Curtis on Tour in Waterloo, Belgium

Alexandra Cooreman, from Brussels, Belgium, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021 and studies violin with Ida Kavafian. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Cooreman is the Milka Violin Artist Fellow.

Ms. Cooreman started playing the violin at age five and performed on the stage by age six. An exceptional young talent, she was admitted in 2013 to the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo, Belgium, where she studied with Augustin Dumay and Tatiana Samouil. Ms. Cooreman continued her musical education at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid with Anna Chumachenco and at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne with Michaela Martin.

The Belgian-Polish violinist has won first prizes in many competitions, such as the Kocian Violin Competition, the Breughel Competition, and the Arthur Grumiaux International Violin Competition. From a very young age, Ms. Cooreman has played solo with various orchestras, such as the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, the Royal Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, the Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, the European Philharmonia, and the Flemish Chamber Philharmonic.

In the summer of 2023, Ms. Cooreman performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto and the Saint-Saëns Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso five times with the Flanders Festival Orchestra under the baton of Dirk Brossé. This year, she received the special prize for the best interpretation of Tigran Mansurian’s “Lamento” piece at the Khachaturian International Competition.

Ms. Cooreman performs on a modern violin, built by Charles Coquet in 2017, generously on loan from El Pasito.

Alyssa Warcup, from Geneva, Ill., entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2022 and studies viola with Roberto Díaz and Edward Gazouleas. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Warcup is the Edward Montgomery Fellow.

Ms. Warcup made her solo debut performing the Schnittke Viola Concerto with the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra. She is the first prize winner of several competitions, including the National Federation of Music Clubs Biennial Collegiate Viola Competition and Wendell Irish Viola Award, as well as the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition. She received the inaugural Howard E. Leisinger Viola Prize from the Tuesday Musical Association.

Ms. Warcup has appeared as both soloist and chamber musician at festivals including the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, Gstaad String Academy, Fontainebleau Schools, National Arts Centre Young Artists Program, Heifetz International Music Institute, and National YoungArts Foundation. She is passionate about outreach, regularly performing alongside ensembles for concerts in hospitals, nursing homes, libraries, and museums. She has performed with the Cleveland chapter of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in local communities.

An avid orchestral musician, Ms. Warcup performs regularly as a substitute with the Cleveland Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. She has performed as a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival.

Ms. Warcup previously earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine, Lynne Ramsey, and Stanley Konopka. Originally from the Chicago area, Ms. Warcup began her viola studies at age twelve. She performs on a viola made by Christopher Germain in 2012.

Cellist Gary Hoffman gained international renown as the first North American to win the Rostropovich International Cello Competition in 1986. He has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago, London, Montréal, Toronto, San Francisco, Baltimore, and National symphony orchestras; the English, Moscow, and Los Angeles chamber orchestras; Orchestre National de France; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; the Netherlands and Rotterdam philharmonics; and the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, among many others. He has collaborated with such celebrated conductors as Herbert Blomstedt, Andrew Davis, Jésus Lopez-Cobos, Kent Nagano, André Prévin, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Pinchas Zuckerman.

Mr. Hoffman performs in major recital and chamber music series throughout the world, as well as at such prestigious festivals as Ravinia, Waterloo, Marlboro, Aspen, Bath, Evian, Vancouver, Verbier, Mostly Mozart, Prades, Santa Fe, Schleswig-Holstein, Stresa, Storioni, Hong Kong International, and Festival International de Colmar. Notable venues include Théâtre du Châtelet, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, the Royal Concertgebouw, and the Kennedy Center. He is a frequent guest performer with the Emerson, Tokyo, Borromeo, Brentano, and Ysaÿe string quartets; as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He has premiered the concertos of Laurent Petitgirard, Joel Hoffman, Renaud Gagneux, Gil Shohat, Graciane Finzi, and Dominique Lemaître; and performed the French premiere of Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto.

Hailing from Vancouver, Canada, Mr. Hoffman was the youngest faculty appointee in the history of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where he served for eight years. He leads master classes around the world including appearances at the Ravinia Festival, Manchester International Cello Festival, Mozarteum University Salzburg, and the Kronberg Academy, where he is also closely involved with the institution’s festival and Academy Master program.

Residing in Paris, Mr. Hoffman is an active recording artist with the BMG (RCA), Sony, EMI, and Le Chant du Monde labels. He performs on a 1662 Nicolo Amati, the “ex-Leonard Rose.”

Mr. Hoffman joined the Curtis Institute of Music faculty in 2021. He also serves as master in residence for cello at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Brussels.

Serena Wang, from San Francisco, California, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2024 and studies piano with Robert McDonald. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full tuition scholarships, and Ms. Wang is the Dr. Samuel R. and Mrs. Beatrice S. Rossman Fellow.

Ms. Wang began piano studies at age four, and her formal training began at age six with the eminent teacher, Zhaoyi Dan. She continued her studies under the guidance of Meng-Chieh Liu and Yoheved Kaplinsky and pursued her undergraduate studies at the Juilliard School with Robert McDonald.

Ms. Wang has performed with a number of major orchestras and conductors throughout China and the United States. Concert appearances include appearances with the China Philharmonic Orchestra, China National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, among others.

In recent seasons, Ms. Wang has appeared with the New York Philharmonic as part of their 2024 Lunar New Year celebration concert. She was invited back to the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra to play Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No.1 in 2023 and Béla Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Christoph Eschenbach in 2024. She was reinvited to the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra to play Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini.

Ms. Wang made her first recording with Channel Classics at the age of nine, featuring works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Frédéric Chopin, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Tan Dun. She is an avid chamber musician and loves to perform with vocalists.