Performances + Events
NEC’s 2026 Concert Artists Series, which showcases the exceptional musicians in the Conservatory’s Institute for Concert Artists and Professional Programs, opens on Friday, February 13, with a recital by violinist Joshua Brown ’22, ’24 MM, ’26 AD and continues with performances by pianists Yunchan Lim ’26 AD and Clayton Stephenson ’23 Harvard/NEC, ’27 AD, soprano Dani Jingdan Zhang ’26 AD, and Trio Eris, NEC’s Piano Trio in Residence.
In addition to their individual recitals during the Spring 2026 semester, NEC Concert Artists will share the Jordan Hall stage for an Institute for Concert Artists Showcase in what promises to be an evening of extraordinary artistry and spirited collaboration.
Save these dates for NEC’s 2026 Concert Artists Series:
Friday, February 13: violinist Joshua Brown
Sunday, March 15: Trio Eris, NEC’s Piano Trio in Residence
Wednesday, March 25: pianist Clayton Stephenson
Wednesday, April 1: Institute for Concert Artists Showcase
Sunday, April 26: pianist Yunchan Lim*
Sunday, May 10: soprano Dani Jingdan Zhang
*Tickets will be available two weeks before the recital.
Global audiences are familiar with NEC’s Concert Artists. Brown, a 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, won Second Prize and the Audience Awards at the 2024 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, First Prize at the inaugural Global Music Education International Violin Competition in Beijing in 2023, and First Prize and the Audience Award at the 2019 International Violin Competition of Leopold Mozart in Augsburg, Germany.
In 2022, then-18-year-old Lim became the youngest person to ever win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He has since been hailed by audiences and critics alike for his live and recorded performances.
Stephenson, who graduated from the Harvard/NEC dual-degree program in 2023 and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2024, was the first Black finalist at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, won the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition in 2024, and received the Sphinx Organization’s Sphinx Medal of Excellence in 2025.
Zhang won a Gold Award at the 2023 PREMIA International Young Artists Music Festival Competition and has performed with Opera Hong Kong, Odyssey Opera, the Hong Kong Bach Choir, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
And Trio Eris, NEC’s Piano Trio in Residence, reached the finals of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation’s 2025 Chamber Music Competition. The trio — violinist K.J. McDonald ’25 GD, ’26 MM, cellist Annie SeEun Hyung ’26 MM, and pianist Andrew Jun Chen ’24 MM, ’26 GD — is mentored at NEC by pianist Vivian Hornik Weilerstein, who directs the Professional Piano Trio program.
It is our privilege to present performances by these virtuosic and musically thoughtful artists. We look forward to joining you in Jordan Hall for concerts that will no doubt be as memorable as they are exhilarating.
