May 8

The Fischoff Soiree featuring Trio Eris

The Fischoff is the nation’s largest chamber music competition, bringing together young musicians from across the country and around the world.

On Thursday, May 8, 2025, the Ruthmere Fischoff Soirée brings this celebration of great music to Elkhart and will feature a performance by Trio Eris.

Trio Eris, New England Conservatory’s Professional Trio-in-Residence, is united by a genuine love of collaboration, and a deeply personal approach to music-making. The trio comprises violinist K.J. McDonald, cellist Annie SeEun Hyung, and pianist Andrew Jun Chen, students of Donald Weilerstein, Laurence Lesser, Vivian Weilerstein and HaeSun Paik.

Originating from three distinct musical and personal backgrounds, the trio was introduced to one another in 2023 under the guidance of Merry Peckham and quickly developed a sense of camaraderie over the course of a serendipitous video call. During an eventful inaugural year as an ensemble, an unconventional artistic chemistry and compatibility was immediately apparent. The trio has since had the opportunity to work with Vivian Weilerstein, Laurence Lesser, Don Weilerstein, Laurie Smukler, and Areta Zhulla, and has performed in masterclasses for Itzhak Perlman, Ara Gregorian, and Lucy Chapman. In the summer of 2024, Trio Eris was chosen to participate in the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, and look forward to studying with Claudio Martínez Mehner at IMS Prussia Cove in the spring of 2025. Upcoming season engagements include performances at Rockport Music, Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society, Jordan Hall, and the Panama Jazz Festival.

Each member of the ensemble is an avid chamber musician with previous festival experiences at the Perlman Music Program, Yellowbarn, Kronberg Academy’s Chamber Music Connects the World, the Taos School of Music, and the Chautauqua School of Music.

Named, ironically, after the Greek goddess of discord and strife(!), the ensemble finds itself perpetually embroiled in a dynamic whirlwind of activity and relative chaos —outside the rehearsal studio, the trio can be found engaging in a number of diverse hobbies including hiking, reading, cooking, and lifting weights.

Sponsored by Wade Mayberry.

Purchase Tickets Here for Fischoff Soiree 

May 22

Tingting Yao

Chinese-American Pianist Tingting Yao is an avid collaborative pianist and chamber musician, currently serving as the Staff Pianist at Sam Houston State University in Texas. Yao has performed throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and China.

A graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Yao has won every award she could have as an accompanist in the Conservatoire. She frequently performed in venues such as Town Hall Symphony Hall (Birmingham), St John's Smith Square (London), The Prince's Teaching Institute (London), among others.

Yao holds an Advanced Postgraduate Diploma (APD) in Collaborative Piano, a Master of Music in Piano Accompaniment (with Distinction) from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (UK), a Master of Music from the University of Melbourne (Australia) and a Bachelor of Arts from Tongji University, China.

Sponsored by Mark Doddington.

Purchase Tickets Here for TingTing Yao

June 5

Jasmine "Jas" Ogiste

As an alumna of Oberlin Conservatory’s Black Musicians Guild and Latinx Music Union, Jas’s work - both professional and musical - reflects her Afro-Caribbean culture and identity. She was a national competitor for a 2022 Watson Foundation Fellowship for her project proposal “Bridging Two Worlds: Navigating Blackness in Classical Music” and she intends to continue to empower and spotlight artists of the African diaspora through her work, studies, and musical output.

Sponsored by Janet Evanega Rieckhoff and Jim Rieckhoff.

Purchase Tickets here for Jasmine "Jas" Ogiste