Sumi Park, Piano

SU MI PARK, piano, a native of South Korea, started the piano at the age of five. She then continued her studies at the N.S.W State Conservatorium High School in Sydney, Australia. It was here where Su Mi first experienced the joy of playing chamber music. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the Canberra School of Music with Distinction in Australia. While studying in Canberra, Ms. Park received the Winifred Burston Memorial Prize for Pianists and the Pianist of the Year Prize upon graduation. Su Mi holds Masters and Doctorate Degrees in Piano Accompanying and Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY, where she was a full scholarship student. Her teachers include Jean Barr, David Burge, Emiliya Serebrennikova and John Luxton. She has performed widely as soloist and as collaborative pianist in Korea (Seoul Arts Center), Australia, Taiwan (National Chiang Kai Shek Cultural Center) and the USA. Su Mi was a vocal coach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 1994-97 and she is currently a staff accompanist at Stanford Univesity. Since 2000, she has been playing as the rehearsal pianist for the Stanford Symphonic Chorus. In the summer of 2008, she was invited to go on the China Musical Tour with the Stanford Choral Union and performed as orchestral pianist in the Carmina Burana concerts in Shanghai and Beijing.

Thomas Shoebotham, Cello

THOMAS SHOEBOTHAM, cello, received his musical training at the University of New Mexico, in Albuquerque, New Mexico and at the Eastman School of Music, in Rochester, New York. As a soloist he has appeared with the Calgary Phlharmonic at the Banff Festival in Canada, and the Del Norte Sinfonia and UNM Wind Ensemble in Albuquerque. He has performed as a recitalist and chamber player for the past 20 years in New York, New Mexico, Nevada, Illinois, and California, and is presently active as a performer, conductor, and private teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area.

This past season he appeared with the Oakland Civic Orchestra and gave recitals in several venues around the Bay Area. In previous years he has given solo performances in Los Angeles, New Mexico, Illinois, and New York. He has also conducted performances for a number of groups, including Opera San Jose, Berkeley Opera, Peninsula Symphony, Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, and Palo Alto Philharmonic. Mr. Shoebotham plays a 2004 Anthony Lane cello, which won a silver medal for tone at the 16th annual Violin Society of America competition in Portland, Oregon in the fall of 2004