Iris Wai Tung Choi, 2nd year DMA Piano Performance, serving as instrumental collaborative pianist, currently studying under Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite thing learned from the UMKC Conservatory is “collaboration with other instrumentalists.”

Xueyan Duan, DMA Piano Performance, serving as opera rehearsal pianist, currently studying under Prof. Sean Chen.

Andreas Han Landstedt, 1st year Artist’s Certificate, serving as a vocal collaborative pianist, currently studying with Prof. Sean Chen. His favorite thing learned about 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 Li, 2nd year DMA Piano Performance, serving as a instrumental collaborative pianist, currently studying with Dr. Jeff Savage. His favorite thing learned from the UMKC Conservatory is “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.

Naren Palomino Pardo, 3rd year MM in Piano Performance and MA in collaborative piano studies, serving as an opera rehearsal pianist, previously studied with Professor Sean Chen, and currently studying with Professor Dr. Karen Savage. His favorite thing about the UMKC Conservatory is “the enormous performance opportunities. Since the conservatory has a wide variety of students, ensembles, and guest artists, I learned that I must always be ready to take advantage of every opportunity to learn and make music. Thanks to my GA position, I had the opportunity to learn and play a wide variety of different genres and styles of music.”

Hyerin Yang, 2nd year MM in Piano Performance, serving as an opera/ballet pianist, currently studying with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite thing learned from 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, 3rd year MM Piano Performance and Pedagogy/MA Collaborative Piano, serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons. This assistantship also recently extended to the Conservatory Academy teaching private lessons to non-conservatory students. She is currently studying with Dr. Chris Madden and Dr. Karen Savage in both solo and collaborative piano. 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!

Zixuan Deng, 3rd year DMA in Piano Performance, serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons, and currently studying with Alon Goldstein. Her favorite thing learned from the UMKC Conservatory is “strive for the best while prepare for the worst, give your maximum while accept the minimum.”

Shenwei Geng, 3rd year DMA in Piano Performance, serving as a Graduate Teaching Assistant in Keyboard Skills and Secondary Lessons, and currently studying with Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz. Her favorite thing learned from the UMKC Conservatory is “to always try and be inspiring!”