Isaac Melamed, cello and Ting-Ting Yen, piano

Cellist Isaac Melamed’s musical endeavors connect him to some of the greatest musicians and artists of our time. As a member of the New Century Chamber Orchestra, Isaac has toured internationally to critical acclaim under music directors Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and Daniel Hope. Since joining the Garth Newel Piano Quartet in 2014, Isaac and the Quartet have performed throughout Croatia, Scotland, England, Italy, at the Chautauqua Institution, and around much of the United States. The Quartet programs and performs over 50 chamber music concerts each year and directs numerous educational programs at the historic Garth Newel Music Center in Hot Springs, Virginia.

A San Francisco native, Isaac studied with Grammy Award-winning cellist Antonio Lysy in Los Angeles, where he enjoyed solo engagements with the UCLA Philharmonia and Symphony Orchestras, and the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra. Isaac received graduate degrees from Manhattan School of Music, studying with Alan Stepansky and David Geber, as well as training from Dmitri Ferschtman at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Daniël Esser of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and Steven Isserlis and Miklós Perényi at the Kronberg Academy in Germany. Isaac’s cello was created for him in 2016 by Robert Brewer Young of Sentaraille a Berdot, France, on the model of the Marquis de Corberon Stradivari, 1726.

A native of Taiwan, Dr. Ting-Ting Yen has enjoyed a versatile musician’s career as both a pianist and a violinist. Yen is the collaborative pianist for Virginia Glee Club at the University of Virginia, where she performs and tours with Grammy Award winner and Music Director Frank Albinder. She also serves on the piano faculty of the Heifetz Institute and was previously on faculty at Washington and Lee University. She has served as a collaborative pianist at Bravo! Festival, University of New Mexico, and University of Virginia.

As a violinist, Yen is a member of Roanoke Symphony and has performed with Richmond Symphony, Charlottesville Symphony, and New Century Chamber Orchestra. Yen was formerly a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony and New Mexico Philharmonic.

Yen received her D.M.A. in Violin Performance, and a Master’s in Collaborative Piano at the University of Minnesota. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance from Manhattan School of Music, and a Bachelor’s degree from Taipei National University of the Arts.