The Princeton String Academy

Violinist Jeffrey Kuan Wins Prestigious JCC Thurnauer School Audition

Will Perform in Todd Phillips Master Class March 8

PRINCETON – February 9, 2004 – Seven-year-old violinist Jeffrey Kuan has won a statewide audition for the Sylvia and Jacob Handler Violin Masterclass music workshop to be given Monday, March 8 by concert artist Todd Phillips. He will be one of eight students who will perform for the master class hosted by the JCC Thurnauer School of Music in Tenafly.

Jeffrey is the son of Lihua Yeh and Chikuang (Andy) Kuan of Princeton and a student of Paul Manulik, music director for the Princeton String Academy. For his audition on February 1, Jeffrey performed the third movement of the Concerto in A minor by Antonio Vivaldi. He began studying the instrument at age four with Mr. Manulik and is now a second grader at Maurice Hawk elementary school.

Mr. Phillips is currently a leading violinist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Orion String Quartet, currently in residence with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The JCC Thurnauer School of Music enjoys a reputation as one of the New York Metropolitan area's premier community music schools. It serves nearly 800 students and has a faculty of more than 60 distinguished teaching artists. To be eligible to audition for the master class, students must live in New Jersey and study with a teacher who lives and teaches in the state.

Several hundred music students, parents and professional musicians are expected to attend the annual music workshop. There, students at advance playing levels perform solos and receive individual instruction from the concert artist in front of the audience. Typically both those playing and students in the audience learn how to improve their playing skills.

Since making his solo debut at age 13 with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Mr. Phillips has performed as guest artist with leading orchestras throughout North America, Europe, and Japan. He has appeared at the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Santa Fe, Marlboro, and Spoleto Festivals, and has participated in sixteen “Musicians from Marlboro” tours. He has collaborated with such renowned artists as Rudolf Serkin, Jaime Laredo, Richard Stoltzman, Peter Serkin. Mr. Phillips began violin studies at age four with his father, Eugene Phillips, a composer and former violinist with the Pittsburgh Symphony, and later with Sally Thomas at the Julliard School and Sandor Vegh at the Mozarteum in Salzburg. He serves on the faculties of the Mannes College of Music and the Isaac Stern Chamber Music Workshop at Carnegie Hall.

The JCC Thurnauer School of Music offers private instruction in piano, strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion and voice; group instrumental classes; theory, ear-training, eurythmics and music history classes; and participation in instrumental, choral, chamber music, and jazz ensembles. A full member of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, the school also presents over 30 concerts annually and produces special educational events including master classes with world-renowned artists. Thurnauer students have performed at Lincoln Center, in Carnegie Hall, on the PBS television series Sesame Street, in the PBS special, Itzhak Perlman: Fiddling for the Future, in the feature film Music of the Heart, and with such renowned artists as Pinchas Zukerman, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Bell and Paquito D'Rivera.

Princeton String Academy, led by music director Paul Manulik, offers violin and viola instruction to students as young as three. Using the proven Suzuki Method that emphasizes development of natural talent, students study in both private lessons and weekly group classes. The private school was founded in 2000 and has an enrollment of approximately 50.

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