Kenney, Lee Winners of CAG Competition

Violinist Alexi Kenney ‘15, Pianist Ko-Eun Lee ‘04Prep Are Two of Three Winners in Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition

Receive Management Contract and New York Recital

NEC violinist Alexi Kenney ’15, a student of Donald Weilerstein, and pianist Ko-Eun Lee '04 PREP, who studied in the NEC at Walnut Hill Program from 2000-04, have been named  two of the three winners of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition. They both receive a management contract with CAG as well as a New York recital.

Founded in 1951 with a mission to discover, nurture & promote young musicians, Concert Artists Guild helps young musicians launch sustainable careers at a critical and formative time: between completion of formal studies and the achievement of an established career. Artists are selected through a rigorous multi-round annual competition open to traditional and non-traditional instrumentalists, ensembles and singers. The competition is named for the architect, real estate developer, music lover and squash champion Victor Elmaleh.

CAG offers comprehensive management services including concert bookings and tour management, commissioning and recording opportunities and marketing and publicity support. Competition winners are also presented on the Concerts in New York at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. The New Music/New Places initiative presents CAG artists in non-traditional venues such as bars, clubs and galleries, introducing diverse audiences to concert music. The CAG Records label enables roster musicians to get their music onto disc and into the marketplace. The CAG Commissioning Program ensures that classical music continues to be a living art form by fostering collaborations between performers and composers.

Alexi Kenney, Violin

Born in Palo Alto, California, 19-year-old violinist Alexi Kenney is the recipient of numerous awards, including Third Prize at the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition and the Manfred Grommek Prize at the 2013 Kronberg Academy Masterclasses. He has appeared as a soloist with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and in recital and quartet performances at Carnegie Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Jordan Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Mondavi Center. Alexi has performed at festivals including Caramoor’s “Rising Stars,” Music@Menlo and its Winter Residency, the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute, and Yellow Barn. At NEC, Alexi is the recipient of the Richard Elias Scholarship, and has been a member of several honors ensembles including the Spruce Quartet (2012-13) and the Seuss Quartet (2011-12). Alexi will be performing in NEC’s BSO Prelude concert on November 21 in a program curated by composer George Neikrug http://necmusic.edu/bso-prelude-neikrug.

Ko-Eun Lee, Piano

A native of Seoul, Korea, pianist Ko-Eun Lee attended the Walnut Hill School and studied with Wha-Kyung Byun through the NEC at Walnut Hill music program. She went on to receive Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, then completed her Professional Studies at the Manhattan School of Music, and is currently pursuing her Doctoral of Musical Arts at Stony Brook University. She has played with orchestras including the Boston Symphony, Barcelona Symphony, Jerusalem Symphony, and the Aspen Concert Orchestra. She was a top prize winner in the World Piano Competition, Widemann Competition, Kosciuzko Foundation Chopin Competition, and E-Competition, performing in Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the Phillips Gallery in Washington, DC.

For further information, check the CAG website.

ABOUT NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY
A cultural icon approaching its 150th anniversary in 2017, New England Conservatory (NEC) is recognized worldwide as a leader among music schools. Located in Boston, Massachusetts, on the Avenue of the Arts in the Fenway Cultural District, NEC offers rigorous training in an intimate, nurturing community to undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate music students from around the world. Its faculty of 225 boasts internationally esteemed artist-teachers and scholars. NEC alumni go on to fill orchestra chairs, concert hall stages, jazz clubs, recording studios, and arts management positions worldwide. Half of the Boston Symphony Orchestra is composed of NEC-trained musicians and faculty.

NEC is the oldest independent school of music in the United States. Founded in 1867 by Eben Tourjee, an American music educator, choral conductor and organist, its curriculum is remarkable for its wide range of styles and traditions. On the college level, NEC features training in classical, jazz, and Contemporary Improvisation. Graduate and post-graduate programs supplement these core disciplines with orchestral conducting and professional chamber music training. Additional programs, such as the Sistema Fellows, a professional training program for top postgraduate musicians and music educators that creates careers connected to music, youth, and social change, and Entrepreneurial Musicianship, a cutting-edge program integrating professional and personal skills development into the musical training of students to better develop the skills and knowledge needed to create one’s own musical opportunities, also enhance the NEC experience.

Through its Preparatory School, School of Continuing Education, and Community Programs and Partnerships Program, the Conservatory provides training and performance opportunities for children, pre-college students, and adults. Through its outreach projects, it allows young musicians to engage with non-traditional audiences in schools, hospitals, and nursing homes—thereby bringing pleasure to new listeners and enlarging the universe for classical music, jazz, and Contemporary Improvisation. Currently more than 750 young artists from 46 states and 39 foreign countries attend NEC on the college level; 1,400 young students attend on the Preparatory level; and 325 adults participate in the Continuing Education program.

The only conservatory in the United States designated a National Historic Landmark, NEC presents more than 900 free concerts each year. Many of these take place in Jordan Hall (which shares National Historic Landmark status with the school), world-renowned for its superb acoustics and beautifully restored interior. In addition to Jordan Hall, more than a dozen performance spaces of various sizes and configurations are utilized to meet the requirements of the unique range of music performed at NEC, from solo recitals to chamber music to orchestral programs to big band jazz, Contemporary Improvisation, and opera scenes. Every year, NEC’s opera studies department also presents two fully staged opera productions at the Cutler Majestic Theatre or Paramount Center in Boston, and a semi-staged performance in Jordan Hall. This past 2012-2013 season, the operas produced were Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, and Rossini’s La Gazzetta.

NEC is co-founder and educational partner of From the Top, a weekly radio program that celebrates outstanding young classical musicians from the entire country. With its broadcast home in Jordan Hall, the show is now carried by National Public Radio and is heard on 250 stations throughout the United States.

Contact: Ellen Pfeifer
Senior Communications Specialist
New England Conservatory
290 Huntington Ave.
Boston, MA 02115
617-585-1143
Ellen.pfeifer@necmusic.edu