Dr. Yee has been a member of the USC Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, the USC Early Music Ensemble, and Pacific Symphony. Dr. Yee has performed with such musical legends as Yo-Yo Ma, Bobby McFerrin, Lynn Harrell, Doc Severinsen, Gary Graffman, and David Shifrin. Conductors he has worked with include Carl St.Clair, John Williams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sergiu Comissiona, Stanisław Skrowaczewski, and Lucinda Carver. Dr. Yee is a member of the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra and the Redlands Symphony. 

A dedicated educator, Dr. Yee has taught privately for more than 20 years and in various capacities at public schools and youth orchestras. His teaching philosophy centers on the love of music, fostering achievement through discipline and methodical practice, and he encourages a close partnership in teaching and learning music with his students.

Since 2017, Franz has performed as a regular substitute with the Philadelphia Orchestra and has joined them on tours throughout Europe and Asia. He has also performed professionally with the National Symphony Orchestra and numerous orchestras throughout the northeastern United States. A passionate music educator, Mr. Franz has taught in public schools around New York state and the Miami area. In 2016 and 2017, he spent summers coaching and performing with string students in Cali, Colombia. His festival appearances have included the New York String Orchestra Seminar, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Moritzburg Festival Academy, and Bard Music Festival. 

Dr. Hembreiker has had articles published in the American Harp Journal on Alexander Technique and on the history of the Northern California Harpists Association. She has also given presentations about various aspects of teaching for the American String Teachers Association National Convention and the American Harp Society National Conference and Institutes. She teaches at Cal State University Los Angeles, Irvine Valley College, and Orange County School of the Arts. Her students have performed at The National Catholic Educational Association Convention and the American Harp Society Summer Institute. Several of her students have received competitive awards including the Julia Louise Herman Scholarship and the Valeria Finzi Scholarship, and have been accepted as harp majors at Indiana University, Cal State Fullerton, and Wellesley College.

Being drawn to the harp after seeing Disney’s The Aristocats as a young child, she began Celtic harp lessons with Sylvia Fellows. Her studies quickly progressed to the pedal harp; Dr. Hembreiker holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Harp Performance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Southern California, and Master’s of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Harp Performance from the University of North Texas. Her principal teachers include Ellie Choate, JoAnn Turovsky, Ellen Ritscher, and Heidi Lehwalder. In addition to the harp, she is devoted to her three cats, Patrick, Opal, and Theodore.

Mr. Kim was first appointed concertmaster of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra at the age of 22. He then served as the youngest concertmaster in the history of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, before going on to lead the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra in Finland. As guest concertmaster, Mr. Kim has performed on four continents, leading the BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lille, KBS Symphony Orchestra, Montpelier Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Western Australia Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony Orchestra of Navarra. He served as guest concertmaster with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra on their 10-city tour of the UK, and led the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in their BBC Proms debut in 2014.

A dedicated teacher, Mr. Kim is currently on the faculty at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada’s PRISMA festival, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts as valade concertmaster in the World Youth Symphony Orchestra summer program. He has also been on the faculty of the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, Korean National University of the Arts, Yonsei University, Tampere Conservatory, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, and Suolahti International Music Festival. His students have been accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music, Colburn School, Juilliard School, Peabody Conservatory, and the Queen Elizabeth College of Music and play in orchestras around the world. A graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and Yale School of Music, Mr. Kim's teachers include Jaime Laredo, Aaron Rosand, Peter Oundjian, Paul Kantor, Victor Danchenko and Yumi Ninomiya Scott. Mr. Kim plays the 1701 ex-Dushkin Stradivarius, on permanent loan from a generous donor.

Her recitals and orchestral performances were held in North America, Asia, and Europe.

On radio, she has performed for the WQXR (New York), WCLV (Cleveland), KDB (Santa Barbara), and KXMS (Joplin).

Ms. Neff attended the renowned Music Academy of the West, PianoTexas international Festival, Banff Centre International Keyboard Festival, Mannes International Keyboard Institute & Festival studying with artists such as Boris Berman, Wha Kyung Byun, Pavlina Dokovska, Jerome Lowenthal, Julian Martin, John Perry, Jerome Rose, Russell Sherman, Támas Ungár and many others.

Kelly Jiyeon Neff received her bachelor's degree from Oberlin Conservatory and master’s degree from The Juilliard School.

Highly influenced by her music mentors, professor Jerome Lowenthal, and Haewon Song, she has been a dedicated educator in New York City and Orange County for over 10 years.

Ms. Neff joined the OCSA strings & Orchestra faculty in Fall 2019 as the first Strings Master Class Collaborative Pianist.

Her recent engagements outside of her work at Chapman University and OCSA include work with Cal State Fullerton’s Voice Department, the UCLA FitWell Program, the Choral Department at UC Irvine, the National Children’s Chorus, Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, University of La Verne, Los Osos High School, Sage Hill School, and Santa Ana College.

Dr. Sustaita is a frequent guest conductor and clinician across the country and he recently made his debut conducting the Juilliard Orchestra. In 2015, Dr. Sustaita was selected to serve as assistant conductor for Charles Dutoit and the National Youth Orchestra of America by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Institute. He regularly conducted and coached the orchestra during its New York residency and on their seven-city tour of China and Hong Kong.

A native of Texas, Dr. Sustaita completed his Doctorate and Bachelor of Music at the University of Houston where he served as assistant conductor and guest music director for the Moores Opera Center for three seasons. He also earned a Master of Music from both Penn State and Rice University.

Miss Tardif received her bachelor’s degrees in both English and History from University of Southern California, where she earned high honors for her thesis on First World War literature. She holds a teaching credential and master’s degree in teaching from the University of California, Irvine.

While studying at Rice University, Ms. Tardif collaborated with fellow Shepherd School student, harpist Chloe Tula, and received a Richter Grant for their outreach project in 2017. They performed their educational concerts at children’s hospitals and museums in Houston, TX throughout the year. After returning to Southern California, Ms. Tardif became the Principal Second Violinist of the Long Beach Symphony in June 2019. She also plays in the Pacific Symphony and works as a recording musician in Southern California. A proud alumna of Orange County School of the Arts, Ms. Tardif now teaches Chamber Music, Music History, and Music Theory there as well. Ms. Tardif also serves as Assistant Director of the MusiShare Young Artist Program alongside its Director William Fitzpatrick.

Mr. Triggs was trained at Chapman University where he earned a Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Robert Becker, and Northwestern University where he earned a Master of Music with Roland Vamos. His summers were spent at Aspen Music Festival, studying with James Dunham and Jeffrey Irvine. Early training was with renowned violin pedagogue William Fitzpatrick.

A dedicated and sought-after teacher, Mr. Triggs is on faculty at Chapman University, Concordia University Irvine, Santa Ana College, and Orange County School of the Arts. He maintains a studio of private viola students at his home in Mission Viejo where he lives with his wife, Adriana, and two children.

In 2000 he was awarded second Prize in the National Competition and top prize in the Central Conservatory String Competition in China. In 2002 he received a full scholarship to the Itzhak Perlman Music Program, and performed with Mr. Perlman in that year. Also in 2002, Mr. Wang was a featured soloist in a performance of the Elgar Cello Concerto with Xinjiang Philharmonic. Yao won first Prize in the American String Teachers Association (ATA) competition in Redlands, Los Angeles, and California State divisions in 2005, followed by a full scholarship to the International Cello Master Program Gregor Piatigorshy Seminar that year. He attended ATA’s Summer Institute for Chamber Music in 2007. In 2008, he became one of winners in Sigma Alpha Iota Competition. He has been invited to play in many concerts in Hollywood and was principal cellist of the Corona Symphony Orchestra from 2008 to 2010.  While working on his master’s degree at Azusa Pacific University (2010-2013), Mr. Wang was pointed to be a teaching assistant of the school’s cello studio. In 2013, he played as a soloist with Corona Symphony Orchestra, and he was invited immediately after the concert to give cello master classes and lecture recitals in La Sierra University, California State University, Dominguez Hills, and Los Angeles City College.

Mr. Wang currently plays the principal cello in Dream Orchestra since 2015 and coaches the cello section in the Young Artists Orchestra of Los Angeles. He has taught chamber music at Orange County School of Arts since August 2016.

Her abstract, Synergy: Western Musical Practice and Asian Aesthetics, was selected by American Viola Society 2016, and was presented at Oberlin Conservatory. Her composition Odyssey was featured in the lecture-recital New Music for Viola by Victoria Bond and Chih-Chen Wei, in Music by Women Festival 2017.  Her proposal, Old Wine, New Bottle? was selected by the 45th International Viola Congress, and was presented in 2018 in Rotterdam, Holland, hosted by The Dutch Viola Society. 

Her works have been selected and performed in the concert of Clarinetfest 2016 at Lawrence, Kansas; the American Viola Society Festival 2016 in Oberlin Conservatory; Society of Composers, Inc., Region VI Conference (2010); 7th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music in San Francisco (2009); Asian Composers League in Korea (2009), and among others.

Born in Taiwan, she completed her Doctor of Musical Arts with academic honors and distinction, Pi Kappa Lambda, from the University of Southern California

He appears at the Carmel Bach Festival, San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Corona Del Mar Baroque Music Festival, and on the chamber music series at the John Paul Getty Museum, Norton Simon Museum, “Sundays Live” at LACMA, Les Salons de Musiques, Redlands Chamber Music Society, Musica Angelica Chamber Music Series, and at Centrum’s Chamber Music Series in Port Townsend, Washington.

In addition, Dr. Woodward is an active soloist and section player in the Los Angeles studio-recording industry. He has worked on film, television, and video game soundtracks for composers: John Williams, James Newton Howard, Bear McCreary, Christian Linke, Sebastien Najand, Alex Temple, Austin Wintory, and Tom Holkenborg. Dr. Woodward thoroughly enjoys working with young musicians. He is the Instructor of Violoncello Performance and Chamber Music at Mount Saint Mary’s University and has been a guest lecturer at the University of Southern California, University of California Riverside, and the Colburn School of Music.

Dr. Woodward is also on faculty for orchestral and chamber music studies at Orange County School of the Arts and Poly Technic High School in Long Beach. He coaches the All Southern California High School Honor Orchestra, Orange County Youth Symphony, and adjudicates for competitions such as the Los Angeles Spotlight Awards, MTAC State Finals and Regionals, CMEA, and the Long Beach Mozart Festival.