Introducing our team of distinguished judges, who will be evaluating all of your submissions, and chosing the top six finalists in both the student and teacher categories:

Singing & Star Power Specialist

An English major with a master's degree in gender studies, Ying-ying Shih is a Taiwanese performing artist who enjoys exploring different cultures, picking up different languages and listening to all kinds of music.

After 3 years of working in office settings, Ying-ying decided that her performing aspirations could no longer wait and quit her job to become a full-time performer.

Since then, she has been seen in two musicals (Taiwanese production of Off-Broadway hit "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change." and Taiwanese musical "April Rain"), performed with jazz musicians at various events, performed with Taiwanese a cappella group Semiscon and done backup singing for Wang Leehom's 2008 Music Man concerts.

Ying-ying's official website: http://yingying.tw

Music Aficionado

Hong Zhang 张泓 holds a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance from Binghamton University and a Bachelor of Music degree in Voice Performance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Since 1991, she has been teaching Chinese at Cornell University and Binghamton University. Currently a Senior Lecturer of Chinese at Binghamton, her curriculum comprises Chinese language courses of all levels and several special courses including Business Chinese and the ground-breaking course, Singing Chinese. She has co-authored a book, Chinese through Song (Binghamton: Global Academic Publishing, 2001) and a CD of poetry recitation to accompany Zu-yan Chen’s Li Bai & Du Fu: An Advanced Reader of Chinese Language and Culture
(Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2007).

Zhang has been an active soloist in many concerts and groups, including the Shanghai Philharmonic Society, the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra, and the Symphony Orchestra of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Eastern Silk. In 2005, she established Song of Silk which aimed to bridge the East and West by presenting Chinese music and culture. This unique musical group features Chinese masterpieces delivered by Western instruments, including piano, violin, and the operatic voice.

Website: http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~hzhang

Chinese Language & Culture Publisher

Jill Cheng was born in Chungking (Chongqing), China, attended the American School in Japan, and came to the United States to attend college and graduate school, where she earned degrees in international relations and theology.

Having a mother who was a soprano trained in Western opera, Jill grew up in a home that was surrounded by music. Jill and her brothers variously performed in school musicals, choirs, a capella groups.

As the soloist in a high school rock and roll band, Jill at one point toyed with the idea of pursuing a singing career.

Instead, Jill founded the Cheng & Tsui Company, an educational publishing and distribution business based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Website: http://www.cheng-tsui.com