Kevin Park
Artistic Director
DATE
Anvil Centre, New Westminster
Mon. February 23, 2026 - 1:00 PM
COMING SOON
PROGRAM
Serenade in C major, Op. 10
Ernő Dohnányi
I. Marcia: Allegro
II. Romanza: Adagio non troppo
III. Scherzo: Vivace
IV. Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto
V. Rondo (Finale): Allegro vivace
String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 11
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
I. Moderato e semplice
II. Andante cantabile
III. Scherzo: Allegro non tanto e con fuoco – Trio
IV. Finale: Allegro giusto – Allegro vivace
NICHOLAS WRIGHT
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Concertmaster of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Wright is a native of England. His engagements as soloist, chamber and orchestral musician have taken him to most of the major concert halls in Europe, Asia and North America. He has performed concertos with orchestras worldwide including the BBC Concert Orchestra, the Royal Oman Symphony and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. His repertoire spans works from Handel to premieres by composers such as Kelly-Marie Murphy and Jocelyn Morlock, whose works he recently recorded for the Naxos label. He made his solo debut with the York Guildhall Orchestra playing the Dvořák Romance, which was recorded for BBC Radio 3. His concerts and recordings have also been featured on CBC Radio (Canada) and Radio 4 (Hong Kong). As an orchestral musician, Nicholas has worked with the world's most renowned conductors including Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Valery Gergiev and Mstislav Rostropovich. He has performed extensively with the major chamber and symphony orchestras in London including the English Chamber and London Philharmonic Orchestras, and has appeared as guest concertmaster with orchestras such as the Bournemouth Symphony, BBC Concert and Ulster Orchestras. In 2003, he was appointed as the youngest member of the London Symphony Orchestra where he held the first violin sub-principal position, and in addition collaborated with film composers John Williams and Alexandre Desplat.
As a chamber musician Nicholas regularly takes part in series such as the Mainly Mozart Festival, Ribble Valley Festival, LSO and VSO chamber players and Vancouver's Music on Main. He has performed in venues such as LSO St Luke's and has collaborated with many renowned artists including Martin Roscoe and Simon Wright. Prior to his appointment as concertmaster of the VSO, he was first violinist of the critically acclaimed Vancouver based Koerner Quartet.
Nicholas received his training as a scholar at the Royal College of Music in London, studying with Itzhak Rashkovsky and Rodney Friend. In addition to winning prizes at the Royal College, Nicholas has been generously supported by grants from the Martin Musical Fund, the Craxton Memorial Fund and the Royal Overseas League. This has enabled him to study with many eminent musicians including Ruggiero Ricci and Gil Shaham. Nicholas enjoys teaching and has given many masterclasses internationally. He is on the faculty of the VSO School of Music. Nicholas plays on a violin by Stefan-Peter Greiner.
' wonderfully judged with seemingly effortless projection of tone…..It was a triumph. '
The York Press
DAVID LAKIROVICH
David Lakirovich was born in Brisbane, Australia, and started his violin studies at the age of three with his father, Jacob Lakirovich. David has taken part in various master classes with renowned violinists such as Felix Andrievsky, Nelly Shkolnikova, Jose-Louis Garcia, Pinchas Zukerman, Victor Tretyakov, Maurico Fuks, Haim Taub, Pavel Vernikov, and Michael Frischenschlager. His teachers have included David Zafer in Toronto, Arkadij Winokurow and Boris Kuschnir in Vienna, Vadim Gluzman and Shmuel Ashkenasi in Chicago, and William Preucil in Cleveland.
David has performed in many recitals and concerts in Australia, USA, Canada, Israel and Europe, including solo performances in Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Bronfman Auditorium in Tel Aviv, Stradivari Museum in Cremona, Italy, along with solo performances with the Calgary Philharmonic, Scarborough Symphony, York Symphony, and Chicago College of Performing Arts Symphony Orchestra. He also performed in the “Young Stars of the Young Century” concert in George Weston Recital Hall for the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation. He performed in a Stradivari Society concert in Chicago, playing on the 1692 ‘Lord Falmouth’ Stradivari. He has also performed solo on Chicago WFMT 98.7 Classical Radio. An avid chamber musician, he has collaborated with Peter Salaff, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ilya Kaler, Mark Kosower, Atar Arad, William Wolfram and Vadim Gluzman. He has also collaborated and performed with ensembles that include the Pacifica Quartet, Cavani Quartet, and the Vermeer Quartet, and has performed in the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York and the North Shore Chamber Music Festival in Chicago. In 2014, his quartet at the Cleveland Institute of Music won “Quartet of the Year” in the Hvide Sande Festival in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has also performed at the Instrumental Society of Calgary on several occasions. David has participated in and achieved top honours in numerous violin and chamber music competitions around the world. He was a participant at the Keshet Eilon International Violin Mastercourse in Israel for two summers, as well as the Pinchas Zukerman Young Artist Program in Ottawa.
David Lakirovich was a faculty member of the Rochetta Ligure Masterclass in Palazzo Spinola, Italy, and has been on faculty at the Cremona International Music Academy since 2013. In 2017-18, he served on the faculty of the Mount Royal Conservatory in Calgary, and has given numerous masterclasses and seminars in their Advanced Performance Program. He also taught at the University of Calgary the same year. He is currently on faculty at the Vancouver Academy of Music and the VSO School of Music.
David completed his Undergraduate Degree at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in 2013 with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Vadim Gluzman, and his master’s degree at the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2015 with William Preucil. He previously served as the Associate Concertmaster of the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Ohio, and played three seasons with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra (2 years as Tutti 1st Violin, and 1 year as the Assistant Concertmaster). He was also invited to perform as guest Associate Concertmaster with the Jalisco Philharmonic during the entire summer of 2015 in Guadalajara, Mexico, as well as guest Concertmaster of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra in April and November 2019.
David joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as the new Assistant Concertmaster at the beginning of the 2018/19 season.
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HUNG-WEI HUANG
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Born in Taipei, Taiwan, violist Hung-Wei Huang joined the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra as Principal Viola in February 2021. In 2002 Mr. Huang became the youngest-ever principal viola of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, going on to play with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. He has served as guest principal viola of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mr. Huang has performed chamber musicat Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall and the Kennedy Center and at the Marlboro, Santa Fe, and Great Mountain Festivals. He has collaborated with Joshua Bell, Myung-Wha Chung, Lang Lang, Yo-Yo Ma, Anne-SophieMutter, Paula Robison and Mitsuko Uchida, as well as members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Orion string quartets.
Hung-Wei Huang began music lessons at the age of seven with Lin Chia-Zong, and continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Julliard School, and the Mannes School of Music.
Mr. Huang served as guest professor of viola and chamber music at the Korea National University of Arts, and his students are members of professional orchestras around the world.
HENRY SHAPARD
Henry Shapard is the Principal Cello of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, appointed by VSO Music Director Otto Tausk in 2020 when he was just 21 years old. Highlights of his tenure in British Columbia have included concerto performances with the VSO in each of his first three seasons: the Gulda concerto in 2020, the Lalo concerto in 2021, and the concert premiere of Marcus Goddard’s Antarctica: Life Emerging in 2022. In March 2024, he performed the titular role in Richard Strauss’ Don Quixote alongside Leonard Slatkin and the VSO.
As a cello section leader, Henry is in demand around the world. In the recent past, he has appeared as Guest Principal Cello of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (UK), Queensland Symphony Orchestra (Australia) and Guest Co-Principal Cello of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway).
As a concerto soloist, Henry’s recent and upcoming engagements include the Vancouver, Yale, Prince George, and Lima symphonies, the PRISMA Festival Orchestra, and Parlando (New York City). Chamber music collaborations have included the Beethoven Septet with violinist James Ehnes and principal players of the VSO, and a concert tour on the Vetta Chamber Music series throughout the Lower Mainland of British Columbia.
In May 2020, Henry graduated with distinction from Yale University with a degree in History, where he was named Phi Beta Kappa and was awarded the Bach Society Prize, the Sharp Prize, the Selden Memorial Award, and the Berkeley College Arts Prize. At Yale, he was a student of Ole Akahoshi and served as Principal Cello of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, where William Boughton became another important mentor. Henry served as the assistant conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Berkeley College Orchestra and the Saybrook College Orchestra. He led Low Strung, an all-cello rock group at Yale, on tours to China, Singapore, and across the USA.
Henry was a two-time fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he received the Karl Zeise Memorial Cello Award. He has also performed across Germany and Denmark as a member of the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra. Before joining the VSO, he briefly held the position of Principal Cello of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, where he was appointed by the RIPO’s late Artistic Adviser—and former Music Director Emeritus of the VSO—Bramwell Tovey.
Raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he was an enthusiastic student of Richard Weiss, Henry holds a deep commitment to both education and stewardship. In addition to serving as a pedagogue, chamber music, and orchestral coach throughout North America, Henry frequently conducts workshops for incarcerated individuals, using the cello to facilitate conversation, reflection, and healthy self-expression among marginalized communities.
He began his role as Professor of Cello at the Vancouver Academy of Music during the 2023-24 academic year.
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