Joann Whang

Cello

First and Audience Prize winner at the Amsterdam Cello Biennale Competition, Joann Whang has performed as a soloist with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, NJO New Music Ensemble, and the Dutch Youth String Orchestra, as well as performed in numerous festivals including Ravinia, Birdfoot, Delft, Domaine Forget, Giverny, Grachten, and Storioni. She has also been broadcasted in the Netherlands on Radio 4 and public television station VPRO’s Vrije Geluiden. Joann has performed alongside notable artists such as Martin Beaver, Steven Dann, Misha Dichter, Leon Fleisher, Sol Gabetta, Anssi Karttunen, Johannes Moser, Astrid Schween, David Shifrin, and the Brentano Quartet.

Joann is the founding member of the Argus Quartet. First Prize winners at the M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, they have held residencies at the Juilliard School, Yale School of Music, and Caramoor Center for Music. Performances include appearances at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall and Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, the American Music Festival, University of Michigan, James Madison University’s Contemporary Music Festival, Princeton University, and the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Commissions include quartets by Katherine Balch, Christopher Cerrone, Donald Crockett, Eric Guinivan, Thomas Kotcheff, Shuying Li, and Juri Seo.

Her affinity to contemporary music has led her to work with composers such as Andrew Norman, Kaija Saariaho, Christopher Theofanidis, and Augusta Read Thomas. Joann has worked closely with cellist Anssi Karttunen at the Acanthes Contemporary Music Festival and studied works by Tristan Murail and Beat Furrer. In addition, she performed music of young composers and collaborated with Magnus Lindberg and Karttunen at Creative Dialogue. During three seasons at NJO Muziekzomer, she participated in performances of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians, works by Kaija Saariaho, and Martijn Padding’s cello concerto.

Joann began her studies with Orlando Cole and his longtime assistant Metta Watts in Pennsylvania and with Nancy Green in Arizona. After studying with Ronald Leonard at the Colburn Conservatory, she pursued graduate studies with Aldo Parisot at the Yale School of Music and with Michel Strauss and Jan-Ype Nota at the Royal Conservatorium of The Hague. She has participated in masterclasses of Richard Aaron, Lynn Harrell, Alan Harris, Desmond Hoebig, Ralph Kirshbaum, Mischa Maisky, Jean-Guihen Queyras, and Jian Wang. In 2009, she was awarded a Fulbright Grant to study in France.

She has taught chamber music at the Juilliard School and Yale University as well as cello and chamber music masterclasses and workshops at various institutions such as Princeton University, Colburn Conservatory, University of Michigan, University of Illinois, University of Kansas, James Madison University, and Cal State University Long Beach and Northridge.