Westminster Strings Camp

Violinist Jakob Hofer is an active performer and teacher in the Salt Lake City area. As a founding member of the Rosco String Quartet he has won several competitions including First Place in MTNA’s National Chamber Music Competition and Finalist in the American Prize Competition. He has received instruction from the world’s most renowned chamber musicians including members of the Takacs, Juilliard, Emerson, Tokyo, and Muir String Quartets, and studied many years with the acclaimed chamber musician Violaine Melançon.

Dr. Hofer holds performance degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, as well as a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Utah. He has attended and performed in the Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, the Robert Mann Quartet Institute, the Round Top Music Festival, the Garth Newel Music Festival, and the Juilliard Summer Music Academy.

Jakob Hofer currently performs with the Rosco String Quartet and Sinfonia Salt Lake, Ballet West Orchestra and the Utah Symphony. He is on faculty at Utah Valley University and the Gifted Music School, and maintains a teaching studio of over 40 students. Several of his students have won competitions and have been accepted as performance majors in prestigious university music programs. Jakob Hofer currently resides in Salt Lake City with his wife Laurel Elizabeth Hofer, who is an accomplished vocalist and teacher.

Violinist Lun Jiang has been a guest artist in concerts with Ruth Laredo, Glenn Dicterow, Ian Swenson and members of the Cleveland, Brentano, Pacifica, Miami and Ying String Quartets, to name a few.

Lun has appeared in New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francesco, Detroit, Dallas/Fort Worth, Washington D.C., Beijing, Seoul, Hong Kong, Macau, among others. He has been invited to the Manchester, Ravinia, Great Lake, Round Top, Grand Teton and Martha's Vineyard music festivals, etc. He has recorded for Eroica and Newport classical labels.

Lun is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and Rice University, he is a member of the Utah Symphony and an adjunct assistant professor at University of Utah School of Music and Westminster University.

Cellist Pegsoon Whang has been a member of the Utah Symphony for the last twenty years and is a faculty member at Westminster University where she serves as Director of Strings. Prior to joining the Utah Symphony, she held the principal position in Colorado Music Festival for five seasons. She received a bachelor's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music and a master's degree from the Mannes College of Music, where she finished with the Most Outstanding Graduating Student Award. Her mentors include Robert Marsh, David Soyer and Timothy Eddy. She has appeared as a soloist with Seoul Philharmonic, Jacksonville Symphony, Lawton Philharmonic to name a few. She has appeared in numerous festivals and performed in orchestras and chamber ensembles throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

Miss Whang’s students hold positions in orchestras such as New York Philharmonic and have been winners in international competitions including a laureate in The Tchaikovsky International Competition.

Joyce Yang, a native of Seoul, Korea, received her Bachelor of Music degree from Hanyang University. She moved to the United States in 2010 to pursue her Master's degree at Indiana University, where she studied with Eric Kim and Janos Starker. She is currently Principal Cellist of the Ballet West Orchestra, and is a frequent substitute with the Utah Symphony.

Joyce has participated in numerous international music festivals, including the Music Masters Course in Japan with Alan Gilbert, the Great Mountain Music Festival, Kronberg Academy, Kirishima International Music Festival, and Euro Music Festival in Leipzig. During that time she participated in master classes and lessons with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, David Geringas, Gary Hoffman, and Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.

Principal Bassist of the Utah Symphony since 1988, David Yavornitzky has performed as concerto soloist, participated in U.S. and International tours, and has collaborated with many of the world’s finest conductors and guest artists. David also holds the position of Professor of Double Bass at the University of Utah, where he maintains an active teaching studio. Several of his students have won statewide and national solo double bass competitions. He is a tireless proponent of contemporary music, having had compositions written for him, as well as having given important premieres of contemporary works. As a conductor, David has led many diverse ensembles, including area youth, collegiate and professional orchestras, and he has conducted several Utah premieres of contemporary works with the Nova Chamber Music Series. In 2007 David was appointed to the position of Cover Conductor for the Utah Symphony’s educational programs.

David attended Baldwin-Wallace College and Conservatory, where he earned degrees in both musical performance and in theoretical physics. His double bass teachers include the late Anthony Knight of the Cleveland Orchestra and Edwin Barker, Principal Bass of the Boston Symphony. He is an alumnus of the Tanglewood Music Center Fellowship program and was awarded its C.D. Jackson prize for outstanding achievement.