Tomomi Sato and Yue Qian met during their time together at Juilliard and are continuing their collaboration as Duo Syncopa at USC.

Japanese pianist Tomomi Sato is a prizewinner of the 2013 Seattle International Piano Competition. As a solo and collaborative recitalist, she has performed throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe, and Asia. Tomomi is a doctoral candidate in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at USC Thornton School of Music, studying with Kevin Fitz-Gerald. She also studies piano performance at USC with her long-term mentor Bernadene Blaha. 

Chinese violinist Yue Qian has performed worldwide with festival appearances at Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Taos School of Music, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Heifetz International Music Institute, and Beijing Modern Festival. She is a silver medalist of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Under the tutelage of Midori Goto, Qian finished her undergraduate study at the USC Thornton School of Music. She earned her Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at USC with Bing Wang.