Julia Furlan is from Rockland County, New York, where she began playing piano at age four. She studied privately with Christine Renstrom, Michael Oelbaum and David Budway.

in 2011, she studied with Mark Pakman at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division for four years, where she graduated with honors. She was the accompanist for Clarkstown North High School North’s orchestra and choir as well as pianist for the Rockland Jazz Youth Ensemble for seven years which toured in New York and New Jersey.

She has performed at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall three times as a first place winner of the Rondo Young Artist Competition. At the New York Summer Music Festival and Summit Music Festival she has performed as a Concerto and Solo Winner. She has also performed at the Carnegie Room in Nyack, NY; Montclair State University; the Greenwich House; the Tenri Cultural Institute; and Lincoln Center in Manhattan, NY.

Julia is currently studying at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music as a Piano Performance Major. She is entering her second year, studying with Professor Sara Laimon. She hopes to minor in Music Entrepreneurship. She has taught piano locally and tutored piano theory students at McGill University.

Hiroko Nagahata is an active and accomplished pianist with experience in solo performance, vocal accompaniment, and chamber music.

She has performed in numerous music festivals, most notably the Summit Music Festival in New York City, the International Academy of Music in St. Petersburg, and the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.

She was a Special Presentation Award winner of the Artists International Audition and made her New York solo recital debut at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in 2009. In 2011, Nagahata performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor with the New York Concerto Sinfonietta, conducted by Paul Hostetter, in the same venue.

Nagahata received a Doctor of Music Degree from Michigan State University, a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music Degree from Kobe College. She has worked as a teaching assistant, instructor of music theory, and accompanist (instrumental, vocal and choral) at NYSMF: New York Summer Music Festival at SUNY, Oneonta. She has been an accompanist for the school residency program at Lyric Opera of Chicago since 2013.