About the Tappan String Quartet By Joanna Chang
	Back to the main story		Sunho Kim, born in Singapore in 1978, began her violin studies at age 7. Having studied with Nam-Yun Kim and Jun-soo Chung in Seoul, she then attended the Universität der Künste in Berlin, studying with Mi-Kyung Lee, receiving her diploma with honors. Thereafter, she was a member of Milan Vitek’s studio at the Royal Danish Academy of Music and now studies with him as an Artist Diploma student at Oberlin. She has performed as soloist with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, The Seoul City Symphony and Seoul Youth Chamber Orchestra, and was awarded prizes in the Cho-Sun Daily Competition, the Seoul Youth Chamber Music Competition, and the Heino Eller Violin Competition. Cibran Sierra-Vazquez began playing the violin at the age of ten. He studied at the Conservatory of Vigo in Spain and at Gothenburg University in Sweden, where he worked with Milan Vitek, with whom he now studies as an Artist Diploma student at Oberlin. He won the Barenreiter Prize in the Jeunesses Musicales Competition in Spain and First Prize at Voldrich Stipendietavling in Sweden. He has performed as soloist with the Gothenburg University Orchestra and the Galicia Symphony Orchestra, has been a member of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra and has worked professionally with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra and the Camerata Roman of Sweden. Tom Beer, who began to study the viola at age 13, was accepted into Trinity College of Music in London five years later where he studied with Elizabeth Turnbull. There he was awarded the college viola prize, the Band/Kurtz memorial prize and the Nick Roth prize for excellence in an ensemble. He graduated with a first class degree with honors in 2000 and then began private study with British violist Roger Chase, with whom he now studies at Oberlin as an Artist Diploma student. Tom has worked professionally with the English Sinfonia and the English Festival Orchestra. Sarah Biber is a double-degree student at Oberlin College majoring in Cello Performance in the Conservatory, and Greek and Latin in the College of Arts and Sciences. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, she was awarded the Latin prize in the Classics Department and the 2001 Earnest Hatch Wilkins Prize for having the highest GPA of her class in the division of Arts and Sciences. A cello student of Catharina Meints and Peter Rejto, she was a participant in the Oberlin at Casalmaggiore program, and was principal cellist of the Killington Festival Orchestra. She is a member of Oberlin’s Contemporary Music Ensemble and has also participated in the Conservatory’s winter term Panama Project. She has been a member of the Kansas City Youth Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, has participated in her home state of Missouri’s All-State orchestras, and was chosen in a statewide competition for a quartet program at the University of Missouri.
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