Performances + Events
New England Conservatory’s prestigious Institute for Concert Artists, which was launched at the beginning of the 2024–2025 academic year, welcomes back violinist Joshua Brown ’22, ’24 MM, ’26 AD, pianist Yunchan Lim ’26 AD, and soprano Dani Jingdan Zhang ’26 AD, each of whom is in their final year in the ICA, through which they will earn NEC’s prestigious artist diploma. Joining these exceptional performers this year is pianist Clayton Stephenson ’23 Harvard/NEC, ’27 AD.
“The Institute for Concert Artists is unlike any other program,” pianist and ICA Advisor Gloria Chien ’99, ’01 MM, ’04 DMA said. “Beyond exceptional training from NEC’s esteemed faculty, Joshua, Yunchan, Dani, and Clayton are supported through individually tailored mentorship, professional-development tools, meaningful connections, and performance opportunities. The ICA serves as an artistic home for these extraordinary young musicians and empowers them to step confidently onto the global stage.”
Global audiences are already 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.
NEC’s Institute for Concert Artists, whose first graduates include soprano Josie Larsen ’23 MM, ’25 AD and pianists Evren Ozel ’17 Prep, ’21, ’23 MM, ’25 AD, Changyong Shin ’25 AD, and Yutong Sun ’19, ’21 MM, ’22 GD, ’25 AD, offers a transformative experience for artists of extraordinary talent who are on the threshold of major performing careers. Since earning their artist diplomas, Ozel, Larsen, Shin, and Sun have continued to grow their international careers.
Ozel won Third Prize and received the award for the Best Performance of a Mozart Concerto at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in June. In July, he released a recording that features performances of two of Mozart’s piano concertos — No. 9 in E-flat major, K. 271, “Jenamy,” and No. 12 in A major, K. 414 — with conductor Howard Griffiths and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. Larsen is currently in the 2025–2026 class of Jane & Steven Akin Emerging Artists at the Boston Lyric Opera. In May, Larsen will join the ensemble at the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Shin performed the first three of Prokofiev’s piano concertos in one concert last year in Korea and will serve on the preliminary-round jury for the 2026 Gina Bachauer Junior Competition in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sun, whose new album Lumina was released this past summer, recently received the China Golden Bell Award, the country’s most significant classical music prize.
In addition to mentorship from NEC’s esteemed faculty, NEC Concert Artists enjoy access to preeminent performers and innovative arts leaders. The Institute’s Advisory Council is a group of professionals whose careers are as multifaceted as they are impressive. Members of the Advisory Council serve as thought partners for Chien and NEC President Andrea Kalyn and provide guidance and support to the Conservatory’s Concert Artists.
The Advisory Council includes the remarkable musician and administrator Robert Ainsley, who serves as artistic and general director of the Glimmerglass Festival; revered pianist and recording artist Leif Ove Andsnes; versatile countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who is general director and president of Opera Philadelphia; Grammy Award-winning violinist Hilary Hahn; Avery Fisher Career Grant and Avery Fisher Prize-winning clarinetist Anthony McGill, who holds a principal position in the New York Philharmonic; Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter and NEC alumna Aoife O’Donovan ’03; and widely admired industry leader Abhijit Sengupta, Carnegie Hall’s director of artistic planning.
“We are honored to bring together some of today’s most visionary artistic leaders — luminaries whose ideals embody excellence, curiosity, and integrity,” Chien said. “Their insight and partnership play a vital role in shaping the future of the ICA and supporting the artistic growth of our Concert Artists.”
The uniqueness of NEC’s Institute for Concert Artists is the robust professional-development support the performers are offered. In the ICA’s inaugural year, NEC Concert Artists participated in professional-development workshops with Hilary Hahn, Chamber Music America’s Kevin Kwan Loucks, and industry leaders including Unison Media’s Andrew Ousley and veteran classical-music consultant Lydia Connolly. NEC Concert Artists also had press images taken by Berlin-based photographer Neda Navaee. Each Concert Artist receives a full-tuition scholarship and stipend and is eligible for support for travel and artistic projects.
As they develop international careers, NEC Concert Artists enjoy a home on the Conservatory’s Jordan Hall stage. Each is featured on NEC’s Concert Artists Series, a cornerstone of the Institute for Concert Artists, and in annual showcase concerts in New York and Boston. “They have so much admiration and respect for each other,” Chien said after a showcase performance at NEC in March in which five of NEC’s concert artists appeared in a single extraordinary program. “I was just in awe of them.” NEC Concert Artists also enjoy exposure to new audiences through NEC’s broadcast relationship with The Violin Channel and performances on WQXR. The 2026 showcase concerts will take place on February 9 at Steinway Hall in New York City and April 1 in New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. The showcase concert at NEC will be broadcast live on The Violin Channel.
