CYMG), Chairperson for MTAC Los Angeles Branch VOCE Festival, and the Music Director at Village Presbyterian Church. A member of the Music Teachers’ Association of California (MTAC) and Music Teachers National Association (MTNA, she continues to teach and perform solo and in collaboration.

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Elizabeth Elliot
Chamber Groups

B.A. Augsburg College, 1994 – majors cello and voice, minor piano – extensive coursework in music education, conducting, music history. Member of MTNA, ACMP, the Los Angeles Cello Society, and ASTA. Advisory board member of the So Cal Chamber Music Workshop. Soloist and chamber music section co-chair of Pasadena Chapter of Tuesday Musicale on cello, viola, and violin. Cellist and founding member of the Duende Piano Trio. Played “Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 33” by Peter Tchaikovsky with Crown City Symphony November 2019. Began teaching in own studio in 1992 in Twin Cities. Taught cello and chamber music at the Upper Midwest String and Chamber Music Conference from 1995-98 and cello, viola and chamber music at the MacPhail Center for the Arts Summer String Camps from 1994-98. Was a private string teacher at Breck School from 1995-98. Moved to Los Angeles in 1998. Principal teachers have included Fang-Fang Xu, Danny Rothmuller, Cecilia Rossiter, Peter Howard and Laura Sewell on cello. I studied piano with Celeste O’Brien and Elliott Wilcox. Atudied violin and viola with Mary West. Was both Principal Cello and Principal Viola of the Northeast Orchestra, Acting Principal Cello of the Valley Symphony, Section Cellist with the Civic Orchestra of Mpls, and was Section Cello in SSCO. I regularly play chamber music and have done studio work with Prince, Michelle Bloom and Aqualung, Alan Bernhoft, at Capitol Records and for several others.  Have accompanied several recitals and musicals on piano and have played for countless weddings and funerals on all stringed instruments. In 2014, hhad the opportunity to play cello with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London’s Maida Vale Studios. Currently play 1st violin in Crown City Symphony.

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Isaiah Gage
Chamber Groups

Isaiah Rowland Gage is a Cellist, Multi-Instrumentalist, Vocalist, Composer and Songwriter from New York City. At an early age Gage was exposed to many genres of music, as his parents operated a String Instrument repair shop and small Jazz, Improv and Experimental Music club in the front of their loft. Gage grew up stumbling around fragile acoustic instruments, playing children’s games on the floor as musicians warmed up and tested their hardware after repairs. His father, David, was at one point a gigging Bass Player and thus specialized primarily in Double Basses, so naturally one would expect Isaiah to pick up the Bass. However after hearing his cousin play the Cello, Gage was mesmerized. He couldn’t get over the human-like qualities of the instrument’s voice and the range in which the instrument could deliver pitch – he simply had to play the cello. Isaiah earned his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance from Boston University. www.isaiahgage.com

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*Crescendo Young Musicians Guild is an Equal-Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or national origin.