Waltham Philharmonic winter concert will spotlight two young soloists

The Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra will present a holiday concert Sunday, Dec. 7, featuring the co-winners of the orchestra’s Student Concerto Competition.

Two young musicians  — Ezra Lewis, 14, and Hayden Ren, 17 — will perform as soloists with the orchestra at 3 p.m. at the Waltham Government Center, 119 School St. 

The concert marks the orchestra’s second performance of the season. The first, a celebration of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s works, will be reprised Sunday as the repertoire will include his “Christmas Overture,” Tchaikovsky’s “Variations on a Rococo Theme,” and the first movement of Grieg’s “Piano Concerto in A Minor.”

Lewis will perform the Grieg piece, and Ren will play the Tchaikovsky piece.

Lewis, a young composer who has studied piano for nine years, performed and was interviewed on NPR’s national radio program “From the Top” when he was 11. He studies classical piano under Professor Jonathan Bass at the New England Conservatory of Music and jazz piano with Professor Zahili Gonzalez Zamora at Berklee College of Music.

Ren is a cellist and senior at Newton North High School who has performed in multiple ensembles, including the New England Philharmonic and Wellesley Symphony Orchestra. She has performed at Carnegie Hall and was runner-up in the Waltham orchestra’s 2023 Student Concerto Competition.

Music Director Michael Korn said that typically only one winner is selected for the competition.

“There are so many wonderful, wonderful young people playing,” Korn said. “It’s usually very, very hard to just single out one,” he said. “This year, we had to choose two, because they were absolutely phenomenal.”

Korn said both artists are collaborative, receptive to feedback and musically creative. He said they also appreciate the opportunity provided by the competition.

“This is a platform for them to grow and not just to show off,” Korn said.

For more information, visit the Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra’s website.