A L P E N K A M M E R M U S I K

F E L L O W S

The Fellows program will offer a full scholarship and cover room and board.

AlpenKammerMusik is thrilled to announce our inaugural Fellows Program. Open to pre-professional or young professional musicians, AKM Fellows will have an experience that is both artistically and professionally meaningful. They will act as assistant faculty to festival instructors from top universities and conservatories from around the globe, including Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Eastman School of Music; artists from major ensembles like the Dalí Quartet; and heads of management agencies like Concert Artists Guild. Under the careful guidance of AKM’s staff, Fellows will also act as “shadow” administrators, learning the nuts and bolts of how to operate a music festival that caters to young artists, professionals, and especially talented amateurs. 

Meet the 2025 AKM Fellows

  • Ciara McGuire is a baroque and modern violinist based in Rochester, NY. A passionate performer of music new and old, she has performed concertos with various ensembles at the Eastman School of Music, including Baroque Collegium and Musica Nova. She holds a BM from Oberlin College and Conservatory and is completing her masters’ degree at Eastman, where significant teachers and mentors have included Sibbi Bernhardsson, Yoojin Jang, Marilyn McDonald, and Brad Lubman. Ciara has been the guest concertmaster of the Genesee Valley Orchestra and Chorus since 2023, and has performed with orchestras and in concert series throughout upstate New York. A passionate chamber musician, Ciara is the founding violinist of the Vantage Trio, which will compete in several upcoming national competitions, including Plowman and Fischoff. In June, she will perform Berg’s violin concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” with orchestra, as the winner of the Mostly Modern Festival’s 2024 concerto competition.

  • Constant Clermont is a French violinist who currently studies at CNSM de Paris with Olivier Charlier and privately with Julien Szulman. In his teenage years, he has studied in Cleveland with professor Isabel Trautwein and was associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra.

    During his studies in 2020, he founded Quatuor Mirages which was the youngest resident quartet in Fondation Singer-Polignac. They participated in the Verbier Festival Academy and the Aix en Provence Academy, and studied with teachers such as Mathieu Herzog, Gábor Takács-Nagy and members of the Ebene, Belcea, Berg quartets. At the end of 2023, the quartet stopped its activities and Constant decided to focus more on his own career.

    In recent months, he’s had the great privilege to receive advice from great artists such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Petteri Iivonen, Rainer Küchl. He has performed for Festivals/Organisations such as Festival des Arcs, Les Concerts de Poches, La Chaise Dieu, Festival d’Auvers sur Oise along David Grimal, Augustin Dumay, Michel Dalberto, Emmanuel Rossfelder, Sivan Magen, Meesun Hong Coleman and more. For more than a year now, Constant has taken part in chamber music sessions organized by Musethica and has performed in Barcelona's L'Auditori and in Bonn’s BeethovenFest. He has been invited multiple times to be a substitute with Camerata Bern in places such as Gstaad Festival and will go on tour with them in May 2025.

  • Jinzhao Xu is a pianist celebrated for his playing style, which blends delicacy and gentleness with dynamic intensity. As the winner and laureate of over ten international and national piano competitions, he has performed in numerous countries, including China, Japan, Israel, Italy, the United States, France, and Romania. In the summer of 2013, he made his orchestral debut as a soloist with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra during the 17th Morningside Music Bridge in Canada, where he performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3. Since then, he has collaborated with several esteemed orchestras, including the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in China and the Raanana Sinfonietta in Israel.

    Alongside his solo career, Xu has developed a reputation as an accomplished chamber musician. He has performed with renowned ensembles and soloists, including the Shanghai String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, violinist Weigang Li, and Suona player Zhanzhan Wang. He maintains a long-standing collaboration with cellist Youngeun Lee and following her gold medal win at the 17th Tchaikovsky International Music Competition in 2023, they performed as a duo in prestigious venues such as the Seoul Arts Center in Korea. As the founder of the Oak Piano Trio, Xu and his ensemble won the National First Prize at the 2019 MTNA Chamber Music String Competition in the United States.

    Xu began his doctoral studies at the University of Michigan in the fall of 2024, under the guidance of Professor Christopher Harding. He previously earned a Specialist Degree in Collaborative Piano from the University of Michigan, a Master of Music in Chamber Music from the Tianjin Juilliard School, where he was awarded the prestigious Tianjin Juilliard School Prize as part of the inaugural graduate class of 2022, and a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. His principal teachers include Professors Christopher Harding, Xiaohan Wang, Jon Nakamatsu, Yoshikazu Nagai, Fang Yuan, Xinning Zhang, Martin Katz, and Amy I-Lin Cheng.

  • Youngeun Lee is a cellist celebrated for her heartfelt artistry, warm presence, and for winning the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Known for her captivating performances, she has graced renowned stages such as in Beijing, Seoul, Shanghai, and Jeju, among others. As a dedicated chamber musician, she collaborates with pianists, string players, wind players, vocalists, and traditional Korean instrumentalists, bringing her genuine passion and approachable spirit to every ensemble. 

    Ms. Lee has consistently earned recognition for her talent, including a merit scholarship for her exceptional performance and academic achievements during high school, college, and graduate school. She graduated as the cello valedictorian from Seoul National University, where she also served as principal cellist of the Seoul National University Symphony Orchestra. Since then, she has toured in Korea and abroad, performing with various ensembles and championing contemporary music through her involvement in modern music. 

    Continuing her studies at the Tianjin Juilliard School, Ms. Lee’s warmth and collaborative spirit shone in concerts such as faculty-student side-by-side concert, performing repertoire spanning baroque to contemporary. Meanwhile, she has toured China as a member of the Trio con Fuoco, sharing her musical passion in cities such as Qingdao, Wuhan, Beijing, and Tianjin. Now pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan with a full scholarship and teaching assistantship, she continues to inspire through her solo and chamber performances, as well as her teaching and masterclasses at institutions like the Juilliard School New York and Ewha Womans University.

    Her principal teachers include Sungzhin Peter Lee, Jisuk Shin, Nick Tzavaras, Yeonjin Kim, and Richard Aaron. The pronunciation of her name is: [jʌŋ ɯn], [young-un]. 

For a second round, AKM will ask potential candidates to sit for an interview with faculty and staff. 

We are looking for two inaugural AKM Fellows who clearly demonstrate the following qualities:

  • Exceptionally fine playing at an artistic and technical level

  • Demonstrated interest in the professional musical life, evidenced by entrepreneurial artistic activity

  • An interest in music pedagogy, and willingness to collaborate with musicians of all levels

  • Demonstrated economic need for a high level of assistance to attend this or other programs

Please submit the following to be considered in the first round of applications:

  1. Complete the application on getacceptd.com

  2. Submit a video recording of a complete solo work (concertos are acceptable) AND a video of a performance of a complete chamber work

  3. Evidence of your level of economic need (e.g. a letter from your college/conservatory/university outlining your scholarship offer) 

  4. A statement of interest in the fellowship, stating how the position aligns with your career goals

  5. Contact information for three references