Francisco Noya is a prominent figure in the Boston and New England music scene, where he has earned a reputation as a versatile interpreter of symphonic and operatic literature. He served as music director of the Longwood Symphony Orchestra in Boston and Symphony by the Sea in Manchester. Mr. Noya currently serves as resident conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, where he represents the Philharmonic artistically and educationally throughout the Rhode Island community. He is also the music director of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in Newton, MA.

Noya is also a respected member of the conducting faculty of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. In the fall of 2008, he began his tenure as music director of the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra, where he is actively engaged in the exploration of cutting-edge orchestral repertoire.

Noya began his professional career in his native Venezuela, as conductor of the Youth Orchestra of Valencia, one of the original ensembles of “El Sistema.” After earning advanced degrees in composition and conducting from Boston University, Noya was appointed to serve as assistant conductor of the Caracas Philharmonic and assistant to the music director of the Teatro Teresa Carreño, one of the most prestigious theaters in Latin America. Noya continued his conducting career in the United States by serving as music director of the Empire State Youth Orchestra in Albany, New York for ten seasons. During his tenure, he led the group on two European tours as well as in concerts at both Carnegie Hall in New York City and in Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood.

In the U.S., Noya has appeared as guest conductor of the Boston Pops, Baltimore, Nashville, San Antonio, and Omaha Symphony Orchestras, and the Cape Cod Symphony, among others. In addition, he has performed internationally with orchestras in Argentina, Brazil, Peru, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Spain, Italy and Russia. In Venezuela, Noya has collaborated with “El Sistema,” teaching Master Classes and conducting orchestral performances throughout the country. For the past three seasons, Noya has been a guest conductor with the Orquesta Académica of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

Japanese-American conductor Ken Yanagisawa is the Music Director of the Boston Opera Collaborative and the Boston Annex Players, the Associate Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony, the Assistant Conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra, and an Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music. He made his Japanese debut conducting Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with Kansai Nikikai and the Japan Century Symphony Orchestra in February 2023 and will return in Fall 2026 to conduct Mozart’s Clemenza di Tito. A 2024 Aspen Conducting Academy Fellow and James Conlon Conductor Prize recipient, Ken has previously served as a Conducting Apprentice with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and has assisted/covered the National Symphony Orchestra, Rhode Island Philharmonic, Berlin Academy of American Music, and Berlin Opernfest, among others.

Ken recently completed a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Orchestral Conducting at Boston University under the guidance of James Burton and also holds graduate degrees in conducting from the Manhattan School of Music and a B.A. in music from Yale University. Prior to Yale he attended the New England Conservatory as an Undergraduate Diploma candidate for Oboe Performance under the tutelage of John Ferrillo. His other teachers include George Manahan, William Lumpkin, Bernard Labadie, and Tatsuya Shimono. In masterclasses and festivals, he has been taught by renowned artists and pedagogues such as Robert Spano, Leonard Slatkin, Mark Stringer, Dame Jane Glover, Gerard Schwarz, and Jorma Panula. He is deeply grateful for all the excellent guidance and mentorship he has received thus far in his life as a musician.

Hayden Ren, 17, a senior at Newton North High School, has been studying cello at the New England Conservatory (NEC) under Allison Eldredge since the age of eight. She is currently also studying with Blaise Dejardin. Hayden was the first prize winner of the 2023–2024 NEC Prep Concerto Competition and the 2021 NEC Prep Solo String (Cello) Competition in her age category. She also won the 2025 Boston Civic Symphony Young Artist Concerto Competition, the 2025 Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition, and the 2024 New England Philharmonic Young Artist Competition. She was the runner-up in the 2023 Waltham Philharmonic Orchestra Concerto Competition and earned second prize at the 2022 Brockton Symphony Orchestra and 2025 Quincy Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competitions.

In 2025, Hayden received the Grand Prize at the International Antonín Dvořák Classical Music Competition and second prize at the Gustav Mahler International Cello Competition in Prague. She was also a finalist in the 2025 Boston POPS Young Artist Competition.

As a cello soloist, Hayden has performed with the New Philharmonia Orchestra, New England Philharmonic, NEC Youth Symphony, Sharon Community Chamber Orchestra, Wellesley Symphony Orchestra and the ASMI Chamber Orchestra (Italy), as well as in the world’s premier renowned venues, including Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Gilles-Lefebvre Hall (Orford, Canada), and Teatro degli Atti (Rimini, Italy). In recent summers, Hayden has been accepted into the masterclasses and studios of esteemed instructors such as Paul Katz, Laurence Lesser, Fred Sherry, Lluis Claret, Matt Haimovitz, and Amit Peled at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Orford Music Academy (Canada), and the Altschuler Summer Music Institute (Italy). As a devoted chamber musician, Hayden, with Trio Résonne, won first prize in the senior category of the 2024 IX International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition and performed at the iconic Hatch Memorial Shell that same year. She has been a member of the NEC Chamber Music Intensive Performance Seminar (CHIPS), where she performed with Trio Verus. In 2025, Trio Verus advanced to the quarterfinals of the 52nd Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Both Trio Résonne and Trio Verus have been featured in Benjamin Zander’s renowned Interpretation Masterclass series on YouTube, performing piano trios by Ravel, Haydn, and Shostakovich.

Hayden has been a member of the cello section of the acclaimed Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (BPYO) since 2021. She is also a member of the NEC String Chamber Orchestra for the 2025–2026 season and previously played in the NEC Youth Philharmonic Orchestra and the NEC Youth Symphony. With BPYO, Hayden has performed regularly at Boston Symphony Hall and toured internationally to some of the world’s most distinguished venues, including the Philharmonie Berlin, Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Rudolfinum Prague during the summer of 2024; historic music venues in South Africa (Pretoria, Soweto, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Makhanda) in 2023; Greece (Athens’ Megaron Christos Lambrakis Hall, Thessaloniki, Corfu, Ioannina, Delphi, and Patras) in 2022; and Mexico (Sala Netzahualcóyotl and Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, as well as León, Veracruz, Xalapa, and Puebla) in 2025.