NEC Youth Symphony + Karidoyanes

Steven Karidoyanes directs the NEC Youth Symphony (YS).

NEC's Youth Symphony is one of the top-tier ensembles in the Preparatory School's multi-tier orchestra program. This past summer, the orchestra performed in Budapest and Prague as part of its bi-yearly international tour.

Tonight's concert features music from the Romantic period and the early Twentieth Century, and highlights some of NEC Prep's most talented young players.  The orchestra opens with Fetes from Debussy's Three Nocturnes, followed by Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Prep soloist Kate Arndt. The program finishes with Grieg's Piano Concerto in A minor, with Prep soloist Felix Chen.

Arndt and Chen are winners of the NEC Preparatory School 2010 Concerto Competition.

Arndt, 14, is from Littleton, MA, and has been at NEC Prep since 2008. She is a former student of Kelly Barr, and currently studies with Yuri Mazurkevich. This is her third year as a member of NEC's Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, and she is also an avid chamber player, studying sonata duos with Maria Benotti and chamber music with Natasha Brofsky.

Chen, 16, is a student at Shrewsbury High School.  He currently studies with Faina Kofman at NEC Prep. He has won numerous honors for his piano playing, including first prize at the Worcester Youth Symphony Orchestra competition in 2008.  He is also a clarinetist, winning first prize at the Music Worcester Young Artists competition on clarinet earlier this year.