Kadar Qian, Music Director, Conductor, Pianist

KADAR QIAN

At the young age of four, Kadar Qian began to learn the piano, inspired by his older brother, Kevin. After starting lessons, his grandmother would reward him with chocolate every time he played well. Twelve years later, he has given over one hundred concerts in the U.S. and China in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Boston Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall, and Sanders Theatre. At the age of eleven, he debuted as a soloist with the Quincy Symphony Orchestra performing Chopin’s Concerto No. 2, and at the age of fifteen, he debuted with the Boston Pops performing Prokofiev’s Concerto No. 3. All together, he has appeared as a soloist over 10 times with orchestras such as the Boston Civic Symphony, Boston Landmarks, Cape Ann Symphony, Melrose Symphony, Merrimack Valley Philharmonic, Metrowest Symphony, Lowell Philharmonic, Rivers Symphony, and the Salem Philharmonic.

Qian claimed first prize in the Chopin International Piano Competition in Hartford, receiving special prizes for the Best Bach Performance and the Best Chopin Performance. He was also a prizewinner at the Arthur Fraser International Piano Competition as well as the MostArts International Piano Competition. In addition, he was also the first prize winner of the Harvard Musical Association High School Achievement Award and the Steinway Society of Massachusetts piano competition. For the past three years, he has been a recipient of the Chopin Foundation of the United States Scholarship. Qian has won many Young Artist Competitions, including the Boston Civic, Boston Pops, Lowell, Metrowest, Quincy, and Rivers Young Artist Competitions. He was heard performing on NPR’s From the Top , and in 2013, he released his first album for Naxos Records.

Kadar studies piano with Angel Ramón Rivera at the New England Conservatory Prep School and the Rivers School Conservatory. He also studies conducting with Yoichi Udagawa and is currently the Assistant Conductor of the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. Since June 2014, he has been the music director and conductor of the Fusion String Ensemble. A high honor roll student at Westford Academy, Kadar strives to make a difference in the community as the president of his class. A huge fan of Apple products, Kadar also enjoys programming and math.

Clinton Dewing, Violin & Viola Soloist

CLINTON DEWING

Clinton Dewing received a Bachelor of Music degree from the Juilliard School as a student of Joel Smirnoff. His summer festivals credits include the Spoleto Festival USA and Italy, Festival Mozaic, Pacific Music Festival, National Repertory Orchestra, Sarasota Chamber Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, National Orchestral Institute and the Tanglewood Music Center. He has performed with the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Clinton is currently a member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s violin section since 2006.

Aurica Duca, Violin Soloist

AURICA DUCA 

A native of the Republic of Moldova, Aurelia Duca began the violin at age of seven. She has taken First Prize in the Cornelia Bronzetti violin competition and the International Violin Competition of Brasov. Ms. Duca was the Grand Prize winner at the Paul Constantinescu International Competition in Romania. She was awarded the Mayor’s Scholarship of Chisinau, Moldova and the prestigious scholarship from the Foundation of Beneficence. Ms. Duca has performed in solo engagements with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, the National Philharmonic of Chisinau and the National Youth Orchestra in Holland and studied at the A. Casella Conservatory in l’Aquilla, Italy. She has participated in The Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina and she is featured in Festival Mozaic’s chamber music series in San Luis Obispo, California every summer. In 2006 Ms. Duca joined the violin section of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra.

Rebecca Arnold, Flute Soloist

REBECCA ARNOLD

Rebecca Arnold is sixteen years old and is an incoming Senior at Westford Academy in Westford, Massachusetts. She has been playing flute since the age of nine. Currently, she takes private lessons with Shan Liu and also studies at the Boston Flute Academy. Rebecca is a member of the New England Conservatory Youth Symphony under the direction of Steven Karidoyanes. This summer, she traveled to Ireland and Northern Ireland with the orchestra and performed in the cities of Galway, Dublin and Derry. This is Rebecca’s second year as a member of the Westford Academy Theater Arts Pit, which was awarded best student pit orchestra by the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild in 2014. She has been accepted into the MA Eastern Senior Districts band and orchestra, as well as the Massachusetts All-State Orchestra. Rebecca is very excited to have been given the opportunity to perform with the Fusion String Ensemble.

Janet Martins, Violin

JANET MARTINS

Following the lead of her two older siblings, Janet began playing the violin at the age of 5. Currently a software programmer by profession, she is still an active musician in the community. The list of orchestras she's played with include the NH All-State Orchestra, Tufts Symphony Orchestra, Cambridge Symphony, and the Melrose Symphony Orchestra. An avid lover of chamber music, she has performed with the Tufts chamber players, Lexington Music Club, CSO Chamber Players, Fusion String Ensemble, and the Brockton Symphony Chamber Players. She also serves as a music minister at the Paulist Center in Boston. She currently studies violin with Zoia Bologovsky.

Allison Lacasse, Flute

ALLISON LACASSE

Allison Lacasse has been a music teacher in the Chelmsford Public Schools for five years. She maintains an active flute studio of over a dozen young flutists and continues to advocate for new student ensembles and performing opportunities. Recently, her teaching career has brought her to the Peabody Conservatory, where she was invited to be a guest lecturer for a music education course.

Allison is an active orchestral flutist and chamber musician in the Greater Boston area. She has performed on flute and piccolo for a number of local orchestras, including the Boston Civic Symphony, North Shore Philharmonic, Arlington Philharmonic, Fall River Symphony, Newton Symphony, New Hampshire Philharmonic, Lowell House Opera Company, Brockton Symphony, and the South County Chamber Orchestra. She has performed in notable performance halls such as Jordan Hall and Symphony Hall. Her chamber ensemble participation include concerts with the Fusion String Ensemble, the New York University Summer Chamber Music Institute in 2010, and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival at Juilliard in the summer of 2012. 

Allison received Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Education and Performance from the University of Rhode Island (2007) and a Master of Education degree from Cambridge College (2009).

Ken Allen, Viola + Soloist

KEN ALLEN

Ken Allen is a founding member of Trio Notturno and The Haydn Project and has performed with many ensembles in the Greater Boston area, including the Boston New Music Initiative, Boston Opera Collaborative, Chorus pro Musica, Fusion String Ensemble, Lexington Symphony, Lowell House Opera, Mercury Orchestra, Metropolitan Chorale of Brookline, MetroWest Opera, MIT Summer Philharmonic, New England Philharmonic, and Plymouth Philharmonic. He is also a classically trained pianist and has played the piano for folk dances throughout New England.

Ken earned his Master of Music degree in viola performance from the Boston Conservatory, where he studied with Lila Brown and Lenny Matczynski and performed in master classes for Helen Callus, Levon Chilingirian, John Harbison, the Jupiter String Quartet and Karl Paulnack. 

Jon Ceander Mitchell, Guest Conductor

JOHN CEANDER MITCHELL

Jon Ceander Mitchell was born in Chicago, IL in 1949. A well-known conductor, scholar, and music educator, he taught music in the public schools of Puerto Rico and Illinois for seven years before embarking on a successful academic career. He has more than seventy publications, including five books. His specialty areas have included Gustav Holst, Ludwig van Beethoven, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Anton Rubinstein. His international conducting career has thus far manifested itself in six CDs.

His Amazon.com music library can found through this link.

Kwame A. Lewis, Music Director Emeritus

KWAME A LEWIS, LRSM

Kwame Lewis has been playing the clarinet for nearly eighteen years. He joined the Queens Royal College Scout Band in 1991 and was given a clarinet by then Scoutmaster, Laurence McDowall. Upon his relocation to Boston, he furthered his clarinet studies, firstly with Julie Vreman who graduated with her Masters in clarinet performance from Boston University, and now currently with well renowned clarinetist Thomas Hill, the principal of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a result, Kwame has attained the Licentiate of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (LRSM) Diploma which is the second of three professional level examinations.

Kwame has also been successful in the Trinidad and Tobago Music Festival where he placed first in the 15-19 age group in 1997 and 1999. In the 2002 edition, he led the Q.R.C. Scout Band to win the Hope-Ross Cup for best instrumental ensemble and was a member of the clarinet trio that won the Michelle Khan Memorial Trophy for best Chamber Music Trio.

Kwame was also the musical director of the Q.R.C. Scout Band and a long standing member of the National Youth Orchestra (NYO) where he was principal clarinetist and, for a brief period in 2003, interim conductor. He also has been conductor of the NYO Concert Band for a number of years as part of their summer workshop. Kwame participated in the International Music Camp in North Dakota in July 2001 where he played in the Concert and Symphony Orchestras.

In Boston, Kwame is a first clarinetist in the Charles River Wind Ensemble, a community symphonic band, and has played with various groups in the Boston area including Calliope, a collaboration of a chorale and orchestra, the Boston Repertory Orchestra, a group that comes together to sight read full orchestral works, the Harvard Summer Orchestra and Concert Band, Dorchester Symphony Orchestra and Newton Symphony Orchestra. Kwame has also performed in the Gilbert & Sullivan productions "The Yeomen of the Guard" and "H.M.S Pinaforte" in 2007 and 2008 respectively in Montreal, Quebec and “Iolanthe” in 2009 with the MIT G&S Players. He has also performed with the Boston Operatic Society production of Mozart's "Magic Flute".

Abe Dewing, Founder & Violin

ABE DEWING

Abe began playing the violin at age eight and was a member of the All Newton Elementary String Orchestra. In high school, he traveled on tours of Great Britain, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia as a member of the Newton North High School and Greater Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. He also played in the MMEA Northeastern District and All-State Orchestras as a senior culminating with a performance in Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA. In the summer of 1987, he read Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony & Beethoven's Leonore Overture No.3 in the Tanglewood Festival Young Artists Program's conducted by Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.

Abe earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at the University of Rochester where he was a member of University Symphony and Chamber Orchestras. He studied violin performance with Oliver Steiner at the Eastman School of Music.

Abe has performed as a member and soloist with the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra since 1994. He is currently a Board member and handles the Marketing and Publicity for the organization. In 2002, Abe came home to play in the Newton Symphony Orchestra. He has played in performances at  Symphony Hall, Jordan Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. He is charter member of the Colleges of the Fenway Orchestra and founded the Fusion String Ensemble in 2007. Chamber music has been a major focus of Abe as he chaired the Cambridge Symphony Chamber Players from 2002-2010.

Abe has also appeared as a guest violinist for a local rock artist Lauren Bateman.

As an actor and producer, Abe has two full-length films to his credit. One feature gained a limited theatrical run in the summer of 2010 and premiered on cable television in April 2011. Both are in wide distribution on DVD.

By day, Abe is an Digital Executive at Boston Herald Media where he creates concepts and builds advertising campaigns around it. In his free time, Abe loves being with his son, Kyle and his wife, Ashley. His other hobbies include cooking, basketball and keeping up in a softball league.

Mike Hsu, Composer

MIKE HSU

Mike Hsu, MD, is a self-taught composer and songwriter whose influences include synthpop bands from the 80’s such as New Order, Erasure, and Depeche Mode, as well as more contemporary British rock bands such as Radiohead and Muse. Originally from the Chicago area, Mike studied violin with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Conservatory of the North Shore, and piano with Harry Davidson of Sherwood Conservatory.

Mike has composed for the Puget Sound Symphony Orchestra in Seattle, including a symphonic work, “Synchronicity”, which was premiered in 2004. He has recorded two non-classical albums, Waiting for the Dawn and Adaptation, available at www.cdbaby.com/motoya.

Since moving to Portland in 2009 with his wife, Nancy, Mike has served as first violinist for the Sunnyside and Starlight Symphony Orchestras, and is an active member of Classical Revolution PDX and Cascadia Composers. During the daytime, Mike works as a doctor of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation at Kaiser Permanente.

Current Fusion Members and Alumni

Current Lineup:

Violins

Jeff Bezanson* (2007-present)

Abe Dewing* (2007-present)
Jenna Hoopingarner (2016-present)
Sarah Izen (2012-present)

Flora Lee (2011-present)

John Lyneis* (2007-present)

Janet Martins (2013-present)

Klenda Martinez* (2007-present)

Viola
Brian Diaz (2016-present)

Kim Etingoff (2014-present)

Joanna Ostrander (2015-present)
Samara Schwartz (2016-present)

Cello

Kevin Hedrick (2012-present)

Katherine Miller (2011-present)

Joydita Sarkar (2016-present)

Bass
Nate Haggett* (2007-present)

Fusion Alumni:

Ken Allen (2007-2013)

Kenji Alt* (2007)

Jamie Ashe (2012)

Timothy Blalock (2011-2016)

Carly Cassano (2012)

Catherine Clark* (2007)

Anthony Cheung (2012)

Nicholas Chubrich* (2007)
Michael DePlonty* (2007)

Madeline DiLorenzo (2011-2012)

Jane Esterquest (2014)

Dani Fortner (2012)

Naishin Fu (2013)

Jessica Garbern (2012)

Carolyn Damon Hayes (2014)

John Hanifin (2011)

Lilit Hartunian (2011)

Doug Jacobs (2012-2016)

M. Patrick Kane (2012-2013)

Alley Lacasse (2012-2014)
Steve Lehr (2016)

Smadar Levy (2012)

Jennifer Lyons (2012-2013)

Monica Mitchell (2012)

Melanie Maz (2011-2012)
Amy Nolan (2011-2015)

Ed Olson* (2007)
Gwen Owens* (2007)
Miriam Raffeld (2014-2015)

Tommi Raij* (2007-2011)

Richard Romanoff (2012-2016)

Bria Schecker (2012)

Nadia Seiler* (2007)

Natalie Shelton (2012-2013)

Erika Shira (2011-2014)

Molly Shira* (2007-2014)

Fritz Winegardner (2012)

Maggie Zager (2012)

* Indicates Founding Member