NEC Preparatory School: Junior Repertory Orchestra and Youth Repertory - Melba Sandberg Memorial Concert

NEC Preparatory School's Junior Repertory Orchestra and Youth Repertory Orchestra present their final concert of the season. 

New England Conservatory is honored to hold this year's NEC Preparatory School: Junior Repertory Orchestra and Youth Repertory final concert of the 2022-2023 year in memory of Melba Sandberg. Melba was a valued member of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School faculty for over 20 years. 

Melba was born in Lindsborg, Kansas in 1923 to Elof and Tekla Haroldson. At an early age, Melba discovered her love for the violin. This would be a passion that would define her and help positively shape the lives of thousands of other young people, including hundreds at NEC. Growing up in the midst of the Great Depression, she graduated from Bethany College and then the prestigious Yale School of Music in 1946. Melba Sandberg lived in many parts of the country in her full, rich life, including Portland, OR, New York City, Binghamton, NY, and Pittsburgh, PA. She traveled the world with her violin, studying in Japan with the Suzuki Program, and playing in destinations such as Italy, Japan and Africa. She was the concertmaster of several orchestras, including Pittsburgh and Binghamton, NY. 

She spent the greater part of her later years in what she described as her favorite city: Boston, MA. Her life with the violin brought her much joy. In Boston, she was a teacher and a conductor of youth orchestras. Her passion was to share her gift of music with young people. She was on the faculty of the All Newton Music School, the Longy School of Music, and the esteemed New England Conservatory. At 83 years old, she would still drive down Huntington Avenue, park her car at NEC, and share her love of music and the violin with her students. For years, she was the conductor of the NEC Youth Repertory Orchestra. In 2006, she was the second recipient of the NEC Preparatory School's Jean Stackhouse Award for Excellence in Teaching, given annually to a single faculty member who has been nominated by her colleagues. 

This is an in-person event with a private stream available to the NEC community here: www.necmusic.edu/streaming-jordan-hall. The livestream password is NECAY23.