Artists

Violinist Dr. JuRang Kim has made her name as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral leader who has performed throughout America, Europe, and Asia. A native of South Korea, she began violin study under the guidance of her mother at age three. She continued her education at the Music and Dance College of Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia) in 2003. At seventeen years of age, she relocated to the United States, attending the School of Arts and Enterprise in Pomona, California. Within one year, she became a member of the Young Musician Foundation’s Debut Orchestra in Los Angeles, California. Following this, her undergraduate studies were completed at Longy Conservatory of Bard College, and she earned a Master of Music at Syracuse University under the tutelage of Laura Bossert. At Syracuse, JuRang was the inaugural recipient of the Setnor School of Music Performance Award for Strings. She has completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at University of Kentucky, where she studied with Daniel Mason. She formerly held both a teaching assistantship position and an honored violin position in the graduate Niles String Quartet at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Kim currently teaches at Asbury University and Centre College

Dr. Kim has performed in various venues around the world, including Frauenkirche (Dresden, Germany), Harvard University (Cambridge, MA), University of California, Los Angeles, (CA) The Broad Stage (Santa Monica, CA), Ewha Womans University (Seoul, Korea), Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center (Bowling Green, KY), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and Singletary Arts Center for Arts (Lexington, KY).

Over the years she has been coached by Elmar Oliveira, Yura Lee, William Preucil, Terry King, Mira Wang, Jan Vogler, Robert Merfeld, and Nathan Cole. She has held concertmaster positions in various orchestras including University of Kentucky Symphony Orchestra (Lexington, KY), Syracuse University Orchestra (Syracuse, NY), the Lyrica Chamber Orchestra (Lincoln, MA) and Eastern Music Festival Symphony Orchestra (Greensboro, NC).  Currently, JuRang Kim serves as Adjunct Professor of violin at Centre College (Danville, KY), and Adjunct Professor of violin and viola at Asbury University (Wilmore, KY).  

Rebecca Kiekenapp, a native of Faribault, MN, moved to Kentucky in 1995 after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a B.M. in cello performance summa cum laude, where she studied with Tanya Remenikova.  She earned her M.M. from the University of Kentucky where she studied with Benjamin Karp as a member of the Niles String Quartet and performed the Dvorak and Elgar Cello Concertos with the University of Kentucky Symphony as a two-time winner of the  university’s concerto competition.

Ms. Kiekenapp has been a member of the Lexington Philharmonic Orchestra since 1995 and is principal cellist of the Lexington Chamber Orchestra.  As a freelancer, she also performs extensively, including with the West Virginia Symphony, Orchestra Kentucky Bowling Green, and in the newly founded local chamber music series, AmadeusLex.  She has been the cellist for Endless Road Strings since its founding in 2003.  ERS is a string quartet specializing in pop and jazz arrangements, which has performed and recorded with numerous guitarists and won the 2012 winner for Supporting Musicians by the National Thumbpickers Hall of Fame.

Ms. Kiekenapp maintains private studios in Lexington and London, KY.  Her cello is by the late Timothy Jansma of Fremont, MI.

Originally from Eldorado, Illinois, Dr. Madeline Rogers earned a Master of Music from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a student of André Watts, and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from the University of Nebraska with Paul Barnes. Rogers has performed as a soloist and collaborative pianist across the US and abroad, including performances at Churchill College in Cambridge, UK (2019) and Brahmshaus in Baden-Baden, Germany (2022). Rogers previously taught applied and collaborative piano as an Artist-Faculty member at the Omaha Conservatory of Music and is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Piano at Berea College.

Stanley Cheng-Hao Kuo is a Taiwanese violinist based in Lexington, Kentucky. Prior to joining Lexington Philharmonic in 2023, Kuo has been a substitute for the Orchestra Kentucky Bowling Green and Owensboro Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Kuo has performed with Taiwan Philharmonic, Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, Taipei National University of the Arts Orchestra and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan). In addition, Kuo is a strong advocate of new music and a committed chamber music player. He was a member of the newEar Contemporary Chamber Ensemble from 2017 to 2020.

Kuo received both BM and MM degrees in violin performance from the Taipei National University of the Arts. In 2020, Kuo earned his Artist's Certificate at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Currently, Kuo is pursuing a DMA degree at the University of Kentucky. His mentors have included Daniel Mason, Benny Kim, Shien-Ta Su, Tao-Chang Yu, Ting-Yu Wu, Chun Liao and Ting-Hui Chen.

Outside of music, Kuo is a big sports fan, especially in basketball. Living in Lexington and being a part of the Big Blue Nation is a blast for him.

A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Jerram John started his musical training at the piano and began pursuing cello at age 14. Jerram has performed across the U.S. and in Asia as an orchestral musician alongside world-renowned soloists Itzhak Perlman, Lang Lang, and Gil Shaham, and under conductors Marin Alsop and Leon Fleischer. He is a two-time participant of the Brevard Music Festival, receiving the festival’s Outstanding College Student Award in 2014, and in 2019 he was selected as one of Garth Newel Music Center’s Emerging Artist Fellows. Jerram is a passionate music educator and has been an active teaching artist for the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra’s community outreach programs, striving to provide high-quality music education to the next generation. Jerram completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Kentucky with Benjamin Karp and his master’s degree at the Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University with Amit Peled. Most recently, he completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Kentucky, where he was a Teaching Assistant, member of the Niles String Quartet, and winner of the 2021 Concerto Competition.

Turkish violinist Dr. Sila Darville is the Assistant Professor of Violin and Viola at Eastern Kentucky University. She holds degrees from Istanbul Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory, University of Minnesota and Texas Tech University. She received many international awards and honors including Rotary Club International Competition for Young Musicians; Turkish Educational Foundation Outstanding Achievement Award; Berneking Fellowship; Thursday Musical Young Artist Scholarship Competition and Schubert Club Scholarship Competition. Throughout her career Dr. Darville has performed with many Symphonic Orchestras including the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Lubbock, Lubbock Moonlight Musicals and Kentucky Bach Choir as the principal second; the Amarillo Symphony, Midland Symphony, the La Crosse Symphony, Paducah Symphony Orchestra and Louisville Orchestra as section violinist and Amadeus Chamber Orchestra as principal viola. Her recent recordings include chamber music recording of Kentucky composer Joe Levin published under Centaur Records. Dr. Darville has given guest lectures and clinics at Kentucky Music Educators Association, University of Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University, University of Texas at Arlington, Campbell University, Youngstown State University, Bahcesehir University and Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul, Turkey. Dr. Darville teaches at Arkhé String Camp in Izmir, Turkey—a non-profit international summer camp for music camp for string students. Her recent performances include Prokofiev Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No.1 with Eastern Kentucky University Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Ho-Yin Kwok. Dr. Darville is a founding member of the early music group Oracle Ensemble and performs regularly with Lexington based chamber music ensemble Amadeux Lex. She performs on a 2021 Ben Mason violin.

Dr. Luke Darville began his cello studies with the Heritage Area String Program in Danville, KY. He holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Louisville, a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Minnesota, where he attended as a Berneking Fellow. He has had the privilege of studying with Dr. Clyde Beavers, Prof. Paul York, and Prof. Tanya Remenikova. During his studies, he has received awards from the University of Louisville, Macauley Competition and the Schubert Music Club Competition. He has taught cello and string bass at the University of Minnesota Morris and Centre College; cello and piano at Mt. Calvary Music Academy; and has held a private studio for 15 years. Dr. Darville has performed with orchestras throughout Indiana, Minnesota, South Dakota, Texas and Kentucky. He has worked as a Teaching Artist for the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Darville is currently the Director of Orchestras at Western Middle School for the Arts in Louisville, Kentucky. He has recently been a featured recorded artist on the contemporary composer, Joseph Levin’s Spirits of Sunset, Centaur’s Label. He plays on a cello crafted by the American luthier Timothy J. Jansma.