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Alexander Velinzon

Associate Concertmaster, Boston Symphony Orchestra

A native of St. Petersburg, violinist Alexander Velinzon joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra in January 2000, became assistant concertmaster in 2005, and was promoted to associate concertmaster in 2015. Since then he has played as concertmaster under the direction of James Levine, Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas, and other leading conductors. In addition, he has been invited to play as concertmaster with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra, and NDR Radio Philharmonic. An active performer of chamber music, Mr. Velinzon is a member of the Boston-based Walden Chamber Players and has appeared with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. He has been seen playing chamber music in Europe, Japan, and the United States, and since 2009 has been a member of the LiveArts string quartet.
Mr. Velinzon began playing the violin at the age of six and graduated from the Leningrad School for Gifted Children. After coming to the United States, he continued his studies at the Manhattan School of Music and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School, working under the guidance of the renowned pedagogue Dorothy DeLay. He made his New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall as a winner of the Artist International Young Artists Auditions, after which Strad Magazine described his playing as “very musical and intensely serious.” A prizewinner in the Heida Hermann International Competition in the United States and the Tibor Varga International Competition in Switzerland, he has performed as soloist with the National Symphony of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic and in Venezuela; made his New York debut with the Jupiter Symphony playing a Paganini concerto, and served as soloist/concertmaster for the Paul Taylor Dance Company at New York’s City Center. Mr.Velinzon’s other solo engagements in the United States have included appearances with the Rondo Chamber Orchestra, Absolute Ensemble, Chappaqua Symphony, and the Metamorphoses Orchestra.

Lalita Svete

2018 Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund recipient

Lalita Svete, born 1996 in Vienna/Austria, has received her first violin lessons at the age of four at the Music School in Maribor, Slovenia and is currently studying with Boris Brovtsyn at the Musik und Kunst Privatuniversität in Vienna. Prior to that, she has taken lessons with Arkadij Winokurow and Lidia Baich. She made her first debut as a soloist at the age of seven and has continued giving concerts in Austria (Wiener Konzerthaus, Musikverein Wien), Slovenia (Ljubljana „Slovenian Philharmonic“ and „Cankarjev Dom“, Maribor „Summerfestival Lent“), Italy (Venice „Teatro La Fenice“, „Teatro Malibran“) and the USA. Ms. Svete has recently performed with orchestras such as the Slovenian Radio Symphonic Orchestra (2016) under the baton of En Shao and the Kiev Camerata (2017) with Valeriy Matyukhin. In 2007 Lalita Svete toured with the “Zagreb Soloists” in Croatia, Liechtenstein, Austria and Slovenia through the foundation “Stiftung Musik & Jugend”.