Summer Music Academy
Summer Music Academy is a series of chamber music masterclasses for piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn players.
The classes are taught by the memebers of the globally acclaimed chamber music ensemble – the Scharoun Ensemble Der Berliner Philharmoniker. Each year about 30 musicians aged 18-28 are selected to attend the Academy. The Academy lasts over a week and culminates in a couple of run-out concerts and performances at the Centre, where the students play in chamber groups, often joined by the faculty members.
As we are happy to be back for the second year and bringing back two of our talented Young Scholars Avik Sarkar and Shuheng Zhang.
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Avik Sarkar is a seventeen-year-old pianist, cellist, and composer who is currently a junior at Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He studies piano with Mana Tokuno and Prof. Alexander Korsantiaat the New England Conservatory (NEC), and he previously studied with Niva Fried. Avik has won top prizes at several international, regional, and state piano competitions, including Forte Music, New York Artists, Louisiana,Bradshaw and Buono, Future Stars, and Hartford Chopin International Piano competitions. He was a first-prize winner of both the Mildred Freiberg and Ruth Davidson New England Piano Teachers Association, four-time winner of the Steinway Society of Massachusetts, and five-time winner of the Massachusetts Music Teachers Associationpiano competitions. Avikwas also the state winner ofthe Music Teachers National Association competition. He has performed in recitals at Cadogan Hall in London, UK, Symphony Hall in Boston, Carnegie Hall inNew York City, and was heard on WGBH Radio, NPR, Boston.
“I am thrilled to be chosen as a 2018–2020 Lang Lang Young Scholar! I am looking forward to the numerous opportunities that being a Young Scholar provides to learn and lead within the musical community. I believe it will be extremely beneficial to my growth as a pianist, musician, and artist and will allow me to develop skills as a performer and collaborator, which are essential to being a good musician. Music is important to me because it allows me to communicate in a way that extends beyond words and speech; it is a language that transcends divisions between people and can express our feelings with mutual understanding. Music is also important to me because it is a means of serving the community and helping the people around me. Lang Lang has been a huge idol of mine, and having the opportunity to work with him as a Young Scholar is truly a great honor and privilege!”
Aside from piano, Avik is an award-winning composer and plays cello in the NEC String Chamber Orchestra. His composition Mirror for Chamber Orchestra won the Carlos Surinach Prize BMI Student Composer award, given to the youngest laureate under age 27. Avik’s string quartet Polaritywas awarded first prize at the Robert Avalon International competition, runner-up at the Tribeca New Music Young Composers competition, and was premiered at the National Young Composers Symposium. His piece A Separate Unitywas also premiered by the Juventas New Music Ensemble at the Emerge program in Boston. Hisorchestral workPurviwas played by the Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava,Czech Republic, and won an honorable mention at the 2016 BMI Student Composer competition. He has had several other works performed by NEC preparatory students at Keller and Brown halls.
Avik is dedicated to bringing music to the community. He has worked with From the Top’s Center for the Development of Arts Leaders and is raising money for refugees in the Boston area by organizing a classical music benefit concert. Aside from music, he enjoys competition math, writing poetry, and watercolor painting. His poem Illegalwas published in the Best Teen Writing anthology of 2016.
aviksarkar.net
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Shuheng Zhang, a proud Lang Lang International Foundation Young Scholar, has been passionate about music ever since he started piano lessons at almost 9 years old.
He has won top prizes in many competitions such as Thousand Islands International Chopin Competition, David Dubois Piano Competition, MTNA Michigan Competition, MMTA SAT Solo and Concerto Competitions, Albion College International Piano Festival, to name a few. A frequent participant inprestigious piano festivals, Shuheng was selected to attend Lang Lang International Foundation 2016 Allianz Junior Music Camp held in Poland, 2017 Gina Bachauer International Piano Festival at Salt Lake City, and 2017 Piano Summer at SUNY New Paltz with full scholarship. He was also the youngest finalists of the 2016 MostArts Festival Piano Competition where he performed as a soloist with the MostArts Festival Orchestra. Shuheng has performed in masterclasses given by renowned pianists such as Dag Achatz, Alan Chow, Paulina Dokovska, Sean Duggan, Douglas Humphreys, Lang Lang, Panayis Lyras, John O’Conor, Robert Shannon, Sasha Starcevich and Nelita True, among others , and been praised for his sensitivity, interpretation and musicianship. Shuheng is very grateful for all the individuals and organizations who have been involved in his development in music, especially, his current teacher Logan Skelton, former teacher Mary Siciliano, Tian Tian,with whom Shuheng takes lessons regularly, and The Tuesday Musicale of Detroit.
“I am incredibly excited and honor to join the Lang Lang International Music Foundation family as a young scholar. I attended 2016 Allianz Junior Music Camp, which was such an impactful and enjoyable experience for me. Through the camp, I got to know more about the foundation, its people and its mission. So I am really looking forward to join the Lang Lang Young Scholars Program. I am looking most forward to learning more about music through the mentorship of Lang Lang and other great musicians, meeting other young scholars, and sharing my craft of performing to the public, especially, the next generation. I am always excited to learn about music, whether it be how music is performed, or how it is made, or just simply why music sounds the way it does; it’s all very fascinating and meaningful to me. I also am looking forward to meeting other Young Scholars because I always love being with people who share the same passion of music as I do, which always inspires me to become a better musician. Finally, I deeply enjoy performing music for others. Even though the cliché of “music is the universal language” has been overused almost to the point of meaninglessness, I believe there are still many truths that lie behind the statement. Music is something that everyone can relate with and enjoy, no matter how negative their view on all other subjects of the world are, as I have yet to meet a single person who claims that they do not enjoy music of any sort. Because of this, I want to spread music as a way for all people to relate with each other, to reconcile their differences, and to bring some form of common understanding between all people, and I believe that the Lang Lang Young Scholars Program, with its Keys of Inspiration™ and Play It Forward.™, will be a huge step forth in completing that vision.”
Shuheng loves sharing his passion for music with the community; he has been frequently giving outreach performances at schools and senior living houses. A well-rounded student, Shuheng excels in all school academic subjects and is serving in the board of his school’s student government.
Aside from piano, Shuheng enjoys playing hockey, jogging, and reading.
youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/ShuhengZhang
