Tim McFarland, a former student of Russell Sherman, performs frequently in the Boston area as a recitalist, soloist with orchestra, and as chamber music collaborator. He has premiered works by Robert Ceeley, Peter Lieberson, David Patterson, and Daniel Pinkham. Mr. McFarland is a Senior Lecturer of Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and serves as the Music Director of the Belmont Symphony Orchestra. He is a faculty member and former director of the New School of Music and is also an Affiliate Artist at MIT.

Chia Ying Lee

Chia Ying Lee is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Researcher by day and a pianist by night. She began the piano at age 7 in Singapore, and moved to the US to study music and Mathematics at the University of Michigan, while enrolled in the Piano Performance program. During her Doctorate studies in Applied Mathematics at Brown University, she continued piano lessons and performed in solo recitals. Following a decade-long hiatus during which she pursued her second passion of figure skating, Chia recently returned to her first love. 

Ramona Leeman

After graduating from Barnard College with a BS in Biochemistry, Ramona continued studying at the Columbia University Dental School. Upon graduating with a DDS degree, she bought and developed a private dental practice in Boston She also taught at Tufts Dental School as a Clinical Associate Professor of Dentistry. Her love of the piano comes from a childhood filled with music and piano lessons. Her busy life includes raising four children, studying voice, flute, music theory and composition as well as the piano. She has been involved in piano groups, performance classes and ensembles for many years.

Robert Berkowitz

Robert is a psychiatrist during the day and pianist at night.  He was the winner of the 2016 San Diego International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. Robert was the featured soloist and performed the first Mendelssohn Concerto in San Diego. He also brought back the music of Hungarian Jewish composer Lajos Delej, playing several of his competitions in local recitals. The Boston Globe published the story of Dr. Robert Berkowitz and his quest to uncover details of Delej’s short life and his music.

Carl DiCasoli

Carl has a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in Statistics, with a career both at Fortune 500 and start-up companies.  Currently he works as a senior director in Biometrics for a pharmaceutical company. Carl has performed in many solo and chamber recitals. He has been a finalist in piano competitions worldwide, as well as winning or taking second prize, including in Cremona/Italy, Warsaw/Poland, Paris/France -- and in the U.S. in Boston, New York, San Diego, Oberlin, Atlanta and Fort Worth. His orchestral collaborations include the Rachmaninoff No. 3 concerto in New Mexico.

Kevin Schwarz 

Kevin works as a Software Engineer for Disney and resides in West Hartford, Connecticut. He has spent numerous hours at the piano since the age of five, studying under the tutelage of Veda Zuponcic and James Giles. Kevin has played with multiple orchestras and chamber groups, including soloing with his hometown West Hartford Symphony Orchestra, and also plays chamber music. He would like to thank his wife, Emily, for all her support, and his two year old son, Theo, for reminding him why music-making is so magical.

Robert Finley 

Robert studied piano at Trinity College of Music in London (ARCM diploma). He was a finalist in the Chopin, WIPAC, Colorado and Oberlin competitions. He has played recitals in France, England, Germany, Israel, Poland, Hungary and Argentina. He is the President of the Boston Piano Amateurs Association. He played the Liszt 1st Concerto with the Boston Civic Symphony, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Brockton Symphony, and a movement of the Rachmaninoff 1st Concerto with the Fort Worth Symphony.  He was a semifinalist in the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition for Outstanding Amateurs. In October 2023 he gave a recital at Villa Wahnfried in Bayreuth, Germany on Richard Wagner's Piano.