Artists

• Fiona Simon

  Violin

  Violinist Fiona Simon, a member of the Orchestra since 1985, made her Philharmonic solo debut in November 1989, performing Vivaldi’s Concerto for Three Violins. Simon began her career in her native England, where she studied with Szymon Goldberg and won major prizes in the Carl Flesch and Jacques Thibaud competitions. For three consecutive years, she was London’s Young Artist of the Year. She has performed with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the Royal Opera at Covent Garden, and the English Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has also been featured in many recitals and concerts broadcast over the BBC, and has made numerous appearances throughout Europe. Simon is a member of the Vanderspar String Trio and the Simon String Quartet. She was married to the late New York Philharmonic violinist Richard Simon, and has a son, Michael Paul, a poet.

  
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• Na Sun

  Violin

  Violinist Na Sun joined the New York Philharmonic in 2006. A native of China, she began playing the violin at age seven, and at nine was accepted into the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. After attending the conservatory’s elementary, middle, and high schools, she received her bachelor of arts degree there with the highest honor, studying with Yaoji Lin. She was concertmaster of the China Youth Symphony Orchestra, and was soloist in Brahms’s Violin Concerto with the Xiamen Symphony Orchestra. Sun, who has performed in numerous recital and chamber music concerts since arriving in the United States in 2003, received her artist diploma from Boston University in 2005, studying with Roman Totenberg. She was the grand-prize winner of the Bach Competition, attended Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and served as concertmaster of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, led by James Levine. A frequent soloist with major orchestras in China, Sun recently performed with the China National Theater Orchestra and with the Qingdao, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou symphony orchestras, conducted by Yu Long and Tan Dun.

  
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• Sharon Yamada

  Violin

  Sharon Yamada, a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1988, has performed extensively on both the East and West Coasts. She performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic Ensembles at Merkin Hall, and has appeared with the New Jersey Chamber Music Society. Yamada has performed frequently in the summer at the Grand Teton Music Festival. Other summer activities have included the Aspen, Norfolk, and Chigiana (Siena, Italy) music festivals. Formerly assistant concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Yamada has also appeared in concert with Orchestra New England and the Wallingford Symphony. She is a former member of the Hofstra String Quartet, which was in residence at Hofstra University.

  
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• Vivek Kamath

  Viola

  Violist Vivek Kamath has been a member of the New York Philharmonic since 1997. Growing up in Rochester, New York, he was a student of Lynn Blakeslee in the preparatory department of the Eastman School of Music.

  
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• Robert Rinehart

  Viola

  Robert Rinehart, who joined the New York Philharmonic’s viola section in 1992, is a familiar figure on the New York chamber-music scene. He has appeared at the Spoleto, Vancouver Chamber Music, and Santa Fe Chamber Music festivals, and with Chamber Music Northwest and The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A founding member of the Ridge String Quartet, Rinehart has performed in every major music center in the United States, as well as in Canada, Australia, Japan, and in Europe. He has collaborated with Benny Goodman, Rudolf Firkusny, and the Guarneri String Quartet, among others, and his chamber music recordings have received a Grammy Award, two Grammy nominations, and the Diapason d’Or.

  
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• Alexei Yupanqui Gonzales

  Cello

  Alexei Yupanqui Gonzales was appointed to the cello section of the New York Philharmonic in November 2012. He has served as the principal cellist of the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the Boston Lyric Opera. He has also been a member of the Boston Ballet Orchestra and has performed with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, A Far Cry Chamber Orchestra, Emmanuel Music under the late Craig Smith, and the Bach Ensemble with harpsichordist John Gibbons.

  
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• Sumire Kudo

  Cello

  Sumire Kudo joined the Philharmonic as a cellist in June 2006. Previously she taught at Indiana University–South Bend and was the cellist of the Avalon String Quartet. Born in Tokyo, Japan, Kudo began cello studies at age four with her father, cellist Akiyoshi Kudo. She came to the United States in 2000, after establishing herself in her native country through solo performances and recordings. Her honors include the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award, which she received from the Sony Music Foundation after being chosen by Seiji Ozawa and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi as the most promising cellist in 2005, and prizes at the Sapporo Junior Cello Competition and 62nd Japan Music Competition. Kudo is a graduate of Tokyo’s Toho School and The Juilliard School. She has participated in the Nagano-Aspen Music, Aspen Music, Santa Fe, and Marlboro Music festivals. Record Geijutsu, Japan’s leading classical music magazine, named her second solo CD, Love of Beauty, Best Recording.

  
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• Ru-Pei Yeh

  Cello

  Ru-Pei Yeh, cello, who joined the New York Philharmonic in September 2006, has performed regularly as a recitalist in her native Taiwan and in the U.S. A founding member of the Formosa Quartet, formed in 2003, she has served as acting principal cello of the San Diego Symphony and the San Diego Opera, in addition to performing with a string quartet of principal players from the San Diego Symphony. She has made solo appearances with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, National Taiwan Symphony, Taiwan’s Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, North Carolina School of the Arts’s International Music Program Orchestra, and Kuan-Jen School Orchestra, and is the winner of numerous competitions.

  
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• Satoshi Okamoto

  Bass

  Satoshi Okamoto was an assistant principal double bassist in the San Antonio Symphony for eight years and a member of the New York City Ballet Orchestra for a year before joining the New York Philharmonic in September 2003. He received his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, and a bachelor’s degree from Tokyo University of Fine Arts. An eight-time Aspen Music Festival participant, he won the festival’s bass competition twice, in 1993 and 1997. He also became a finalist of the International Society of Bassist Solo Competition in 1997, and the Izuminomori International Double Bass Competition in 2001. As a chamber musician, he is a member of Bateira trio and La Stella Quattro di Bassi. His teachers include former Philharmonic Principal Bass Eugene Levinson, Paul Ellison, Yoshio Nagashima, and Osamu Yamamoto.

  
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• Rion Wentworth

  Bass

  Bassist Rion Wentworth joined the New York Philharmonic in May 2016. Previously, he worked extensively in New York City as a freelance musician and performed with the New York Philharmonic, New York City Ballet Orchestra, The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the San Diego Symphony. He served as a faculty member and assistant principal bass of the Eastern Music Festival for two years, and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division, where he has taught since 2012. Wentworth studied at the North Carolina School of the Arts, The Juilliard School, and the Aspen Music Festival and School, where his teachers included New York Philharmonic bassist Orin O’Brien as well as Lynn Peters and Chris Hanulik. His primary teacher and mentor has been Eugene Levinson, former Principal Bass of the New York Philharmonic, with whom Wentworth studied at Juilliard, earning his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. Wentworth plays on a 1710 Pietro Giacomo Rogeri bass formerly owned by legendary jazz bassist Percy Heath, on extended loan by Barrie Kolstein, former owner of Samuel Kolstein & Son Violinmakers in New York.

  
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• Yoobin Son

  Flute

  Flutist Yoobin Son became a member of the New York Philharmonic in November 2012, the first Korean to join the Orchestra’s woodwind section. She has also served as principal flute of Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and principal flute of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra.

  
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• Zhen Chen

  Piano

  Award-winning pianist / composer Zhen Chen has performed as a soloist and chamber musician at prominent venues in the United States, Europe, and China. His live performances and recordings have been broadcast by Chicago’s WFMT, Princeton’s WPRB, WCNY Classic FM, and China Central Television.

  
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