SPOTLIGHT: NEC FELLOWS
A Far Cry’s competition through the New England Conservatory offers students the opportunity to rehearse and perform with the Criers on select concert programs each season, experiencing firsthand the sensitivity, trust, and shared leadership required to perform as a self-conducted chamber orchestra. Competition winners also participate in “Crier Meetings” to learn about artistic programming with mentorship from the collective Artistic Directorship.
We’re thrilled to feature this partnership at tonight’s concert, and to welcome the following students on stage:
A top-prize winner of the Tibor Varga Junior, Cooper, and YoungArts competitions, 21-year-old violinist Calvin Alexander has performed across the United States, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, and South Korea. He has appeared as soloist with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra, and Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Alexander has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, David Shifrin, Vijay Iyer, and members from the Juilliard and Parker Quartets at the Perlman Music Program, NUME Festival, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival.
Alexander is pursuing a bachelor's degree in Social Studies and Comparative Literature at Harvard and a master’s degree at the New England Conservatory under Donald Weilerstein. He has served as Concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra since 2023. His quartet at the New England Conservatory, the Ardito Quartet, was recently named an Honors Ensemble, and the quartet will give a recital in Jordan Hall in April. Alexander also looks forward to performing the Bruch Concerto with the Apollo Ensemble of Boston in May. His influential mentors include Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Jan Sloman, and the Brentano Quartet.
Away from the violin, Cal enjoys journaling, running, driving, and spending time outdoors.
Minji Lee, a native of South Korea, discovered her passion for music when she began learning the violin at the age of six and made her debut with the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of ten. She has won numerous competitions including Second Prize at the Bales Violin Competition and Third Prize at the Ilona Fehér International Violin Competition in Budapest, Hungary. She has also played in masterclasses with distinguished artists such as Augustin Hadelich, Maxim Vengerov, Mihaela Martin, Koichiro Harada, Aaron Rosand, Shlomo Mintz, among others.
She further enriched her musical experience through participation in renowned festivals, such as Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Taos School of Music, Taipei Music Academy and Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute’s Ashkenasi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, New York String Orchestra Seminar, and Bowdoin International Music Festival. She served as Principal 2nd Violin of the New York String Orchestra and performed Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro under the baton of Jaime Laredo. Her performances have taken her to major venues such as Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, Severance Hall, Woolsey Hall, Seoul Arts Center, National Concert Hall in Taipei, and many others. She was also a recipient of the 2020 Mark Zinger Memorial Foundation Scholarship.
As an avid and devoted chamber musician, her quartet was a top prize winner at the 2023 Plowman Chamber Music Competition and the Glass City Chamber Music Competition and was also awarded the Sidney D. and Nina Josephs Chamber Music Award at the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her collaborative spirit has led her to share the stage with renowned musicians such as Jaime Laredo, Philip Setzer, Todd Phillips, Alex Kerr, Rafael Figueroa, members of Miró Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, Ole Akahoshi, and James Austin Smith.
Lee earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory with Soovin Kim, and her Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Jaime Laredo, Malcolm Lowe, and Jan Mark Sloman. She completed her Master of Musical Arts degree at the Yale School of Music with Soovin Kim, and she is currently continuing her studies at the New England Conservatory with Don Weilerstein, Soovin Kim, and Nathan Cole.
Emma Servadio, 21, violin, is of Taiwanese-Israeli descent and is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at the New England Conservatory, where she studies with Miriam Fried on a Dean’s Scholarship. Her former teachers include Shmuel Ashkenasi and Peter Jarvis. She has participated in renowned summer festivals such as the Perlman Music Program Chamber Workshop, Kneisel Hall Young Artist Program, and the Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar. Among her most memorable musical experiences are performing for Anne-Sophie Mutter at Boston Symphony Hall, appearing on NPR’s From the Top, and presenting her piano compositions at Carnegie Hall. Deeply committed to chamber music, her piano trio, “Trio Tyche '' was nominated as a New England Conservatory Honors Ensemble and presented a full Jordan Hall recital in Fall of 2024. Most recently, she performed several concerts with the “Razuma String Quartet” during their Perlman Music Program Suncoast residency in Sarasota, Florida.
William Sotiriou is a Boston-based violist currently pursuing his Master’s of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, studying with Wenting Kang. A recent graduate of The Juilliard School, William has worked closely with renowned viola pedagogues such as Carol Rodland, Cynthia Phelps, Jeffrey Irvine, Molly Carr, Dimitri Murrath, and Kirsten Docter. An active chamber musician, William is a member of the NEC Honors Ensemble program, the NEC Chamber Orchestra, and has performed in chamber music masterclasses with the Takács Quartet, Donald Weilerstein, and Seth Knopp. William is also passionate about serving his community through teaching, working with young musicians throughout New York City and Boston as a part of the teaching fellowships at both Juilliard and NEC. William has spent his most recent summers at the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop, Music Academy of the West, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. William is a proud recipient of the Francis W. Hatch, Sr. Presidential Scholarship at NEC.
Applauded for his “warm tone and powerful musical interpretations,” Cellist Thomas Lim (b. 2001) frequently brings his performances to audiences across the world in North America, Europe, and Asia. Making his solo debut at the age of 16, Thomas has given acclaimed performances of the Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Haydn C and D Major concertos with orchestra. Named a National YoungArts Foundation Winner in 2019, Thomas has won top prizes at competitions including the Violons du Roy Concerto Competition, Juilliard Concerto Competition, Montgomery Symphony Orchestra Blount-Slawson Young Artists' Competition, and the Lewisville Lake Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.
A sensitive chamber musician, Thomas has a diverse chamber music repertoire ranging from the standard literature to works of the 21st century. He has studied chamber music with globally esteemed artists including Joel Krosnick, Kim Kashkashian, Itzhak Perlman, Robert McDonald, Donald Weilerstein, Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, Gilbert Kalish, and members of the Emerson, Juilliard, Tokyo, Borromeo, Orion, Cavani, and Escher String Quartets. He has been invited to various summer festivals including Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, Music@Menlo Chamber Music Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, Meadowmount School of Music, Orford Musique, Domaine Forget de Charlevoix, and the Cidnay IMS Academy and Festival, where he was awarded first prize by Mischa Maisky for his performance.
Thomas’s primary teachers include Laurence Lesser, Natasha Brofsky, Darrett Adkins, Jonathan Koh, and Minja Hyun; as well as additional studies with some of the world’s most distinguished cellists including Lynn Harrell, Mischa Maisky, Frans Helmerson, Joel Krosnick, and Hans Jorgen Jensen. Currently pursuing his Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory of Music, Thomas holds a Master of Music degree from Juilliard and both a BA and an MS from Columbia University. Thomas plays on an anonymous Italian cello ca. 1750, and an English bow by John Dodd.
Additionally NEC student Dennis McIntyre (double bass) will join the Criers for Anna Clyne’s Within Her Arms at Heart Strings on February 13th and 14th, 2026.
