Jeiven Fellows

✴ Returning Jeiven Fellow

A firm believer in the power of music, Sheng-Ching Hsu created “S-C Sidewalk Performance”where she brought weekly live music to the street corners of West LA during the pandemic. “S-C Sidewalk Performance” brought comfort and hope to many people during the time of isolation, and was featured on KTTV Fox 11 Los Angeles and EliteGen Magazine in Toronto, Canada. Her story was also made into a documentary by “Aria’s Lens” in China.
A native of Taiwan, Sheng-Ching was six years old when she made her first public appearance as both violinist and pianist at the National Cheng-Kung University, Taiwan. She traveled around the world and performed chamber music nightly on "Lincoln Center Stage on Holland America Cruise Line" before settling down in Los Angeles. Sheng-Ching is a core member of Delirium Musicum. She serves as concertmaster in Iranshahr Orchestra and principal 2nd violin of St. Matthew's Chamber Orchestra. Sheng-Ching also serves as a faculty at California State University - Long Beach, as well as Colburn Community School of Performing Arts and International Chamber Music Alaska. 

Sheng-Ching earned her Doctor of Musical Arts from SUNY Stony Brook University, Master of Music from The Juilliard School, and Bachelor of Music from the Mannes School of Music. Her major teachers include Catherine Cho, Christina Khimm, Itzhak Perlman, Aaron Rosand, Philip Setzer and Arnaud Sussmann.

Sheng-Ching’s instruments were generously sponsored by CHIMEI foundation in Taiwan throughout her studies.  (www.shengchinghsu.com)

Hailed by audiences across North America and Europe for his commanding and expressive performances, Venezuelan/American violinist and violist Paul Aguilar maintains an active solo and chamber music performance schedule of over 40 recitals each year. He is a member of the Sphinx Soloist Program roster and was the 2nd Prize Laureate as well as the Audience Prize winner of the 2025 Sphinx Competition. As an orchestral musician, he was recently appointed as a member of the Houston Symphony viola section.

As a chamber musician, Paul has appeared on concert series and in concert halls across North America and internationally, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Ravinia Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, La Jolla Summerfest, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, the Schneider Concert Series, the Heidelberg String Quartet Festival, and the Emilia-Romagna Festival. Equally comfortable on both violin and viola, Paul has won top prizes in nearly every major chamber music competition, including the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, the Melbourne International String Quartet Competition, and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. He was selected as the only Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Performance Fellow for the 2020-2021 season, and he also performs regularly as a member of the Astralis Chamber Ensemble. His chamber music collaborators have included artists such as James Ehnes, Augustin Hadelich, Phil Setzer, Lawrence Power, Paul Watkins, Desmond Hoebig, Jon Kimura Parker, Frank Cohen, and Shirley Brill.

Bringing total dedication and commitment to everything he does, Paul strives to educate the next generation on the importance of true excellence in every area of life, and of music’s role as simply a tool along that path. As an educator, Paul has appeared as guest artist faculty at festivals and institutions across the United States including Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Music Young Artist Program, the Intermountain Suzuki String Institute, and the Fine Arts Center in Greenville, SC. He is involved with the Sphinx Organization in both performance and outreach and was a 2019 MPower Grant recipient.

A graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music, Paul counts Jaime Laredo, Jan Mark Sloman, and Si-Yan Darren Li as some of his most formative musical influences; he also holds a degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music where he participated in their String Quartet Residency. Paul pursued further chamber music studies in Europe at the Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía in Madrid and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna where he was fortunate to study under Günter Pichler, Gerhard Schulz, Johannes Meissl, and Avri Levitan.

In addition to his busy travel and performance schedule, Paul is committed to regularly sharing music in schools and organizations throughout his community. When not involved with music, Paul enjoys running, reading, and spending time with his family. Paul plays on a very fine violin and viola that he commissioned from master luthier Kevin Lee.

Violinist Laurel Gagnon’s interpretations have been praised for their “naturalness that [is] both disarming and distinctive” (The Straits Times, Singapore). Performing as a soloist and chamber musician, she is currently based in New York City and is a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program for the 2025–2027 seasons. Equally at home performing traditional repertoire and premiering new works, she especially enjoys exploring works written by women of previous centuries.

Gagnon recently won first prize at the 2025 Dallas International Violin Competition, and was awarded top prizes at the Elmar Oliveira and Singapore International Violin Competitions. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Flagey in Brussels, and Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall.

As a chamber musician, Laurel is the founding violinist of Vinola Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano ensemble with an emphasis on contemporary repertoire. The trio received grand prize at the 2025 Plowman Chamber Music Competition and first prize at the 2026 NOLA Chamber Fest Emerging Artists Competition. Recently they competed a residency at UCSD, premiering five new works written specifically for their ensemble.

Passionate about engaging with local communities, Laurel worked extensively with Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement, where she collaborated with community partners to present public performances in libraries, schools, and senior care centers. A teaching artist with Yale’s Music in Schools Initiative, she also participated in Indiana University’s Fairview Violin Project, introducing violin to elementary students.

A recent graduate of the Yale School of Music under the mentorship of Augustin Hadelich, she previously studied with Ben Sayevich and Mauricio Fuks.

Laurel performs on an 1809 Lupot violin, generously on loan from Canimex Inc., Drummondville, Québec, Canada.

A native of Princeton, NJ, cellist Zachary Mowitz made his solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in July 2018. An artist who wears many hats, Zachary is Co-Artistic Director of the genre-defying collective ensemble132 and the nonprofit Nodality Music, Associated Artist with the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, and member of the SAKURA cello quintet and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Having collaborated with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Donald Weilerstein, Hsin-Yun Huang, Jonathan Biss, Ida Kavafian, and Peter Wiley, Zachary has an intense passion for chamber music. Zachary has appeared throughout the country in halls like the Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall and Perelman Hall, Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall, Columbia University’s Miller Theater, and Johns Hopkins’ Shriver Hall. In recent years he has performed at Caramoor, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, and the Marlboro Music Festival. Zachary attended the Curtis Institute of Music, Royal College of Music, and Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he studied with Peter Wiley, Carter Brey, Richard Lester, Jeroen Reuling, and Gary Hoffman. Through Nodality Music Zachary has led an array of projects exploring the intersections of music with broader culture, including Nodality’s Climate Commissioning Initiative that prompts composers around the world to write works empowering people to process and address the realities of climate change. Composers he is commissioning include Nick DiBerardino, Elijah Daniel Smith, Rene Orth, and Juantio Becenti. Last season he co-taught a class at the Curtis Institute on social- entrepreneurship. In his spare time, Zachary enjoys exploring the endless world of podcasts and tossing a frisbee.

Bassoonist Tylor Thomas, originally from Anchorage, Alaska, holds a Bachelor's degree from the Boston Conservatory and both a Master's and Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes School of Music. In New York, he was a fellow with the Orchestra of St. Luke's Chamber Mentorship Program for three years and now serves as Senior Manager of School Partnerships, overseeing the Youth Orchestra of St. Luke's and OSL's Mentorship Program. As a freelance bassoonist, Tylor has performed with ensembles such as the American Composers Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, and the West Point Band.

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From 2018 to 2019, Tylor participated in the Global Leaders Program, teaching and advocating for music education in countries including Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Singapore. This experience reinforced his commitment to global music accessibility. He continued with the Global Leaders Institute to pursue an MBA in Arts Innovation in 2023.

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Tylor is a founding member of the Nu Quintet, a woodwind ensemble known for premiering contemporary works. Nu Quintet has held residencies at Chamber Music Society at Lincoln Center, Florida University, and Adelphi University.

He is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Musical Arts at Stony Brook University under the mentorship of Professor Gina Cuffari.