Two doctoral students from the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University have been selected for the prestigious Bowers Program of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS).
Cellist Haddon Kay ’22, ’24 MMus and pianist Chelsea Wang were chosen through a highly competitive audition process from an international pool of 192 individual candidates to participate in the three-year residency program. As 2027-2030 Bowers Program Artists, they will fully integrate into every facet of CMS activities and perform, tour, and teach alongside CMS artists in cities across the US and abroad.
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is one of 11 constituents of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the largest performing arts complex in the world. Its mission is to serve the art form of chamber music at the highest level of artistic excellence.
The Bowers Program has proven to be a springboard for many of today's most successful chamber music artists, and it provides CMS with the next generation of artists. Bienen alumni among the current CMS roster include soprano Tony Arnold ’94 MMus, oboist James Austin Smith ’05, and cellist Sihao He ’18 MMus.
Learn more about Bienen’s newest Bowers Program artists below.
Haddon Kay
Chinese-American cellist Haddon Kay is one of the rising stars of his generation, recognized for his genuine expressivity and musical eloquence. He first gained international recognition as a top prize winner at the 2024 George Enescu International Cello Competition. A dedicated chamber musician, Kay is a founding member of the Galvin Cello Quartet, formed in 2021 at the Bienen School of Music, which won Concert Artists Guild’s 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and the silver medal at the 2021 Fischoff Competition. He has performed at festivals including Music@Menlo, Bravo!Vail, and Rockport Music Festival. Born and raised in the Chicago area, Kay is a graduate of Northwestern and is currently continuing his doctoral studies under the tutelage of Hans Jørgen Jensen.
Chelsea Wang
Chelsea Wang, called an “excellent young pianist,” by The New York Times, has performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Seoul Arts Center, and Taipei National Concert Hall. She has received awards at the Seoul International, Washington International, and New York International piano competitions. Wang made her orchestral debut at age six and has since collaborated with the Fort Worth Symphony, Des Moines Symphony, New Orleans Civic Symphony, and musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. She serves on the faculty of the Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute’s Young Performers Program and is an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect. She holds degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and the Peabody Conservatory and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Northwestern under James Giles.