Gloria Chien & Soovin Kim
Artistic Directors

Taiwanese-born pianist Gloria Chien has one of the most diverse musical lives as a noted performer, concert presenter, and educator. She made her orchestral debut at the age of sixteen with the Boston Symphony Orchestra with Thomas Dausgaard, and she performed again with the BSO with Keith Lockhart. She was subsequently selected by the The Boston Globe as one of its Superior Pianists of the year, “who appears to excel in everything.” In recent seasons, she has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician at Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, the Dresden Chamber Music Festival, and the National Concert Hall in Taiwan. She performs frequently with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. In 2009, she launched String Theory, a chamber music series in Chattanooga, Tennessee that has become one of the region’s premier classical music presenters.  The following year she was appointed Director of the Chamber Music Institute at Music@Menlo, a position she held for the next decade. In 2017, she joined her husband, violinist Soovin Kim, as artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival in Burlington, Vermont. The duo became artistic directors at Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, OR in 2020. Most recently, she released two albums - her Gloria Chien LIVE from the Music@Menlo LIVE label and Here With You with acclaimed clarinetist Anthony McGill on Cedille Records.

Chien studied extensively at the New England Conservatory of Music with Wha Kyung Byun and Russell Sherman. She is Artist-in-Residence at Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, and she is a Steinway Artist.

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Soovin Kim enjoys a broad musical career as a performer, educator, and program curator. He has performed with many of the major orchestras in the United States and abroad, and presented recitals on the world’s most celebrated stages. His repertoire ranges from Bach sonatas and Paganini caprices for solo violin to Beethoven and Ives sonatas for violin and piano, as well as world-premieres of new works almost every season. When he was 20 years old Mr. Kim received first prize at the Paganini International Violin Competition. Among his many commercial recordings are his “thrillingly triumphant” (Classic FM Magazine) disc of Paganini’s 24 Caprices.

Soovin Kim is the founder and co-artistic director of the Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival (LCCMF) in Burlington, Vermont. In addition to its explorative programming and extensive work with living composers, LCCMF created the ONE Strings program through which all 3rd through 5th grade students of the Integrated Arts Academy in Burlington study violin. The University of Vermont recognized Soovin Kim’s work with an honorary doctorate. In 2020 he and pianist Gloria Chien became artistic directors of the summer festival and year-round concert series Chamber Music Northwest in Portland, Oregon. The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center awarded Gloria Chien and Soovin Kim the Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music in 2021 for the more than 100 performances, lectures, interviews, and masterclasses they presented for online audiences around the world during the COVID pandemic.

Mr. Kim immersed himself in the string quartet literature for 20 years as the 1st violinist of the Johannes Quartet, and now performs piano trios with Gloria Chien and cellist Paul Watkins in the Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio. Mr. Kim is a full-time violin faculty member at NEC and also teaches at the Yale School of Music.

Gloria and Soovin are two of the world’s most important chamber musicians. Among their many plaudits, Gloria and Soovin are recipients of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Award for Extraordinary Service in 2021.

David Serkin Ludwig
Resident Composer

David is Dean of Music at the Juilliard School and is considered one of the “world’s top composers.”

David Serkin Ludwig is a composer with an expansive career collaborating with many of today’s leading musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, and writers. Winner of the 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship, the 2024 award in music from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2023 Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ludwig has had his music performed by musicians like Jonathan Biss, Jennifer Koh, Jaime Laredo, and Anthony McGill, commissions from the Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, National Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic, and has held more than two dozen residencies with orchestras and arts institutions around the world. His choral work “The New Colossus” was selected to open the second inauguration of President Barack Obama.

Born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Ludwig comes from several generations of eminent musicians, including his uncle Peter Serkin, grandfather Rudolf Serkin, and great-grandfather Adolf Busch. After teaching at The Curtis Institute for more than two decades, Ludwig was appointed Dean and Director of Music at The Juilliard School in 2021, where he also serves as the chair of the composition department and is the artistic director of The New Series. He lives in New York City with his wife, acclaimed violinist Bella Hristova, and their four beloved cats.

Peter Espenshade
Executive Director

Peter has been the Festival’s Executive Director since 2022 and has decades of non-profit leadership experience.  He has worked in philanthropy as a Vice President at the Vermont Community Foundation and as the President of the Lake Champlain Land Trust.  He holds a master’s in religious art and architecture and has held a variety of volunteer leadership positions in the arts.  He loves paddleboarding on Lake Champlain and driving around Vermont in search of the perfect sandwich.  

Contact Peter at peter@lccmf.org.

Hannah Sweet
Festival Manager

Hannah is an arts administration professional with a passion for helping facilitate world-class chamber music. She has assisted some of the countries top chamber music organizations, musicians, and composers.

Hannah has worked with LCCMF since 2015 assisting in the production of the summer festival as well as the other year-round events. She is also on the staff of String Theory at the Hunter in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Chamber Music City in Nashville, Tennessee. Hannah strives to create an easy, stress-free, welcoming environment for all artists, staff, and patrons so that everyone can focus on what is important - the incredible music we are all so fortunate to experience at each LCCMF concert. 

Contact Hannah at hannah@lccmf.org.

Alan Bise
Recording Producer & Engineer

Alan is a Grammy Award winning producer and recording engineer. His most recent Grammy was the 2023 award for Chamber Music recordings

He is the chief classical producer of Azica Records and works for many clients and labels across the world. His recordings have received four Grammy nominations, appeared on the Billboard Classical chart and Amazon best-sellers list.  He studies the evolving interests of young listeners and uses his own love of rock ‘n’ roll to help create unique and appealing classical projects.  

Summer Festival Staff

  • Manuel Fieber

    Experience Manager

  • Anna Kalfus

    Production Manager

  • Rachel Conner

    Front of House Manager

  • Alistair Coleman

    Young Composer Seminar Assistant

  • Marisa Kono

    Young Artist Progam Assistant

  • Rory Stein

    Photographer

  • Teagan Hart

    Tech Assistant

  • Celia Maier

    Art Gallery Manager

  • Helen Argraves

    Production Assistant

  • Jonah Delaney

    Production Assistant