Aletheia Piano trio

Comprised of pianist Fei-Fei, violinist Francesca dePasquale, and cellist Juliette Herlin, the Aletheia Piano Trio is quickly rising to acclaim for its “dazzling energy and expressivity” (Reading Eagle) and musical integrity. Praised as an “outstanding ensemble” with “confidence and understanding of musicians beyond their years” (Palm Beach Daily News), the trio was formed in 2013 at the Juilliard School and quickly gave debut performances at the Rose Studio and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center in New York and the Terrace Theater at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. 

Highlights of recent performances include debut appearances for the Dame Myra Hess Series (Chicago, IL), Shenson Chamber Music Concerts (Washington, D.C.), PLAY the Classics at Bethel Woods (Bethel, NY), Friends of Chamber Music (Reading, PA), Macon Concert Association at Wesleyan College (Macon, GA), Concerts in the Barn (Quilcene, WA), Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach (Palm Beach, FL), Saint Vincent College Concert Series (Latrobe, PA), Shandelee Music Festival (Livingston Manor, NY), and the Busan Maru International Music Festival (Busan, Korea), which included Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Gustav Mahler Orchestra and conductor Wilson Ng. Additionally, the trio has toured China in 2018 and 2019, performing at Poly Theatres throughout the country. Recent media highlights include a live recital broadcast for WFMT (Chicago) as well as several broadcasts on Performance Today of Haydn Trio No. 39 in G major, recorded live in performance for the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach. Additionally, the trio has recently released two video recordings of the Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel piano trio and Schumann Phantasiestücke Op. 88, both available on YouTube.

Members of the trio bring together a diverse background of chamber music experience and culture, collaborating with artists such as the Brentano String Quartet, Gérard Caussé, Martin Chalifour, Paul Coletti, Glenn Dicterow, Jennifer Frautschi, Kim Kashkashian, Alexander Kerr, Ralph Kirshbaum, Nicholas Kitchen, Ronald Leonard, Robert Levin, Anne-Marie McDermott, Robert McDuffie, and Peter Takács. Additionally, they have performed as featured artists for the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Bravo! Vail Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival, Manhattan Chamber Players, Marinus Ensemble, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Music@Menlo, Music in the Vineyards, Philadelphia Orchestra Chamber Music Series, Colburn Chamber Music Society, and Yellow Barn.  

They have coached with artists such as David Finckel, Joseph Kalichstein, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Ida Kavafian, Merry Peckham, and Vivian Weilerstein. In addition to their studies at Juilliard, the trio has attended the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, performing as an ensemble and with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Roger Tapping, and Donald Weilerstein.

The ensemble is named for Aletheia, the Greek concept of sincerity, which celebrates their approach to realizing musical works, as well as their connection to each other and their audiences.

FEI-FEi, piano

Praised for her “bountiful gifts and passionate immersion into the music she touches” (The Plain Dealer), pianist Fei-Fei is a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and a top finalist at the 14th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.  She continues to build a reputation for her poetic interpretations, charming audiences with her “passion, piquancy and tenderness” and “winning stage presence” (Dallas Morning News), both in the US and internationally, including her native China.

Fei-Fei’s concert tours have taken her across the globe in concerto performances, recitals and chamber music collaborations alike.  Her 2022-23 season highlights include solo and chamber recitals in eleven states across the United States; concerto highlights include performances of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at Lincoln Center with the Pegasus Symphony, a special Chinese New Year concert with California’s Pacific Symphony, appearances with the Syracuse Symphony, Northeastern Pennsylvania Philharmonic, as well as performances of lesser-represented concerto repertoire by Leroy Anderson, Florence Price, Clara Schumann, and Xiaogang Ye, with Amarillo Symphony, Bakersfield Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Flint Symphony, and Shenzhen Symphony orchestras. 

Deeply committed to sharing her joy for music and connecting with communities, Fei-Fei also engages students and community audiences through frequent school and outreach concerts and masterclasses.  Activities from her current season include a special residency with her Aletheia Piano Trio at the Oberlin Conservatory, piano masterclasses at Montclair State University, Idaho State University, and Bakersfield College. 

Fei-Fei was showcased prominently as a Cliburn finalist in the documentary film, Virtuosity, about the 2013 Cliburn Competition, which premiered on PBS in August 2015, and she has also been featured numerous times on New York’s WQXR radio.

Fei-Fei was also showcased prominently in the documentary film about the Cliburn Competition, Virtuosity, which premiered on PBS in 2015. Born in Shenzhen, Fei-Fei began piano lessons at the age of 5.  She is a graduate of The Juilliard School where she studied with Dr. Yoheved Kaplinsky, and is currently pursing Doctoral of Musical Arts degree with pianist Yefim Bronfman at Manhattan School of Music.  Fei-Fei is also a member of the piano faculty at John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University and teaching associate of pianist Yefim Bronfman at Manhattan School of Music beginning in Fall 2023.

FRANCESCA DEPASQUALE, violin

Described by critics as “scintillating” and celebrated for her “rich, expressive playing”(MusicalAmerica), violinistFrancesca dePasquale is the First Prize winner of the 2010 Irving M. Klein International String Competition and recipient of the prestigious 2014-2016 career grant from the Leonore Annenberg Fellowship Fund for the Performing and Visual Arts. Earning her the 2015 Classical Recording Foundation Young Artist Award, her self-titled debut album released in March of 2016 encompasses works that scope from Bach to a new commission from composer Paola Prestini for violin and electronics. For the album and accompanying recital tour, Francesca was praised for “sincerity, intensity” and “individual voice” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “immaculate and discreet phrasing” (Strad Magazine). Additionally, she was featured in Stringsmagazine and on SiriusXM, WNYC, WQXR, WRTI (Philadelphia), and WFMT (Chicago).   

2023-2024 season highlights include appearances with Chameleon Arts Ensemble and the Aletheia Piano Trio, the world premiere of Kenji Bunch’s Sketches for Mr. South presented by The Juilliard School, and a performance of the Samuel Adams Chamber Concerto with conductor Timothy Weiss and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. Recent performance highlights include recitals presented by Oberlin Conservatory, the Juilliard School, and Boston Conservatory featuring On the Blue Shore of Silence, a multimedia suite for violin, piano, electronics, and visual art by composers Gity Razaz, Gloria Justen, Sayo Kosugi, and artist Johanna Andruchovici (commissioned by Francesca dePasquale and co-commissioned by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society), a performance of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto with the Oberlin Orchestra, and the release of Gity Razaz’s Duo for Violin and Piano on her debut album for BIS records, recorded with pianist Scott Cuellar.

Since her debut as soloist at age 9 touring Spain with the Main Line Chamber Orchestra, Francesca has appeared as soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Gustav Mahler Orchestra, the Bach Festival of Philadelphia, Colburn Orchestra, Galesburg Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, and Santa Cruz Symphony. As recitalist, she has collaborated with artists Meng-Chieh Liu, Natalie Zhu, John Root, and Reiko Uchida on series such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, National Sawdust, Rutgers University, the University of Pennsylvania, California Music Center, and the Perlman Music Program.

An active chamber musician, Francesca has performed with renowned artists Adrian Brendel, Paul Coletti, Thomas Cooley, Jennifer Frautschi, Kim Kashkashian, Nicholas Kitchen, Ronald Leonard, Robert Levin, Pavel Nersessian, Merry Peckham, Itzhak Perlman, Jeffrey Sykes, Roger Tapping, Richard Todd, Donald Weilerstein, and Helena Winkelman. Francesca is a member of the artist roster for Manhattan Chamber Players and Noree Chamber soloists, and performs frequently with Marinus Ensemble and Chameleon Arts Ensemble. Additionally, she has performed for the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove, Friends of Chamber Music (Reading, PA), An Appalachian Summer Festival’s Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, Chesapeake Chamber Music, Heifetz International Music Institute, Music at Bunker Hill, 23Arts Initiative, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Music in the Vineyards, Olympic Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Colburn Chamber Music Society, and the Perlman Music Program. Additionally, she has collaborated with dancers Isabella Boylston and James Whiteside for the Fall for Dance Festival alongside composer Stefan Levin, as well as performed with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Brooklyn based orchestral collective The Knights, and A Far Cry.

Francesca is a member of the violin faculty at Oberlin Conservatory of Music as well as the Juilliard School Pre-College Program. Additionally, she is a member of the violin faculty at the Heifetz International Music Institute (where she also serves as Artistic Advisor), recently taught as violin faculty for the Perlman Music Program Israel residency, and was a masterclass artist for the Starling-DeLay Symposium. Previously, Francesca served as the Starling Fellow teaching assistant to Itzhak Perlman from 2013-2016 and teaching assistant to Catherine Cho from 2013-2018 at the Juilliard School, as well as Visiting Assistant Professor at Oberlin Conservatory of Music during the Fall of 2018. A graduate of the Juilliard and Colburn Schools, Francesca studied with Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, and Robert Lipsett. Previous teachers include Hirono Oka, Charles Parker, and William dePasquale, with additional mentorship from Norman Carol and Arnold Steinhardt. Francesca performs on a 1968 Sergio Peresson violin. Please visit http://francescadepasquale.com for more information.

juliette herlin, cello

Praised for her “impressive artistry” and “wonderful bowing technique” (San Francisco Classical Voice), French cellist Juliette Herlin has performed throughout the U.S, Europe, Asia, and South America. As a soloist, chamber musician, and recitalist, she has appeared in prestigious venues such as the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Musée du Louvre, as well as the Zhuhai and Chongqin Grand Theaters in China.

2022-23 season highlights include her New York Concerto debut in Merkin Hall, Aletheia Trio recitals presented by Oberlin Conservatory and Dame Myra Heiss Memorial Concerts, Dvorak Cello Concerto in Twin Falls (ID), a String Trio performance for the Fine Arts Chamber Players in Dallas, and the premiere of Julia Adolphe’s duo All in Starlight in Zipper Hall at the Colburn School. Previous seasons highlights included Canadian debut in Toronto with pianist Kevin Ahfat and the North-American premiere of Camille Saint-Saëns’ Third Cello Sonata as part of a recital Music Academy of the West presented.

An avid chamber musician, she has performed with renowned artists Gérard Caussé, Martin Chalifour, Glenn Dicterow, Frans Helmerson, Alex Kerr, Teng Li, Michaela Martin, Anthony Marwood, Roger Tapping, and Donald Weilerstein. Juliette has been invited to series and festivals such as the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, YellowBarn, Shenson Chamber Music Concerts, Shandelee Music Festival, Concerts in the Barn, Sundays Live at LACMA, Dame Myra Heiss Memorial Concerts, Fine Arts Chamber Players, Festival Jeune Talents (France), and the Busan Maru International Music Festival (Korea). As a dedicated advocate for contemporary music, she actively collaborates with prominent composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Jörg Widmann, and has premiered many new works and commissions. Her performances have been featured frequently on NPR’s Performance Today, WFMT, and KUSC as well as numerous times on France Musique, France’s main classical music station. 

Winner of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe String Competition, Juliette is also the recipient of first prizes at the International Vatelot/Rampal Music Competition and the UFAM Competition in Paris, as well as a Beverly Hills National Auditions winner. She has been invited to be guest principal of the Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Chamber Symphony, and Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and was a substitute player with the Los Angeles Philharmomic, Orchestre de l’Opera de Paris, and Les Dissonances. She has also performed with the Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio-France and the Ensemble Inter-Contemporain.  

Juliette is Assistant Professor of Cello at TCU’s School of Music and the co-founder/director of the Texas Chamber Music Institute. Additionally, she has presented masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory, University of Oklahoma, University of Houston’s Moores School of Music, Baylor University, Moravian College (PA), and in Zhuhai and Hangzhou (China).  Admitted at the age of sixteen to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP), Juliette obtained her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees studying with Jérôme Pernoo. She pursued her studies at the Juilliard School with Richard Aaron and received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California under the guidance of Ralph Kirshbaum.