In partnership with Stretto Piano Concerts, Stretto piano pioneer Dr. Carol Leone, Professor Catherine Lysinger will present a special concert featuring students of the Meadows School of Arts
PROGRAM
Jie Zhou
Preludes, Op. 11, Nos. 11 and 14 - Scriabin
Claudia Shumeng Wang
Étude de concert, S. 144, No. 2 La leggierezza - Liszt
Kamilya Akhmetova
32 Variations on an Original Theme in C minor, WoO 80 - Beethoven
Olivia Chien-Jou Wang
Partita No. 2 in C Minor, BWV 826 – Bach
Jie Zhou, born in Chengdu, China, began piano studies at age four. She went to Utah State University for her undergraduate degree in piano, where she taught young students and assisted in music classes. Jie is now a first-year graduate student in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at Southern Methodist University. When she’s not at the piano, you’ll probably find her hunting down the spiciest food in town or happily sipping on bubble tea.
Claudia Wang graduated from Southern Methodist University with a B.M. in Piano Performance, where she studied with Dr. Carol Leone. and is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance and Pedagogy, studying with Dr. Cathy Lysinger. She has been performing on the alternate-sized keyboard for over four years, which has greatly enhanced her playing and teaching. With six years of teaching experience, Claudia teaches both private and group piano lessons to students ranging from age five through adult. In additional to teaching, she has performed in solo and chamber settings, exploring a wide range of repertoire across musical styles.
Kamilya Akhmetova began piano studies at the age of seven in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, and later continued at the Republican Kazakh Specialized Music School named after Akhmet Zhubanov in Almaty. At eighteen, she debuted with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
She graduated with honors from the Kazakh National University of Arts, where she studied piano with Professor Sara Assabayeva and organ with Assistant Professor Saltanat Abilkhanova. Her international training includes the 5th European Organ Academy in Leipzig and a semester at the Benedetto Marcello Conservatory in Venice, Italy.
Kamilya has been recognized with Diplomas at the III Siberian International Chopin Piano Competition (2016), the XX Open Festival-Competition of Organ Music (2019), and the Baikal Toccata International Competition (2019), all in Russia.
She completed both a Master’s degree and Performer’s Diploma in Organ Performance at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, USA) with Stefan Engels and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Piano Performance and Pedagogy with Andrey Ponochevny.
Olivia Chien-Jou Wang was born in 2003 in Hsinchu, Taiwan. She graduated from the music program at Chien-Hwa Junior High School and completed the 7-Year Integrated Music Program at the National Tainan University of the Arts. In 2021, she was awarded a full scholarship to study at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore, under Professor Albert Tiu, and graduated in 2025.
Chien-Jou has received numerous accolades, including first prize in the Taiwan selection round of the Japanese Classical Music Competition and third prize in the national finals held in Japan (where the first and second prizes were not awarded). She was invited to perform the third movement of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 with a local orchestra in Japan. In 2023, she was selected as a performance laureate in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Concerto Competition, which led to her performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 18 with orchestra in March 2024. That same year, she received full tuition support from her chamber music lecturer to attend the “Music Chair” Chamber Music Festival in Canada, where she performed Smetana’s Piano Trio in G Minor, Op. 15 with her trio partners.
Beyond classical music, Chien-Jou is also skilled in pop and Christian music improvisation. She arranged and recorded the graduation song for her junior high school and was invited in both 2023 and 2024 by the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory to sing and play piano at the Senior Graduation Party Showcase.
She has studied with distinguished artists such as John Perry, Pascal Rogé, Boris Slutsky, Andreas Fröhlich, Christopher Hinterhuber, Alexander Schimpf, Armen Babakhanian, Anna Geniushene, Kathryn Stott, Yoshikazu Nagai, Marina Lomazov, Sara Tal, Victoria Mushkatkol, and Myong-Joo Lee.
Currently, Chien-Jou is pursuing her Master’s degree at the Meadows School of the Arts, Southern Methodist University, under the guidance of Professors Carol Leone and Sara Daneshpour.