Iris Wai Tung Choi
DMA Piano Performance, Year 2
Instrumental Collaborative Pianist

Iris currently studies with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is collaboration with other instrumentalists.

YounHee Choi
DMA Piano Performance, Year 1
Instrumental Collaborative Pianist

YounHee currently studies with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is the many performance opportunities and support, through which she is learning a great deal not only as a solo pianist but also as a collaborative pianist. She enjoys the exchange of musical ideas and the inspiration she receives from teachers, soloists, and colleagues. She is interested in expressing music (the art of sound) as visual art through other disciplines such as mathematics, science, and philosophy.

Xueyan Duan
DMA Piano Performance
Opera Rehearsal Pianist

Xueyan currently studies with Prof. Sean Chen.

Andreas Han Landstedt
Artist’s Certificate, Year 1
Vocal Collaborative Pianist

He currently studies with Prof. Sean Chen. His favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is the breadth of experience and focuses among the faculty, and the camaraderie throughout the piano department which allows every student to freely commit to and expand on their interests and develop their areas of weakness.

Alex Siu Lun Li
DMA Piano Performance, Year 2
Instrumental Collaborative Pianist

Alex currently studies with Dr. Jeff Savage. His favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is learning the art of collaboration, the skills of teaching, and the techniques of playing. As an unapologetic introvert, Alex enjoys his downtime with Mathematics, sudokus, gaming, coding, crafting, designing, writing, drawing, and learning languages.

李创 Li, Chuang
DMA Piano Performance, Year 1
Vocal Collaborative Pianist

Chuang currently studies with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. He is deeply passionate about New Music and is exploring the contemporary piano repertoire, focusing on works by composer Dr. Chen Yi and Frederic Rzewski.

Naren Palomino Pardo
MM Piano Performance / MA Collaborative Piano, Year 3
Opera Rehearsal Pianist

Naren previously studied with Prof. Sean Chen, and currently studies with Dr. Karen Savage. His favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is the enormous performance opportunities with a wide variety of students, ensembles, and guest artists. Thanks to the GA position, Naren has the opportunity to learn and play a wide variety of different genres and styles of music.

Hyerin Yang
MM Piano Performance, Year 2
Opera/Ballet Pianist

Hyerin currently studies with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is learning how to work on multiple pieces at once, how to create a natural flow to the music, and how to manipulate the instruments more subtly.

Elizabeth Grace Chang
MM Piano Performance and Pedagogy / MA Collaborative Piano, Year 3
Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons

Grace is currently studying with Dr. Chris Madden and Dr. Karen Savage in both solo and collaborative piano. Her assistantship also recently extended to the Conservatory Academy teaching private lessons to non-conservatory students. One of her favorite things about UMKC is the strong community that is so inspiring and supportive! Though her life revolves around music, Grace has many varied hobbies including taekwondo, jujitsu, piano tech, knitting, and raising and showing rabbits!

Beth Christensen
MM Collaborative Piano / MA Piano Pedagogy, Year 3
Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons

Beth previously studied with Dr. Karen Savage, and currently studies with Dr. Chris Madden. Her favorite thing about the UMKC Conservatory is its culture of celebrating everybody’s unique gifts, colorful personalities, and diverse backgrounds, and creating amazing collaborations because of it. Beth’s favorite activities outside of the conservatory are rock climbing, visiting Kansas City jazz clubs, and petting very good dogs.

Zixuan Deng
DMA Piano Performance, Year 3
Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons

Zixuan currently studies with Prof. Alon Goldstein. Her favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is striving for the best while preparing for the worst, giving your maximum while accepting the minimum.

Shenwei Geng
DMA Piano Performance, Year 3
Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons

Shenwai currently studies with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite experience at the UMKC Conservatory is to always try and be inspiring!