Melodists of the Twentieth Century

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

ANNA MEYER, FLUTE

Anna Meyer holds degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (BM in Flute Performance and German minor), The Peabody Conservatory (MM), and Temple University (DMA). She is currently Adjunct Faculty and an Artist in Residence at Temple University and first call flutist in all positions for the Reading Symphony Orchestra. Anna works for Play On Philly, an after-school music intensive program in Center City, Philadelphia, where she is the manager of the Marian Anderson Young Artist Program. This artist management program offers tuition-free services to aspiring young musicians in the Philadelphia area. Anna’s love for teaching inspired her to write a method book for beginner flutists: The Monster Flute Method Book, a Beginner’s Guide (Amazon) and Duo Etudes for those Pesky Little Problems for two flutes (Theodore Presser). She collaborates often with her organist husband, and together they have commissioned a handful of new works for their unique chamber combination. Their debut CD, Fantasmagoria (2020) features five of their newest commissions. Anna’s second CD Danzando para los Oídos of Piazzolla’s tango etudes for alto flute and improvised percussion will release in Fall 2025. For more information, please visit www.aemeyer.com.

SHIRLEY YOO, PIANO

Heralded by the Washington Post as a pianist with “extraordinary sensitivity and technical skill,” Shirley Yoo has performed internationally at venues such as the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington DC; Tata Theatre, Mumbai; Arts Center, Seoul; Penderecki Festival, Banff; Societa Filarmonica, Trento; and Steinway Hall, London. Her numerous performances in the United States include radio broadcasts of solo and chamber recitals on WQED and WQLN. Recent performances include a mid-Atlantic tour to celebrate Rachmaninoff’s sesquicentennial with both piano suites, recitals in Washington DC and the Cayman Islands, and performances in Korea.

Recognized as a top prizewinner for her solo performance in such competitions as the Pennsylvania Federation of Music Clubs, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and theKosciuszko Foundation’s National Chopin Competition, Yoo is also passionate about chamber music. She was a founding member of the Annapolis Chamber Players, an ensemble of winds, strings and two pianos. Additionally, she was a founding core member of League of the Unsound Sound (LotUS), a chamber group dedicated to performing contemporary and experimental music. In their first season, the Washington Post reviewed their concert at Catholic University and called her playing “a spectacular performance [...] that really stole the show.” She has also performed with members of Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, and SO Percussion. New World Records released “Circadian Rhythms,” on which she performed works by Mathew Rosenblum.

Dedicated to nurturing the next generation of musicians, she has been teaching in the university and conservatory setting for over two decades. She has judged for various regional chapters of MTNA, as well as for the Chautauqua Music Festival Piano competitions, the Hulbert International Piano Competition, the Chicago International Music Competition, Valencia International Performance Academy (Spain), and the International Maestro Piano Competition (Taiwan). Guided by her primary teachers Raymond Hanson, Ann Koscielny, Noretta Conci-Leech, and Ellen Mack, she also credits the profound influence of other renowned artists she has closely worked with, including Marc Durand, Leon Fleisher, Marek Jablonski, and Seymour Lipkin, as well as members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, Shanghai, and Tokyo String Quartets.

Yoo studied at Johns Hopkins University, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, received a Master of Music degree on a fellowship at the University of Maryland, and completed post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. After earning her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Peabody Institute, for several years she taught at the Conservatory and at Temple Preparatory and while working at Curtis Institute as staff accompanist. She then held a professorship in piano and was Artist-in-Residence of the D’Angelo Piano Trio at Mercyhurst University. She has since returned to teach piano and chamber music at Peabody Conservatory and resides in Baltimore. The recipient of a Presser Award, Yoo was also awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Grant.

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