Le Lys Duo: Jenny Li and Grace Kikuchi, harps
Rachael Kwa, violin with Billie Miller, piano
Bonding over their love for harp and chamber music, award-winning harpists Jenny Li and Grace Kikuchi formed Le Lys Duo in 2025. Together, they have developed a repertoire that includes original works, transcriptions, and arrangements for two harps.
Le Lys Duo won first prize in their category (two harps) in the Third International Ángel Padilla Crespo Harp Competition. They were also named as winners in the Pittsburgh Concert Society Major Artists Auditions in 2026.
Before coming to the United States, Taiwanese native Jenny Li earned a Master of Music from National Taiwan Normal University. Her recent honors include First Prize in the 2025 American Soloist International Music Competition and the top honor in the 2019 Camac Prize in Taiwan, Open Pedal Division.
She also was a winner of an Anne Adams Award in the final round of the American Harp Foundation Competition in June 2026.
Australian-born Japanese harpist Grace Kikuchi completed her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance at the Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University. She was the winner of the graduate division of the 2025 Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic Soloist Competition, and in June she competed in the finals of the American Harp Foundation Grandjany Memorial Competition.
Jenny Li and Grace Kikuchi are currently students at Carnegie Mellon University, where they study with Gretchen Van Hoesen, principal harpist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Rachael Kwa is an extraordinary violinist who has performed with the Melbourne, Queensland, West Australian, and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra Victoria, the Auckland Philharmonia, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, and alongside members of the London Philharmonic, Australian Chamber, and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. She has also appeared live on ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) Radio National and recorded on the ABC Classic label as part of an ambitious project to record more than 60 commissioned works by Australian composers.
Rachael has won prizes from the Australian National Academy of Music, the London Royal Academy of Music, the London Delius Society and the Pittsburgh Concert Society.
Rachael is passionate about music education, having worked with both international competition winners, musical outreach programs and her own private studio. She has volunteered with Crescendo, a free, El-sistema-inspired music education program run by the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. She has won major prizes from the Australian National Academy of Music, the London Royal Academy of Music, the London Delius Society and most recently the Pittsburgh Concert Society.
Currently based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Rachael studies with Callum Smart at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music.
Billie Miller brings an innate musicality and dynamic energy to her playing as a collaborator, opera pianist, and chamber musician.
She is a founding member of the Bell’Art Ensemble, a group that produced the Living Room Chamber Music Project series featuring vocal and instrumental chamber music in people’s homes across the greater Pittsburgh area. Billie earned an Advanced Musical Studies degree in Vocal Coaching at Carnegie Mellon, and an Artist’s Diploma in Opera Coaching at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.
Billie has worked with the Pittsburgh Festival Opera Young Artists Program, and has performed with Resonance Works Pittsburgh, members of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Carnegie Mellon faculty members, and winners of the Pittsburgh Concert Society. Billie is currently Artist Lecturer in Vocal Coaching and Collaborative Piano at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music
