Po-Chuan Chiang, a native of Taiwan, performs nationally and internationally. Chiang has worked with many performers, both instrumental and vocal, in multiple styles and genres. During the summer, Chiang worked as a pianist for the opera program Scuola Italia in Sant’Angelo in Vado, Italy, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. In 2018, he performed in the winners concert of the American Protégé Competition in the Chamber Music category at Carnegie Hall. Chiang currently works as a staff accompanist at Western Illinois University.
During the first two years of study at University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Chiang was granted a prestigious accompanying assistantship with the vocal, brass and string divisions for student lesson and recitals. He then was offered a highly-coveted opera accompanying assistantship supporting singers in main stage operatic productions at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. He also served as the pianist for both the University of Illinois Wind Orchestra and Wind Symphony.
Chiang has extensive experience in the realm of musical theater. He has worked with Champaign-Urbana Theatre Company, Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, Champaign Central High School and Parkland College Theater as rehearsal pianist and keyboard/synthesizer in performances.
Chiang holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano performance from the Tainan National University of the Arts in Taiwan. In 2009, he received a Masters of Music Degree in piano performance at the Boston Conservatory of Music where he was hired as a staff accompanist at the same year after he graduated. In 2017, he earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance under Dr. Ian Hobson at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Pianist Minjung Seo has earned critical acclaim as a collaborative pianist and chamber musician as well as a soloist. She was praised as “…a fine touch and great sensitivity” by Chatham Star Tribune and “brilliant” by New & Record.
As a recipient of the Samuel Sanders Collaborative Pianists Award, Seo has participated as a pianist and coach in multiple performances at the Lincoln Center. She has appeared in Wednesday at One concert series in Alice Tully Hall, Chamberfest series, Liederabend and Sonatenabend at The Juilliard School. In 2016, Award winner chamber group, Duo Respiro, Seo and Soprano Kye-hyun Kim made a debut recital in Carnegie Hall, New York and concerts in prestigious venues in the United States and Korea. She has been invited to be a collaborative artist in residence in summer festivals, such as the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Meadowmount Music Festival, the Banff Centre, and the Heifetz International Music Institute, Music Academy of the West, CA and Aspen Music Festival.
Her numerous collaborative engagements led to work with renowned instrumentalists and vocalists at distinguished venues and festivals; Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Columbia University, Aspen music festival, St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Island, China, Canada and Korea. Her performances have been on WDAV 89.1 (NC) and Tri-State Public Radio station, WIUW 89.5 (IL).
Seo received her doctorate in accompanying from University of North Carolina at Greensboro with Andrew Harley, a master’s degree in collaborative piano from the Juilliard School with Margo Garrett and Jonathan Feldman, a Performer’s Diploma from Indiana University with Shigeo Neriki, and a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance from Yonsei University with Bang-sook Lee in Korea.
She is currently a Lecturer of Accompanying at Auburn University, Alabama. Previously she served as a music faculty at Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL, Bennett College in Greensboro, NC, and University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA).
