Concerts at the Crane 2026-2027 Lineup! – Thomas Crane Public Library

This year the Thomas Crane Library received an unprecedented amount of applications from talented musicians for our Concerts at the Crane series. We are thrilled to finally announce the 2026-2027 Concerts at the Crane Lineup! The upcoming season will feature a wide range of instruments and genres. To learn more about each performer, please read on.

2026-2027 Lineup:

September 20, 2026: David Won & Timothy Steele, tenor and piano
October 4, 2026: Junwen Liang, piano
November 15, 2026: Fred Springer, classical guitar
December 13, 2026: Steve Frieder Quartet, jazz
January 10, 2027: Ilana Zaks, violin
February 21, 2027: Liana Paniyeva, piano
March 14, 2027: Isabel Oliart Band, Scottish music
April 11, 2027: The Pandora Consort, opera
May 16, 2027: Sicong Chen, violin
June 13, 2027: John Dante Prevedini, piano

David Won & Timothy Steele

David Won is a recitalist and concert singer based in the Greater Boston area. He has performed around the USA. and globally, including in the Dominican Republic, Italy, Malta, Romania, South Korea, Taiwan, and Ukraine. He has collaborated with a wide range of performers and composers including the New England Philharmonic Orchestra, Soong Sil OB Chorus, Korea Broadcasting Station Chorus, Harvard Glee Club, Church of the Advent of Boston, and Chorus pro Musica of Boston. David studied church music at Seoul Theological Seminary before transferring to Seattle Pacific University. He later received a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary and a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School. His first CD, Only Love was released in December of 2017, and his second CD, Languages of Love, was released in February of 2018. To learn more, visit David’s YouTube channel.

Timothy Steele is an active vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and conductor, and is currently in his 33rd year on the opera faculty at New England Conservatory. He has also conducted for the Boston Lyric Opera and is a former music director for Opera Providence. He has served as conductor/pianist for over 180 operatic productions with 33 companies, including Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Wolf Trap Opera, Central City Opera, and Opera Maine. He is currently the producer of Milton Community Concerts and is the music director and organist at the historic First Parish Church in Milton, MA. In Boston he has performed with Emmanuel Music, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, among others. He received his Bachelor of Music from Drake University and a Master of Music from the University of Southern California.

Junwen Liang

Originally from Nanning, China, Junwen began his piano studies at the age of nine and made his solo debut at thirteen. As a featured soloist, Junwen has collaborated with orchestras including the Central Texas Philharmonic, Penn State Philharmonic, and Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra. His interpretation of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Ithaca College Symphony Orchestra was broadcast on WSKG radio. He has held residencies at universities in New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Guangzhou. He has performed across the USA and globally, including China, Canada, and France. He has won many awards over the course of his career and currently teaches piano and chamber music in the Department of Music at University of Pennsylvania. His debut EP, Colombine, was released in June 2026. He is also currently preparing his debut full-length album. Learn more at www.junwenliangpianist.com.

Fred Springer

Fred Springer is an artist dedicated to sharing music and art with the world through performance, outreach, and education. He has performed across the USA and globally, including Argentina, Canada, and Switzerland. He has been awarded top prizes in international guitar, ensemble, and mixed instrument competitions. Fred studied music at the University of Texas at Austin and earned a Master of Music at Columbus State University. He now resides in Boston, performing often as a soloist and with a variety of chamber ensembles locally and abroad. He serves as Faculty, Boston Program Coordinator, and Administrative Support for Kithara Project, a non profit offering tuition-free classical guitar education to underserved young people, and as Senior Guitar Faculty and Outreach Coordinator at EKS Music School. Learn more at www.fspringerguitar.bandcamp.com.

Steve Frieder

Steve Frieder is a New York-based saxophonist and woodwind player well-versed in jazz, pop, indie, funk, rock, club music, avant-garde, and free improvisation. He has performed across the USA and abroad. In 2023, he completed a world tour with Boy George and Culture Club, performing at venues including Hollywood Bowl and the Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix. As a featured soloist, Fred has performed the National Anthem at Citi Field for the New York Mets and at Madison Square Garden for St. John’s University basketball. He is a member of the Brooklyn-based psychedelic funk group Art Thief and the brass band Shag Horns, and has performed with a range of contemporary artists. He studied jazz and contemporary music at The New School and now maintains a private teaching studio near his home in Peekskill, New York, working with students of all ages. He is an active presence in the New York City and Hudson Valley music scenes. Learn more at www.stevefrieder.com.

Ilana Zaks

Ilana Zaks-Nederlander is an award-winning artist who has appeared with the Pittsburgh Symphony under John Williams. She has also performed with more than a dozen other orchestras, including the Seattle Symphony, Seattle Opera, the Boston Civic Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Cascade Symphony, and the Sarasota Chamber Orchestra. She has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and the Berliner Philharmonie. Next year, she will appear with the Space Coast Symphony, premiering a new concerto by Chris Marshall, which she wrote and commissioned. She has previously served as music faculty at the Seattle Conservatory of Music, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the Rollins College Department of Music. Now based in Central Florida, she coaches the Florida Symphony Youth Orchestras and performs regularly with the Atlanta Symphony, Sarasota Orchestra and Opera, and the Orlando Philharmonic and Bach Festival Orchestra in Winter Park. Ilana holds degrees from the New England Conservatory and Yale School of Music. Her debut recording, The Persistence of Memory, was released in 2020 as a visual album on Amazon Prime. Learn more at www.ilanazaksviolinist.com.

Liana Paniyeva

Liana Paniyeva has won prizes in numerous competitions internationally and has performed at festivals in Norway, Hungary, Austria, Canada, England, Italy, Syria, South Africa, Spain and Israel. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Worcester’s Mechanics Hall, and Merkin Hall in NYC. She has been featured in various broadcasts and recordings, and her solo recital in 2016 at the Myra Hess Concert Series in Chicago was broadcast live on WFMT Radio. Liana is a graduate of the Donetsk Music Academy in Ukraine, and she earned her Professional Studies Diploma from the Manhattan School of Music and an Artist Diploma from The Hartt School of the University of Hartford. She is also a founder and artistic director of the Young Stars International Piano Competition. In 2022, she was granted the Extraordinary Abilities in the Arts permanent USA residence, given only to artists who attained the highest level in their field. Learn more at www.lianapaniyeva.com.

Isabel Oliart Band

The Isabel Oliart band is Isalbel Oliart, Sammy Wetstein, and Anne Hooper. Isabel Oliart is a 30-year-old fiddler from Boston and has been playing the violin since she was three years old. She started taking fiddle lessons with Anne Hooper in 2009. Isabel is the current USA National Scottish Fiddle Champion of 2025 and has competed in Scottish fiddle competitions many times in the US. She has played all over the Boston music scene. Anne Hooper is a renowned fiddler and teacher who helped Isabel win the USA Nationals in Scottish fiddling. Sammy Wetstein is a multi-instrumentalist cross genre musician from Boston. He is part of many bands including Catfish in the Sky and the Carrol Sisters. Together the trio brings a mix of traditional and original Scottish music. Learn more at www.isabeloliart.com.

Pandora Consort

The Pandora Consort is an early music ensemble dedicated to reimagining classical music performance by integrating multimedia, interactive elements, and exploring historically under-represented repertoire. The ensemble was founded by alumni of the Longy School of Music: Kendra Comstock, Angie Tyler, and Gina Marie Falk. The Pandora Consort has performed on the New York State Baroque and Pegasus Early Music Young Artist Series, SoHIP Boston Summer Concert Series, the Saint James World & Early Music Series, King’s Chapel Concert Series, Salon Avec Moi, and the BEMF Fringe Series. In the Summer of 2024, the Pandora Consort, was the ensemble-in-residence at the Portland Bach Experience, performing works of Hildegard and Bach throughout Southern Maine, and at the Sable Project in Vermont, leading workshops on shape-note singing. The ensemble is also committed to educating the public on lesser known early music repertoire and bringing early music to unconventional performance spaces, performing everywhere from basements, to bookstores, to homes and outdoor venues. Learn more at www.thepandoraconsort.com.

Sicong Chen

Born in Beijing, China, Sicong Chen began studying violin at age twelve. Sicong made his solo debut in 2012, performing alongside the Beijing Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Forbidden City Concert Hall. Since then, he has appeared as a soloist and ensemble musician in venues all across the globe, including the Beijing Concert Hall, the Millenium Monument Concert Hall, the Zhongshan Concert Hall, the China National Library Concert Hall, the Kaufman Music Center, and Carnegie Hall. He has received top awards in competitions around the globe and performed with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, LaGrange Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, and Panama City Symphony Orchestra. Sicong received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Violin Performance at Arizona State University and served there as a New American Scholar and Graduate Teaching Assistant. In 2021, he studied at Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University where he co-founded the Aestas String Quartet. He has served on the faculty of the Manhattan International Music Festival and is an ambassador for the Vargas Music Foundation, where he teaches and mentors young musicians. Sicong is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at Boston University. Learn more at www.sicongchenviolin.com.

John Dante Prevedini

John Dante Prevedini is a contemporary classical composer, educator, and public speaker. To date, he has produced over 200 musical compositions for a wide range of ensembles in a wide range of genres. Over the past twenty years, he has performed throughout southern New England at churches, Newport Bridgefest’s classical stage, the University of Rhode Island, the Hartt School, University of Hartford, and more. He has also pioneered the method of composing experimental piano music, also known as “Augenmusik” or “eye music” – essentially a piano score as a single page, where the music notes create an image. Performances of these compositions have been featured on Classic FM, KMFA Austin, the blog of Classical Radio Boston (WCRB), Il Sussidiaro (Italy), and Rivista Musica (Italy). In 2022, he released his first commercial solo piano album through Arpaviva records, On Liberty: An Augenmusik Piano Suite. In 2024, he led the premiere performance of his own opera, Mascagni a Cerignola, which was recognized by OperaWire magazine as the world’s first Augenmusik opera. In 2025-2026 his Augenmusik piano composition “Selfie” was featured in two textbooks as an example of visual music in the 21st century. Learn more on www.prevedini.com.