MEET THE ARTISTS STEPHEN MULLIGAN, CONDUCTOR
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onductor Stephen Mulligan began his term as the Assistant Conductor of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra in August 2017. From 2014-16, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Winston-Salem Symphony and the Music Director of the Winston-Salem Symphony Youth Orchestras Program. Recent highlights include appearances with the St. Louis Symphony, Florida Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony Orchestra and Reading Symphony Orchestra. Mulligan has also frequently assisted with programs at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, including productions of Bernstein’s West Side Story at the Hollywood Bowl and John Adams’s Nixon in China at Walt Disney Concert Hall. JEF O FR
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Mulligan was awarded the Aspen Conducting Prize after studying with Robert Spano as a fellow in the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen from 2013-2014; he served as the festival’s Assistant Conductor in 2015 and as a guest conductor in 2016. Mulligan also studied with Gustav Meier, Markand Thakar and Marin Alsop at the Peabody Institute, and received his Master’s Degree there in 2013. While studying at Peabody, Mulligan co-founded and directed the Occasional Symphony, an ensemble devoted to performing in alternative venues. In 2012, he traveled to Venezuela with the Baltimore Symphony’s OrchKids staff to participate in an educational exchange with the renowned El Sistema program. In 2011, Mulligan graduated cum laude from Yale University, where he served as the Yale Symphony’s assistant conductor, traveled to Helsinki to study Sibelius’s late manuscripts with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, and was awarded the Wrexham Prize for excellence in performance for violin and conducting. Mulligan grew up in Baltimore, MD, studying violin with his father Gregory, former concertmaster of the San Antonio Symphony and current violinist with the Baltimore Symphony. LEXINE FENG, CELLO
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exine Feng, a sixteen-year-old homeschooler, began cello lessons at the age of seven and currently studies with Wendy Warner, professor at Columbus State University. Her previous teachers include Martha Gerschefski and Guang Wang of the Vega Quartet. Feng has won first prize in many competitions, including the 2019 DeKalb Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition, the 2018 Atlanta Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, the 2018 Ruth Kern Young Artists Concerto Competition, and the 2018 and 2017 Franklin Pond Chamber Music Competitions. She performed at Lincoln Center in 2014 as a featured soloist with the Emory Junior Chamber Orchestra, and she performed at Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall in the 2012 American Protégé Winners’ Recital. Feng has performed with the DeKalb Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Community Symphony Orchestra, and she has been invited to perform at events hosted by the Atlanta Taiwanese Association of America. She has also performed in the Atlanta’s Young Artists concerts at Emory University and at the Cellomania! Concerts at the Highlands-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival with distinguished cellists. 48 aso.org | @AtlantaSymphony | facebook.com/AtlantaSymphony