Members

An ardent performer and founder of the Transfiguration Ensemble, violinist Song-A Cho is a winner of the Guderyahn String Competition and a recipient of many scholarship awards including the Edward John Noble Foundation Award from the distinguished Juilliard School. She tours extensively in the United States, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. In response to her live broadcast concerto appearances with the Metropolitan Orchestra and the Lake Placid Symphonia, she has been hailed by the media as “…the next prodigy to watch…” Her performance engagements have taken her to many prestigious halls such as Carnegie Hall, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center Washington D.C. and the Staller Center for the Arts. She is also a highly sought out orchestral performer and has held Concertmistress positions at the Tanglewood Music Center, New York String Orchestra, Bach Aria Festival Orchestra, and the Juilliard Orchestra. She has recently been appointed Concertmistress for the Peconic Chamber Orchestra and a member of New Haven Symphony Orchestra. Song-A has worked with such conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Sir Samuel Rattle, Bernard Haitink, Leon Fleicher, and Robert Spano. Her principal teachers include Joyce Robbins, Joel Smirnoff, Almita and Roland Vamos, and Lewis Kaplan. A dedicated educator, Song-A maintains full private teaching studio in Selden where she lives with her husband and four children.

Diverse in the field, Johanna Kosak is an active soloist, chamber musician, presenter, and pedagogue. Her extensive educational background encompasses the fields of piano performance, piano pedagogy, and music education. She is also nationally certified through the Music Teachers National Association in the field of piano (NCTM) and is a Carnegie Hall-Royal Conservatory recognized Founding Teacher of The Music Development Program. She was greatly influenced by her mentor and teacher Dr. Kenneth Drake, and was also invited to perform in master classes with artists such as Jon Kimura Parker, David Golub, and William Black. Currently, Mrs. Kosak is an assistant professor at Suffolk Community College. Students of Mrs. Kosak’s successful piano studio have been winners of many competitions, and have been accepted to several college and pre-college piano programs including Julliard and The Manhattan School of Music. She has been invited to adjudicate for many important events such as National Piano Guild and World Pianist Invitational Piano Competition. Mrs. Kosak currently volunteers as the president of the Suffolk Piano Teachers Foundation (SPTF) and was the coordinator of its piano competition. In addition to being an extensive solo and collaborative piano performer, she also has much experience in organ, harpsichord, and fortepiano. Mrs. Kosak is a co-founder of the Amicizia Trio which recently recorded its first album, “Prologue.” Three world premiere pieces have been written for her trio: Variations and Soliloquies by Robert Fleisher, What A Ride! by Tim Shirmer, and Trio (2012) by Durwynne Hsieh. These pieces were premiered at Columbia College, Parkland College, and the University of Illinois last spring and scheduled for a first radio broadcast on CJSR Canada’s Avant-Garde & Beyond programs. Recently, Johanna shared the stage with Lang Lang at Tilles Center as a master lead teacher, conducting 100 students for Lang Lang 101 Pianists Concert. She was delighted with such fulfilling experience of working as a program coordinator with so many dedicated students and teachers to inspire students. Mrs. Kosak was winner of the Annual Beethoven Competition, the Dona Tuner Smith Competition, semi-finalist of the Bi-annual International Beethoven Competition, third place in the Korea National Composition Competition, second place in the Korea Monthly Music Magazine Piano Competition, and second place in the Korea National Piano Competition. She was also the recipient of numerous awards including the Thomas J. Smith Scholarship, the William Allen & Lena M. Corder Award, the Louie Frank Piano Award.

Hailing from a musical family (her parents both are professional musicians) Stephanie (Fredenburgh) Iovine was born loving music. She began piano lessons at the age of 4 and violoncello at 10.  French horn and voice lessons would follow.  Ms. Iovine has attended many prestigious summer music festivals, including Kneisel Hall, The Monteux School, and Manhattan School of Music Downeast.  In 1989 she received her B.A. from SUNY at Stony Brook, then returned to once again reside in her hometown of Poughkeepsie, NY and serve as principal ‘cellist of the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, the Hudson Valley Gilbert and Sullivan Society, freelance with several ensembles, and teach private 'cello lessons. Her teachers have included Timothy Eddy, Judith Glyde, Leslie Parnas, Barbara Stein Mallow, and Luis Garcia-Renart.  She is a certified Suzuki ‘cello instructor, receiving her training at both Ithaca College and the University of Hartford. After moving to Long Island in 1994, Ms. Iovine taught ‘cello under the auspices of the North Shore Suzuki School, the Spring Lake Music School and the Port Jefferson Music Academy.  Ms. Iovine currently teaches private ‘cello lessons out of her Lake Ronkonkoma home, is a busy freelancer with various chamber ensembles and orchestras throughout Long Island and serves as principal ‘cellist for the St. Martin’s Symphony Orchestra in Amityville as well as the Hampton Chamber Orchestra.  She has been an active member of the Long Island Performers' Club, concertizing as a soloist and with various sized chamber ensembles, since 2003.  Ms. Iovine can be seen performing actively with the Amicizia Piano Trio, which she helped to co-found in 2011, and the Poetica Ensemble, which she joined in 2012.   Teresa Dybvig, Guest Pianist, played her first full-length solo recital at the age of thirteen, and has performed solo and chamber music across the country as well as in Switzerland and Turkey.  Closer to home, she has performed solo recitals in venues such as the Grace Notes Concert Series in Bellport, Piano Plus in Riverhead, and the Shigeru Concert Series in Huntington, and both solo and chamber music at the Ridotto series in Huntington.  Teresa received her DMA from Yale School of Music and previous degrees from Indiana University; her major teachers were James Tocco, Boris Berman, Edna Golandsky, and Peter Frankl.  She is founder and Director of The Well-Balanced Pianist, which presents programs in New York, Pennsylvania, and Colorado, which integrate wellness and musicianship.  Teresa’s busy teaching schedule takes her to Manhattan, Chicago, and Denver, in addition to her home studio here on Long Island.