About the Ensemble
About the Artists
Evren Ozel
American pianist Evren Ozel has established himself as a musician of refined restraint (Third Coast Review), combining fluent virtuosity with probing, thoughtful interpretations. Having performed extensively in the United States and abroad, Evren is the recipient of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and is currently represented by Concert Artists Guild as an Ambassador Prize Winner of their 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition.
Since his debut at age 11 with the Minnesota Orchestra, Evren has gone on to be a featured soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Boston POPS Orchestra, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College with conductors including Jahja Ling, Courtney Lewis, Keith Lockhart, and Leon Botstein. In the 2023-24 season, he will record Mozart Concertos with the Radio Symphonieorchester Wien and conductor Howard Griffiths.
Evren has performed recitals at important venues across the US, including The Gilmore’s Wellspring Theater, the Harvard Musical Association, and the Ordway. In 2021 he delivered an all-Chopin recital under a joint collaboration between the Schubert Club and Chopin Society of Minnesota, to critical acclaim. In the 2023-24 season, Evren looks forward to performing the last three Beethoven Sonatas in recital, as well as a recital debut in Boston’s Jordan Hall.
Evren began learning piano from the Suzuki method in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, studying with Cindy Malmin. He later studied for seven years with Dr. Paul Wirth in Minneapolis, and then moved to Massachusetts at age 15 to study with Wha Kyung Byun at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School. Evren received his Bachelors and Masters degrees from the New England Conservatory and is currently a candidate in their Artist Diploma program, all under the tutelage of Wha Kyung Byun. Other important mentors include Jonathan Biss, Imogen Cooper, Richard Goode, Dr. Sarah Miller, Tom Rosenberg, and Mitsuko Uchida.
Nathan Amaral
Leland Ko
Chinese-Canadian cellist Leland Ko has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues such as Merkin Concert Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York, Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall in Boston, and internationally in Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Israel, and Spain. He is a laureate of the Concert Artists Guild Louis and Susan Meisel Competition and the Walter W. Naumburg International Cello Competition.
Born and raised in Boston, Leland was a student of Kirsten Peltz, Ronald Lowry, and Paul Katz before attending Princeton University, where he graduated with an A.B. in German Literature. He went on to complete an M.M. at The Juilliard School under the teaching of Minhye Clara Kim, Timothy Eddy, and Natasha Brofsky, and then earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory under guidance of Laurence Lesser, Yeesun Kim, and Donald Weilerstein.
Leland performs on a Matteo Goffriller cello, Venice, c. 1707, ex-Lorne Munroe, which is on loan to him from Mr. Higgin Kim, Chairman of Byucksan Engineering Co. Ltd through Sejong Soloists. His professional development activities are generously supported by Marilyn G. and Joseph B. Schwartz.