WATCH: CCM student steps into spotlight at Bowdoin International Music Festival

KayCee Galano (BM Violin, 22) performs Camille Saint-Saëns’ Fantasie for Violin and Harp, in A Major Op. 124, with Juilliard harp faculty member June Han at the Bowdoin International Music Festival at 7:30 p.m. on July 20. With only 48-hour notice, Galano performs in place of violinist Aaron Berofsky, who was originally scheduled for the concert. 

The performance will be available to watch on the music festival's live stream page.

Galano is currently studying with CCM Professor Kurt Sassmannshaus, the Dorothy Richard Starling Chair in Classical Violin. She has been a CCM Prep student since age 10 after she met Sassmannshaus at the Great Wall International Music Academy in Beijing. When she returned to her home in Brunei, Galano enrolled as a scholarship student in Sassmannshaus’ Starling Preparatory String Project at CCM, and she began weekly, long-distance lessons over Skype with him. She quickly began to establish herself as one of the leading young violinists of her generation. Read more about Galano in CCM's archived feature story.

Five years after she began the Skype lessons with Sassmannshaus, Galano moved to Cincinnati to complete her studies in CCM’s Starling Preparatory String Project and finish high school. She enrolled at CCM to pursue a BM in violin in fall 2018 and graduated in 2022. Throughout the 2021-22 performance season, Galano assisted CCM Digital with live streaming performances, including the CCM Wind Symphony's March 25 concert and the CCM Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Lab Band's April 10 concert. Galano returns to CCM this fall as a masters student and graduate assistant to Sassmannshaus. 

Learn more about Galano on her professional website.

The study of violin at CCM is strongly performance based. The cornerstone of all degree programs is private lessons with faculty, who serve as mentors for students and direct their individual musical, performing and teaching growth. 

The curriculum emphasizes the development of the well-rounded, holistic musician by providing a solid background in music history and theory as well as areas specific to each musical medium. Undergraduate students enjoy a close collaboration with the University of Cincinnati through a general education core that supplements their education with academic course work while graduate students specialize more precisely in their chosen field.