Recently praised by the New York Times for their “beautifully understated playing”, the collaboration of pianists Stephanie Ho and Saar Ahuvia in both piano four-hand and two-piano repertoire brings them to New York’s cutting-edge Le Poisson Rouge, the Czech Republic’s Pilsen Radio Symphony Orchestra performing Bohuslav Martinu’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, engagement with Cultural Center of Chicago's Dame Myra Hess series, and a live radio interview and performance on WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schaefer.

This season DUO Stephanie and Saar presents a three-concert residency for Composers Collaborative at Cornelia Street Café in NYC. They will also be appearing on In the Gardens of Spain, a live WQXR broadcast concert from New York City’s Cervantes Institute, followed by a live broadcast concert from Chicago on WFMT presented by PianoForte Foundation. Highlights from the 2008-9 season include concerts with the Regensdorf Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland) performing Mozart and Bach Concertos for Two Pianos and reengagements at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Catonsville Presbyterian Concert Series and the Dame Myra Hess series.

While pursuing Graduate Performance Diplomas at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, the couple was inspired by Leon Fleisher to explore the string quartets of Beethoven in a duo piano setting. From that motivation came several concert appearances of Beethoven’s String Quartet Op.18 No.6 and a mentorship by Mr. Fleisher who was joined in his efforts by both Julian Martin and Boris Slutsky, faculty members at the Juilliard School and Peabody Institute respectively.

In order to focus on developing a duo repertoire, Stephanie and Saar completed two Performing Artist Residencies at the Banff Centre in Canada in 2005 and 2006 where they performed as well as recorded music by Debussy, Mozart, Brahms, Messiaen, Schubert, Stravinsky and more. Selections from these performances were chosen for broadcast on WQXR’s Young Artist Showcase in New York.

Interested in programming a wide variety of music, DUO has been exploring a variety of music from Guillame de Machaut to György Kurtág, Messiaen’s monumental Visions de l’Amen, George Crumb's Celestial Mechanics, as well as their own four-hand transcriptions of solo recordings of the jazz pianist Bill Evans. Deeply committed to playing new music, DUO has and will premiere works by Hywel Davies, Michael Harrison, Philippe Bodin, Matt van Brink, Jay Anthony Gach, Paul Hefner, Dana Richardson, Henry Martin and Joel Mandelbaum.

DUO have also assembled and presented special programs of music and letter readings. These include Intimate Letters – the Piano Music of Leos Janácek and A Life in Letters – Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.

In conjunction with their performing careers, both Stephanie and Saar are currently faculty members at Concordia College’s Conservatory of Music in Bronxville, New York and Kean University in Union, New Jersey. They reside in Forest Hills - Queens, NYC.

A member of Sirius String Quartet, Fung Chern Hwei has been freelancing in the City ever since he completed his graduate studies under Daniel Phillips in Aaron Copland School of Music, CUNY Queens College. Grew up in a culturally diverse country, Malaysia, Chern Hwei is easily adapted to various kinds of music, other than classical music. With a keen interest to perform and create new music, he world-premiered 6 compositions by young composers Mikael Karlsson, Zhou Tian, Jordan Kuspa, Tsai-Yun Huang, Adeline Wong and himself. As a frequent collaborator of Mikael Karlsson's, he also did a few first recordings of his compositions, one of the most recent one being Desperate Contract for violin and piano.

From John Adams to John Zorn, violist Ron Lawrence has performed and recorded with many of new music's most exciting personalities. A founding member of the Sirius String Quartet, he has also performed extensively with Cuartetango, Quartet Indigo, the Soldier String Quartet and the Orchestra of St. Lukes. Other collaborators include Anthony Braxton, John Blake, Bob Beldon, Anthony Davis, Regina Carter, Elliot Sharp, James Blood Ulmer, Cassandra Wilson, John Cale, and Eumir Deodato. Further uptown, he has recorded with Kathleen Battle, Robert Craft, Jonh Cage, and Andre Previn. One of Ron's most exciting projects was a journey to Alaska to record John Luther Adams’ multi-media spectacular, Earth and the Great Weather --A Sonic Geography of the Arctic. Despite a rigorous performance schedule, he was able to break away each evening to cross-country ski under the Northern Lights.

Violinist Esther Noh has been a featured artist at the Smithsonian Museum and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She has performed in New York City at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Recital Hall, and Miller Theater. She has also presented avant-garde music at Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, The Jazz Standard, and the Cutting Room. She has premiered numerous contemporary composers’ works and plays and records with singer/songwriters. Ms. Noh received degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Michigan. She holds a doctorate with honors from SUNY Stony Brook.

Dave Eggar has performed throughout the world as a classical and contemporary pianist, cellist and composer including solo appearances in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, New York State Theater), the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, the Barbican Center Concert Hall in London, The Paris Opera, The Aspen music Festival, Shinjuku Park Tower Hall in Tokyo, and many others. A champion of many styles of music, Mr. Eggar has performed and recorded with artists and projects such as The Who, Kathleen Battle, Sinead O'Connor, John Denver, Ornette Coleman, Bobby McFerrin, Yo-Yo Ma, the New York City Ballet, Aspen Chamber Symphony, the Jose Limon Dance Company, the British Rock Orchestra, Pearl Jam, James Galway, and Leonard Slatkin. A graduate of the Juilliard School and Harvard University, Mr. Eggar has received grants for his compositional and improvisational work from the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP, The Leonard Bernstein Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, Arts Midwest, Time Magazine, Harvard University, and the Geraldine Dodge Foundation. A founding member of the Flux quartet, Mr. Eggar has premiered works by eminent contemporary composers such as John Cage, Frank Zappa, Charles Ives, Toshiro Mayazumi, Augusta Read Thomas, Deborah Drattell, John Zorn, Ornette Coleman, and has worked closely with Milton Babbit on his compositions. Mr. Eggar has served on the faculty of NYU, the Juilliard Pre-College Division, and the Bowdoin Music Festival. He was awarded the 1997 SONY records award for excellence in the area of classical music.

Jenny Lin is one of the most respected young pianists today, admired for her adventurous programming and charismatic stage presence. Her ability to combine classical and contemporary literature has brought her to the attention of international critics and audiences. She has been acclaimed for her "remarkable technical command" and "a gift for melodic flow" by The New York Times. The Washington Post praises "Lin's confident fingers... spectacular technique..." and Gramophone Magazine has hailed her as "an exceptionally sensitive pianist". Martha Argerich wrote: "Miss Jenny Lin is a very gifted young musician and a brilliant pianist."