Oboist Virginia (Wan-Ying) Chang Chien was born in Taiwan. She is a concert oboist, chamber musician as well as orchestra performer. She started piano studies at six years old and oboe studies at 12 years old. After studying at Fu-Jen Catholic University, Virginia discovered her passion for oboe performance. She continued her music development in New York with Maestro Humbert Lucarelli, American's leading oboe recitalist. She studied Baroque music, oboe concertos and orchestral excerpts during her graduate study. She received a Master’s of Music Performance Degree from Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College (City University of New York). She performs frequently in New York at venues that includes Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher Hall of Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Bohemian National Hall, Elebash Recital Hall of Graduate Center, Tills Center for performing art, Whitehead Hall and LeFrak Concert Hall, and UN International School. A winner of Eleazar de Carvalho Festival concerto competition, she has toured throughout the United States, Canada, Taiwan, the Czech Republic, and Brazil. In 2010, she was invited as guest soloist in Eleazar de Carvalho Festival in Brazil. In 2011, she received a full scholarship to the Domaine Forget Music Festival in Quebec, Canada. In 2012, she joined UN Symphony Orchestra which amplifies the United Nations’ ideals and promotes peace, friendship and cooperation among nations through music. In 2013, she was Musician-In-Residence at the Banff Centre, a leader in the development and promotion of creative work in the performing arts. During her residency, she gave a lecture about “Performance in Romantic Period” and a recital. In 2015, she was invited as guest artist in the 7th International Youth Culture and Art festival and performed in awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall. She performed Marcello Oboe Concerto with New York Eastern Chamber Orchestra in NY and has premiered new music oboe solos at concerts organized by New York Composers Circle. EUGENE MARLOW, Ph.D., MBA is a composer/arranger, CD/DVD producer, presenter, performer, author/journalist, and educator. He has written over 250+ classical and jazz compositions for solo instruments, chamber groups, and jazz big band. His indie label, MEII Enterprises, has released 22 CDs of his compositions and arrangements, plus performances of other musicians. Three of his charts for big band appear on three Grammy-nominated albums. Marlow is founder/leader/pianist of The Heritage Ensemble, a quintet that performs his original compositions and arrangements of Hebraic melodies in various jazz, Afro-Caribbean, Brazilian, and classical styles. The New York City Jazz Record has described The Heritage Ensemble as “A cross-cultural collaboration that spins and grooves.” Marlow received a 2010 “Meet the Composer” grant for his work with The Heritage Ensemble. The Ensemble has released eight albums, including Obrigado Brasil (September 2016) and A Not So Silent Night (December 2016). Marlow is senior curator of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives concert series (now in its 25th season) at Baruch College (City University of New York) where he teaches courses in media and culture. Author of 11 books and 400+ articles, he has completed a draft of a book on jazz in China (due in fall 2017) and is now working on the video documentary version. He is a recipient of the 2016 John Culkin Award for his DVD “Zikkaron/Kristallnacht: A Family Story.“ MEII Enterprises is a music and media company specializing in jazz, Latin jazz, Brazilian, and classical music. Its current catalogue of 23 albums can be found at www.cdbaby.com/artist/eugenemarlow and www.cdbaby.com/artist/nada4. The company also produces and distributes documentary DVDs, including “Shakerism: The First Two Hundred Years,” (re-released in 2010) and “Zikkaron/Kristallnacht: A Family Story” (2015). Currently, the company is editing “Jazz in the Middle Kingdom: From Dance Hall Music to Individual Freedom of Expression” for release in 2018.