Meet Festivus Quartet - 2006 ICMEC Grand Prize Winner

Festivus Quartet is coached by Jonathan Cohler and is part of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School Chamber Music program. The group was formed in September 2005 and was recently featured on the national radio show From the Top, on which they played Phantasy by Benjamin Britten as well as County Clare in collaboration with bluegrass banjo superstar Bela Fleck. The group’s repertoire includes Phantasy by Benjamin Britten, the Mozart Quartet in F Major, Wanderings by John Heiss, and All Worked Up by Stephen Feigenbaum. The name of the group, “Festivus,” is taken from an episode of the TV show Seinfeld in which George’s father creates a new holiday celebration: ‘Festivus for the rest of us.’

Sixteen-year-old Yuga Cohler was the youngest player ever to hold the Principal Oboe position in the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra (YPO) at New England Conservatory when he was accepted into the orchestra at the age of 13 while still in the 8th grade. Now in his third year in YPO, Yuga has received increasing accolades, awards and scholarships for his oboe playing: Boston University Tanglewood Institute, First Chair in Massachusetts All-State Orchestra; the Grand Prize of the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition of the Chamber Music Foundation of New England; Finalist for the 2006 All-USA High School Musicians award of the National Association for Music Education; Honorable Mention in the Boston Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition; twice Semi-Finalist at the National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in Indiana; renowned composer Alla Cohen wrote and dedicated a new oboe concerto to him; he has appeared twice on the national radio show From the Top; First Prize in the 18-and-under category of the Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra Young Artist Competition; First Prize in the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition; the sole recipient of the 2004 Massachusetts Interlochen Emerson Scholarship, which is a full-scholarship to attend the 8-week summer program and is awarded to just one high-school musician in the state. He was offered scholarships to the Eastern and Greenwood Music Festivals; and he won the Principal Oboe position in the Massachusetts Northeast District Festival. Yuga has studied the oboe with Janice Bennett since the fi fth grade. He began his music education at age four with piano and solfeggio lessons. At age 9, he received the Critic’s Circle Award of the National Piano Guild Association, and at age 10 and 11 he appeared at the National Piano Teacher’s Association recitals. His piano teachers include Shizue Sano and Yoriko Fieleke.

Last season Yuga played principal oboe in what is probably the fi rst-ever performance by a youth orchestra (YPO) of Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 3 at Jordan Hall in Boston under the baton of world renowned conductor Benjamin Zander. He also played principal oboe on YPO’s tour of South America this past summer performing Stravinsky The Rite of Spring and Strauss Don Quixote to great critical acclaim. Yuga was the oboist of the YPO Woodwind Quintet, the first-ever wind group from NEC to be invited to participate in the 2004 National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, and the only wind group to make it to the semifi nal round of that competition. He was also a semi-finalist at the 2005 Fischoff as a member of Trio B-Natural.

Outside of music, Yuga is a junior at Lexington High School. He loves sports and mathematics. He is the captain of the nationally ranked, New England Champion LHS math team. Yuga was recently invited to join the National Honors Society, and the College Board recently awarded him the distinction of AP Scholar with Honor for achieving the top score on four different AP exams while only in his sophomore year. Yuga was just selected as a National Merit Scholar Semifi nalist for his high score on the PSAT. He was ranked fi rst in Middlesex County and third in the New England Mathematics League, which includes 200 schools and 30000 students. Last year he was one of a small number of high school students in Massachusetts selected to compete in the National Mathematical Olympiad.

Mann-Wen Lo (16) was born in Taiwan, Taipei. She began to play the violin at the age of four. She studied in her home town until 2004 when she came to the United States to study at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick. She has won many different competitions and performed numerous concertos with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of Taiwan Strings at Taiwan National Concert Hall. She was the second prize winner of the 2002 TOYAMA Asian Youth Musician Competition, and participated in the Fourth International Tchaikovsky Competition. She was also awarded at the 2004 2nd Treasury of Young Music by the Taiwan Council for Cultural Affairs, and had an invitation recital in Taipei. She currently studies the violin with Masuko Ushioda.

Chia-Hui Christine Hung, 17, is originally from Taipei, Taiwan, and is a senior at Walnut Hill School in Natick majoring in viola and composition. Christine started studying the piano when she was fi ve and was the second place winner of the Taipei Education Departmental Piano Competition. She began viola lessons at the age of eight with Yu-Lin Chu and later with Teizo Yoshinaga. Currently she is a student of Gillian Rogell. Christine has been a member of the NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra since 2002.

Tavi Ungerleider is 15 years old, and a sophomore at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Tavi began studying cello at the age of six with Debbie Thompson. He is a former student of Emmanuel Feldman, and presently he studies with Ronald Feldman and Michael Reynolds. In 2003, Tavi won first place in the Concord Orchestra Concerto Competition and in the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra Young Soloist Competition. He performed the Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra by Tchaikovsky with both orchestras. Last year, Tavi was the first prize winner of the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition and he was featured on the nationally broadcast radio show From the Top. This year Tavi won fi rst place in the New England Conservatory Concerto Competition. Tavi also participates in the chamber music program at New England Conservatory and is a member of the Youth Philharmonic Orchestra.