MEET OUR TEAM
Celia Zhang
Director, Violin Faculty
After training from Juilliard, Yale and other top music conservatories and programs in the world, violinist Celia Zhang moved to Boston and came back to her first true love - sharing the process of making and loving music. She has gained a reputation not only for teaching with strong results, but also creating a process that makes students want to pursue more - accompanied with humor, a firm attitude and the occasional eccentricities. For further details, testimonies, and more, please check out her personal website here.
Jennifer Wang
Violin Faculty
Jennifer Wang grew up in Pingtung, a small town in southern Taiwan, where her passion and talent for music blossomed. She is grateful for the life-changing music education she received and strives to empower others through education. After graduating from Taipei University of Education, she moved abroad to pursue her Master's degree at Boston University, where she is currently working towards her Doctor of Musical Arts degree.
Since 2019, Wang has been teaching orchestra classes at Boston Music Project before the start of the first class of the day. She is passionate about teaching and believes in the transformative power of music education. In addition to teaching, Wang is an active violinist in Boston and has performed with several orchestras, including the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Civic Symphony, Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, and Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2022, she earned the role of Concertmaster for the Boston Civic Symphony under the direction of Maestro Francisco Noya. Wang has also performed solo at Harvard Musical Association, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and Boston Music Project, to name a few. In her free time, Wang enjoys participating in musical community service projects, such as leading worship in her church and performing at polling locations and hospitals.
Emil Altschuler
Violin Faculty
Acclaimed for his virtuosity and expressive depth, violinist Emil Altschuler has been praised by The Boston Globe as “top notch,” while The Strad lauds his “passion and portamento,” and The Whole Note draws comparisons to the legendary Heifetz. His mentor, Erick Friedman, called him “a truly outstanding violinist of his generation.”
Emil earned his Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School, studying with Dorothy DeLay and Naoko Tanaka, and his Master of Music from Yale School of Music under Erick Friedman. He has performed at major venues including Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival, San Francisco’s Helen Von Ammon Emerging Artist Series, and Italy’s Castello di Galeazza. As a soloist, he has appeared with orchestras such as the Binghamton Philharmonic, Aspen Young Artist’s Orchestra, and the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra.
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His recording projects include solo albums featuring works by Paganini, Wieniawski, Ravel, Poulenc, Bartók, and others, as well as collaborative recordings such as Diablo y Tango. He also recorded selections from The ABCs of Violin method series by Janice Tucker Rhoda.
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A devoted educator, Emil has served on the faculties of the New England Conservatory’s Festival Youth Orchestra, Northeastern University, and Tufts University Community Music Program, and has coached for the Tufts Youth Philharmonic. He currently teaches chamber music through NEC’s Expanded Education program.
In 2019, he founded the Altschuler Summer Music Institute (ASMI) in Rimini, Italy, a program focused on high-level musical training through private lessons, chamber music, and orchestral performance. The ASMI faculty includes artists from top conservatories worldwide, and the ASMI Chamber Orchestra has performed at venues such as Teatro Galliand La Rocca di Caterina Sforza.
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Emil also performs extensively with the ASMI Chamber Ensemble, appearing in concert series across the U.S. and frequently collaborating with faculty and students on larger works. He lives in Natick, Massachusetts, where he maintains a private studio and continues to perform and teach.
Chi Wei Lo
Piano Faculty
“Nervy, cerebral, passionate, mysterious and sensual…Flowing, aloft, and at the same time, grounded” (BMInt)
Pianist and improviser Chi-Wei Lo can well and truly smash the fourth wall. Having earned his Bachelor and Masters Degrees from the Juilliard School, Lo enjoys interdisciplinary collaboration and is expanding his creativity through different forms of art. Lo is currently a doctoral candidate at the New England Conservatory, majoring in contemporary piano improvisation, where he was featured as a representation of virtuosity in 2019.
In 2018, Mr. Lo was commissioned by the Kaohsiung Rapid Transit Corporation (KRTC) to celebrate its 10 years anniversary, which led to his new album and the printing of Lo’s limited edition metrocard.
Past major collaborations include: a concert tour in China with improvisation band Pink Noise; Beethoven’s “Emperor” concerto with North American Medical Orchestra; a recital at TECO (Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York) with New Asia Chamber Society; a show at Tufts University with the band Psychopomp, and improvising on the silent film, Metropolis (1927). Last year, along with pianist Xiaopei Xu, Lo was featured at the Harvard Musical Association and the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra.
Lo has given several solo tours, including The Dance of the Seven Deadly Sins, Declaration of Aesthetics, Twelve Over Twelve, which includes several benefit concerts in accord with his belief that “musicians should give back to their communities.” Lo currently is on the teaching faculty of the New England Conservatory, the South Shore Piano School and the Village Youth Conservatory, and writes for the BMInt.
Dr. Xiaopei Xu
Piano, Music Theory Faculty
“A sensitive pianist and talented artist.” — Martha Argerich
Hailed by The Boston Globe as “a world-class pianist” and the BMInt as “spellbinding and expressive”, Xiaopei Xu has been featured as a soloist on three continents, striving for creativity in her artistic expression. She made her Boston Symphony Hall debut in 2018, performing Chopin Piano Concerto No.1 with Maestro Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops.
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Xu has received international acclaim with top prizes at the New York International Piano Competition, Oberlin International Piano Competition, Tureck International Bach Competition, Richmond Piano Competition and the Washington D.C. International Young Artist Competition. She has been invited to major festivals including Pianofest in the Hamptons, PianoTexas, Banff Music Centre, Sarasota Music Festival, Russia Young Artist Festival, and the Walnut Hill Music Festival. Xu has also been invited regularly to give masterclasses and lectures in Nanjing, Beijing, Qingdao, amongst other cities in China. Xu has been exclusively interviewed by Shanghai Morning Post, Qilu Evening news, Music Weekly, Yanzhao Metropolis Daily, and Shanxi Evening News. Her concerts have been reported by The Boston Globe, Sing Tao Daily, Boston Musical Intelligencer, Lancaster New Era, and more.
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Xu’s recent performances have been presented by the Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Harvard Musical Association, Foundation for the Chinese Performing Arts, The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, German Society of Pennsylvania, Lancaster International Piano Festival, Chinese American Museum(LA), Ukraine Forward, College Music Society, to name a few.
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In addition to her musical endeavors, Xu enjoys integrating her love for visual arts with music, creating multidisciplinary collaborations as a way to enhance the artistic experience. A painter herself, she has been commissioned for several installations and collaborative projects. Xu created a combined art and concert experience at the Germany Society of Pennsylvania, as well as an exhibition of her artwork in “The Seven Deadly Sins,” an interdisciplinary concert at the New England Conservatory. Collections of her drawings have been published by the Clara Haskil Competition’s Jeune Critique.
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Xu holds her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University, Master’s degree from Yale University and Bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. Her principal teachers include Hung-Kuan Chen, Xun Pan, Meng-Chieh Liu, and Boaz Sharon. She has also worked with influential musicians such as Claude Frank, Richard Goode, and Paul Badura-Skoda.
Lisa Yasui
Cello Faculty
Lisa Yasui is a Boston-based cellist, performing and teaching classical music regularly in the area. She graduated from Boston University in 2016 with a Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance, with a minor in Arts Administration. During her undergraduate studies, Lisa taught at public and private institutions, teaching both group and individual lessons. That experience made her realize that she deeply enjoys sharing the joy of music and wants to continue teaching, no matter what career path she chose.
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As a teacher, she hopes to help students discover a passion for music through a well-rounded curriculum that balances a strong emphasis on technical proficiency through the Suzuki method, while simultaneously developing a student’s own individual sense of creativity through explorations of composition and non-classical types of music. She strives to build a creative and safe environment for each student to learn and grow, and to eventually create their own unique sound.
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Lisa is currently an active teacher and performer throughout the Boston area. In her spare time, she loves crocheting and snuggling with her puppy.
Nicholas Tsang
Cello Faculty
Originally from Hong Kong, Nicholas Tsang is an active cellist and educator based in the United States. He is currently pursuing a Graduate Diploma in Cello Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with Lluis Claret, and is a recipient of the Dean’s Merit Scholarship. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) under Alan Rafferty, supported by multiple merit scholarships.
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Nicholas began his musical training with Maestro Ho Man Choi in the Pro Arte Orchestra of Hong Kong, where he studied for over a decade and served as Principal Cellist, later performing under Maestro Jahja Ling. He earned the FTCL Diploma in Cello Recital at age 14 and made his concerto debut in the U.S. with the CCM Orchestra, and later in Hong Kong with the Maestro Arts Youth Orchestra under Leung Kin Fung.
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He has worked closely with renowned cellists including Laurence Lesser, Guy Fishman, Joel Krosnick, Robert deMaine, and Natasha Brofsky, and has participated in masterclasses with Hans Jensen, Amit Peled, and Sung-Won Yang, among others. His interest in historical performance has led to collaborations in the Pratt Residency series at NEC and studies in baroque cello.
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A passionate chamber musician, Nicholas has performed at major festivals including the Heifetz International Music Institute, Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, and the Great Wall International Music Academy. He was awarded 1st Prize in the George Gershwin International Competition (Chamber Division) and has performed repertoire ranging from Schubert’s Death and the Maiden to contemporary premieres.
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Nicholas has been a prizewinner in the Hellam Young Artist Competition, a semi-finalist in the Koussevitzky International Cello Competition, and recipient of the Nancy F. Walker Scholarship and the Specht Scholarship. He also received 1st Prize at the 2nd Hong Kong International Music Festival (Youth Division) and has performed on TVB Hong Kong.
In addition to his performance career, Nicholas is a dedicated educator, having served as a teaching assistant at NEC and taught privately in both the U.S. and Hong Kong. He works with students of all levels, emphasizing strong technical foundations, expressive playing, and artistic independence.
