With exuberance and joy, the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra shares our belief that live music brings all people together.
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.