ACCLAIMED CELLISTS BRANNON CHO &
SYDNEY LEE JOIN DISTINGUISHED ARTIST
HANS JØRGEN JENSEN AT THE MERCER UNIV. MCDUFFIE CENTER FOR STRINGS

MCDUFFIE CENTER DISTINGUISHED ARTIST
SIHAO HE JOINS TIANJIN JUILLIARD SCHOOL & SHANGHAI QUARTET

February 13, 2024—Distinguished artist Hans Jørgen Jensen will be accompanied by two new cello professors at the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings in Mercer University’s School of Music. Galvin Cello Quartet founder Sydney Lee will begin teaching for the 2024-25 season and, beginning in 2025-26, First Prize winner of the sixth International Paulo Cello Competition Brannon Cho will join as distinguished artist and cello professor.

Lee and Cho will be working with the McDuffie Center as internationally acclaimed cellist Sihao He—distinguished artist and cello professor at the McDuffie Center—will be joining the Tianjin Juilliard School and the famed Shanghai Quartet beginning with the upcoming 2024-25 season. In addition to his work with the Shanghai Quartet, He hopes to build a relationship between the McDuffie Center and Tianjin Juilliard, which will help cultivate the next generation of young artists who will come to the McDuffie Center and beyond.

Jensen, also professor of cello at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and a faculty member of the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, notes, “I want to congratulate Sihao He on becoming the new cellist of the wonderful Shanghai Quartet and the new cello teacher at the Tianjin Juilliard School. I was very excited when I was invited back to the McDuffie Center for Strings in 2023 to teach together with Sihao He, and I am now equally excited to teach alongside Brannon Cho and Sydney Lee, both terrific cellists and wonderful teachers. I look forward to having many opportunities to keep working together with Sihao He in the future.”

“Teaching at the McDuffie Center for Strings, my alma mater, has been a profound honor,” says He. “As a young cellist, I chose the McDuffie Center believing it would mark the beginning of my musical career. During my time there I won the third Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Japan and continued to cultivate my musical journey, now culminating in a new position with the Shanghai Quartet and subsequent appointment at the Tianjin Juilliard School.

“Though I will no longer be there in person, the McDuffie Center will forever be regarded as family. I sincerely look forward to the future collaborations and achievements of McDuffie, Tianjin Juilliard and the Shanghai Quartet, along with the next generation of young musicians at both institutions.”

McDuffie Center for Strings Director Amy Schwartz Moretti adds, “Sihao is one of our highest profile graduates! We continue to be proud of his accomplishments and look forward to this new appointment for him. How meaningful for him to be closer to home while keeping his artistic relationship with us. We see a future where he will be training the next generation of young people who will find their path to the McDuffie Center, just as he did.”

For more information, please contact Joe Cohen or Carla Sacks at Sacks & Co., 212.741.1000.