2025 Joan and Daniel Rutenberg Chamber Music Award winners

The Einstein String Quartet:

Tsubasa Muramatsu & Mei Liu, violins
Aiden Yi-Hung Jeng, viola
Sophie Lyman, cello

Program:

Joseph Haydn - String Quartet Op. 33, No. 5
Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 4 in D major, Op. 83
Jorge Amado Cuarteto - de cuerdas Carnavalesco
Ludwig van Beethoven - String Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4

This season’s Joan and Daniel Rutenberg Chamber Music Award honors The Einstein String Quartet, fellowship winners of the 2025 Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont 
(https://gmcmf.org/2025-festival-fellows). These emerging artists performed alongside faculty in the 
GMCMF Artist Faculty Series, presented winning works from the 2025 GMCMF Call for Scores, and performed in community performances and events while coaching chamber music for their younger 
colleagues at the festival.

Aiden (Yi-Hung) Jeng is a Taiwanese violist who brings expressive musicality and warmth to his 
performances. He earned his Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where he was awarded the Eckstein Scholarship and Viola Prize, served as a Graduate Assistant, and held the 
position of Principal Viola in the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra. Aiden has performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Northbrook Symphony, and has appeared at festivals 
including the National Repertory Orchestra, France MusicAlp, and VivaViola Hsin-Yun Huang ViolaFest. He is delighted to join the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival as a Fellow. His primary 
mentors include Helen Callus, Kuan-Chen Huang, and Weijing Michal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In Fall 2025, he will begin his Doctor of Musical Arts studies at The Ohio State University 
with Professor Juliet White-Smith, as a recipient of the prestigious University Fellowship.

Violinist Mei Liu is a violinist currently pursuing an Artist Diploma at the University of Texas at Austin, 
where she also earned her Master of Music under the mentorship of Professor Sandy Yamamoto. She holds dual bachelor's degrees in Violin Performance and Psychology from Arizona State University, 
studying with Dr. Katherine McLin. Mei has performed as Concertmaster and Principal Second Violin with ASU and UT Austin and is a substitute section violinist with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. As an active chamber musician and a member of the Soha Quartet, she recently won first prize in the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Competition and was nominated as a semi-finalist in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition. She has played in masterclasses for world-renowned musicians including Frank Huang, Midori, Norman Fischer, and members of the Miró, St. Lawrence, and Borromeo Quartet. In her free time, she enjoys cooking and playing candy crush.

North Carolina native Sophie Lyman is pursuing her master’s degree at the Indiana University Jacobs 
School of Music with Peter Stumpf. Previously, she studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music with Melissa Kraut and earned her bachelor’s degree with Brooks Whitehouse at UNCSA. Sophie earned 
third place in the Grand Teton Music Festival’s Scholarship Competition and was a national finalist in the MTNA and Coltman Chamber Music Competitions. She soloed with the BYU Symphony Orchestra 
and the Idaho Falls Youth Symphony and organized the Suzuki cello program at UNCSA’s Community Music School. She serves as assistant director of the Lamar Stringfield Music Camp. 
Having studied with cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios, Sophie enjoys performing her works throughout the country and abroad. In past summers, Sophie has attended festivals in China, 
Czechia, Germany, and Spain, as well as the Heifetz Institute, the Credo Chamber Music Festival, and the Brevard Institute.

22-year-old Hong-Kong-raised Japanese violinist Tsubasa Muramatsu has appeared in many prestigious venues around the world including Koerner Hall in Toronto, The Duke’s Hall in London, 
Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall in Boston. She started the violin at age 6 and at 12, went on to study at The Yehudi Menuhin School in the UK under the guidance of Akiko Ono. Tsubasa has 
participated in Toronto Summer Music, Tanglewood Music Center, Ishikawa Music Academy, and others. An avid chamber and orchestra musician, she has worked with artists such as Astrid Shween, 
Merry Peckham, Hugh Wolff, Andris Nelsons, Jonathan Crow, The Borromeo Quartet, Yura Lee and John Williams. A graduate of the New England Conservatory, Tsubasa completed her BM degree 
under Ayano Ninomiya. She is currently continuing her MM studies at McGill University’s Schulich 
School of Music with Andrew Wan.