OWL riot Honors Recital

Each year, an audition committee of professional musicians selects a few exceptional student ensembles to represent the NEC Honors Ensemble Program. The ensembles work with a faculty coach and are given an opportunity to perform a spring recital in NEC's Jordan Hall.

Tonight's concert features OWL riot, a flute-viola-harp trio composed of Bo Lee, Hope Wilk, and Daniel Orsen. This ensemble is coached by chamber music coach and Borromeo String Quartet violist Mai Motobuchi.

Daniel Orsen, Hope Wilk, and Bo Lee were first brought together by John Heiss in the winter of 2017 to perform Sofia Gubaidulina's "Garden of Joy and Sorrow," and had the great fortune of working with the composer in preparation for the concert.The trio reassembled in the fall with Mai Motobuchi as coach, and were selected as one of New England Conservatory’s 2017-2018 Honors Ensembles. Thus, they were faced with their most daunting task of choosing a name.

For a few weeks the trio had settled in with the working name of "Pink Shark," inspired by an awesome shirt that Dan wears on festive occasions. Unfortunately, after several weeks of running the name by people, it was recognized by one single person as a naughty euphemism (but truly, isn't one of the glories of the English language that anything can be a euphemism if one wants it to be?). OWL Riot was eventually alighted upon because they are a hoot.

The trio is in their second year of graduate studies at NEC. Their individual accomplishments and activities include; prizes at the Pappoutsakis Memorial Flute Competition, South Carolina Flute Society's Young Artist Competition, and ASTA National Solo Competition; festival appearances at Ravinia, Sick Puppy, and Bang on a Can; and occasional subbing with the Philadelphia Orchestra and dabbling in the Dark Arts/CI Ensembles.