String Players First and Second Prize

New England Conservatory congratulates violinist Robert Anemone ’08 PREP, ’12, ’14 MM and cellist Kenny Lee ’14 M.M.’15 G.D. who won first and second place respectively in the 43rd Hudson Valley Philharmonic String Competition, March 22 at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Anemone, who studied with James Buswell, was a concerto competition winner and performed the Berg Violin Concerto with the NEC Philharmonia; was a member of the Petrucci Quartet, an Entrepreneurial Musicianship/Quartetutopia ensemble; played the world premiere of Katherine Balch’s laspis in April 2014 and performed the Ives Trio on the First Monday at Jordan Hall concert on March 2. He is also Principal Second Violin of the Portland (ME) Symphony Orchestra. He won $3000, an engagement with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, May 14, in which he will play the Stravinsky Violin Concerto; and an opportunity to perform in an upcoming symposium in Italy.

Lee is a student of Paul Katz.  He was a member two years in a row of the Honors Ensemble Gioviale String Quartet 2012-13, 2013-14; will perform as an invited “guest artist” with the Borromeo Quartet on March 30, and will be the soloist, chosen by competition, in the Gulda Concerto for Cello and Wind Orchestra (1980) with the NEC Wind Ensemble and Charles Peltz on April 14. In March, he joined a large ensemble of cellists to pay tribute to the late composer Lee Hyla on the First Monday at Jordan Hall concert. He won $1500 in the competition, sharing the second prize with violinist Caeli Smith from the Juilliard School.