William Ge

2024 Jeanne Selander Memorial Concerto Competition Winner

After winning the Albert M. Greenfield Concerto Competition at age eleven, William debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra in October 2022, an appearance that led the Philadelphia Inquirer to describe his playing as “notably fluid while gilding the music with spots of interpretive individualization… the future was easy to imagine in the hands of William Ge.”

William’s most recent achievements include winning the highest prize at the 2023 Jacob Flier International Piano Competition, First Place at the 2023 NEC Prep Concerto Competition, and Second Place and the Chopin Award at the 2023 MTNA National Senior Piano Competition. William is a 3rd-year recipient of the Chopin Foundation’s Chopin Scholarship, a 2023 National YoungArts Competition winner in Classical Music, and an NPR From The Top Fellow of 2023-2024. 

Recently, William made his concerto debuts with the Boston Pops Orchestra and the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on the Theme of Paganini. In December, he performed two solo concerts for the 2023-2024 “Chopin for All” concert series in Florida, invited by the Chopin Foundation of the United States. On May 9th, 2024, he will play Rachmaninov’s Concerto No. 2 in NEC’s Jordan Hall with the NEC Youth Symphony Orchestra.

A 2025 Caroline D. Bradley Scholar and student at Phillips Academy Andover and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, William loves physics and writing and is heavily involved with school activities. At Andover, he has acted as an Eco-Leader in Andover’s Sustainability Coalition, runs distance on the track team, and is a prefect in her dorm of 9th and 10th graders. William is an associate editor of The Phillipian, Andover’s weekly publication. He currently studies piano with Jonathan Bass, having previously studied with Ya-Fei Chuang, John Perry, Natalie Zhu and the late Joy Kiszely. 

Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra Musicians

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Marshunda Smith

Music Director and Conductor

The Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes Marshunda Smith as Music Director/Conductor for its 120th season!  She will be leading the LPO beginning with the Holiday Concert in December, 2023.

Marshunda is a vibrant and exciting conductor who leads with an immersive style of conducting.  She is founder and conductor of the Cherry Hill Chamber Orchestra and the groundbreaking No-Name Orchestra of Boston. 

Her website, Marshunda.com, is brimming with the joy she expresses in everything she does.  Having Marshunda on the podium injects new energy into the orchestra and the City of Lowell!

Marshunda is a vibrant and exciting conductor who leads with an immersive style of conducting.  She is founder and conductor of the Cherry Hill Chamber Orchestra and the groundbreaking No-Name Orchestra of Boston.  Her website, Marshunda.com, is brimming with the joy she expresses in everything she does.  Having Marshunda on the podium injects new energy into the orchestra and the City of Lowell!Originally from Tennessee, she holds a Bachelor's from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Master's in Orchestral Conducting with a focus on Music Education from the University of Southern Maine. She's mentored by notable conductors.

In Maine, she conducted the Odeon Youth Orchestra and guest conducted at music festivals. Marshunda made history as the second female conductor of the North Shore Philharmonic Orchestra in two decades, its first African American conductor in 70 years.

She curates "The Marshunda Project presents," debuting in 2019, featuring local compositions and spotlighting lesser-known chamber orchestra works.

An educator at the Waldorf School in Beverly, MA, Marshunda nurtures young musicians and maintains a private studio for violin, viola, and cello students.

For more information, please visit her website at www.marshunda.com

Student Musicians

String Students from Schools in the Greater Lowell Area

Sponsors

Jacob Mashak

Composer

Jacob Mashak is a composer, conductor and variable instrumentalist (principally trombone, recorder, and toy piano). Among other distinctions, they are recognized for having written the longest, non-repetitive piano piece on record: the 11 hour long Beatus Vir for two pianos, premiered at Boston University in 2008 by Luke Berryman, Molly Wood, and the composer.

Finding the most beautiful things in the world are the result of random processes, their works most often use various machinations of indeterminacy to attempt to achieve the splendor not present after human intervention but only discoverable in the natural world.

Charles Turner

Composer

Charles Turner (b. 1951) received degrees in voice performance and composition at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. His composition teachers i nclude Richard Hervig, William Hibbard, Peter Tod Lewis, Donald Jenni, Robert Stern, and Charles Fussell.

His choral music has been performed in the Boston area by Tapestry, Church of the Advent Choir, Capella Alamire, Polhymnia Choral Society, Musica Sacra, Canticum Novum of Worcester, and the Triad Choral Collective.

The opera Paper or Plastic was premiered in June 2013 at Boston's Outside the Box Festival.

Bartok Variants was performed in 2017 by the Gordon College Concert Band.

Shipwreck Dreams for cello and piano has been performed and recorded by cellist Marshunda Smith.

White Potatoes for guitar was recently published by ACA and recorded by Aaron Larget-Caplan.

Strade Bolognesi, 13 piano pieces named for streets in Bologna, Italy, was performed at the Accademia Filarmonica (Bologna) in November 2023 by pianist Lynn Rice-See.

A Lowell Symphony will premiere on March 16, 2024 by the Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra in Lowell, Massachusetts, Marshunda Smith, music director.

A new chamber opera A Desert Journey will premiere April 12-14, 2024 at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Arlington, Massachusetts.

Sextet for mixed winds and strings will be performed in a concert by the North Shore Chamber Music Society on April 27 at the Salem State College recital hall.

Ana Bialsky

Arts Theater Director, Lowell High School

Ana is the director of Lowell High School's new Theatre Arts department. As an artistic, sensitive, and neurodivergent kid, the theatre was a safe haven, a place for her to express and process her emotions in a constructive environment. In the theatre, who she was became an asset instead of an obstacle. Ana holds a BFA i n Acting from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and an M.Ed. in Waldorf and Progressive Public Education from Antioch University New England. Soon after graduating from NYU, she embarked on a concurrent career as a teaching artist of theatre in schools, leading classes in acting and improvisation to pre-school, elementary, middle, and high school students.

She also provided audition coaching for adults, as well as high school seniors applying for college. Ana has performed in Equity and semi-professional theatres from New York City to Portland, OR. Favorite productions and roles include Holidazed as Luna (Artists Repertory Theatre, World Premiere, awarded Best Actress by the Portland Civic heatre Guild), Great Falls as Bitch (Profile Theatre Company, West Coast Premiere), Macbeth as First Witch (NYC Fringe Festival), and Hair as Crissy (Emelin Theatre, NY). Prior to joining the Fine Arts department at LHS, Ana was a class teacher at The Waldorf School at Moraine Farm for eight years, where she led a group of incredible kids from first through eighth grade. While at WSMF, Ana directed eleven shows, wrote four original plays (Snow White, Jumping Mouse, The Thread and the Wolf, and The Dark Queen), and adapted the story of Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins for the stage. If you would like to see Ana perform, you can find her singing and dancing with Billy D and the Rock-its, New England’s premiere 1950s show band; annual performances include Boston’s Saint Anthony's Feast and Hampton Beach’s Sea- Shell Stage.

Teresa Winner Blume

Singer

Soprano Teresa Winner Blume is a singer, voice teacher, arts administrator and mother of three who is particularly happy to be singing alongside her eldest with the Lowell Philharmonic today. Teresa has performed as soloist with Boston Pops, North Carolina Symphony, Opera Carolina and many roles with The Lyric Stage Company of Boston. Concert works also include Carmina Burana, Mozart Requiem, Brahms Requiem and Fauré Requiem and an upcoming Poulenc Gloria in April.

She is in her ninth year as Head of Voice at Walnut Hill School for the Arts, a boarding and day high school in Natick, MA, where she teaches voice and mentors young singers with conservatory and career aspirations. Currently she is stage directing the world premiere of A Desert Journey, a new opera by Charles Turner, commissioned for the Voice Majors at Walnut Hill, which will be performed this April.

Teresa earned a B.M. in Vocal Performance from University of Illinois, and an M.M. and Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. www.TeresaWinnerBlume.com

Tenesha Scarlett

Singer

Tenesha Scarlett is a native and local celebrity of Lowell having performed throughout the Merrimack Valley and during Winter Fest for several years. She is a mother of two amazing boys who also share her love of music. She's the lead singer of "Tee and the Gents." She loves performing but more importantly she enjoys giving back to the community in any way she can.

Leyna Blume

Singer

Leyna Blume is happy for the opportunity to sing with the Lowell Philharmonic Orchestra. She is an avid singer, musician, and theater performer. Past roles include Belle in Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella in Into the Woods. She participated in the vocal programs at Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Washington National Opera Institute and performed in the NAfME All-National Honor Ensembles Mixed Choir. Leyna is a first-year college student and currently sings in the Harvard University Choir.

Lowell Philharmonic 2023-24 Season

Classical Concert

May 18th, 2024 2pm – Fusion Church

Shedd Park Concert

July 2024