As we begin our final season, it's important to remember that the Boston Philharmonic is more than mere concerts.
This Saturday, October 3, 2026 at the First Church in Cambridge, Ben Zander will host his first Interpretation Class of the season! Featuring our longtime pianist and artistic collaborator, Dina Vainshtein, this is your opportunity to see Mr. Zander in action as a master teacher as he helps these young artists find the passion in their music and perfect their technique.
All performances are open to the public and will be filmed.
_____
PROGRAM
Please click the links to download the music and follow along!
Heming Cao, tenor
Dina Vainshtein, piano
Hayden Ren, cello
Dina Vainshtein, piano
_____
Hayden Ren
Hayden Ren began cello lessons with Allison Eldredge at age eight. Hayden was the 1st prize winner of the 2024 New England Conservatory (NEC) Preparatory School Concerto Competition (age Category B) and the 2021 NEC Prep Solo String Competition (Cello in Category A), and also won prizes in the 2023 Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition, 2022 Brockton Symphony Orchestra Youth Concerto Competition, and the 2023 Quincy Symphony Orchestra Eleanor B. Nelson Concerto Competition, among others.
As a soloist, Hayden performed with the New Philharmonic Orchestra, Sharon Community Chamber Orchestra, and Wellesley Symphony Orchestra in 2024. As a competition winner and music festival participant, she has performed at Carnegie Hall, NEC’s Jordan Hall, Gilles-Lefebvre Hall in Orford, Canada, and Teatro degli Atti in Rimini, Italy, among others.
Hayden loves animals and hopes her commitment to music can change people’s perspectives and appreciation of classical music, contributing to a more harmonious world for all.
Hayden is an incoming freshman at Harvard University.
Heming Cao is a tenor, chorus director, and composer based in Boston.
As a conductor, Heming has served as director of the Student Choir of Nankai University, the Tianjin Symphony Orchestra Affiliated Youth Choir, and the Tianjin Philharmonic Chamber Choir. He participated in and directed "Alexander Nevsky Cantata", "The Yellow River Cantata", "The Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese Literature Concert", "The Springtime of Bo Sea" and music recording works for the movie "108". As a music educator, he founded Jungle Children Voice and Alma Female Choir in Tianjin. He recently began tenure as Music Director of The New Moon Choirs in the Boston area. As a tenor, Heming's voice is warm and bright. He has played the role of Nemorino from L'elisir d'amore, and Ferando from Così fan tutte. He has also sung solo roles in much of the standard oratorio and concert repertoire, like "Messiah" by Handel, "Weihnachts-Oratorium", "Mass in B minor", "St. Matthew Passion" by Bach, etc.
Recently he sang as a tenor soloist in Monteverdi's Vespers with Cantata Singers at the Boston Choral Festival. He is currently a voice performance diploma student at Boston University. Heming holds an M.M. degree from the Longy School of Music of Bard College, and B.S. degree from Nankai University (China).
Pianist Dina Vainshtein collaborates with some of the most promising musicians of our time. Now based in Boston, she is the daughter of two pianists, and studied with Boris Berlin and Arthur Aksenov at the prestigious Gnessin Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. At the 1998 International Tchaikovsky Competition, she received the Special Prize for the Best Collaborative Pianist.
In recent concerts she has collaborated with violinists Miriam Fried, Yura Lee, Karen Gomyo, Chad Hoopes, Caroline Goulding, Zina Schiff, Alexi Kenney, and Angelo Yu; cellists Natasha Brofsky and Amit Peled; as well as the Borromeo String Quartet.
She came to the United States in 2000 to attend the Cleveland Institute of Music, where she worked with Vivian Hornik Weilerstein and Donald Weilerstein. She soon found numerous performing opportunities in the US, from Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall in New York City, to the Caramoor Festival, Music at Menlo, the Ravinia Festival, the Music Academy in the West at Santa Barbara, not to mention tours of Japan, China, Europe, and Russia.
Bob McQuiston reviewed the recent Naxos release of Emile Sauret’s violin showpieces featuring Michi Wianko and Vainshtein: “She couldn’t have a better partner than Ms. Vainshtein, who plays the perfect supporting role in these fiddle-dominated pieces. More specifically, she exercises a perfect balancing act between artistic reserve during bravura violin passages as opposed to compelling dramatic assertiveness when the piano is spotlighted.” Vainshtein made another acclaimed Naxos recital disc with Frank Huang, the concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic.
For nearly a decade, Vainshtein has been affiliated with the New England Conservatory and the Walnut Hill School, where she teaches chamber music. At both institutions she worked with Benjamin Zander in his renowned interpretation classes. Maestro Zander praised their collaboration as “the perfect partnership; [she is] the ultimate professional.”
_____
ABOUT INTERPRETATION CLASSES
From 1965-2012, Ben was on the faculty of the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), where he taught Musical Interpretation and conducted the Youth Philharmonic and the Conservatory orchestras. He was the founding Artistic Director of NEC’s joint program with The Walnut Hill School, a high school for the Performing Arts. Ben led the NEC Youth Philharmonic on fifteen international tours and made several documentaries for the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). His class on Musical Interpretation attracted students from all over the world.
These classes now take place periodically in public venues around Boston and are made available on YouTube, where millions of people watch them worldwide.