Members

Sarita Kwok

Australian violinist Sarita Kwok has been featured on stages in Australia, New Zealand, England, Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Israel, Japan and the United States and has performed as a soloist with the major symphony orchestras in her home country. After being named the James Fairfax Sydney Symphony Orchestra Young Artist she made her debut with the Sydney Symphony at 15 and went on to win Australia’s most prestigious musical award: ‘The Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year (Strings)’. She has been awarded prizes at the Kloster Schöntal International Violin Competition, Germany, Gisborne International Music Competition, New Zealand, and an Honorary Diploma at the 7th Wieniawski and Lipinski International Competition, Poland.

As a soloist and chamber collaborator, Ms. Kwok has been featured at the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Thayer Academy Winter Series, Hebron Academy and Temple Emanuel Chamber Series, Hammond Performing Arts Series and on WGBH public radio. This season she performed on the Concert des Lauréats de l’Académie de Lausanne, Switzerland and was nationally broadcast by Suisse Romande radio. Ms. Kwok has performed in concert with Pinchas Zukerman, Amanda Forsyth, Boris Berman and members of the Tokyo String Quartet and has worked in master-classes with the late Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Midori, Pierre Amoyal, Bruno Canino, and members of the Takacs, Guarneri and Juilliard quartets.

Ms. Kwok is sought after as an educator, having given master-classes and talks at the Rockport Festival, Hammond Performing Arts series, Wellesley College, and Central Connecticut State University. She has also completed a series of solo recordings for the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Ms. Kwok received her Doctoral and Master of Musical Arts degrees from the Yale School of Music under Syoko Aki and the Tokyo String quartet. She currently serves on the faculty of the Yale Department of Music and is the Coordinator for the Undergraduate Lessons Program at the Yale School of Music. Ms. Kwok is on the roster of the Swiss Global Artistic Foundation.

Lauren Basney

Violinist Lauren Basney made her solo New York debut at Weill Hall in Carnegie Hall in 2004. Since then, she has performed throughout the US and Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Israel and Australia. In the US, she has performed at such New York venues as Avery Fisher, Alice Tully and Merkin Halls, St. Patrick’s and St. Bartholomew’s Cathedrals, Columbia University, the National Arts Club, the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Art, and Grace Church, as well as the Cosmos Club in Washington DC, Paine Recital Hall at Harvard University in Cambridge, and the Lilypad in Boston. This past January, she performed a tour with the Orvieto Trio in southern California, with multiple appearances in Escondido, San Marcos, and San Diego.

Lauren won first prize at the Zerounian and Madura String Competitions and was twice the winner of the Special Presentation Award sponsored by New York’s Artists International, Inc.. She was chosen as a Yamaha Young Performing Artist, and received the prestigious Oundjian Scholarship to enter the Juilliard School, which she attended as a full-scholarship student, receiving her BM in 2001. Lauren continued her studies at Yale School of Music, graduating with her MM in 2005 and Artist Diploma in 2006.

An enthusiastic chamber musician, Lauren has performed with members of the Tokyo, Juilliard, Shanghai, Colorado and Daedalus String Quartets, and has appeared in master-class for the Guarneri, Emerson, Takacs and Ying Quartets. Past ensembles have included the New York Piano Trio, and the Latett Duo. Dedicated to education, Lauren has presented recitals and master-classes at Colby College, Connecticut College, Amherst College, the University of San Diego, Western Michigan University, the University of Bridgeport, Fairfield University, and Southern Connecticut State University. She is also a passionate advocate of new music, premiering works by composers Avner Dorman, Jonathan Kern, Ryan Vigil, Douglas Fisk, Brett Keuper-Abigana, and Eldon Basney.

Stephanie Fong

Praised for her “sensitivity and care” by the Boston Globe, Stephanie Fong has captivated audiences worldwide, including performances in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Jordan Hall and venues throughout Europe, Bermuda, and Mexico. A top prizewinner at the Fischoff Chamber Music competition, Ms. Fong is a guest artist in residence at the University of Michigan where she teaches chamber music. She is an avid chamber musician and concertizes regularly with the Alianza String Quartet, Phoenix Ensemble, and Radius Ensemble. Past collaborations include performances with artists Robert Mann, Donald Weilerstein, Menahem Pressler, and Gilbert Kalish, among others. As an orchestral musician, Ms. Fong performs frequently as a substitute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and as a member of the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic. She has played under the conductors Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, James Levine and Kurt Masur. Ms. Fong, a Presser Scholar, currently maintains private studios in both Boston and Ann Arbor and is on the faculty of Phoenixphest, an annual chamber music festival held in Ann Arbor, as well as the Peaks to Plains Suzuki Institute in Colorado. A strong believer in bringing music to under served communities, Ms. Fong conducted a two week outreach residency in conjunction with the Western Piedmont Symphony in Hickory, North Carolina. She has also performed in schools throughout New Hampshire through of Monadnock Music's "Lend an Ear" program.

Alexandre Lecarme

Alexandre Lecarme has held the Lillian and Nathan R. Miller chair in the cello section of the Boston Symphony since September of 2008.
A native of Grasse, France, Mr. Lecarme graduated with the Premier Prix de Violoncelle from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 1997. At the invitation of Roman Totenberg, Mr. Lecarme moved to Boston, obtaining the Artist Diploma and Master of music degrees from Boston University as a recipient of a Cohen Foundation grant and a Dean’s scholarship. His major teachers have included Jean-Marie Gamard in Paris, David Soyer and Andrés Díaz at Boston University.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Lecarme has appeared on the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Hammond Performing Arts Series, Copley Society Series, Hebron and Thayer Academy Concert Series, Temple Emanuel Chamber Music Series and the chamber music series of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

As a founding member of the Tancrede Trio, he has performed extensively in the United States and Europe. Highlights include concerts at Shermetiev Palace in St. Petersburg for the 300th Anniversary of the city, Opera de Nice, and Salle Olivier Messiaen, Grenoble, France. Mr. Lecarme has participated at the Pablo Casals, Domaine Forget, Kneisel Hall and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals and collaborated with Roman Totenberg, Seymour Lipkin, and members of the Tokyo String Quartet.
 In 2007, while a Fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center, Mr. Lecarme was principal cello in Verdi’s Don Carlos under James Levine. Prior to his appointment to the BSO, Mr. Lecarme performed as a substitute with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Boston, and Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

He has released CDs for Hammond GMAC Performing Arts of works by Bach, Debussy, Schubert, and Beethoven. Mr. Lecarme performs on a cello made by José Contreras in 1746, generously on loan from the Boston Symphony Orchestra.