Meet the Orchestra

Meet this Season's Soloists

Sarina Zhang

Julia Hunter

Charlie Albright

Meet Spotlight NVPO Musicians

Kristian Baverstam

Kett Chuan Lee

Fred Sienkiewicz

Sarina Zhang has accumulated a mantel full of top awards as both a pianist and cellist. Most recently, she won the 1st place in 2010 Aspen Music Festival’s low strings competition and was awarded alternate in the piano concerto competition. In 2009, Sarina won the Juilliard Pre-College Dvorak Cello Concerto Competition and was named a 2009 Davidson Fellow by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development. In the same year, Sarina won the New York Ensemble 212 Young Artist Competition. In 2008, she was awarded the 1st place in Connecticut International Young Artist Competition for piano and the 2nd place for cello, and the special prize in the New York Grand Prix International Piano Competition. Sarina captured the 3rd place in Virginia Waring International Piano Concerto Competition. the 1st prize in MTAC California Piano Solo competition. Some of her other past awards include winning 1st prize in 2005 International Russian Piano Music Competition (young musician category), 1st place in both piano and cello in 2005 Goodlin Scholarship competition, 2006 State (CA) Solo Competition for cello, and the 2006 San Diego Symphony’s Young Artists Competition.

Sarina has been featured on the national radio program “From the Top” as both a pianist and cellist, and also on their PBS’ “From the Top, Live from Carnegie Hall” TV series. As recently as this past June 2011, she wowed the audiences on both piano and cello with the Prague Youth Philharmonic Symphony at the Rudolfinum in Prague. In February 2011, She presented solo concerts on both piano and cello the Florida cities Key West, Marathon, and Islamorada. Sarina was also recently featured as a cellist at Juilliard at Aiken, a finalist at Stulberg International String competition, and part of cello Octet performing at Amsterdam Biennial Cello Festival. Since 2010, she has been invited twice to perform on both cello and piano at the Emirates International Peace Music Festival for Young Virtuosos, performing with Dubai’s Emirates Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Youth Philharmonic.

Sarina has performed with the San Diego Symphony, the Northridge Symphony Orchestra, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's Civic Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra and the California Symphony Orchestra. Sarina started piano lessons at age of 5 1/2 with Tatiana Stignev and cello lessons at 7 with Lu-Yan Guo. She also had piano lessons with Vladimir Viardo, Dana Burnett, and Zitta Zohar. Sarina studied cello with Darrett Adkins from 2007 to 2009. She has performed in master classes for Natalie Gutman, Valter Despalj, David Finckel and Wu Han, Ralph Kirshbaum, Anthony Elliott, Vladimir Feltsman, Hans Boepple, Antonio Pompa-Baldi, and Rita Sloan. Currently, Sarina is enrolled in the pre-college division at Juilliard School studying piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky, cello with Richard Aaron, and composition with Manuel Sosa. Sarina is 10th grade student at the California Virtual Academy and when she’s not enjoying music she enjoys studying literature.

Hailed "Outstanding" by the Boston Phoenix, Ms. Hunter has made her most recent performances on the international orchestral stage in Germany and Austria with the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Orchestra under Maestro Christoph Eschenbach, as well as in Sapporo, Osaka and Tokyo Japan as Principal Second Violinist of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, under Maestro Fabio Luisi. She has also performed in over 30 cities across the United States and Mexico with the Star Wars In Concert orchestra, and in Charleston, South Carolina with Spoleto Festival Orchestra USA. Ms. Hunter can be heard most frequently with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Ballet Orchestra, Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of Emmanuel Music, whose recent collaborators have included the Mark Morris Dance Group, Russel Sherman, Spectrum Singers, and composer-conductor John Harbison. In three seasons at the Tanglewood Music Center from 2007 through 2009, Ms. Hunter performed as concertmaster under James Levine in three brilliantly successful performances of Mozart's Don Giovanni. She also worked with M. Levine on several symphony, staged and concert-style opera performances with the Boston Symphony and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and as concertmaster under M. Raphael Fruhbeck de Burgos with pianist Emmanuel Ax. Ms. Hunter has also performed in and around Boston for many seasons as a member of the Boston Philharmonic, Nashua Symphony Orchestra, Discovery Ensemble, Juventas Ensemble, and as Concertmaster of the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. She also serves as a frequent casual with the New World Symphony in Miami, Florida under Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas where she was recently offered a prestigious full-time fellowship.

Winner of both the coveted 2010 Gilmore Young Artist Award and the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, 21 year-old pianist Charlie Albright makes his debuts this season in New York, sponsored by the Summis Auspiciis Price, and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, in the Young Concert Artists Series. He also debuts with the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Alondra de la Parra, performing Ellighton’s New World A Comin’, the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gerard Schwarz with the Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 with, and the Longwood Symphony Orchestra and conductor Lawrence Isaacson in Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2.

Mr. Albright appears in the Gilmore Rising Stars Series (MI) and at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He performs recitals at Patrons for Young Artists (NY), the Brownville Concert Series (NE), Longwood Gardens (PA), Music for Youth (CT), the Hudson Valley Music Club (NY), Fox Hill Village (MA), the Buffalo Chamber Music Society, the University of Georgia in Athens, Port Washington Library (NY), the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (IL), the Washington Center for the Performing Arts (WA), and the Jewish Community Alliance of Jacksonville (FL), in addition to educational residencies around the country. Last season included performances in Paris at the Salle Cortot, six concerts at the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, and as soloist with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Olympia Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Albright has won many awards for his playing, including the Paul A. Fish First Prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, the Ronald A. Asherson Prize, Summis Auspiciis Prize, the John Browning Prize, the Sander Buchman Prize, the Ruth Laredo Award, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival Prize, the Friends of Music Concerts Prize, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival Prize, and the Embassy Series Prize. Other awards include a Vendome Virtuoso Prize, the Elizabeth Leonskaya Special Award at the 2009 Vendome Prize International Piano Competition (Lisbon, Portugal), the 2008 Harvard Bach Society Orchestra’s concerto competition, Third Prize as the youngest competitor at the 2007 Hilton Head International Piano Competition, First Prize in the 2006 Eastman Piano Competition, First Prize in the 2006 Stecher and Horowitz Foundation’s New York Piano Competition, and First Prize in the 2005 IIYM International Competition (KS).

At the age of 18, Mr. Albright performed with cellist Yo-Yo Ma at a ceremony at which Senator Ted Kennedy received an honorary degree from Harvard University. Mr. Albright also performed with Mr. Ma in a program commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, featuring Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison. Born in Centralia, Washington, Mr. Albright began piano lessons at the age of three. He studied with Nancy Adsit, and has participated in master classes with Richard Goode, Leif Ove Andsnes, and Abbey Simon. Mr. Albright earned an Associate of Science degree at Centralia College while still in high school, and is currently a student in the Harvard University/New England Conservatory of Music joint program pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Pre-Med and Economics at Harvard and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, studying with Wha-Kyung Byun. He has been named the Artist in Residence for Harvard University’s Leverett House for the 2011-2012 academic year. Mr. Albright recently released his debut recording, Vivace, with works by Haydn, Menotti, Schumann-Liszt, Janácek, Chopin and Albright.

Kristian Baverstam has played principal clarinet with the Boston Civic Symphony since 2006 and joined the Neponset Valley Philharmonic in 2008. Prior to his appointments he received his Masters of Music from The Boston Conservatory, where he played clarinet in The Boston Conservatory Orchestra under music director Bruce Hangen. He received his B.A. from Boston College where he served as principal clarinet and soloist with the Boston College Symphony Orchestra. In 2002 he won the university concerto competition, performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Boston College Symphony Orchestra. In 2005 he won the concerto competition a second time, performing Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie for clarinet. Mr. Baverstam recently attended the Texas Music Festival where he performed with the orchestra and gave several chamber music concerts. He has performed chamber music extensively in the U.S. and Europe, including appearances at Festival Off in Verbier, Switzerland, Maison de Debussy in Paris and the Uppsala Cathedral in Sweden as well as on Voice of America. Mr. Baverstam is a dedicated performer of contemporary music and has premiered many works, including a triple concerto written by Julia Scott Carey for the Baverstam Chamber Players. He most recently recorded the world premiere of a triple concerto by Peter Lieuwen for Albany Records. He currently holds faculty positions at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and All Newton Music School. Mr. Baverstam has studied with Michael Wayne, Ian Greitzer, Thomas Hill and Richard Shaughnessy.

Chinese-Malaysian cellist Kett Chuan Lee joined the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008. Mr. Lee was the youngest member of the National Symphony Orchestra and Radio Television Orchestra in Malaysia where he worked for 3 years before coming to the United States in 2003. He holds performance diplomas from The Boston Conservatory and Longy School of Music, where he studied with Rhonda Rider and Mihail Jojatu. Kett Chuan is a career grant recipient of the Yayasan Seni Berdaftar (YSB) - a non-profit organization in Malaysia who sponsored him between the years 2004-2009. Kett is an active freelancer in the greater Boston area, currently plays the principal chairs of the Neponset Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra, Metrowest Symphony Orchestra, and Stow Festive Orchestra; other orchestra affiliations include Atlantic Symphony Orchestra, Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra, Cape Ann Symphony Orchestra, Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Vokes Music Theater, Reagles Music Theater, and others. Music festivals he attended such as the National Orchestral Institute, Garth Newel Music Center, Canton International Summer Music Academy, Asia Orchestra Week and Asian Youth Orchestra. He has performed in masterclasses for Bernard Greenhouse, Lawrence Lesser, Paul Katz, Stephen Geber, Andre Diaz, Andrew Mark, Marc Johnson, Valérie Aimard, Brian Manker, Yumi Kendall and David Ying.

A native of western Massachusetts, Fred Sienkiewicz came to Boston to pursue his Master's degree in performance from the New England Conservatory of Music. There he studied trumpet with Charles Schlueter, BSO's principal trumpet, and graduated with honors. Mr. Sienkiewicz is now a freelance artist-teacher of trumpet and the adjunct professor of trumpet at Gordon College.

Fred is an active performer in a wide range of settings, from local orchestras such as the Nashua and New Bedford symphonies, to frequent guest appearances with Bala Brass, to serving as trumpeter-in-residence at St. John the Evangelist in Hingham. Last spring he appeared as a soloist with the Gordon College Wind Ensemble in Arutunian's Concerto for Trumpet, and this fall presented a recital at Gordon of modern works for trumpet and piano. Fred has been involved in the NVPO since the beginning, performing in all three seasons and serving as personnel manager from 2008 to 2010.

Fred is a also passionate teacher, maintaining a studio of over thirty trumpet students in Lincoln, Concord, Shrewsbury and at Gordon College. This past summer he was in residence with Bala Brass as a coach at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, a program for advanced high school musicians.