RPO at RIT

The Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra String Quartet will play a 45 minute concert in the SHED Atrium on Tuesday, September 10 at 5:30pm. Featuring artists, Perrin Yang, Jeongwon (Claire) An, Marc Anderson, and Benjamin Krug. 

Artist Bios:
Since joining the violin section of the RPO in 1991, Perrin Yang has served as acting Principal Second Violin and Associate Concertmaster. He was a member of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, where he appeared as soloist and concertmaster on several occasions and guest artist at the Sun Valley, Fortissimo!, Aspen, Peter Britt, Roycroft, Skaneateles and Boulder Bach festivals.  Perrin has expanded his musical pallette by venturing outside of the "traditional" classical music genre.  He performs music of all kinds including folk/blue grass, blues, rock, and pop.  Audiences at many of Rochester's festivals and venues such as the International Jazz Fest, Lilac Festival, and Food Truck Rodeos, have enjoyed the variety of sounds produced by his purple electric violin and collection of effects pedals.   He has recorded full CDs with several local Rochester groups such as Birds On A Wire, Right Turn Racer, and Significant Other, and has also performed with Junkyard Fieldtrip and The Waiting Room. 

Outside of his musical activities, he enjoys participating in a variety of sports.  He teaches pickleball locally at Dinkers, and has won several national championships.  Originally from San Francisco, Mr. Yang is a high honors graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan.
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South Korean violinist Jeongwon (Claire) An is a versatile violinist experienced in solo, chamber, and orchestra settings who joined the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra in September 2023 as a member of the first violin section.

As a chamber music enthusiast, Jeongwon is a founding member of Trio Menil, the Grand Prize and Odyssey Chamber Music Series Award winner of the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, and is a recipient of the Peter Salaff Prize in Chamber Music from the Eastman School of Music. She feels grateful to have performed the U.S. premiere of Yevhen Stankovych’s “Almost Serenade” for Two Violins in recital with Oleh Krysa, and shared the stage with Jon Kimura Parker, James Dunham, and Norman Fischer.

She was invited to participate in numerous international festivals including Mozarteum Sommerakademie, IMS Prussia Cove, Aspen Music Festival, and New York String Orchestra Seminar (NYSOS), and in concert venues like the Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and various halls in Asia. 

A recipient of the Korean Embassy’s Korean Honor Scholarship, Jeongwon has served principal positions in the Shepherd School Symphony, Eastman Philharmonia, and Aspen Festival Ensemble. She also performed as an acting concertmaster of Symphony S.O.N.G. (Seoul, South Korea), and as a substitute violinist in the Minnesota Orchestra.

Jeongwon has studied and worked with inspiring master musicians such as Pierre Amoyal, Steven Doane, James Dunham, Anthony Marwood, Donald Weilerstein, and Kathleen Winkler, and will always be a student of her loving mentors, Fung Ho, Paul Kantor, and Oleh Krysa. She holds her degrees from the Eastman School of Music and the Shepherd School of Music, and is currently playing on a 1703 G.B. Rogeri violin, generously on loan from the Maestro Foundation.
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Marc Anderson enjoys a versatile career as an orchestral violist, chamber musician and teacher. Assistant Principal viola since 2015, Mr. Anderson has been with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra since 2005 and was also principal violist of the Rochester Chamber Orchestra. An avid chamber musician, Mr. Anderson frequently collaborates with his RPO colleagues and Eastman School of Music faculty in many of the area’s classical concert series. Mr. Anderson holds performance degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with George Taylor (B.M.) and John Graham (M.M.). While at Eastman Mr. Anderson received the coveted Performer’s Certificate and Orchestral Studies Diploma.  As a teacher, Mr. Anderson has been on the string faculty of Roberts Wesleyan College, the Eastman Community Music School, and the Eastman School of Music.
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Praised for his “directness of expression” (Rochester City Newspaper), Benjamin Krug is a tenured cellist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as well as an active Suzuki and traditional teacher at the Hochstein School and Kanack School of Musical Artistry. In recent summers, he has performed with the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra, the Chautauqua Festival Orchestra, and the Finger Lakes Opera. As a chamber musician, Benjamin is a devoted member of the Salaff Quartet (with RPO musicians Thomas Rodgers, Molly McDonald and Aika Ito) performing concerts throughout the Rochester community and serving as Outreach Ambassadors for the Society For Chamber Music in Rochester from 2017-2019. Most recently, Benjamin can be heard on WXXI 91.5 Classical for his performances with SCMR and was featured on WXXI’s HomeStage in September 2020 with organist Peter DuBois. Most recently, he and his harpist wife, Grace Browning formed the Browning-Krug Duo that had its debut on WXXI 91.5 Classical “Live From Hochstein” in the Fall of 2021. Prior to his position in the RPO, Benjamin was a member of both the Akron and Canton Symphonies and participated in summer festivals including the National Orchestral Institute, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Festival.

Beyond performing, Benjamin is a dedicated pedagogue, having recently completed Suzuki Books 1-4 teacher training and studying the method from the age of four. He also recently finished Creative Ability Development training with Alice Kanack. As a student of Stephen Geber, Benjamin graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music with his Master’s Degree and Professional Studies Diploma, after receiving his Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance with departmental distinction from St. Olaf College. Prior to his cello career, Benjamin was a celebrated boy soprano and graduate of the American Boychoir School, touring throughout the country and internationally from the age of 11 and performing and recording with world-class orchestras. Benjamin’s voice can be heard in the movie “Interview with the Vampire” (1994) during the opening credits.