Love Notes

Taichi Fukumura is the Music Director of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and the newly appointed Assistant Conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. A rising Japanese-American conductor acclaimed for his dynamic stage presence and musical finesse, Fukumura is the Second Prize Winner of The Mahler Competition 2023 and a four-time recipient of the Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award 2021-2024.

Recent and upcoming highlights include guest conducting debuts with the Bamberg Symphony, Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Eugene Symphony, Delaware Symphony, and Colorado Springs Philharmonic. He also returned to the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra as guest conductor after leading the orchestra in over 110 concerts as Assistant Conductor appointed by Music Director Robert Spano.

Other notable appearances include guest conducting members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in their Community Chamber Concert series, leading Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat. He made his international debut with the Orquesta de Cámara de Bellas Artes in Mexico City and was invited by the Berlin Philharmonic as one of 10 assistant conductor candidates for Kirill Petrenko and the Siemens Conductors Scholarship in 2021. He also served as Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta where he previously received mentorship from Music Director Mei-Ann Chen as a Freeman Conducting Fellow. 

Engagements as cover conductor include the Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Houston Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, and a return to the Aspen Music Festival as guest assistant conductor. He assisted Barbara Hannigan at Musikkollegium Winterthur in Switzerland and will assist her again at the Munich Philharmonic in 2026.

Equally adept in opera conducting, Fukumura has conducted full productions of Britten’s Turn of the Screw and Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Northwestern University Opera Theatre. As Staff Conductor at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras – the only youth orchestra in the country to present annual opera productions – he led rehearsals of monumental works including, Puccini’s La Bohème.

A passionate advocate for music education, Fukumura led many new initiatives with the Fort Worth Symphony, including the first major update of the orchestra’s education and community programs in over a decade. Under his leadership as Director of Orchestras, the Merit School of Music co-launched the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative to nurture the next generation of musicians through collaborations with professional organizations such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Music of the Baroque. As Founding Music Director, Fukumura led the endowed Northwestern Medical Orchestra to national acclaim within their first four years. His broader cultural leadership and contributions were recognized with a mayoral appointment to the Evanston Arts Council, where he collaborated with local artists and arts organizations to enrich lives and amplify previously unheard voices.

Born in Tokyo, Taichi Fukumura grew up in Boston and began music studies at age three on the violin. He holds a Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Boston University, where he studied with Peter Zazofsky, and both a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral conducting from Northwestern University under the mentorship of Victor Yampolsky. Additional conducting training includes the Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellowship with Robert Spano, Pierre Monteux School and Festival with the late Michael Jinbo, the Freeman Conducting Fellowship with Mei-Ann Chen and the Chicago Sinfonietta, and masterclasses and workshops led by Pierre-Michel Durand, Jorma Panula, Christoph Poppen, and Yip Wing-sie. Fukumura is fluent in both English and Japanese.

Valentin Kovalev is a passionate and dedicated classical saxophonist who is seeking to
elevate the voice of saxophone in classical music. Named the winner of the most prestigious international saxophone competitions, Valentin is also the recipient of significant awards from foundations in France (Fondation pour la vocation), Russia (the Rostropovich Foundation), and the United States (Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia).
His international career spans performances as a soloist across the U.S., Russia, France,
Andorra, and Asia.

Valentin was recently named a winner of the 2024 CAG Louis and Susan Meisel Competition and, in addition, received the coveted Audience Award. As the recent winner of the esteemed Naumburg Foundation 2022 Saxophone Competition, during the 2023-2024 season Valentin gave a sold-out debut recital at Carnegie Hall premiering the newly commissioned piece by GRAMMY Award-winning composer Steven Mackey.

One of Valentin’s most significant achievements has been cultivating an engaged
community of music lovers across his social media platforms. Valentin’s Instagram
account (@valentinkmusic) has reached 65,000 followers, while his YouTube channel
(V&A TV) has 42,000 subscribers.

Aiwen Zhang is a forward-thinking artist dedicated to exploring eclectic musical repertoire and multi-media artforms that engage her global audience. A classically-trained saxophonist, she is in demand as both a performer and an educator, reaching audiences throughout the United States, China, France, Germany, Japan, and Thailand.

Aiwen was the first person of Chinese descent and the first female to secure a Top Prize at the 5th Jean-Marie Londeix International Saxophone Competition, one of the most prestigious saxophone competitions in the world. Winning concerto competitions at the University of Michigan, Bowling Green State University, and with the Lima Symphony, Aiwen was also awarded first place in prestigious solo competitions including the Musicians Club of Women Awards Competition, the Prix du Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, and the Vandoren Emerging Artist Competition.

A highly sought-after performer and educator, Aiwen has received invitations to give recitals and lead master classes from musical institutions worldwide. Such performance venues include the Lincoln Center (NYC), Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington D.C.), Beijing National Center for the Performing Arts (China), Université Européenne de Saxophone (Gap, France), and Prince Mahidol Hall (Thailand). Aiwen has led master classes at a variety of educational institutions including The Shanghai Conservatory of Music, Central Conservatory of Music (China), and Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore).

Aiwen holds degrees from the University of Michigan, Paris Conservatory, and the Eastman School of Music. Her past instructors include Timothy McAllister, Claude Delangle, Chien-Kwan Lin, Vincent David, and John Sampen.

Complementary to her passion for music, Aiwen has a love for and experience in the visual arts as a freelance videographer, photographer, and editor for V&A TV. She is experimenting new concert format with a multi-media/multi-sensory performance experience that showcases saxophone music by Chinese-born composers (who no longer reside in China) and incorporates traditional legend, costumes, choreography, and food.

Photo credit: Valentin Kovalev