On the Road with Joanne Robinson: Show #240 Boston, MA

Pianist Llewellyn Werner

We had a fantastic show this past weekend at NEC’s Jordan Hall in Boston. The kids were all great musicians and full of personality. Among them, we featured both a flute quartet and a cello quartet. They went head to head in an entertaining grudge match where they were quizzed on each other’s instruments.

Opening the show was Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner, a phenomenal teenage pianist who played the fourth movement from Sonata in E-flat. He’s a uniquely accomplished young man and described what it was like to perform with the Iraqi National Symphony as well as for President Obama.

Following Llewellyn, the Boston Flute Academy Young Artist Quartet took the stage to play George McKay’s Lyric Poem, and then two of the members showed off their ability to beatbox on the flute!

Third up, 17-year-old soprano Ashley Robillard sang two beautiful pieces: Ned Rorem’s “The Tulip Tree” and Dominick Argento’s “Winter” from Six Elizabethan Songs, and then performed in a skit about her parents.

Violinist Jisoo Kim took the stage next, playing the fourth movement from Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano by César Franck, and the show closed with the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra Cello Quartet playing a wonderfully energetic new piece called “Barnraising” by Steven Laven.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few snippets I captured of the performers rehearsing – plus some flutists beatboxing backstage!