Members
Chili Ekman
Violinist Chili Ekman, 21, is studying with Professors Daniel Phillips and Stella Chen in his senior year at the Juilliard School.
He attended the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Precollege and has been part of various music organizations in the Bay Area of California, such as the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Young Chamber Musicians.
In 2022, Chili made his solo debut with the Stockton Symphony. Ekman has worked with many of the world’s leading chamber musicians, including David Finckel, Paul Neubauer, Robert Levin and Eugene Drucker, among others. Chili has also worked with ensembles such as the Miro, Pacifica, Calidore, Harlem and American quartets.
Recently, Chili founded the Candide Quartet at Juilliard and has attended residencies at Madeline Island and Music in the Vineyards festivals.
Vanny Hu
Canadian cellist Vanny Hu, 20, is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree at The Juilliard School.
Originally from Stratford Canada, she attended Pre-College at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto where she studied with David Hetherington and Andrés Díaz.
Hu served as principal cello of the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra at Alice Tully, Baroque Orchestra at Aspen Music Festival, and NYO of Canada.
She has played in classes for distinguished artists including Zuill Bailey and Zlatomir Fung, and has had chamber music studies with David Finckel, Daniel Phillips, Paul Neubauer, Julian Martin, Eric Bartlett, and David Halen.
Hu has been studying with Richard Aaron, and will continue her studies with Zvi Plesser.
Henry Rogers
Violinist Henry Rogers, 22, is pursuing his Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School under Joel Smirnoff. A native of Princeton, New Jersey, he first studied locally with Katarzyna Powichrowska and with Sally Thomas in New York City. He relocated to Cleveland at 15 to pursue intensive training and undergraduate coursework at the Cleveland Institute of Music’s Young Artists’ Program, which he graduated from in 2021 under Joan Kwuon. Henry received his Bachelor of Music degree from Juilliard in 2025 with academic honors for extra studies in German at Columbia University.
Prior to joining the Candide Quartet, Henry attended festivals including Aspen, Sarasota, Brevard, Heifetz, and Meadowmount with mentors Alexander Kerr, David Halen, Jan Mark Sloman, and Gerardo Ribeiro. He gave a solo performance with the Brevard Music Center Orchestra under longtime Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart in 2022 after winning their annual Jan and Beattie Wood Concerto Competition. Henry has performed with Princeton Symphony Orchestra and New World Symphony, and held principal positions with the Juilliard Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Opera Orchestra, and Aspen Festival Orchestra. Henry has given chamber performances in many venues across New York, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Bohemian National Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, and St. Paul’s Chapel at Columbia University. As a violist, Henry has had past groups win top prizes at Chicago National Chamber and Coltman Competitions (2021), as well as second prize in Fischoff National Chamber Competition
Amelia Krinke
Amelia Krinke is a violist and conductor from New York City, studying with Steven Tenenbom and Misha Amory at the Juilliard School as a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. She won the Juilliard Viola Concerto Competition in 2022, playing the Michael White Viola Concerto, and was an Honorable Mention winner of the National YoungArts Competition 2022. She performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Grand Junction Symphony in March 2024, and was a member of the Classical Tahoe Festival Orchestra in July 2024. Krinke has attended the Kneisel Hall Young Artists Program, the Castleman Quartet Program and the Heifetz International Music Institute, among others.
She was an Apprentice Conductor with the Philadelphia Ballet for two seasons, and has conducted in select performances of the Nutcracker in 2022 and 2023. As a conductor, Krinke also completed four years as a New York Youth Symphony Conducting Apprentice, and attended the National Orchestral Institute and the Conductor’s Institute of South Carolina. She acted as a cover conductor for the Orlando Philharmonic in 2025, and conducted the Music Advancement Program’s composers’ concerts in 2024 and 2025. She graduated from Juilliard Pre-College in 2022 with distinction for outstanding work in music theory and ear training, under the tutelage of Molly Carr and Yi-Fang Huang.
Harmonizing Tradition, Innovation, and Optimism
Beethoven
Mozart
Bartók
Schubert
Haydn
Shaw
Mendelssohn
Smetana
Bernstein
Shostakovich
Berg
Beethoven Mozart Bartók Schubert Haydn Shaw Mendelssohn Smetana Bernstein Shostakovich Berg
Formed in 2023, the Candide Quartet consists of violinists Chili Ekman and Henry Rogers, cellist Vanny Hu and violist Amelia Krinke.
Now entering their third year as an ensemble, the Candide Quartet is even more committed to exploring the chamber music repertoire and gaining performing experience. Having a shared love for Voltaire’s Candide and its philosophies, the group embodies the sentiments of appreciation for the camaraderie and dedication that it feels are inherent in both the novel and string quartet playing. The quartet's goal is to cultivate its repertoire and share the fruits of its commitment with all its audiences.
During the summer of 2024, the Quartet was the Fellowship String Quartet in Residence at Music in the Vineyards in Napa, as well as Madeline Island Chamber Music in Wisconsin. The quartet had the pleasure of performing alongside faculty at both festivals, and spent time coaching developing high school string quartets. This summer, the Quartet attended Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival and the PRISMA Quartet Fellowship to further engage with faculty as well as present back to the community.
The Candide Quartet has been coached and mentored by many esteemed musicians including David Finckel, Daniel Phillips, Paul Neubauer, Samuel Rhodes, Robert Levin, Eugene Drucker, Nicholas Mann, Joseph Lin, Brian Zeger and David Kim. They have also worked with the Miro, American, Calidore, Harlem and the Pacifica Quartets, among others.
The group actively takes on performance opportunities and outreach events in New York City as well as around the country. The quartet has worked with the Dvorak American Heritage Association performing a concert honoring Czech composer Bedrich Smetana’s 200th birthday, and given presentations and talks about “The Brief Evolution of the String Quartet” at various Boys and Girls Clubs and retirement homes in Napa. In 2024, the group held a week long residency at the MacPhail center in Minneapolis, working in musical education and performing multiple full length recitals for the community.
In the past school year the Candide Quartet sought many professional engagements, attending the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar and the Calidore Quartet Seminar at the University of Delaware. The quartet worked with Caroline Shaw to give the Juilliard premiere of her work Plan and Elevation at Juilliard’s inaugural Fall Festival, and recently collaborated with Shaw again for the first Juilliard at Zankel Hall concert where they performed Shaw’s Other Song alongside the composer.