Cellist and technologist Jeffrey Li (Jeff) is an active performer and educator, with frequent collaborations and performances with leading artists across multiple genres. Jeff completed dual bachelor's degrees in music and engineering at Northwestern University, where he studied cello with Hans Jørgen Jensen. Upon graduating, Jeff spent his early career developing software at Microsoft and later Google for several years. He concurrently enrolled at the Juilliard School to pursue his Master of Music degree with Richard Aaron, with whom he also studied at the Aspen Music Festival and School. In addition to music teaching, Jeff has previously taught C++ programming at California State University, Fullerton as a Google in Residence instructor. Several of his students at Fullerton have since gone into careers in software development at the world's largest technology firms including Google, Microsoft, and Nvidia amongst others. Presently, Jeff is the co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of a private corporation where he develops a popular location-sharing and tracking service, and serves as Young Artists Foundation’s Executive Director.

Jeff plays on a c. 1790 English cello, and bows by Evan Orman, Emmanuel Begin, and Andre Richaume.

Lauded as one of today's probing musical voices infused with searing virtuosity, Nancy Zhou is the winner of the 2018 Shanghai Isaac Stern Violin Competition. With a robust online presence that seeks to invigorate appreciation for the art and science of the violin, her thoughtful musicianship resonates with a global audience in such a way that brings her on stage with leading orchestras around the world.

Making her orchestral debut at the age of 13 with her hometown orchestra, the San Antonio Symphony, Nancy went on to collaborate with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic, Munich Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Kansas City Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony,  among others. She has collaborated with conductors such as Jaap van Zweden, Sakari Oramo, Peter Oundjian, Eun Sun Kim, Christoph Poppen, Jean-Jacques Kantorow, Michael Stern, Darrell Ang, Jurjen Hempel, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, and Ken-David Masur.

​Alongside projects undertaken as a soloist, Nancy holds interest in chamber music and providing guidance to young musicians. As a collaborator, she has performed at the Verbier Festival, Ravinia Festival, Tongyeong Music Festival, Festpiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Festival de Coimbra, the Marvão Festival, and the Paganini Genova Festival. In 2017, she was invited by the Encore Chamber Music Festival to serve as guest artist and faculty member. She is a regular guest educator at summer festivals, holding masterclasses at various institutions and conducting private classes. Since the spring of 2020, Nancy devotes time to a private online studio, teaching a number of students across the globe and presenting public group classes on fundamental training and cultivating mindful awareness.

​The past seasons, Nancy has endeavored to explore works outside the traditional oeuvre. In collaboration with the New Jersey Symphony and conductor Xian Zhang, she presented Zhao Jiping's first violin concerto at Alice Tully Hall, as well as gave the US premiere of Unsuk Chin's "Gran Cadenza" for two solo violins with Anne-Sophie Mutter across the US. In the forthcoming season, she will perform Chen Qigang's "La joie de la souffrance" with the Rogue Valley Symphony and embark on a collaborative project with Vivian Fung, commissioning the Canadian-born Chinese composer to write a work for solo violin and electronics so as to explore the intersection of the violinist's personal family oral history, folk minority culture, and, indeed, music. 

​Born in Texas to Chinese immigrant parents, Nancy began the violin under the guidance of her father. She went on to study with Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory while pursuing her interest in literature at Harvard University. She is additionally an Associated Artist of the Queen Elisabeth Chapel, where she studied with Augustin Dumay.

Iranian-American pianist, Ava Nazar, is a graduate of the Juilliard School where she received her master’s degree in Collaborative Piano, and Manhattan School of music where she received her bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance. Her recent performances include those at notable venues such as the United Nations, Merkin Hall, National Sawdust, American Museum of Natural History, and Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. Her festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and académies Internationales d'été du Grand Nancy in France.

Ava enjoys her career both as a performer and an educator. She has served as a collaborative piano staff at the Juilliard School and has taught at established music schools such as the Brooklyn Music School and Nord Anglia International School in New York. Currently, she holds a private piano studio in Mountain View, CA.  

Passionate about expanding musical access across communities, Ava has volunteered as a pianist with the Sing for Hope organization which aims at bringing art to communities in need. Additionally, Ava has served as an AmeriCorps fellow through the ArtistYear organization where she taught music to around 100 low-income middle schoolers in a public school in New York and was able to raise funds for the school to purchase instruments needed for a music program.

Basma Edrees is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she received her Masters in Violin Performance and Mannes School of Music where she received her Bachelors degree. She studied with Joseph Lin, Laurie Smukler, Sally Thomas, and Catherine Van Hoesen. Basma has performed under the batons of many great conductors including Alan Gilbert and Daniel Barenboim. Basma has served as Associate Concert Master of the Oakland Symphony during their 2015-2016 season. She has also been invited to sub for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Opera Orchestra, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, San Jose Opera Orchestra as well as the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Basma has performed as a soloist in various countries including the USA, Montenegro, Ethiopia and her native country, Egypt. 

Equally at home with Arabic music, Basma is the founder of Music in-Takht; an instrumental ensemble dedicated to preserving Egyptian musical heritage in the SF Bay Area. She performed with renowned musicians from the Arab world and has been invited to give Arabic Music workshops at UC Berkeley and Stanford. She has taught Arabic music at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and has also been a member of the Arabic Music faculty at Labyrinth; one of the leading educational institutions of modal music. In early 2023, Basma was invited to play on the sound track of Assasin’s Creed Mirage alongside members of the New York Arabic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2019, Basma Edrees held the position of Music Director of the Aswat Women Ensemble, an all female Bay Area community ensemble specializing in Arab music. She also served as the co-manager and instructor of the Aswat Women Empowerment Program during their 2019 Fall season; a program designed to empower women of Arab descent through the study of their own rich musical tradition.

Basma’s proficiency in Music Theory earned her assistant teaching positions as well as teaching fellowships at The Juilliard School while she was a student there. She studied Counterpoint with Robert Cuckson and Philippe Lasser. She has passed this knowledge onto her students as a member of the Music Theory faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where she taught the art of Counterpoint herself. Basma is also a certified Suzuki violin teacher with an expertise in starting beginner students of all ages on the violin. She also teaches the violin at the collegiate level at Santa Clara University.