Ioana Cristina Goicea

Ioana Cristina Goicea is one of the outstanding violinists of her generation. She won First Prize at the 2017 Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, with critics praising her passionate performance and describing her as “a new star in the musical firmament.” In 2018 she won First Prize at the German Music Competition in Bonn and was a laureate of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, and the following year she became a prize winner of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. She is also the winner of the J. Brahms International Competition (2013) and laureate of the “Fritz Kreisler” International Violin Competition Vienna (2014). In addition to her career as a soloist, the young violinist is also an avid chamber musician, performing at renowned chamber music festivals and academies: the Verbier Academy, Hitzacker Festival and Academy, and the Heidelberger Frühling Academy.

Born into a family of musicians in Bucharest in 1992, Ms. Goicea started violin under the guidance of her mother, violinist Cristina Anghelescu and her grandfather, violin pedagogue Aurelian Anghelescu. She studied in Bucharest at the Dinu Lipatti Music Highschool with Prof. Radu Popescu and Rudolf Stamm as well as with Prof. Krzysztof Węgrzyn at the Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, with Prof. Mariana Sîrbu at the University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy” Leipzig, and with Prof. Petru Munteanu at the University of Music and Theater in Rostock.

In October 2020, at the age of 27, Ms. Goicea was appointed violin professor at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. She plays a Giambattista Guadagnini violin (Parma, 1761) generously loaned to her by the German Music Instrument Fund in Hamburg (Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben).

We last heard Ms. Goicea in February 2021 during the Covid year in a recorded video recital that was streamed on the AFCM website. This is her first performance on our stage.

© Denis Ryan Kelly Jr.

Chih-Yi Chen

Pianist Chih-Yi Chen’s versatile qualities as a soloist, chamber musician, and collaborative pianist have distinguished her as a rarity amongst pianists. Her work with the talented young violinists of the Indiana University Violin Virtuosi directed by Mimi Zweig garnered her recognition as a specialist in violin repertoire, and she has since become a sought-after collaborative pianist. Dr. Chen’s concerts with the Violin Virtuosi have taken her throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her tours to France, Spain, Sweden, Italy, and Japan were especially successful and influential on young pianists around the globe.

Among the numerous musicians with whom she has appeared in recital are violinists Noah Bendix-Balgley, Barnabás Kelemen, Mihaela Martin, Augustin Hadelich, Clara-Jumi Kang, Soovin Kim, and Andrej Power; violists Yuval Gotlibovich and Atar Arad; cellists Sharon Robinson and Peter Stumpf; clarinetist Howard Klug and bassoonist William Ludwig. Solo appearances include Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Stephen Paulus’ piano concerto with the Indiana University Wind Ensemble. Dr. Chen has also performed with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra under conductor Irwin Hoffman.

Born in Taipei, Dr. Chen began to show remarkable gifts as a pianist at the early age of three. After finishing high school education with honors, Ms. Chen came to the United States and continued her musical studies at Indiana University, where she completed her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees. Her teachers have included Lev Vlasenko, former chairman of the piano department at the Moscow Conservatory, and Luba Edlina-Dubinsky, pianist of the famed original Borodin Trio.

Dr. Chen has been on the faculty of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2003 and has been part of the Chamber and Collaborative Music Department since its 2016-2017 inaugural year. She has also been on the faculty of the Indiana University Summer String Academy for more than two decades.

We last heard Chih-Yi Chen as part of a Piano & Friends recital in February 2017.