ANNOUNCING THE 2024 MICHAEL H. WELLES YOUNG SOLOIST COMPETITION WINNER
Maggie Bai, currently aged 13, is an 8th grader in Oak Hill Middle School. She started taking piano lessons at the age of four and is a pianist of extraordinary promise. She currently studies with Angel Ramon Rivera and Kanako Nishikawa. Maggie is enrolled at the New England
Conservatory (NEC) and is a selected member of the Chamber Music Intensive Performance Seminar (CHIPS). She participates in piano seminars with Konstantinos Papadakis, and studies chamber music with Laura Blustein, Kee Kim, and Yandi Chen.
Maggie's musical achievements include First Prize in the 2021 Steinway Society Piano Competition, the 2022 International Young Artists Competition (NLPA), and the 2024 XV Chopin International Piano Competition. She has also won prizes at the 2023 Steinway Society
Piano Competition, 2023 Concord Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition, and 2024 Brockton Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition. She has performed solo recitals at NEC Williams Hall and Concord Center.
Maggie’s passion for music extends beyond concerts and competitions. She is an avid accompanist for the New World Opera Choir and often volunteers in service events with her talent in music. She founded “TuneInclusive”, a non-profit organization that aims to provide free
classical music concerts to marginalized student bodies. TuneInclusive has hosted 4 concerts so far with the Access to Arts Programs and Youth Leadership Forum at Partners for Youth with Disabilities, and the Special Needs Arts Program (SNAP).
Beyond piano, she enjoys singing musicals, and Bel canto. Maggie exhibits passion and prowess in other disciplines, participating in debate and tennis, and displaying literary talent in creative writing as well as issue editing in her school newspaper organization. She has also won First Prize in multiple public speaking competitions both within the Newton Chinese Language School and in the local community.
ANNOUNCING THE 2023 MICHAEL H. WELLES YOUNG SOLOIST COMPETITION WINNER
Adalia Wen, from Weston, MA, has been studying the piano since she was four. She is currently a junior at the Rivers School and studies with Alexander Korsantia. Besides solo piano, she also takes part in various chamber music ensembles at the Rivers School Conservatory (as part of the ChamberMusicLab program), at the New England Conservatory, at her high school, and with independent projects.
Adalia also studies the guzheng (the Chinese zither) and composition. She enjoys arranging pieces for her friends and herself to perform at school concerts and local contemporary music festivals.
Adalia has won other notable first prizes, including the 2021-22 MTNA Competition in Massachusetts, the 2022 Rivers School Conservatory Concerto Competition, the 2022 Fidelity Investments Young Artists Competition, and the 2022 Steinway Society Piano Competition, Division II.
Adalia credits every one of her mentors and teachers, her fellow student musicians, her fellow non-musician friends, her siblings, and probably most of all, her parents, for inspiring her love for music.
Outside of music, Adalia also enjoys reading, writing poetry, the language of Latin, snowboarding, shooting, and competitive games.
Adalia will be performing the first movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, op. 37, with the Wellesley Symphony on Sunday, March 24, 2024, 3:00 pm at MassBay Community College. Please join us in celebrating Adalia's achievement!
ANNOUNCING THE 2022 MICHAEL H. WELLES YOUNG SOLOIST COMPETITION WINNER
Brian Lee, from Belmont, MA, began learning the cello at the age of 7 with teacher Eugene Kim. He is now 17 years old and attends the Belmont Hill School. He currently serves as the Associate Principal Cellist of the Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, and toured Athens, Thessaloniki, Patras, Corfu, Dodoni, and Delphi, performing with prominent soloists Zlatomir Fung and Soprano Sofia Fomina. He has participated in various chamber groups at the New England Conservatory and the Rivers School Conservatory.
Brian was the winner of the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association Bay State String Contests as well as the 5th Roman Totenberg Young Strings Competition. Recently, he won first place in the American Protégé International Competition of Romantic Music, and the Grand Prize of the Vision Competition.
Outside of cello, Brian is both the captain of his school’s Varsity Nordic Ski team and a Varsity coxswain, and loves coding, photography, and studying Latin/Greek.