Weilerstein Students Making Splash

Three of Donald Weilerstein’s students have been making a splash in recent weeks. Luke Hsu ’14 M.M. won the special prize of 5000 Canadian dollars in the just completed Montreal International Violin Competition for the best interpretation of the compulsory new work, Jean LeSage’s Rhapsody for Violin and Piano. As a result of winning this prize, he has been invited to perform the Schoenberg and Ligeti Violin Concertos with a contemporary ensemble in Montreal next season.

Qian Wen (Angela) Shen ’14 M.M. (on the right in photo) won second prize at the Hudson Valley International String Competition held March 9—10 at Vassar College.

Meanwhile, Stella Chen, now a sophomore in the five year joint degree of NEC and Harvard University, will be a soloist with the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra five times during the upcoming tour of Israel and Jordan.  She’ll be playing the Beethoven Violin Concerto in Nazareth, Bethlehem, at the Israel Festival's Beethoven Marathon in Henry Crown Hall, and in the Cultural Centre Hall with Amman Symphony musicians. Stella reports that “at each of these cities we will be having musicians from those respective places join the orchestra to play with us, so it should a wonderful collaboration.”