Orchestral Additions

Berklee’s string and brass departments recently added faculty members who are members of one of Boston’s most storied institutions: the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Together these musicians bring decades of classical performance and pedagogy to Berklee students.

Associate Professor Julianne Lee, a violinist and a member of Berklee’s String Department faculty, is the acting assistant concertmaster of the BSO. In addition to her work with the BSO, she has performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Australian Chamber Orchestra, and has been a soloist with the KBS Symphony Orchestra (Seoul, Korea) and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden (Germany). Lee has played chamber music with fellow violinists Donald Weilerstein and Malcolm Lowe and members of the Guarneri String Quartet. She won the Presser Award in 2006 and the unanimous first prize from the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris.

Associate Professor Owen Young teaches cello in Berklee’s String Department. He joined the BSO cello section in 1991 and currently holds the orchestra’s John F. Cogan Jr. and Mary L. Cornille chair. A frequent collaborator in chamber music events, Young has appeared at Tanglewood, Banff, Brevard, Aspen, and other prominent music festivals. As a soloist, he has performed with such notable orchestras as the Pittsburgh, Atlanta, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestras as well as the Boston Pops Orchestra. He is a founding member of Innuendo, an innovative chamber orchestra and plays chamber music recitals in the United States and abroad. Young frequently performs with songwriter James Taylor and appeared on the nationally televised concert “James Taylor Live at the Beacon Theatre” in New York City. Young is also active in Project STEP (String Training and Educational Program), a classically focused education and enrichment program for students of color.

Melissa Howe, Chair of the String Department, invited Lee and Young to join the faculty because, “BSO players are, without exaggeration, some of the best in the world. Having Julianne and Owen here makes it possible for Berklee to offer classical instruction at the highest possible level.”

Professor Richard “Gus” Sebring is a member of Berklee Brass Department. Since 1982 he has been the associate principal French horn player for the BSO and has served as the principal horn player for the Boston Pops Orchestra under conductors John Williams and Keith Lockhart. Sebring plays on numerous BSO and Boston Pops recordings and was a featured soloist on the John Williams score to the film Saving Private Ryan. Additionally, Sebring is a composer and producer who works in many musical genres and has penned arrangements of the National Anthem for the Boston Pops. For more than three decades, Sebring has also taught at New England Conservatory.

Berklee’s Brass Department Chair Tom Plsek says, “As horn players go, Gus is at the top. We can let applicants know that Berklee now has one of the best horn teachers in the world.”