CEREN TÜRKMENOĞLU

Ceren Türkmenoğlu is a classically trained violinist who seeks to expand her musical language through the study of other cultural traditions, especially her own, Turkish Traditional Music.

She began her violin studies with Prof. Cengiz Özkök in Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory. In Germany, Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Leipzig, she studied with Carolin Widmann and Henryk Hochschild.

She toured to Europe and USA taking part in many projects with World Youth Orchestra. In 2011, she began working in Ankara State Opera and Ballet Orchestra, until year 2015, when she became a member of Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, and pursued her violin studies with violinist Ellen Jewett and Cihat Askin in Istanbul.

In 2017 January, she moved to Boston where she is a Graduate Assistant in Longy School of Music Bard College and a member of Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

She has appeared in numerous music festivals throughout the world, including MusicaRiva, Klasik Keyifler Chamber Music Festival, Ayvalık International Music Academy, and Silk Road Ensemble’s Global Musician Workshops.

Apart from her classical music career, she is also a performer of traditional Turkish music and performs on traditional instruments besides violin. Her aim in her art is to preserve the traditional roots and bring out the interconnections amongst cultures. Her project 'Music from Where the Sun Rises' was awarded a grant from The Boston Foundation.

In her project ‘Strings Around the World’, she explores the music of different cultures through their string instruments. Being a string player herself, she aims to study the interconnections of the traditional string instruments of different cultures. Her recent trip to Tuva, Central Asia, for a research about their music and string instruments was funded by a grant from Women’s Travel Club, Boston.

CHANG LIU

Chang Liu, originally from Dalian, China, earned her  high school diploma from the Shenyang Conservatory as a student of Xiaoqiang Wang and Rosemary Platt. During her studies, she received the Third Prize Scholarship from the Conservatory. She studied with Dahao Guo from 2010 and shortly after, began her studies in the United States. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance at Longy School of Music of Bard College.

In 2014 and 2016 Chang was one of the winners of the Honors Competition at Longy in both solo and chamber ensemble categories, also being the Irene Epstein Rosenthal Memorial Scholar. She was Rieko Aizawa’s teaching assistant,  and was working for Mr. Robert Honeysucker’s studio. Chang performed several concerts in Pickman Hall, Boston Public Library, Harvard Dunster House Library, etc. She participated in masterclass, with the likes of Peter Serkin, Barry Snyder, Thomas Schumacher, Horszowski Trio, and others.

As an artist she believes music is about connections. She is always trying to create connections to audiences through her emotional style and enjoys hearing about the emotions her playing can elicit. She is now working towards a doctoral degree in music. Besides performing, she is also preparing herself as an educator. Through her education overseas, she thinks of new ways to improve the educational system of the younger Chinese generations with an overseas knowledge.