Born in 1994, Brannon Cho is a top prize winner of the Queen Elisabeth, Naumburg, Cassadó, and Johansen International Cello Competitions. He has performed as a soloist with several orchestras including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique Royale Liège, Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, and the Pyeongchang Music Festival Orchestra under world-renowned conductors such as Stéphane Denève, Christian Arming, and Frank Braley. His performance highlights this season are solo debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra, at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and at Jordan Hall. Cho received his bachelor’s degree at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music under Hans Jørgen Jensen, and is now the only cellist in the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the New England Conservatory, where he studies with Laurence Lesser. Cho plays on a rare cello made by Antonio Casini in 1668 in Modena, Italy.
Dana Protopopescu began with music in Bucharest at a very young age, bringing her studies to a brilliant finish at the Brussels Conservatory and the Hochschule für Musik in Hanover under the guidance of Eduardo del Pueyo and Karl Engel. She performed her first concerto with orchestra at the age of 14. Since then, she has played under the baton of leading conductors, including A. Rahbari, I. Markevitch, A. Walter and L. Langrée, has taken part in many festivals and has been a guest of the Great Soloists series. Dana Protopopescu has captivated audiences in London, Moscow, Paris, Barcelona, Montreal, Washington D.C. Boston and Seoul. She has recorded various CDs, including the complete works for piano of Mendelssohn. Her recordings of the Hummel and Weber concertos won her the highest acclaim in press reviews by CD Classics (London), Penguin Guide (USA) and Diapason (France).