Women by Women | Lyric Chamber Music

MUSIC OF WOMEN

BY WOMEN

Emily Levin

Principal Harp, Dallas Orchestra

Julia Choi,

First Violin, Met Opera Orchestra

Christine Lamprea

Cello, Sphinx Medal of Excellence

Monday, March 16, 2026

7.30 p.m.

PROGRAM TBA

ABOUT THE MUSICIANS

Praised for her “communicative, emotionally intense expression” (Jerusalem Post) and “technical wizardry and artistic intuition” (Herald Times), harpist Emily Levin has forged a multifaceted career as a soloist, artistic creator, educator, and advocate for new music.

The only American to receive top prizes at two of the most prestigious international harp competitions, Levin won the 2013 Bronze Medal at the 9th USA International Harp Competition, and at just 18 years old, was named a finalist and Renié Prizewinner at the 2009 International Harp Contest in Israel.

Levin joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra as principal harp in 2016, where she holds the Elsa von Seggern Chair. She has also served as guest principal harp with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Houston Symphony, and appears regularly with the New York Philharmonic.

As a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed at leading venues throughout North America and Europe — including Carnegie Hall, National Sawdust, Bravo! Vail, the Kimmel Center, and the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. At the request of conductors Jaap van Zweden and John Adams, she has appeared as a soloist with the Dallas Symphony. Other concerto engagements include performances with the Jerusalem, Colorado and West Virginia Symphonies; the Louisiana Philharmonic; and the Ojai Festival and Lakes Area Music Festival.

Guided by her mission to expand the harp repertoire, Levin works extensively with established and emerging composers alike. In 2021, she founded GroundWork(s), an initiative commissioning 52 American composers — one from each state, plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico — to write new works centered on the harp. Recent and upcoming commissions have included works by Angélica Negrón, Reena Esmail, Michael Ippolito, Aaron Holloway Nahum, and Kareem Roustom.

This season, Levin tours her revolutionary solo project Experiments in Play. An immersive, interactive narrative recital, Experiments in Play invites the audience to solve puzzles, interact with the plot, and influence the path of the music itself. She also returns as guest principal harp with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and reunites with duo partner Colin Davin for concerts throughout the U.S. In April 2025, Levin performs the Renié harp concerto with the DSO and maestro John Storgårds.

Spring 2025 will also bring the release of a new album, Birds of Paradise, which features trios for harp, violin, and cello with violinist Julia Choi and cellist Christine Lamprea. Recorded for Azica Records, Birds of Paradise includes music of Henriette Renié and Reena Esmail, as well as Angélica Negrón’s Ave del paraíso, a work commissioned and premiered by GroundWork(s) in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Levin was a winner of the 2016 Astral Artists National Auditions and was named the Classical Recording Foundation’s 2017 Young Musician of the Year for her debut album on Iris Records, Something Borrowed. A committed educator, Levin is currently an adjunct associate professor of harp at Southern Methodist University, and a faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival and Young Artist’s Harp Seminar. She received her Master of Music from the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Nancy Allen, where she was a teaching fellow for both the Ear Training and Educational Outreach Departments. A self-described bookworm, Levin completed undergraduate degrees in music and history at Indiana University with Susann McDonald. Her honors history thesis discussed the impact of war songs on the French Revolution.

Emily lives in Dallas with her husband, composer Jonathan Cziner, and their dogs Charlie and JoJo.

Violinist Julia Choi enjoys a varied musical career, with appearances throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. Praised for her “narrative sweep and involving performance” (NY Times), and “delightful idiosyncrasy” (The Classical Source), Julia joined the First Violins of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in 2019.

A third-generation educator, Julia is on faculty at Manhattan School of Music’s Pre-College Division, and on Artist-Faculty with the Charles Ives Music Festival in Connecticut. Previously, she was a Teaching Assistant of Ear Training at Juilliard for both the College and Pre-College Divisions, and has assisted in coachings for Juilliard Pre-College, NYC Music School, and Friends with Music. Julia teaches violin privately in her studio as well, enjoying a teaching experience of over a decade, with student accomplishments including competitions, orchestral auditions, summer festivals, acceptance to Pre-College programs, Regional, All-State, and All-Eastern Orchestras (NJMEA), New York Youth Symphony (NYYS), and National Youth Orchestra (NYO). She was invited to give masterclasses at University of Denver, DePaul University, Orchestra of the Americas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico.

Julia also enjoys playing chamber music, and is currently working on a trio CD recording project under the Azica Records label with Dallas Symphony’s Principal Harp Emily Levin, and cellist Christine Lamprea. She was also a co-founding member of the Hyon Trio, with Kevin Ahfat on piano and her sister Jennifer Choi on cello, who made their Alice Tully Hall debut in 2015. As she remains active as a chamber musician, she has premiered works as a member of the New Juilliard Ensemble and AXIOM, and has collaborated with various groups in New York City, including the Korea Society, Manhattan Chamber Players, BalletX, OnSite Opera, Scandinavia House Events, Music on Park Avenue, and Music for Life International.

Prior to her appointment with the Met, she has appeared in performances with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Montclair Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Julia has also served as the Concertmaster and Principal Second of various ensembles including the Juilliard Orchestra, Juilliard Opera, New York String Orchestra Seminar, Music Academy Festival Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and the Manhattan Chamber Sinfonia. She has spent many summers performing at the Verbier Festival, Artosphere Festival, Charles Ives Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Spoleto Festival USA, Great Mountains Music Festival, and Meadowmount School of Music. She is also a top prizewinner of competitions including the LISMA International, ASTA, Music Academy Concerto, and Caprio Young Artists Competitions.

A native of New Jersey, Julia began her intensive studies with Sally Thomas at the Juilliard Pre-College Division, and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees from the Juilliard School as a scholarship student of Glenn Dicterow, Sylvia Rosenberg, and Sally Thomas. In 2017, Julia earned a Professional Studies Degree in Orchestral Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, studying with Glenn Dicterow and Lisa Kim of the New York Philharmonic. Born in Korea, she was raised and is currently based in New Jersey and New York City.

Christine Lamprea, Cellist and 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Winner, is an artist known for her emotionally committed and intense performances. Upon her Carnegie Hall debut as soloist in 2013, she has since returned to Carnegie, as well as performed with orchestras such Costa Rica National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony of Michoacan, New Jersey Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Santa Fe Pro Musica, and toured with the Sphinx Virtuosi across the U.S. As a recitalist, Ms. Lamprea has appeared on prestigious series at Illinois’ Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Florida’s Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, Pepperdine University, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Washington Performing Arts Society. In demand as a chamber musician, she performs regularly with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, and has performed with such musicians as Shmuel Ashkenasi, Sarah Chang, Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping, and Carol Wincenc.

Ms. Lamprea strives to expand her musical boundaries by exploring many genres of music and non-traditional venues for performance and teaching. Her Songs of Colombia Suite includes arrangements of traditional South American tunes for cello and piano or guitar, and have been performed at the Colombian Embassy and Supreme Court of the United States for Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She has worked with members of Baroque ensemble Les Arts Florissants, and studied sonatas with fortepiano with Audrey Axinn. She has premiered several works by composers of today. In recent years, she commissioned cadenzas for the Haydn D Major Concerto by Jessie Montgomery, and premiered Jeffrey Mumford’s cello concerto “of fields unfolding...echoing depths of resonant light” with the San Antonio Symphony.

Ms. Lamprea is on the cello faculty at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, serves as substitute faculty at the Juilliard School, and served as Lecturer of Cello at the Texas Christian University School of Music for the 2018-19 academic year. Ms. Lamprea has given masterclasses for the Vivac-e Festival, Idyllwild Arts Academy, Wintergreen Summer Music Festival, among others. She has worked with Ecuadorian youth in the cities of Quito and Guayaquil, as part of a residency between The Juilliard School and “Sinfonia Por La Vida,” a social inclusion program modeled after Venezuela’s El Sistema program. Christine Lamprea is the recipient of a Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which supported her studies at the New England Conservatory, and a Sphinx MPower Artist Grant, which supported her study with acclaimed cellist Matt Haimovitz. She studied with Bonnie Hampton at The Juilliard School and holds a Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Natasha Brofsky. Additional influences were Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, and Philippe Muller. Previous teachers include Ken Freudigman and Ken Ishii.