Fellowship Recitals
Experience Extraordinary.
Five intimate performances. One unforgettable series.
The Montgomery Symphony Association is proud to present its two fellows in a series of five recitals as part of the Fellowship Series. Held at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, this Sunday afternoon series features four solo programs—two by each fellow—and a special collaborative performance where they share the stage. Each recital offers audiences the chance to enjoy outstanding music in a beautiful setting, along with personal insights from the performers about the works they present.
Single concert tickets are available for $20 for adults. Students age six and over are admitted free.
Fellowship Recital Series Dates
- Fellowship Recital I – Haeun Honney Kim on Violin and Jiaoyang Sunny Xu on Cello
September 27, 2026 at 2:30pm at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts’ Wilson Auditorium
Purchase tickets. - Fellowship Recital II – Haeun Honney Kim on Violin
November 1, 2026 at 2:30pm at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts’ Wilson Auditorium
Purchase tickets. - Fellowship Recital III – Jiaoyang Sunny Xu on Cello
December 6 2026 at 2:30pm at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts’ Wilson Auditorium
Purchase tickets. - Fellowship Recital IV – Haeun Honney Kim on Violin
March 14, 2027 at 2:30pm at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts’ Wilson Auditorium
Purchase tickets. - Fellowship Recital V – Jiaoyang Sunny Xu on Cello
April 25, 2027 at 2:30pm at Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts’ Wilson Auditorium
Purchase tickets.
Meet the 2026-2027 Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Fellows
Jiaoyang “Sunny” Xu
Senator Larry D. Dixon Cello Fellow
Cellist Jiaoyang Xu is celebrated for her passionate artistry, exceptional technical command, musical intelligence, and vivid imagination. As an accomplished solo performer, she has given recitals across the United States, Europe, and China, gracing the stages of the Beijing Concert Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Coolidge Auditorium at the Library of Congress, and the Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall at the Peabody Institute. She has also been honored with fellowships from prestigious festivals, including the Piatigorsky International Cello Festival.
Yet equally at home on intimate stages, Jiaoyang cherishes performances in senior homes and living rooms, where she forges meaningful connections with audiences of all kinds. This warmth and generosity extend to her chamber music collaborations, where she has shared the stage with distinguished artists Ani Schnarch, Tatjana Masurenko, Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliott, James Smith, and Kurt Muroki, and is a proud member of the Amit Peled Cello Gang.
Born in China in 1992, Jiaoyang began studying the cello at the age of five and gave her first public performance at six. She pursued advanced studies with Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory as a Dean’s Scholarship recipient, and later joined the studio of Professor Amit Peled at the Peabody Institute on the Gregor Piatigorsky Scholarship, where she earned her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2026.
Haeun “Honney” Kim
Violin Fellow
Born in Alabama to a Korean-American family, violinist Haeun Honney Kim has established herself as a versatile and accomplished artist, recognized for her performances as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral leader across more than twenty countries. Since 2022, she has been a member of the LGT Young Soloists, where she serves as the leader of second violins and regularly appears as a featured soloist. She has performed in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Melbourne Recital Centre, Victoria Hall Singapore, Tonhalle Zürich, and Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul.
Honney began violin studies at the age of four, inspired by her pianist mother, and quickly gained national recognition. She is a prizewinner of numerous competitions, including the Blount-Slawson National Young Artist Competition, Lois Pickard Competition, YoungArts, Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, Leopold Auer International Violin Competition, and was a semifinalist at the Cooper International Violin Competition. At age eleven, she made her solo debut with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and has since appeared with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Delta Symphony Orchestra, Southern Adventist Orchestra, and the Georgia Philharmonic Orchestra.
Her artistry has also been shaped through participation in internationally renowned festivals and academies, including the Grafenegg Academy Orchestra, Fiskars Summer Festival, Korean National Symphony Orchestra Academy, Masterclass Apeldoorn, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival, Rencontres Musicales Camerata Lysy, Orchestre National des Jeunes du Luxembourg, Aspen Music Festival, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and the National Youth Orchestra of the United States.
An experienced orchestral leader, Honney currently serves as the Violin Fellow of the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, and has held concertmaster and leadership positions under distinguished conductors such as Marin Alsop, Jörg Widmann, David Reiland, Manfred Honeck, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and Jaime Laredo.
She studied at the New England Conservatory and the Juilliard School, and is currently pursuing her Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin, Germany.
Honney plays on an 1895 Scarampella violin that has been graciously loaned to her by the Stretton Society in Germany.