Boston Conservatory Orchestra: Building Our Future Together—A Preview of Carnegie Hall’s United Nations Concert

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Thursday / December 4, 2025 / 6:00 p.m.

Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help

1545 Tremont St

Boston

Massachusetts

02120

United States

(View Map)

Boston Conservatory Orchestra performs a special program of works at Boston’s majestic Basilica of our Lady of Perpetual Help, including Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with soloist Byron Zhou, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro Overture, and excerpts of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. This concert takes place on the eve of the orchestra’s departure for New York City, where students will perform at Carnegie Hall for a special concert, Building Our Future Together, celebrating the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Program Information

Repertoire

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART: The Marriage of Figaro Overture

SEGEI RACHMANINOFF: Piano Concerto No. 3
I. Allegro ma non tanto
II. Intermezzo: Adagio
III. Finale: Alla breve

Byron Zhou, piano

—INTERMISSION—

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN: Symphony No. 9
I. Allegro ma non troppo, un poco maestoso
II. Scherzo. molto vivace – Presto
III. Adagio molto e cantabile

JEAN SIBELIUS: Finlandia

About the Artists

Byron Wei-Xin Zhou, piano, is an in-demand concert artist and soloist who performs throughout the United States and Asia. After winning first prize at the 2007 Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, Zhou started his career as a concert pianist, performing over 100 recitals across America, Asia, and Europe, including many prestigious concert venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Shanghai Concert Hall, Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center, Geneva’s Victoria Hall, and Milan’s Teatro alla Scala.

Zhou also regularly collaborates with many orchestras in concerto engagements, such as Cameristi della Scala for the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2, Kodaly Philharmonic Orchestra for the Ravel Piano Concerto, New England Conservatory Philharmonic Orchestra for the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1, and Shanghai Youth Philharmonic Orchestra for the Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3.

Born in Shanghai, Zhou started his piano studies there at age 3 with Christopher Zhong. Zhou moved to the United States in 2011, where he studied at New England Conservatory of Music for his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, at Carnegie Mellon University for his artist diploma, and Longy School of Music of Bard College for a graduate performance diploma under the tutelage of Wha Kyung Byun, Bruce Brubaker, Sergey Schepkin, and Esther Ning Yau.

Jorge Soto is a Venezuelan conductor and violinist with an active and diverse career in both North and South America. In 2023, Soto became principal conductor of the United Nations Festival Orchestra for Hope. He is also the principal conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra (Newton, Massachusetts) and principal guest conductor of the Massachusetts Symphony Orchestra (Worcester, Massachusetts). In addition to his regular posts, he has collaborated with several orchestras, most recently the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and he has conducted the Boston Symphony Chamber Players on three occasions. Since the 2020–2021 season, Soto has served as assistant or cover conductor for the BSO on several occasions, including for performances with Andris Nelsons, John Williams, David Robertson, Giancarlo Guerrero, Thomas Wilkins, and Stefan Asbury, among others. In addition, he assisted Gustavo Dudamel in the preparation of Puccini’s Turandot with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in December 2015.

Born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, Soto is a product of El Sistema, an innovative program that uses classical music as a vehicle for social change. He began his musical studies in Venezuela at the Vicente Emilio Sojo State Conservatory, later studying violin at the Latin American Academy of Violin under Rhio Sanchez, Francisco Diaz, and José Francisco Del Castillo. A founding member of the Simón Bolívar National Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, he has also performed with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas. He remains very active in El Sistema in Venezuela, where he teaches violin, coaches chamber music, and conducts orchestras around the country.

Soto graduated with a Master of Music in conducting from New England Conservatory. His conducting teachers and mentors include Harold Farberman, Jorma Panula, Stephen Tucker, Jani Telaranta, and Charles Peltz. On violin, he has studied with Sophie Vilker, Janne Malmivaara, Peter Sulski, and Timothy Schwarz.

Ensemble

CONDUCTOR
Jorge Soto

PICCOLO
Sabrina Clubine, MM '27

FLUTE
Maggie Stuteville, BM '27
Talley Powell, MM '27
Sabrina Clubine, MM '27

OBOE
Jesse Myers, BM '26
JD Uchal, MM '26

CLARINET
Rose Lao, MM '26
Andrew Lee, BM '26

BASSOON
Carson Saponaro, BM '26
Alexander Weber, BM '27
Kyle Sodman, GPD '26

CONTRABASSOON
Kyle Sodman, GPD '26

HORN
Cameron McCarty, GPD '27
Drew Lingenfelter, BM '28
Holly Fullerton, BM '26
Ricardo Verde, BM '26

TRUMPET
Freddie Poor, BM '27
Elliot Wlasiuk, BM '27
Emily Dillon, BM '27

TROMBONE
Kevin Smith, MM '26
Collin Hawkinson, BM '28

BASS TROMBONE
Collin Good, BM '26

TUBA
Clayton Frank, BM '27

PERCUSSION
Dustyn Carter, BM '27
John Hanchey, BM '27
Grant Mellone, BM '27
Lesely Silva-Garcia, BM '27

VIOLIN I
Isabella Yee, BM '26
Acadia Kunkel, BM '28
Lauren Oeser, MM '27
Zhuoma Jianyong, MM '26
Anna Vittoria Furlanetto, GPD '26
Jocelyn Wang, MM '26
Adrian Atonya, BM '26
Jules Rabinalek, BM '29
Fang-Yu Lin, MM '27
Pippin Forrest, BM '27
Emily Tang, MM '26
Raylene DeBenedictis, BM '29
Spencer Lee, MM '26
Shuyi Huang, BM '27

VIOLIN II
Melanie Ooi, MM '27
Annali Wirtz, BM '26
Ha-Min Lee, BM '29
Clara Frantzen, BM '29
Tess O.B. Reed, BM '28
Logan Boyd, BM '28
Joshua Rosenthal, BM '26
Lazaro Manzano, BM '29
Isabelle Parker, BM '28
Tian Tian, BM '26
Tony Che Hsun Hsu, MM '27
Mia Widner, BM '29

VIOLA
Katy Rose Bennett, MM '26
Changhyun Paek, GPD '25
Emily Tardiff, MM '26
Webb Hiaasen, BM '27
Dylan Cohen, BM '28
Julian Bernal, BM '27
Lydia Tan, BM '27

CELLO
Adam Broce, MM '26
Madeleine Corrigan, MM '26
Milla Chitwood, BM '27
Danielle Hall, MM '26
Yi-Hsien Lin, MM '26
Matt Williams II, BM '26
Zi Zeng, MM '26
Nadia Brooks, MM '26
Jayla Mitchell, MM '27
Ethan Lee, BM '27

BASS
Gabriel de los Reyes, BM '27
Zakar Basan, BM '27
Josiah Baiza, BM '29
Joe Holt, faculty artist

Concert Services Staff

Assistant Director, Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Coordinator, Concert Services – Matthew Carey
Concert Production Manager – Kendall Floyd
Performance Technology Technicians – Sara Pagiaro, Goran Daskalov

Special Thanks

Boston Conservatory at Berklee would like to extend our deepest appreciation to the Very Reverend Philip Dabney for so warmly, openly, and enthusiastically opening the doors of the beautiful Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in support of this performance.

Boston Conservatory thanks audience members for viewing this program information online. This paperless program saved 300 sheets of paper, 31 gallons of water, and 27 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.