2025 / 2026 · Jury

American pianist Kay Zavislak enjoys a multi-faceted career as a performer, teacher, adjudicator and clinician. She spent her formative years in Japan and attended the Toho Gakuen High School of Music, one of the most prestigious conservatories in Japan, before moving to the United States and earning Bachelor of Music, Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Michigan.

She has given solo recitals and chamber concerts regionally and nationally, and performed publicly in Australia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan and Poland. With flutist Leonard Garrison and saxophonist Bill Perconti she has recorded two commercial CDs for Centaur Records.

In 2001 she was named a winner of the concerto competition at the University of Michigan. Her other awards include first prize in the Frances Walton Competition, second prize in the Richardson Young Artist Award Competition, second prize in the All-Tohoku Piano Competition in Japan, and third prize in the William Byrd International Concerto Competition.

Many of her university and pre-college students have taken top prizes at regional festivals and competitions including Music Fest Northwest in Spokane, the Sonata-Sonatina Festival in Ellensburg, the Northern Idaho Piano Festival, the Spokane Piano Competition, and Music Teachers National Association state and regional competitions.

Before joining her family in Bellingham in 2013 she was Assistant Professor of Piano and Keyboard Area Coordinator at the University of Idaho Lionel Hampton School of Music, and has also taught at Schoolcraft College, Albion College and the University of Michigan. She studied piano with Arthur Greene, Logan Skelton, Yoshie Kora and Miyoko Hamamoto, harpsichord with Edward Parmentier and organ with Marilyn Mason.

Dr. Xin Chang is a Chinese-born pianist with a career as a collaborative pianist, chamber musician and educator across North America and Asia. Born into a musical family — her father an orchestra conductor, her mother a harpist, both grandparents ballet dancers — she was immersed in the performing arts from an early age.

She is based in Seattle, where she maintains a thriving private piano studio and collaborates regularly with leading string, woodwind and voice studios, including the Zadinsky Violin Studio, Yuan Fang Violin Studio, Yuuki Hashimori Violin Studio, Rose Johnson Flute Studio and Nayoung Ham Flute Studio. She also serves as piano specialist for the Collaborative Musicians' Project Youth Ensemble Program.

In 2024 and 2025 she served as Regional Director of the Orbifold Global Music Competition in the Seattle area, organising performance opportunities for young musicians and bringing educational initiatives to the local community.

She has held positions as full-time collaborative pianist at the University of Wyoming and as accompanist for the Seattle Bach Choir in the 2021–2022 season, and has been on the faculty of the Asia Pacific Saxophone Academy, the Texas Low Brass Academy, the International Violin Festival and Competition in Singapore, and the Key to Change Solo String Festival. Her summer festival experience includes Interlochen, SongFest, Brevard, Aspen, the Banff Centre and the Castleman Quartet Program.

She has performed with violinists Charles Castleman and Yuan Fang, clarinetist Xiaobin Lu, baritone David Small, tubaist Charles Villarrubia and saxophonist Toshikazu Nagase, and recorded with double bassist DaXun Zhang. As a soloist she was awarded Second Prize at the Colorado International Piano Competition and has appeared with the Jiangsu Orchestra of China.

A certified Royal Conservatory of Music piano teacher, she holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Music from the Eastman School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from Renmin University of China. Her principal teachers include Colette Valentine, Anne Epperson, Jean Barr and Fang Zhang.

Mr. Yuan Fang has given concerts and master classes at Carnegie Hall in New York, Benaroya Hall in Seattle, the Sydney Opera House, the Mozarteum in Graz, the Orpheum Theatre in Canada, the University of Queensland, Ewha Womans University in South Korea, Suntory Hall in Japan, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Forbidden City Concert Hall and Beijing Concert Hall in Beijing.

He has served as a jury member for the China National Violin and Piano Competition, the Thomas and Evon Cooper International Violin Competition, the Shlomo Mintz International Violin Competition, the Singapore International Music Competition, the Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges International Violin Competition, and the Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside.

He studied at the Central Conservatory of Music and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, under Professor Zhao Weijian and Professor Taras Gabora.

Yang Lu holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in cello performance from the University of Washington, a master's degree from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor's degree from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Her principal teachers include Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir, Mingqing Yu, Eric Gaenslen and David Premo.

As a teacher she has built a studio spanning beginners to advanced players, and her students have won the David Popper International Cello Competition for Young Cellists, the 23rd Heran Violoncello Competition, the Liezen International Cello Competition, the Russian Chamber Music Competition, the Performing Arts Festival of the Eastside and the Bach Festival, with admissions to the Juilliard School, the New England Conservatory and the University of Pennsylvania.

She has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Music Center at Strathmore, the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Tokyo Metropolitan Center, the Hong Kong Cultural Centre and Graz Opera, and has played with the Seattle Philharmonic, Seattle Collaborative Orchestra, Bellevue Ballet Orchestra and Ensign Symphony Orchestra.

Since moving to Seattle in 2013 she has devoted herself to musical outreach, performing on KING 5 television, taking part in Music Under the Stars for the Seattle Chamber Society, and mentoring at Seattle Music Partners to help remove racial and economic barriers to music education.

Professor Elizabeth Buck is Professor of Flute at Arizona State University and joined the 2025/2026 Wind Division panel.

Chen Wang adjudicated the 2024/2025 WMEA All-State and Washington State Solo & Ensemble events, and is a former principal saxophonist of the Seattle Wind Symphony.