La Fenice's pianist Diane Walsh describes her musical background, working with Peggy Pearson, her role in the Broadway play "33 Variations," and the future of chamber music.

Our opening concert this season features the Boston premiere of a work by one of our dear friends, Lev Mamuya.  I have known Lev through Project STEP since he was about 3 feet tall and eight years old!  He is currently entering his second year of the Harvard/NEC program, and I am honored that he took the time to write a piece for Winsor Music (our 5th from him). 

It's been a big year for George Li, and for someone who had already performed at the White House for Barack Obama and Angela Merkel by age 15, that's saying something. A Lincoln Center/New York concerto debut, a silver medal from the Tchaikovsky Competition, a string of high profile recital and concerto bookings, and a $25,000 Avery Fisher Career Grant... and those are just the highlights. Did we mention that he's also in a dual degree program at Harvard and NEC?

Andreia Pinto-Correia is an award-winning Portuguese composer, a student of John Harbison, and the featured composer on the final concert of Winsor Music's 2015-16 season. The prestigious Jornal de Letras wrote: "The music of Andreia Pinto-Correia has been a major contribution to the dissemination of Portugal’s culture and language, perhaps a contribution larger than could ever be imagined."

Rupert Thompson's life story is a testament to the power of mentoring and the necessity of arts education in public schools. His belief in and advocacy of these ideas is compelling and urgent, grounded in his own history and lived every day through his work at the Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. You can come and meet Rupert and the other members of the Apple Hill String Quartet, at our concert on Sunday, April 24, at 7:00pm, at St. Paul's Church in Brookline. 

Winsor Music is honored to present the world premiere of a personal, powerful new work by a young composer, Yi Yiing Chen. Her credentials are impressive, but her intellect, empathy, and openness shine her writing, both verbal and musical.  We are so grateful that she has shared her story with us in her music and in this vivid and thoughtful interview. 

We're less than a month away from our third concert of the season, and we'd like to introduce you to the pieces, performers and composers. Do you know how Haydn's "Miracle" Symphony got its nickname? Any guess as to who our newest young composer studies with? (Hint: it's an old friend!)

On November 23rd, at 7pm, at St. Paul’s Church in Brookline, our featured contemporary work will be the Sonata for Oboe and Piano by composer, conductor, author, and educator Gunther Schuller, who passed away on June 21st this year at the age of 89. Our concert is the last in a series of events honoring Mr. Schuller, and to learn more about him, we spoke with Bruce Creditor, a long-time friend and colleague of both Mr. Schuller and our artistic director, Peggy Pearson. 

We are beyond delighted and grateful to be able to tell you that we not only met but exceeded the goal of our Hatchfund campaign! Because of the generosity of our campaign supporters, we were able to add three new students to the mentoring program, and we are delighted to introduce them to you now.  

Marcy Rosen is an acclaimed cellist: soloist, chamber musician, teacher, and mentor. Somehow, in the midst of a stunningly rich career, Marcy and four of her equally gifted and in-demand friends (among them, our Artistic Director Peggy Pearson) made the time to form the La Fenice Quintet. She spoke to us on the role of chamber music in her life and career, the power and benefits of mentorship for both the mentor and protege, and why making music with friends is her preferred coping method in times of great trauma and grief.  

Did you miss our concert on the Charles River Basin with Violobos and Captain Benjamin Zander? If so, never fear — you can re-live the journey with our slideshow!

Many of you know and love Megan Henderson from her work as a pianist with Winsor Music's concert series and outreach program. We're so pleased to introduce her to you anew as a composer of our newest Song for the Spirit (although anyone involved in the Boston-area Shape Note community has known this side of her work for many years)! We discussed her history of writing music in (and bending the rules of) the Shape Note tradition, how she navigates between many musical traditions and practices, and why, for her, every song looks to the Spirit. 

Mitsuru Yonezaki is our featured young artist for the first concert of our 2015-16 season, and a founding member of Winsor Music's first mentoring ensemble, Violobos! She began her violin studies at the age of four and currently studies with Joanna Kurkowicz. She took time out of her busy schedule to speak with us about how she has embraced chamber music, how singers and wind players like Peggy inspire her, and how music fits into her present and future. 

We are officially launching our Mentoring Program campaign on Hatchfund, a non-profit crowd-funding website dedicated exclusively to supporting art and artists like us.  I am happy to say that with the support of donors like you, we have already raised $1600, or an astounding 40% of our target goal!

It’s hard to believe, but this is the fifth year that the Bach Institute, a collaboration between Emmanuel Music, Winsor Music, and Oberlin College, has been in operation! Exciting enough that it’s our fifth anniversary, but even more exciting is the fact that we are holding competitive auditions for the first time this year! 

We absolutely love this interview: it's a chance to hear John Harbison and Peggy Pearson in conversation, a masterclass on the hard work and intentional craft of singing, an insightful analysis of Cantata 170, and a beautiful and thoughtful tribute to Lorraine, both as a musician and a person.