STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: 2023 NEC FELLOWS

Caroline Jesalva (violin) studies with Nicholas Kitchen at the New England Conservatory of Music pursuing a B.M. in violin performance and a minor in Philosophy. Caroline was the 2018 Rising Young Artist of the Chapel Hill Philharmonia Young Artist Competition, a two- time winner of the Philharmonic Association Concerto Competition, and a finalist in the Ronald Sachs International Music Competition. She is an alumna of the Brevard Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, and has held fellowships with YellowBarn Young Artists, Bang-on-A Can, and Black House Collective. As an avid performer of new music, Caroline Jesalva has premiered works in collaboration with New England Conservatory’s Tuesday Night New Music, [nec] shivaree, and most recently, premiered the opera Iphigenia by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding. As a composer, Caroline has premiered her own works, which combines performance art, improvisation, text, and notated music with her ensemble Blind Glass, which was just named the 2022-2023 NEC Wildcard Honors Ensemble.

Bree Fotheringham (violin) is a dedicated artist and advocate for classical music in the 21st century. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Noah Bendix-Balgley, Andrew Marriner, Clive Greensmith, She-e Wu, and Jason Vieux and was awarded the Grand Prize at the North American Recovered Voices Chamber Music Competition. She has appeared as a soloist with the Utah Symphony and the Colburn Zipper Orchestra, among others. Fotheringham has appeared as a fellow at festivals such as the Colorado College Summer Music Festival, Sounding Point Academy, and the Aspen Music Festival, where she was one of two violinists to receive the orchestral leadership fellowship and serve as concertmaster of the Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra.

Fotheringham is passionate about community engagement and envisions a world where classical music concerts are inviting, invigorating, and relevant experiences shared by all members of the community. Recently, Fotheringham was selected for the New England Conservatory’s Community Performances and Partnerships Program’s Ensemble Fellowship, through which her ensemble created interactive educational programs for public schools throughout Boston. She is a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory of Music where she studied with Robert Lipsett, and currently studies at the New England Conservatory with Ayano Ninomiya.

Ayano Nakamura (viola) is an avid chamber musician, continuously looking for ways to collaborate with other musicians. She has attended Heifetz Institute of Music, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Madeline Island Chamber Music Festival as a fellow, and the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop. She was a member of the Alendo Quartet as part of the Young Artists Program at Cleveland Institute of Music. She won the Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition, a finalist at St. Paul Chamber Music Competition, and semi-finalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition with the Alendo Quartet.

She has performed in many renowned venues such as Severance Hall, Jordan Hall, EJ Thomas Hall, Musikverein, and Seiji Ozawa Hall. Originally from Hudson, Ohio, Ayano is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music in Viola Performance at the New England Conservatory studying under Martha Katz and Mai Motobuchi. She previously attended the Cleveland Institute of Music in the preparatory department where she studied with Jeffrey Irvine. She has worked with other artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Don Weilerstein, Joel Krosnick, Si Yan Darren Li, Cavani String Quartet, Emerson String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, American String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, and others.

Australian-Korean violist Lisa Sung has enjoyed a richly varied career thus far — from performing the Bartók Concerto at the Sydney Opera House, playing for then-Prime Minister of Australia, John Howard, and performing live on WQXR, Medici TV and Sydney radio broadcasts. She is currently a guest musician with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Her festival appearances include Music@Menlo International Program, Verbier Festival Academy, Yellow Barn, Perlman Music Program Chamber Workshop, Taos School of Music, and Krzyżowa-Music Festival, amongst others. Recent highlights include joining the New York Philharmonic on their tour of Germany, as well as a tour of Germany and Poland with the Krzyżowa-Music Festival.

Originally from Sydney, Lisa earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, where she studied with Paul Neubauer and Cynthia Phelps as a proud recipient of the inaugural Kovner Fellowship. She is currently completing her Graduate Diploma degree at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Kim Kashkashian. www.lisasungviola.com

Cellist Claire Park, age 22, began her cello studies at the age of 11 and currently studies under Mr. Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory. As a soloist, Claire enjoys captivating her audience with her love for music and has already won a number of major music competitions. Claire is a Grand Prize winner for the LA Finals of American String Teachers Association Solo Competition, a Bernstein prize winner of the Mondavi National Competition, and performed with the Palisades Symphony as an Alfred Newman Award recipient. Claire made her concert debut performing with the Eastern Sierra Symphony at Mammoth Lakes in 2016.  Claire also appreciates learning about the beautiful dimensions of music while playing with other musicians-- She has been the Assistant Principal Cellist of the New York String Orchestra conducted by Jaime Laredo at the age of 16, a member of the American Youth Symphony, Principal Cellist of Sierra Music Festival Chamber Orchestra, the youngest member of Young Artist Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Treger, and a member of the Debut Chamber Orchestra. She attended Aspen Festival 2018, 2019, 2021, participating in the Finckel Wu Han Chamber workshop with New Horizon Fellowship in 2018, Orford Music Festival 2022, Music@Menlo, and Montecito International Music Festival. Claire is also a cellist of the NEC Honors Quartet “Sano” for the year 2022-2023, and has  served in NEC Honors Quartet “Arcturus” in 2021.

With a great enthusiasm for music, Yi-I Stephanie Yang (cello) has demonstrated her artistic talent through great sensitivity in her cello playing.

Yi-I has performed actively with a wide range of artists such as Jaime Laredo, Hugh Wolff, David Loebel, George Li, and Ling-Yi Ouyang. Throughout her training as a young cellist, Yi-I was a member of New York String Orchestra Seminar in 2022 and received the first prize in Hsinchu City Cello Competition. She was also selected as the most outstanding cellist by the Taipei Symphony Orchestra in 2018.

As a chamber musician, Yi-I has collaborated with pianist Michael Ertzscheid from Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris in France in 2015, and performed Dvorak Piano Quintet with pianist Pi-Hsien Chen in Boston in 2016. Her piano trio received the first prize of the National Taiwan Chamber Music Competition in 2019. She later participated in a Music For Food Broadcast with her trio in 2020. Yi-I and her string quartet were invited by the Taipei Economy and Cultural Office in Boston to perform on the National Day Reception in 2021.

Yi-I currently studies at the New England Conservatory, under the guidance of cellist Paul Katz.