Clarinetist, Principal Clarinetist at the National Symphony Orchestra

Lin Ma was appointed principal clarinetist of the National Symphony Orchestra by Gianandrea Noseda in 2018. Prior to joining the NSO, he has served as assistant principal and Eb clarinetist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2015. He also played a one-year position as second clarinet in the Houston Symphony. Ma won the 2014 Ima Hogg International Competition and performed as soloist with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. Later, he appeared as soloist at the Baytown Symphony Orchestra’s 2014-15 season opener. In addition, Ma has soloed with National Repertory Orchestra at the NRO music festival in 2013.

Ma earned his Master of Music degree at Rice University, under the tutelage of Richie Hawley, and he holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he studied with Richard Hawkins. Ma has also studied at the Idyllwild Arts Academy with Yehuda Gilad, and the Middle School attached to the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with Yuanfu Huang.

Ma is a Buffet Crampon Performing Artist, and he plays on Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces.

National Symphony Orchestra Principal Violist Daniel Foster’s varied career encompasses orchestral, chamber and solo playing, as well as teaching. Since capturing the First Prize in both the William Primrose and Washington International Competitions, he has appeared in recital and as soloist with orchestra in Washington, DC and throughout the United States. After Studying with Jeffrey Irvine and Lynne Ramsey at Oberlin Conservatory and with Karen Tuttle at The Curtis Institute, Mr. Foster joined the National Symphony’s viola section in 1993, and was appointed Principal by Music Director Leonard Slatkin in 1995. Mr. Foster has appeared frequently as soloist with the National Symphony since his appointment.

Mr. Foster was a member of the critically acclaimed Dryden Quartet, which he founded along with his cousins Nicolas and Yumi Kendall and National Symphony Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef. He is currently a member of the 21st Century Consort, and is a founding member of the Kennedy Center Chamber Players. Mr. Foster has performed chamber music at the Marlboro, Bowdoin, Killington and Alpenglow Festivals, and at Strings in the Mountains. Mr. Foster appears regularly on a number of chamber music series in the Washington, DC area.

Mr. Foster is on the faculty at the University of Maryland, where his former students have gone on to major orchestral and university positions, and he has been a faculty member at the Bowdoin and Killington festivals. Mr. Foster has given master classes at Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is a member of the “International Principals” faculty at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan.

Mr. Foster comes from a musical family. In addition to his violinist and cellist cousins, his father William was also a violist with the National Symphony from 1968-2018, and his grandfather John Kendall was a renowned violin pedagogue. His wife Adria Sternstein Foster is the Principal Flutist of the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra.

Pianist Yejin Lee is an active soloist and a chamber musician based in the United States. Yejin’s performances have been praised for her “coloristic and poetic expressions” and “compelling and thrilling rhythmic senses,” and she has been invited to perform in many prestigious venues around the world. Yejin had her solo debut at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in New York with the invitation from the Annual Velia International Music Festival, and her appearances include as a guest artist at the Cultural Art Center in Jaen, Spain and the Tyler Recital Hall in Florida, and Seoul Arts Center and Yong San Art Hall in Seoul, Korea. Claimed top awards at a number of national and international competitions, including at Dallas International Piano Competition, Kingsville International Piano Competition, Wideman International Piano Competition, Yejin also had a privilege to perform at leading music festivals and masterclasses at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg, Banff Music Festival, Gijon Music Festival in Gijon, Spain and Piano Texas International Academy & Festival, where she shared musical inspiration with great pedagogues and pianists in this century like Richard Goode, Dmitry Bashkirov, Stephen Hough, John O’Conor, John Perry, and Karl-Heinz Kammering. Yejin holds both piano performance and vocal accompanying degrees from Oberlin Conservatory with honors under Haewon Song and Philip Highfill and Masters and Doctorate degrees under Boris Slutsky from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.

She currently serves as a piano faculty at Washington Conservatory of Music and a professorial lecturer at George Washington University. In addition, Yejin is a current member of MTNA and NVMTA, and she manages a private piano studio dedicated to teaching. As a founder and an artistic director of Matinee-M and a pianist member of Baltimore Musicales, she is also committed to bringing classical music into the community.