Irvine Conservatory of Music

🎶✨ Irvine International Competition Award Winners Concert ✨🎶
Eight young soloists took the stage and performed eight concerto movements with the San Diego Chamber Orchestra.
Performing as a soloist with an orchestra is such a rare and valuable experience, and it was incredible to watch these students grow from rehearsals to the final performance.
So proud of their confident, inspiring performances and all the hard work behind them.
Wishing them many more musical milestones ahead 🎻🎹
Huge thanks to our wonderful photographer Gary for capturing these amazing moments! 📸✨

2025 Irvine International Music Competition
The competition is now open! This year features a new Concerto Division for piano and strings, with winners performing alongside a professional orchestra.
We provide young musicians with a rigorous, inspiring platform to showcase their talent and gain valuable performance experience.
For details and application, visit our official website or DM us.

Practice Rental Service 🌟
We are currently providing practice room rental service to students and teachers. We have different rooms with grand and upright pianos, they are suitable for lessons, rehearsals, recording, or practice. The rooms are also good for other instrument players as well. Please message us for details.
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Masterclass with Professor Melvin Chen (Yale University) is happening tomorrow Saturday and Sunday (December 21-22) at Irvine Conservatory of Music! 10 selected top students will perform in the masterclass. We welcome students and parents to join us and watch the class. No registration needed.
Address: 4840 Irvine Blvd Suite. #102, Irvine, CA 92620
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2024 Selected Piano Winners for Carnegie Hall Winners Recital on March 31st, 2025 in New York City🤩
Congratulations!🎊🎉

The full winners list is on the official website:
www.irvinecm.com
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2024 Selected String Winners for Carnegie Hall Winners Recital on March 31st, 2025🤩
Congratulations!🎊🎉

The full winners list is on the official website:
www.irvinecm.com
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2024 Selected Live Competition Winners for Carnegie Hall Winners Recital on March 31st, 2025🤩
Congratulations!🎊🎉

2023 ICM International Music Competition New Jury Member Dr. Yiqun Xu (cellist)

Faculty, The Juilliard School Pre-College and Music Advancement Program

Praised for displaying “great poise and masterful technique” and possessing “an amazing rich tone” by The Day, cellist Yi Qun Xu has performed extensively as a soloist and chamber musician across the United States. A native of China, Yi Qun was mesmerized by the cello soon after her eighth birthday. She came to the U.S. after studying with Yuan Chen and Yi-Bing Chu at China’s Central Conservatory of Music, where she won multiple top prizes in Chinese national cello competitions.

Yi Qun is the recipient of the 2022 Presser Music Award as well as the first-prize winner of the 2021 New York International Artists Cello Competition. As the winner of the 2018 Sanders-Juilliard-Tel Aviv Museum prize, she was presented in recital at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel. She is also the first prize winner at the 58th Eastern Connecticut Symphony Instrumental Competition as well as the 7th International Antonio Janigro Competition in Croatia.

Yi Qun has taught at the Perlman Music Program Winter Residency and Heifetz International Music Institute’s Junior Program faculty. She has also taught cello master classes at University of North Dakota, Bak Middle School for the Arts and S**o River Theatre. She has worked with chamber music groups at Interlochen Arts Center Adult Music Camp, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival’s Adult Chamber Music Institute and ArtsAhimsa Music Festival. She has performed for community engagement events for communities in Los Angeles, Maine, New York City, New Hampshire, Palm Beach, Shelter Island, Tianjin, Beijing, and Shanghai in China. A protégé of Timothy Eddy, Ronald Leonard, Laurence Lesser, and Joel Krosnick, she is a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School, where she was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.

2023 ICM International Music Competition New Jury Member - Professor Christopher Russell

Chair of Music Department, Azusa Pacific University

CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL is Associate Professor and Chair of the Music Performance department at Azusa Pacific University (APU) in Southern California. He is conductor of the APU Symphony Orchestra and leads their graduate instrumental conducting program. The Los Angeles Times called him “a forcefully dramatic conductor with a strong technique”.

Guest conducting appearances include the MasterWorks Festival in Ohio and Indiana, the Orquestra Sinfônica Heliópolis in São Paulo, Brazil, and orchestras in China including the Harbin Symphony, the Shenzhen City Philharmonic, and Zhengzhou’s Yellow River Symphony. He has also conducted at Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House, and famous concert halls in London, Vienna, Prague, Moscow, and Saint Petersburg. He has lectured and judged festivals in other Chinese cities including Beijing, Dalian, Hong Kong, and Qingdao.

A new music advocate, Russell has conducted numerous premieres including the first U.S. performances of works by Tansy Davies, Brett Dean, Jonathan Harvey, Anders Hillborg, Tristan Keuris, Magnus Lindberg, Per Nørgård, Kaija Saariaho, and Éric Tanguy. In 2008, he conducted the U.S. premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Stockholm Diary for string orchestra with the APU Symphony.

2023 ICM International Music Competition New Jury Member Professor Melvin Chen🤩

Deputy Dean and Piano Professor, Yale School of Music

Music Director, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival

A native of Tennessee, Dr. Melvin Chen has received acclaim for solo and chamber performances throughout the United States, Canada, and Asia. Chen’s performances have been featured on radio and television stations around the world, including KBS television and radio in Korea, NHK television in Japan, and NPR in the United States.

As a Professor in the Practice of Piano, Chen teaches a studio of graduate and undergraduate piano students. In addition, he is the Deputy Dean at the Yale School of Music, a role that involves overseeing academic affairs and general institutional management, and also serves as Director of the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival–Yale Summer School of Music, where he also performs. Previously, Chen was Associate Director and on the piano faculty at the Bard College Conservatory of Music and served as Artistic Director of the chamber music program at the Hotchkiss School Summer Portals.

The application for our second international music competition is open now!! 😍😍😍
We have both solo and chamber music category (age 5-24)
The winners from this year’s competition will have the opportunity to perform at Carnegie Hall in 2024!
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Scan the QR code or check our website for more info: www.irvinecm.com
Submit your application online by August 15th, 2023.