Nyamsaikhan Odsuren is from Ulaanbaa- tar, Mongolia, and is currently pursuing a D.M.A. in Orchestral Conducting at the Uni- versity of South Carolina under Dr. Donald Portnoy. A prize winner from the National Youth String Competition, he represented his country at international music festivals in Tur- key, China and Russia.

Susan Zhang received her B.M. degree from USC, and her M.M. in Piano Performance and Literature at Eastman School of Music. She is currently pursuing a USC Graduate Certificate in Piano Performance at USC with Marina Lomazov and Joseph Rack- ers. She was a solo performer in last year’s YAC Series, and will perform in our 2016 Epiphany Concert Series.

Michael Lu is a student of Walter Cuttino, pursuing a B.M. in Vocal Performance in his senior year at the University of South Carolina. The is the recipient of a Colum- bia Music Clubs Scholarship and thePalmetto Mastersingers Vocal Scholarship. He has appeared as Gaston in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” and Pistol in “At the Boar’s Head.” He will perform in the upcoming 2015-16 sea- son of opera at USC. After completing his edu- cation Michael plans to pursue a career in opera.

Claudio Olivera received his Pianist Certificate from National Conservatorium of Music in Caracas, Venezuela, his country of birth. He continued his education in Wittenberg, Germany, and came to the USA in 2009 to work on a Graduate Performing Artist Certifi- cate with Dr. Marina Lomazov at USC. He is now working on his doctorate with Dr. Loma

Nicholas Luby studies piano with Marina Lomazov as a Graduate Assistant in the Perfor- mance Certificate program at the University of South Carolina. He holds an M.M. in Piano Performance from the University of Michigan as a student of Arthur Greene and a B.A. with honors in Music and a double major in Philoso- phy from Wesleyan University.

At Wesleyan Luby won the Elizabeth Verveer Tishler Piano Competition and the Concerto Competition in 2009. He has also been First Prize winner in the Loren Withers Piano Competition in Durham, NC, and the Old Dominion Classical Piano Competition in Norfolk, VA.

He has studied and performed at the Sewane Summer Music Festival and the Eastern Music Festival, as well as numerous others in the United States and abroad.