PIANO TRIO-IN-RESIDENCE

​Celeste Stella Trio

Jiwon Evelyn Kwark, violin

Jiwon Evelyn Kwark is an active soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, and teacher based in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a dedicated and passionate teacher, she maintains a thriving  studio - her students have won major national and international competitions, as well as titled  chairs in youth symphonies in the Bay area such as San Francisco Youth Symphony, California Youth Symphony, Golden State Youth Orchestra, and San Jose Youth Symphony.
Ms. Kwark holds a Bachelor degree from The Juilliard School, a Master from the Yale School of Music, and Professional Studies from Manhattan School of Music in the Orchestral Performance Program. Her primary teachers were Glenn Dicterow, Ani Kavafian, Masao Kawasaki, Alexander Treger, Henry Gronnier, and Haroutune Bedelian.
Since making her solo debut with the Amabile Orchestra in Korea at the age of 9, Ms. Kwark has performed with numerous orchestras in the U.S. and Korea. She has toured Canada with the Young Orchestra of the Americas as the Associate Concertmistress, invited to Fondation Des Ecoles d’art Americaines de Fontainbleau to  perform chamber music in France, and has toured Germany with the Penderecki Musik Akademie Orchestra as the  concertmistress and soloist under the baton of renowned composer, Maestro Penderecki.
Ms. Kwark has also performed  with numerous orchestras across the country such as the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, and New  Century Chamber Orchestra. ​Ms. Kwark performs regularly as the acting Principal Second Violinist of the Marin Symphony, and violinist of Celeste Stella Piano Trio of Celeste Solo Ensemble, and Ensemble Ari.​

August Jong Hyun Lee, cello

​August Jong Hyun Lee holds Bachelor of Music from Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and  Master of Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. While in Moscow, he appeared as a soloist with Smolensk Philharmonic Orchestra and after moving to Los Angeles, he served as an assistant principal cellist in the Glendale Philharmonic Orchestra and was also invited to give solo performances at various concerts. 
​In 2010, he moved to the Bay Area and was invited to perform at the International Chopin Festival as a soloist and also served as a jury in various music competitions. He coached and performed as a soloist at De Anza College Orchestra and currently performs as a member of Celeste Stella Trio and a Faculty member at Oikos University in Oakland.

Hyunji Park, piano

Hyunji Park, a native of Seoul, Korea, holds Graduate Performance Diploma in piano performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. With over 20 years of professional experience, she has built a diverse career as a soloist, collaborative artist, piano instructor, and director of music organizations.
As an active performer, Hyunji has appeared as a soloist and collaborative pianist in venues including Seoul, Rome, the Opera House in Sydney, Baltimore-Washington D.C., the Herbst Theater in San Francisco, and Anchorage, Alaska.  
In addition to her performing career, Hyunji has a strong background in music education. She served as the music director for the Sonata Contest of the CCMTAC from 2015-2018, and her students consistently rank among the top in major Bay Area piano competitions.

ORGANIST-IN-RESIDENCE

Rev. James Parrish Smith, organist

Rev. James Parrish Smith serves as the Director of Music at the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley, California. Prior to his current post, he served as Minister of Music and Organist at the historic Third Baptist Church of San Francisco. He is the founding Director of the Bridge to Arts and Music Program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Dillard University and the Master of Music from Samford University.
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COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE

Deon Nielsen Price, D.M.A., composer

When Deon Nielsen Price heard the amazing acoustics when she first entered the Presidio Chapel in May 2017, she exclaimed “Music!” She felt honored when she was asked to establish a Concert Series for the Interfaith Center at the Presidio; she also felt that she was coming full circle.
She credits much of her early musical development to interfaith opportunities she had while growing up in the military. During the early years of World War II, as a 9-year-old would-be pianist, she accompanied the hymns for her Sunday meetings in the small branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Palm Springs, California. The following year, as vocal soloist with the non-denominational Community Children's’ Choir, she was called to help in the War Effort. For an hour at a time, she would stand in the back of a windowless van in front of a microphone and sing patriotic songs while the van, with loudspeakers on top and BUY WAR BONDS signs on each side, traveled slowly up and down the residential streets of Palm Springs.
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Also, she was frequently invited to sing or play a solo for one of the regular Protestant services held in the military chapel at Torney General Hospital where her father was Chief of the Dental Service.

As the War was coming to a close, her father was sent to the hospital in Fort Clayton in the Panama Canal Zone. There was a chapel on the 4 th floor with a Hammond organ that she loved to play. When the Catholic Father happened to pass by, he heard her and asked her to play for the upcoming service so they could celebrate a High Mass for Christmas Eve. Later, she even played there for a Jewish wedding.

After receiving degrees in piano from Brigham Young University and the University of Michigan, and the second ever Doctor of Musical Arts in Collaborative Piano from the University of Southern California, Dr. Price toured internationally with the ECHOSPHERE DUO and QUARTET in the 1980s and 1990s, and then with her son, Berkeley, as the PRICE DUO (Clarinet, Piano). The concerts always included at least one work that she had composed for her artist partners.

Her compositions, now numbering some 315 registered with ASCAP, have been performed
across Europe, the Americas and Southeast Asia in major venues including Carnegie Hall, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Panama National Theater, Hong Kong City Theater, Beijing Concert Hall, Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), China National Center for the Performing Arts, FNAC Montparnasse and Belgium Cultural Center (Paris), Hyde Park Chapel and St. Marks (London), Alte Aule (University of Heidelberg) and Amerikahaus (Heidelberg), National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, D.C.), and at international festivals in Spain, Italy, Austria, United Kingdom, Korea, and China.​

Audio albums on the Cambria, Navona, Albany, Town Hall, and Tantara labels include Notable Releases by Arkivmusic and Fanfare. Commissions, grants, prizes and awards include 2023 The American Prize; 2024 Global Music Award; National Association of Composers USA, Music for Unity; Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra; American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; Barlow Endowment for Musical Composition; State Councils on the Arts in Alaska, California, Wyoming, New York: Iowa; Meet the Composer; Park City (UT) Dance; San Luis Obispo (CA) Opera; Malachim Films; Mu Phi Epsilon International Foundation; U.S. Artists Abroad; The New York Times; and international Ministries of Culture. Her book, Accompanying Skills for Pianists, 2nd Ed., sheet music of her compositions, audio and video recordings, are available at culvercrest.com.​

Dr. Price is a retired adjunct professor, President Emeritus of the National Association of Composers/USA, and a former President of the International Alliance for Women in Music. After a 45-year residence in Culver City, California, where she and her husband raised their five children, she relocated to the Presidio of San Francisco. She now resides in Arroyo Grande on the Central California Coast.​