Strings, Harp, and Guitar Competition 2025

Bio for Gregory Hamilton

For the past 15 years, Gregory Hamilton was Associate Professor of Cello and Double Bass at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. Before this, he was the Executant Senior Lecturer of Cello at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Called “a master of the instrument” by the Otago Daily Times, Gregory’s playing was heard throughout New Zealand on Concert-FM Radio broadcasts. He also served as president of the String Teachers Association of New Zealand Aotearoa and was a national adjudicator for the 2007 Chamber Music New Zealand competition. Hamilton also taught at Illinois State University for 10 years where he was a founding member of the Ricard Piano Trio.

Hamilton is a former member of the Columbus Symphony in Ohio and has toured and recorded in the cello section of the Houston Symphony. Gregory has performed internationally at the conservatories of Milan, Seville, and Malakoff (France), appeared on live broadcasts on German Public Rado of Cologne, participated in the William Pleeth masterclasses at the Aldeburgh Festival, and has taught and performed with the Lugano String Orchestra, a program serving poor and disadvantaged children in Buenos Aires.

In 2005, Gregory received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Kansas. Prior to this he was a student of Bernard Greenhouse at Rutgers University, Raya Garbousova at Northern Illinois University, and Richard Kapuscinski at the Oberlin Conservatory. In 2011 his solo CD, “The Hollywood Cello,” featuring works by film composers of the Golden Era, was released by Soundset Recordings.

Presently, Greg lives in Carefree, AZ with his wife, violist Kate Hamilton, where he is Administrative Director of the Desert Hills Community School of Music.

Called by The Boston Globe, “an intelligent, agile and breathtaking violinist”, Danwen Jiang has concertized as concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician in Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Poland, and across the United States. She has appeared in concert halls such as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., La Salle Gaveau in Paris, Cultural Centre Concert Hall in Hong Kong, and Beijing Concert Hall in China.  Her recordings are available on China Record Corporation, Eroica label, and Soundset Recordings. The American Record Guide called her “an exceptional violinist”, while the Fanfare Magazine described her performance as “absolutely exquisite”.

As a chamber musician, Professor Jiang has collaborated in concerts with members of the renowned Guarneri, Juilliard, Tokyo, Emerson, and Shanghai String Quartets, The Boston Players, American Chamber Players, and other distinguished musicians such as André-Michel Schub, Lilian Kallir, Igor Kipnis, Ani Kavafian, Eric Rosenblith, Stanley Drucker, and Regina Carter. She has appeared at Manchester Music Festival, Sanibel Chamber Music Festival, Yale Chamber Music Series, Rutgers SummerFest, Taconic Music, Montecito International Music Festival in the United States, Festival du Quercy Blanc and Festival Dan le Gard in France, Harpa International Music Festival in Iceland, InterHarmony International Music Festival in Italy and Germany, Victoria International Music Festival in Canada, among others. As an orchestral performer, she was Concertmaster for the Riverside Symphonia in New Jersey from 1995-2001.

A highly regarded string pedagogue, Danwen Jiang is Professor of Violin in the School of Music, Dance and Theatre at Arizona State University in the United States, where she was a recipient of the Professor of the Year Special Recognition Award, President’s Tenure/ Promotion Faculty Exemplar Award, and Distinguished Teacher Award. She was featured as soloist and masterclass clinician by the American String Teachers Association in national conferences. She served as a visiting faculty at Oberlin Conservatory of Music and at the University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign. As guest professor, she has taught at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, State University of Music and Performing Arts Stuttgart in Germany, Sydney Conservatorium of Music at The University of Sydney in Australia, Vancouver Academy of Music in Canada, and Academy of Music in Kraków, Poland. She is a member of the faculty at the Red Rocks Virtual Music Institute in Arizona, and the Euro Arts Academy based in Germany and South Korea.

Danwen Jiang studied violin with Arnold Steinhardt, Oscar Shumsky, Taras Gabora, and Weijian Zhao. Other influential musicians include Jaime Laredo, Michael Tree, Zara Nelsova, Felix Galimir, Josef Gingold, Joseph Silverstein, György Pauk, and Seymour Lipkin.

For more information about Professor Danwen Jiang, please visit http://www.danwenjiang.com.

A Guitarist from Buffalo NY, Derick Sears has reached far across the United States through his studies. An undergraduate degree in Buffalo NY was the home for many co-organized events such as the annual Woman of Guitar Festivals (2017-2020) and the 2019 Brouwer in Buffalo Composition Competition. This is where Derick gained many skills of music event management, grant writing and arts professionalism. Following his Undergraduate studies, at the height of the pandemic, Derick moved to Fullerton California and acquired a Masters in Music studying under Martha Masters. His time in California was culturally moving, acquiring experiences working in the Santa Ana School District and falling in love with the vast diversity of musical culture in the American Southwest. These experiences led him to a love and participation in Mariachi and other folk music traditions. Derick is currently studying his Doctorate at Arizona State University with Martha Masters where he is focused on expanding guitar literature and culturally relevant musical programming.

Derick has performed recitals from Buffalo NY to Orange County California and acquired Masterclasses with world renowned talents such as, Leo Brouwer, Pablo Sainz Villegas, Douglas Lora, Iliana Matos, Thomas Viloteau, Andrea Caballero and Luis Zea.