Musicians
Amanda Wang, violin
Violinist Amanda Wang was born in Shanghai and raised in Baltimore. After some struggle between the dueling interests of music and math, the latter won out when she decided to go to Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she studied electrical engineering and continued to play chamber music. She resumed her musical studies during her years at Boston University, finishing a doctoral dissertation on the last string quartet of Krzysztof Penderecki. Ms. Wang continued to work in both the musical and analytical fields, performing with the Ellipsis Piano Trio while working for a boutique financial research company. Following the birth of her two sons, Amanda has decided to take a break from work to study carpentry at the North Bennet Street School. Ms. Wang has studied under Lynn Chang, Bayla Keyes, and Shirley Givens. She is a first-prize recipient of the New England International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, an MIT Emerson Fellow, and a recipient of Boston University’s CFA Scholarship. Reviewers have noted her “full, sonorous, perfectly centered tone with awesome bow control.” Recent engagements include performances for the Midland Symphony, Grove Music Festival, and Charleston Music Festival.
Jennifer Grucza, viola
Originally from Champaign, Illinois, Jennifer Grucza began playing the viola at nine years old, studying with violinist Terrine Gomez. She studied briefly with Michael McClelland at the University of Illinois as a high school student, before she began attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in computer science and engineering with a minor in music. While at MIT, she was active in the Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Music Society, and she studied privately with Mark Smith and Marcus Thompson. She was awarded the Gregory Tucker Memorial Prize for exceptional ability in composition, performance, and/or music historial studies in 1998, and the Philip Loew Memorial Award for creative accomplishment in music for her quartet’s performance of Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 74 (“Harp”) in 1999. As a senior, she and violinist Kay Ann Chen were winners in the MIT Symphony Orchestra concerto competition, performing Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in May 1998. After graduating, Jennifer continued playing as part of the MIT musical community until joining the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston in 2004, where she continues to play as principal violist. In addition to her musical pursuits, Jennifer has many years of experience in software development and currently works as a principal web developer in Burlington, MA.
Julie Reimann, cello
Born and raised in Connecticut, Julie Reimann started playing the cello at age nine, and began studying with Aldo Parisot (Yale School of Music and Juilliard School), at age thirteen. Under his tutelage Julie performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Brazil, and won a number of music competitions, including Gold Medal in the New Haven Youth Symphony Young Artists Competition, First Prize in the Connecticut Chamber Orchestra Young Artists Competition, and Second Prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition Junior Division. Julie earned her Bachelor of Music degree in 1992 from Curtis Institute of Music where she was a student of David Soyer of the Guarneri String Quartet. During her four years at Curtis, Julie was an invited performer in the Nationale Academie de Violoncelle in Paris, France, as well as the Banff Music Festival, Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Musicorda Music Festival, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, and performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe. She won First Place in the Alliance Auditions National Music Competition in 1991, and was Principal cellist of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in her senior year. Julie graduated from Bryn Mawr College’s Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program in 1994, where she received the Horace Alwyn Prize for the student who contributed the most to musical life on campus. Julie continued to perform solo and chamber music recitals while pursuing her M.D. and Ph.D. in Biophysics at Stanford University (including in the Fortnightly Chamber Music Series in Palo Alto and the Soiree Musicale Chamber Music Series at Villa Montalvo), and during her residency and fellowship in Boston. She continues to perform chamber music as well as solo recitals locally in various venues, including as a soloist with the Waltham Symphony Orchestra (with whom she has also served as Principal Cellist) in 2016. She joined the Longwood Symphony in 2016, and performed as a soloist with them in 2018. She is also a founding member of Duo Amie (www.duoamie.org), a cello piano duo dedicated to bringing diverse people together through collaborative musical events and to performing benefit concert to support organizations serving and caring for our shared community. She has also performed as a guest artist with the Boston Music Institute and as a workshop artist at the Lyra Music Festival. Julie is also a practicing dermatopathologist in the Boston area.
Shirie Leng, violin
Shirie completed her Bachelor’s degree in Violin Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she studied with Ani Kavafian. She then went on to Yale where she got a Master’s degree in Nursing and the University of Connecticut where she received her MD. She trained as an anesthesiologist and worked at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center until she retired to take care of her three young girls. She studies with Peter Zazofsky and currently plays principal second violin for the Longwood Symphony Orchestra.