• Program
• About the Artists
  • Sophia Anna Szokolay
  • Alan Toda-Ambaras
  • Janice Lu

Program

Full Program (PDF)

About the Artists

Sophia Anna Szokolay

Canadian violinist Sophia Anna Szokolay has performed across Canada, the United States and Europe as a recitalist and chamber musician. She is a Doctoral Candidate at the New England Conservatory and a member of the chamber music faculty at the NEC pre-college program.

Sophia has performed with A Far Cry, the Etobicoke Philharmonic, Győr Philharmonic, Narragansett Bay Symphony, Scarborough Philharmonic, and Toronto Sinfonietta. Equally at home with chamber and orchestral repertoire, Sophia plays with the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, Juventas New Music Ensemble, and Phoenix Chamber Orchestra. Her love of new music has previously led to work with composers Brett Dean, John Heiss, David Ludwig, James MacMillan, and Jörg Widmann. In 2021 she gave the North American premiere of Widmann’s String Quartet No. 7.

Sophia held Teaching and Community Engagement Fellowships at The Juilliard School where she worked with violin and music theory students at Opportunity Music Project and at Thurgood Marshall Academy Lower School. In 2020, she performed online for ICU Covid-19 patients and their families across the United States with Project: Music Heals Us, she curated an online Music and Movement class for toddlers and led music appreciation workshops at Lenox Hill Women’s Shelter.

Sophia received her Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory with a Minor in Music Theory, and her Master’s Degree from Juilliard. Her teachers include Catherine Cho, Miriam Fried, and Donald Weilerstein.

Sophia’s other passions include photography and running. She competed in the TCS Toronto Marathon in October 2022.

Alan Toda-Ambaras

Active as both a soloist and a chamber musician, cellist Alan Toda-Ambaras has performed with renowned artists such as Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, the Borromeo Quartet, the Parker Quartet, and the Boston Trio. He has appeared twice as a soloist with the North Carolina Symphony.

Recent appearances include performances in Tokyo’s Ohji Hall, Osaka’s Phoenix Hall, National Academy of Music in Vietnam, Massachusetts State Hall, the Taos Music Festival, Harvard University’s Paine Hall, and the New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall. He has been featured on French television and in several European documentaries due to his participation in the Rostropovich Competition; he has also been heard on NPR’s From The Top program, New York’s WKCR Classical station, and Boston’s Neighborhood News Network.

Alan has a B.A. in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. He is a co-founder of the Eureka Ensemble, a young social action-oriented Boston music organization.

Janice Lu

Born in Taiwan in 1996, pianist Yun Janice Lu made her orchestral debut with the Taiwan Youth Orchestra. She has appeared in recitals as soloist in Kaohsiung City Music Hall and Jhih-De Hall in Taiwan, Europe, and North America.

An avid chamber musician, Janice has appeared at numerous music festivals, including Walnut Hill Music Festival, Academie Internationale d’Ete de Nice, PianoTexas Festival, PianoFest in the Hamptons, Music Academy of the West, Taos Chamber Music Festival, and Four Season Chamber Music Festival. At the renowned Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival in California, she studied with Clive Greensmith of the Tokyo String Quartet and with Gilbert Kalish, Glenn Dicterow, Erin Keefe, Paul Neubauer, and Wu Han.

Janice obtained her Bachelor of Music degree at California State University Fullerton School of Music under the tutelage of Ning An. Janice earned a Master of Music degree at the Yale School of Music, where she studied with Wei-Yi Yang. While at Yale, Janice was awarded the Elizabeth Parisot Prize for outstanding pianists.

Janice is currently working on her doctorate at the New England Conservatory, where she studies with Alessio Bax and Alexander Korsantia.