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

KayCee Galano performs tonight in place of Aaron Berofsky with only 48-hour notice

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.

About CCM Violin Studies

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.

Next Lives Here

At the University of Cincinnati, we realize the impact our teaching, research, artistry and service can have on our community and the world. So, we don’t wait for change to happen. We break boundaries, boldly imagine and create what’s Next. To us, today’s possibilities spark tomorrow’s reality. That’s why we are leading urban public universities into a new era of innovation and impact, and that's how we are defining Next for the performing and media arts.

We're about engaging people and ideas - and transforming the world.

We are UC. Welcome to what's Next.


Additional Contacts

Curt Whitacre | Director of Marketing/Communications | UC College-Conservatory of Music

| 513-556-2683

Related Stories

1

Putting preschool into perspective

July 20, 2026

Preschool and childcare can be difficult to navigate for parents, as Spectrum News 1 Ohio recently reported. Waitlists are long, and factors like cost, location and transportation can limit options. According to a recent study published by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, only 41% of 3- to 4-year-olds in Ohio were enrolled in preschool between 2020 and 2024 — a 4% decrease from pre-pandemic numbers. For University of Cincinnati early childhood education faculty member Chad Nunamaker, that statistic has caveats.

2

Engineering magnets for a cleaner future

July 20, 2026

The United States is heavily reliant on imported rare-earth materials to make permanent magnets. Ugochukwu Philip Ochieze, materials science student at the University of Cincinnati, is studying how to use common materials to create permanent magnets, eliminating the need for expensive and scarce rare-earth materials. Pursuing his PhD, Ochieze was named Graduate Student Engineer of the Month by the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

3

UC has connection to city of legend behind 'Odyssey'

July 17, 2026

WVXU highlights a big connection between Cincinnati and director Christopher Nolan's new movie "The Odyssey." UC Classics Professor Carl Blegen led excavations at Troy in the 1930s. UC has a vast collection of photos and other records from the ambitious archaeological project.