Lexington Minuteman, November 29, 2016
Pianist Khoi Le, 13, of Lexington, under the direction of Richard Pittman, won the New England Philharmonic’s 22nd Young Artist Competition.
As the winner, Le will perform the first movement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Piano Concerto No. 2” in G minor at NEP’s annual Family Concert, to be held at 3 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Tsai Performance Center, 685 Commonwealth Ave., Boston.
Le became interested in music at age 5 when his parents introduced him to the piano. He took first prize at the San Francisco Chopin Competition for Young Pianists, and he is a recipient of the Nafisa Taghioff Award in the Fremont Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition. Le performed in the Berkeley Junior Bach Festival in California as well as with the Fremont Symphony Orchestra.
While the piano is his main instrument, Le also plays the violin, cello, bassoon and percussion and currently serves as the percussionist at the William Diamond Middle School band and orchestra, Tufts Youth Philharmonic and the Young People’s Symphony Orchestra. He also enjoys composing music and is taking music theory and composition seminars at the New England Conservatory of Music.
NEP’s Family Concert will also feature William Schuman’s “Newsreel in 5 Shots,” the world premiere of Bernard Hoffer’s “Nocturne: The Timber Wolf,” Andy Vores’ “Big Bad Wolf” and Paul Patterson’s “Little Red Riding Hood Song Book,” with the Boston City Singers, Joshua DeWitte, director, and narrated by WBZ-TV meteorologist, Eric Fisher.