Haydn and Shostakovich at Edward King House on November 17th
/On Sunday November 17th at 2pm, the second concert of the Newport String Project season will be held at Edward King House in Newport. The program features Haydn String Quartet op 77, no 1 and Shostakovich Quartet no 1. Emmy and Ealaín are delighted to be joined by two wonderful guest artists, Lauren Nelson (viola) and Ariana Falk (cello). Read more about Lauren and Ariana below:
Lauren Nelson
Violist Lauren Nelson believes that music has the power to reach everyone. Growing up in rural New Hampshire, she was a regular participant at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music where she learned how classical music can bring people from all walks of life together, and how specifically chamber music has the power to build communities. Nowadays, she’s building a career that combines performing, teaching and social action to make an impact on her community. A recent graduate of Boston’s New England Conservatory (Graduate Diploma) she is making an impact teaching music to the children of the Haitian community of Hyde Park, MA. Lauren’s performance career takes her through many musical environments, from Boston’s Jordan Hall, to New York’s Whitney Museum with the Wordless Music Ensemble, from Carnegie Hall, and the Kennedy Center to Sculler’s Jazz Club in Cambridge, MA. Most recently she has performed with The Apple Hill String Quartet, Phillip Ying, David Ying, Mark Fewer and Susan Cahill. Lauren is also a regular sub with the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami, FL. She is an active freelancer in and around the Boston area and is starting to get involved with local bands. Lauren’s early influences have manifested themselves in extensive work within the string quartet repertoire. While working on her Master’s Degree at the Music School of the University of Kentucky she was the violist in the Niles String Quartet. With this group she worked with the Juilliard String Quartet at their Intensive Quartet Seminar and studied at the Banff Centre for the Arts in Alberta Canada. Lauren is also a committed educator and arts advocate. She is fully behind the El Sistema movement, and is currently a dedicated teacher at the Youth and Family Enrichment Services after school program in Hyde Park. Here she focuses on musical and personal development through peer-teaching and rigorous lessons and rehearsals. Lauren studied viola with Roger Tapping at the New England Conservatory. She received her Master’s Degree from the University of Kentucky and her Bachelor’s Degree from the Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Deborah Lander and John Graham, respectively.
Ariana Falk currently serves as Education Director for the Worcester Chamber Music Society and runs the Neighborhood Strings program, which provides free lessons in string instruments to youth from Worcester’s Main South community. She received a degrees from Boston University and the Yale School of Music, where she was recipient of the Aldo Parisot Prize. She also studied English at Yale College. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Germany and now serves as Music Director of the Massachusetts Fulbright Association. She has recently appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Stow Festival Orchestra, Portland’s Columbia Symphony, and the Olympia Symphony. As a chamber musician, she performs with the Burlington Ensemble, and has recently appeared as a guest artist on the Marlboro College and Longy Faculty Artist series and live on WGBH Boston and WVPR. She has performed as a string quartet player at the Juilliard, Great Lakes, and Deer Valley music festivals, performed at other summer festivals including the Norfolk Music Festival and Banff Centre, and served on the string faculty of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Worcester Chamber Music Society Summer Festival. In addition, Ariana has toured with the Grammy Award- nominated Yale Cellos, including performances at Carnegie Hall and in France and England. Ariana’s first chamber music experience was her teenage string quartet, which included her twin brother as the violist (now a physicist). They sounded pretty good and even got on the pilot season of “From the Top,” but they fought like children until they reconciled a decade later. Ariana also enjoys tennis and marathon running and thinks sports and music go together surprisingly well.