20 year-old violinist Calvin Alexander hails from Shreveport, Louisiana, and has performed across the United States, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, and South Korea. His orchestral engagements include performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra, Canton Symphony Orchestra, and Shreveport Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Calvin has performed at the Perlman Music Program and Yale’s Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, where he collaborated with David Shifrin, Vijay Iyer, Tai Murray, Areta Zhulla, Melvin Chen, and the Parker Quartet.

Calvin is a grand prize winner of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Lynn Harrell Concerto Competition, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra Concerto Competition, and Louisiana Philharmonic Concerto Competition. He has also won top prizes in the Tibor Varga Junior International Violin Competition, Cooper International Violin Competition, and YoungArts National Competition.

Calvin is pursuing a bachelor’s in Social Studies and Comparative Literature at Harvard and a master’s in Violin Performance under Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory with a full-tuition scholarship. At Harvard, he serves as a Concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and a Peer Advising Fellow for first-year students. He also directs the Harmony Mentoring Program—which provides one-on-one musical education to over 100 low-income students in Boston at no cost —and has served as Assistant Music Director for the Harvard College Opera. Influential artistic mentors include Itzhak Perlman, Catherine Cho, Jan Sloman, Merry Peckham, Katherine Chi, and the Brentano Quartet. Calvin deeply values classical music pedagogy and hopes to teach for the rest of his life. Before performing as a classical musician, Calvin performed across North and South America acting in Broadway touring productions of Billy Elliot, A Christmas Story, and Matilda.

PROGRAM 

SEMIFINALS – Elgar 

Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61

I. Allegro

FINALS – Elgar 

Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61

III. Allegro Molto