The Final Forte

Cordelia Momo Fredrickson, 17, loves music and is a passionate violinist. Cordelia studies violin with world-renowned violinist and DePaul University professor Janet Sung. Cordelia made her solo orchestral debut when she was 11 at Northwestern University’s Pick-Staiger Hall in Evanston, Illinois. Since then, she has appeared as a guest solo artist with the MYAC Orchestra at the Ravinia Festival (2025), the Cuneo Mansion (2025), and Chicago, Illinois (2020, 2022, 2025), the Portland Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in Oregon (2025), the Middleton Community Orchestra in Wisconsin (2025), and is very excited to perform with the Madison Symphony Orchestra at the Final Forte in Wisconsin (2026).  She has been honored to work with the amazing conductors Dr. Allan Dennis, Alexander Platt, David Hattner and John DeMain.  

Cordelia started her violin study with Maria-Rosa Germain and the Suzuki Strings of Madison at age 3. She then continued her journey with Yoko Kato and Kyoko Takezawa in Japan, and Eugene Purdue in Madison, Wisconsin. In her earlier career, Cordelia was featured on the School Spotlight series on Wisconsin State Journal titled “Hamilton Middle School musician wins Midwest competition en route to soloist career” by Pamela Cotant for her extraordinary achievements and was subsequently recognized by the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) Board of Education. 

Cordelia was a Merit Scholarship Fellow at Midwest Young Artists Conservatory (MYAC), Chicago, Illinois (2018-2025). At MYAC, she learned music theory, chamber music as well as intensive orchestral programs. She was an advanced chamber musician, and the Vario Quartet where she was the first violin was broadcasted on WFMT – classical radio station in Chicago. She had been the concertmaster throughout the time since she joined the MYAC in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Concert Orchestra, their elite program, the Symphony Orchestra as well as the MYAC’s Northwest Pacific Concert Tour Orchestra. The selected members of the MYAC made a grand tour in Portland OR, Seattle WA and Vancouver Canada in spring 2025. During the tour, Cordelia was the featured soloist performing at the Portland Symphony Orchestra’s home, the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, and appeared in the TV interviews in Portland’s local KOIN6’s morning show “Everyday Northwest” and Greg Nibler’s interview show at FOX12 Oregon.  She was also the guest solo artist at the Ravinia Festival’s Children Educational Concerts the “Reach Teach Play” program series at the Ravinia Martin Theater in Chicago. She was interviewed by and promoted the RTP program on CBS News. 

Cordelia is the top prize winner of numerous international competitions: MYAC Junior Division Overall Winner (2019 and 2021) and String Category Winner from the Walgreens National Concerto Competition (2019 and 2021), Society of American Musicians (2021), Vancouver International Music (2021), International Music Bonn Grand Prize Virtuoso (2021), International Music Salzburg Grand Prize Virtuoso (2021), Golden Classical Music Awards International (2021), Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Bach Double (2022), American International Music (2024), Charleston 20th Century Music (2024), Virtuoso International Music Awards (2024), Middleton Community Orchestra Young Artist (2025), New York International Music (2025), Madison Symphony Bolz Young Artist -finalist (2026). Runner-up or semi-finalist include the Philadelphia International Music Festival Concerto (2020), Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) Wisconsin State (2021), the Stars of Tomorrow Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (2025). Awards and scholarships include:  merit scholarships from the Philadelphia International (2020), Meadowmount School of Music (2024, 2025), John Bolstad award from the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra (2025), the Presidential Academic Achievement Award (2025).  

Aside from her musical interest, Cordelia likes to spend her time reading, baking cookies and playing with her little sister Charlotte (6y). She is honored to serve as president of the National Honor Society (NHS) at the Wisconsin Virtual Academy for the past two years and enjoys volunteering at her favorite playground from childhood at the Madison Children Museum.

André Peck is a 16 year old from La Crosse, Wisconsin. He is a student of Dr. Joseph Zins of Crocus Hill Studios in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

André’s dedication to classical piano has manifested in over 45 honors, awards, and prizes to date, including the Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Concerto Competition, Minnesota MTNA, Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, Golden Valley Orchestra Concerto Competition, Final Forte with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Young People’s Symphony Concert Association-Minnesota Orchestra, Schubert Club, the St. Paul Piano Teachers Association Concerto Competition, the Minneapolis Mozart Teachers Forum Concerto Competition, the Rising Stars with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, the Nashville International Chopin Competition, the International Young Artist Concerto Competition in Chicago, and the Chicago International Music Competition. He has performed in Master Classes and had private lessons with such international luminaries as Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Arie Vardi, Dang Thai Son, Aviram Reichert, Boris Slutsky, Jan Jiracek von Arnim, Tamás Ungár, Mikhail Voskresensky, Pascal Nemirovsky, Alvin Chow, Alan Chow, Angela Cheng, Michelle Cann, Asaf Zohar, Yoheved Kaplinsky, and Gabriel Kwok. 

André was named a ‘23-’24 Fellow by the National Public Radio Program, From the Top, and was featured on Show 442. In June of 2021, as a winner of the Concerto Competition of the PianoTexas International Festival and Academy, he made his orchestral debut at the age of eleven with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. His passions in addition to piano include mathematics, chess, and doing things with friends. 

Andre’s joie de vivre is exceptional and reflects a youth with enormous talent in a relationship-based life.

Venezuelan born pianist Elena Abend has performed with all the major orchestras of her native country including recording and touring with the Filarmonica Nacional. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Ms. Abend was awarded the William Schuman Prize for outstanding achievement upon graduation. Performances have taken her to London’s Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Academy of Music with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Toulouse Conservatoire, Theatre Luxembourg, University of Glasgow, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C.,the Chicago Cultural Center, Merkin Concert Hall in New York, Atlanta Historical Society, the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee and the Teatro Municipal, Teatro Nacional and Teatro Teresa Carren~o in Venezuela. More performances include the Ravinia and Marlboro Music Festivals, live broadcasts on Philadelphia’s WFLN, Wisconsin Public Radio at the Elvehjem Museum in Madison and Dame Myra Hess Concert Series on Chicago’s WFMT. An avid chamber music collaborator, Ms. Abend has performed with Frankly Music, Present Music, Chamber Music Milwaukee, Milwaukee Musaik, guest with the Fine Arts Quartet, Mendelsshon Quartet, Philomusica Quartet and KAIA String Quartet. She has joined the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra in performances as well as invited artist at the “Classical Progressions” series at the Sharon Lynne Wilson Center for the Arts and the Four Seasons Arts concert series in California. More solo performances include the Green Bay Symphony, Youngstown Symphony, Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra, the UWM Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Abend has recorded for Avie, INNOVA Recording and Albany Records as well as numerous recording and editing projects for Hal Leonard’s G. Schirmer Instrumental Library and Schirmer Performance Piano Editions. Recently she recorded for the Urtext Online Record Label as soloist with the Snow Pond Chamber Players. Ms. Abend and husband clarinetist Orlando Pimentel perform as the Elision Duo promoting Latin American music. Ms. Abend is chair of piano studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has been faculty at the Collaborative Piano Institute and the Music Intensive program at the New England Music Camp in Maine.

Mark Dupere is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, where he is the Director of Orchestral Studies. A native of Arizona, he studied cello with Phyllis Young at the University of Texas at Austin before moving to the Netherlands to complete his cello studies with Jaap ter Linden at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. Dupere specialized in Baroque cello and performance practice of the Romantic era. He completed his Doctorate in Orchestral Conducting at Michigan State University with Kevin Noe.

As a cellist, Dupere was an Emerging Artist at the Victoria Bach Festival, performed in the Leipzig Bach Competition, and was an apprentice with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in London. He performed with many groups throughout Europe including Anima Eterna Brugge (BE), Arte Dei Suonatori (PL), and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (NL).  Dupere performed in major European concert halls including the London Southbank Centre, Wiener Konzerthaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and Opéra Royal de Versailles. Dupere has appeared at various festivals including La Folle Journée Festival (Nantes), Holland Festival (Amsterdam), Le Festival Berlioz (La Côte-Saint-André), Oude Muziek Festival (Utrecht) and Le Festival L’abbaye aux Dames (Saintes). He has worked with conductors Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jos van Immerseel, Mark Wigglesworth, Gunther Schuller, Bruno Weil, Robert Levin, Elizabeth Wallfisch and Ton Koopman.  As a founding member of the chamber music ensemble Haagsche Hofmuzieck, Dupere performed and gave masterclasses throughout Europe and the USA. The group made several recordings and was a finalist in the International Telemann Competition in Magdeburg, Germany.

Dupere has performed on BBC Radio and Arte TV and has made numerous recordings. These include discs of Debussy, Ravel and Mussorgsky with Anima Eterna Brugge, Marcello Psalms with Voces8 and Les Inventions (FR) and a recording of the complete chamber works of Locatelli with Ensemble Violini Capricciosi (NL) for Brilliant Classics.

After many years of performing as a professional cellist, Dupere decided to pursue his great passion for conducting and directing. Apart from conducting the Lawrence University Orchestras, he conducts Philharmonie Austin, a period instrument ensemble exploring Baroque, Classical and Romantic music. He was a conducting fellow at the Oregon Bach Festival in 2015. Additionally, he has conducted various Regional and All-State Orchestras across the country, the Haydn Orchestra (The Hague, NL), the Choir of St John and St Philip in The Hague (NL), the Cypress Symphony (Houston), the Michigan State University Symphony and Concert Orchestras, and the Fox Valley Youth Orchestra. Most recently he was named a finalist in the American Prize in Conducting.

Dupere is a passionate educator and hopes to impart a love of music-making and active engagement with audiences in the performance of music from all periods. His areas of research have included: tempo rubato in Romantic chamber music, and pedagogical approaches to teaching period performance concepts in the modern music academy.

Praised by BBC Music Magazine for her “joyful sense of freedom and a pure, unencumbered tone,” Korean-American violinist Dawn Dongeun Wohn has performed across North and South America, Asia, and Europe, with appearances at prestigious venues including Carnegie Weill Hall, Lincoln Center, and the National Theater in Taiwan. As a soloist, she has collaborated with ensembles such as the Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Japan’s Telemann Ensemble and the Aspen Conducting Orchestra. 

Her debut album Perspectives, spotlighting works by female composers, was featured by The New York Times, Spotify, and Apple Music, and was named one of WQXR’s Best Albums of the Year. Her second album, Unbounded (Delos Music), showcases music by American women composers and has been praised for its “enlightened advocacy” (Gramophone), “elegant and impassioned playing” (Fanfare), and “warm, crystal-clear tone” (The Whole Note).

One of the last studenst of legendary pedagogue Dorothy DeLay, Dawn holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Yale University, and Stony Brook University. She is currently Assistant Professor of Violin at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music, and previously served as Associate Professor of Violin at Ohio University. As a guest artist, she has taught and performed at over 40 institutions including Oberlin, New England Conservatory and NYU. She has also been on faculty of festivals such as the Rocky Ridge Music Festival, Académie Anglicorde (France), International Music Festival of the Adriatic (Italy), and Festival de Febrero (Mexico).

Dawn performs on a 1732 Nicolo Gagliano violin and is artistic director and co-creator of Coppia Concerts, an innovative new concert series held at Four Winds Farm in Fitchburg, WI. For more information and a full-length bio, please visit www.dawnplaysviolin.com.