Gallery of Dances with Nikki and Jaime Azcona and Others
The Interaction of Music and Dance
Nikki and Jaime Azcona each have more than 17 years of dance experience spanning jazz, salsa, musical theater, hip-hop, and other styles. Nikki discovered her passion for ballroom dancing during her college years. Jaime began his dance training at the age of seven, developing his expertise in a wide range of ballroom styles. They both became certified professional instructors at Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Montville, New Jersey. Through the years, they have also achieved Rising Star finalist placements at multiple competitions. Today, Nikki is the Studio Manager and a Professional Dance instructor, while Jaime serves as Dance Director and Professional Dance Instructor at Fred Astaire Dance Studios in Oradell, New Jersey.
Jeremy Klein
Praised for his “not to be missed” performances (Coastal Virginia Magazine) and “sharp, distinct” playing (San Francisco Press Democrat), violist Jeremy Klein enjoys a diverse career that has taken him across three continents and spans the worlds of classical, contemporary, and historical performance traditions. Equally at home playing chamber music on a Lincoln Center concert stage, teaching baroque viola in a classroom, or composing with inmates in a prison yard, Jeremy is dedicated to exploring artistry that blends tradition with innovation, while bringing music into dialogue with diverse audiences.
Recent performance highlights include concerto performances with orchestras across Italy and Ukraine; solo recitals in Lincoln Center, Boston, and Mexico; and chamber appearances across the United States and around the world in venues that include Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, and Alice Tully Hall in New York City, Walter Hall in Toronto, Ontario, as well as Teatro Argentina in Rome. His broad repertoire ranges from the Baroque to the present, with a strong commitment to contemporary music across many genres, as reflected in numerous collaborations with living composers and premieres of new works annually – including the recent premiere of “Sueño en mi Sueño” by Nicolas Benavides at Carnegie Hall, and “Can You Hear Me” and “Glassalg” by Valentina Ciardelli at the Teatro Argentina in Rome.
Festival appearances span the globe from Norfolk (CT), Rome (Italy), Staunton (VA), and Valley of the Moon (CA), among many others. He has shared the stage with distinguished musicians such as Itzhak Perlman, Ray Chen, Elizabeth Blumenstock, Melvin Chen, Timothy Cobb, Jennifer Frautschi, Nina Lee, Lun Li, Matthew Lipman, Frank Morelli, Tai Murray, Charles Richard-Hamelin, Rachell Ellen Wong, among many others.
Currently a Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School, where he serves as teaching assistant to Molly Carr, Jeremy holds chamber music and viola faculty positions at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music. Jeremy’s commitment to using music as a force for building community and social good has led to work with Project: Music Heals Us, where he has taught composition and songwriting courses in prisons across California, Connecticut, and New York. He also contributes regularly to numerous outreach and education initiatives in New York City, affirming his belief in music’s capacity to foster community, dignity, and creativity.
A student of Misha Amory, Heidi Castleman, Catherine Cho, and Molly Carr, Jeremy earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at The Juilliard School before continuing on to the doctoral program. Whether performing in concert halls, teaching studios, or community spaces, he seeks to create meaningful experiences that resonate beyond the stage.
Madison Lee
Madison Lee, a 17-year-old violinist from New York, is currently studying with Professor Lucie Robert at the Manhattan School of Music, where she entered the college division as the youngest Bachelor of Music candidate and a recipient of both the Presidential Award and the Founder’s Award.
Madison began her violin studies at age five with Jungwon Yoon. Her major competition accomplishments include first-place honors at the Camerata Artists International Concerto Competition, Bravura Young Artists Concerto Competition, National Artists Competition, Gimpo Philharmonic Competition, and New York Young Virtuoso Competition, as well as the Grand Prize at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.
She has performed at distinguished venues including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, and Chicago Symphony Center, and has appeared with orchestras including the SEEN Worldwide Orchestra, Seoul Civic Orchestra, Uptown Camarades, Seoul Orchestra, Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, and Vivaacell International Philharmonic. At age 12, she made her orchestral debut in Seoul with the Sejong Chamber Ensemble.
Most recently, Madison was selected as a YoungArts Winner with Distinction, the highest merit-based award given by the YoungArts Foundation, and was invited to YoungArts Week at the New World Symphony Center in Miami. This past summer, she attended the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute as a recipient of the ENCORE CMI Starling Foundation Scholarship as well as the Pacific Opus Music Festival.
Her earlier festival experiences include the Ishikawa Music Academy, European Music Institute, Weimar Masterclasses, and Schlossacademy, and she has participated in masterclasses with renowned violinists including Koichiro Harada, Régis Pasquier, Mihaela Martin, Kyoko Takezawa, Clara-Jumi Kang, and Glenn Dicterow.
Outside of music, she enjoys reading, skiing, and baking.
Pei-Wen Liao
Named as one of the honorees of Mandarin Leader Magazine in 2018, violinist Pei-Wen Liao is a young artist quickly becoming widely recognized for her highly compelling and deeply passionate performances. A recent first prize winner of 2020 Alexander & Buono International String Competition, Ms. Liao has performed as a soloist with more than twenty orchestras in twelve countries across three continents. By thirteen, Ms. Liao had already sold-out a recital at Carnegie Weill Hall. She then made her debut in China in 2010, performing as a soloist on a 13-concert tour. Since then, she has been invited back to perform in China for seven consecutive years and has performed in at least 30 cities across China. More recent engagements have included a private solo performance for the President of Honduras and solo performances at the United Nations, Capitol Hill, the Oculus, and Bryant Park.
Ms. Liao has performed as a soloist in countries including Russia, Israel, Canada, Italy, Austria, China, Korea, Japan, Serbia, Thailand, Myanmar, and the United States. She has been featured as a guest soloist in Vienna with The Global Orchestra, at New York’s Alice Tully Hall with the World Civic Orchestra, in Russia with Voronezh State Orchestra and Lieptsk Philharmonic Orchestra, in Israel and Italy with the Jerusalem Academy Orchestra on its tour, at Shanghai Symphony Hall with Shanghai City Symphony Orchestra, and multiple sold-out solo recitals at the Taiwan National Concert Hall.
As an aspiring artist and an advocate for cultural citizenship and interdisciplinary collaborations, Ms. Liao has worked closely with countless indigenous schools in Asia to inspire underserved communities with interactive musical performances. A firm believer in music taking an active leadership role in its potential to effect changes in the world, she has recorded a CD in 2019 that uniquely brings together the sounds of Taiwanese folk music with traditional western instruments, all proceeds of CD go directly to charities that support indigenous children.
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Ms. Liao is currently studying at the Yale School of Music with Hyo Kang. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Joel Smirnoff. Her previous teachers include Cho-Liang Lin, Lara Lev, Daniel Phillips, and Stephen Clapp. Ms. Liao plays an 1830 Calot violin kindly loaned from the Chi-Mei Foundation of Taiwan.
