Born and raised in Shenzhen, China, Chenxin Han is a second-year Master’s student in Music Teaching and Learning from the Eastman School of Music. She previously completed a concurrent Bachelor of Education and Bachelor of Music degree at McGill University, where she studied piano as her principal instrument. Throughout her studies, Chenxin has been recognized with numerous academic and merit-based awards, including the Angela C. Kramer Memorial Award in Music, the Sir William Peterson Memorial Scholarship, the Marion Magor Memorial Scholarship, and several additional scholarships for academic excellence and musicianship.
As an educator, Chenxin has taught students from early childhood through secondary school in a variety of settings, such as concert band, general music, guitar, drama, and theatre. She has also worked as a private piano instructor, musicianship tutor, and literacy volunteer, supporting learners through individualized and student-centered instruction. Her teaching philosophy emphasizes creativity, cultural responsiveness, and helping students discover meaningful connections to music. Chenxin’s work is deeply informed by her Chinese cultural heritage and commitment to intercultural music-making. She values creating spaces where diverse musical traditions are recognized, shared, and celebrated.
Chenxin has remained active as a performer and collaborator throughout her academic career. She has served as accompanist, conductor, and sectional leader with community and collegiate choirs, including Monday Night Choir and the McGill Choral Collective. She also held a Choral Scholar position at Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal, where she performed as both singer and pianist. During her time at Eastman, she served as the teaching assistant for Eastman’s Treble Chorus. She currently serves as conductor of the Chinese Music Ensemble of Rochester, where she helps connect performers and audiences with Chinese musical traditions while fostering cultural understanding through performance and community engagement.
Yutong Liu is a first-year PhD student in Music Teaching and Learning at the Eastman School of Music. She earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, China.
She began learning the Guzheng at age seven and comes from a family of Guzheng performers and educators. Since her studies at the conservatory’s affiliated middle school, she has benefited from a program that emphasizes both traditional Chinese music and folk songs, as well as Western music. Later on, a year of study in Hungary further developed her cultural sensitivity and broadened her musical interests.
Now studying in the United States, she continues to deepen her understanding of diverse musical cultures. As a culture bearer, she is eager to learn from and engage with a wide range of musical traditions.
Born and raised in China with Miao ethnic heritage, Kangni Yang is completing her Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology at the Eastman School of Music. Kangni’s musical journey can be traced back to when she could speak. Her grandmother, an avid fan of Chinese Flower Drum Opera, cultivated in her a lifelong love of music by making the young Kangni her devoted music partner. Entering middle school, Kangni joined the Shenzhen Golden Bell Youth Choir, where she received six years of rigorous training in the Western choral tradition and performed as a featured soloist in concerts at the Harris Theater in Chicago and the Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall in New York. Prior to Eastman, Kangni graduated with high distinction from Shenzhen University (China) in 2024 with a Bachelor of Arts in Popular Vocalism. During her undergraduate years, she was the recipient of the university’s highest scholarship in the arts for two consecutive years, as well as its most prestigious institution-wide comprehensive scholarship, and was additionally awarded the Pengcheng Scholarship sponsored by Tencent.
As an ethnomusicologist, a Pop singer, and a member of an ethnic minority community, Kangni is committed to giving back to the communities that have shaped her. Her research interests span ethnic popular music, intangible cultural heritage transmission, and identity formation. Her master’s thesis returns to the Miao community where her father grew up, examining how authenticity in Miao folk song is strategically constructed and negotiated by tourism performers navigating China’s state ICH apparatus and ethnic tourism framework; and how, through this process, community members assert ongoing cultural agency and subjective integrity over their own musical heritage.
