The Group

 

Norah Fong (President)

Norah is from Torrance, California. In the fifth grade, she discovered she had perfect pitch: now, her friends ask her what note the doorbell, elevator, and microwave make. When she isn't playing the cello, Norah likes writing music, painting, and spending time with her friends.

Vien Le (Co-music Director)

Vien is a tiny name for a tiny person from the tiny town of Canton in the tiny state of Connecticut who plays the tiny bass. People think she joined her school’s band as a percussionist because her school did not have an orchestra, but the real reason is because she wanted to hit a gong. Vien has a weird obsession with frogs, and is prone to laughing attacks, especially after the hour of 8 pm. 

Laec Lorentzen (Co-music Director)

Laec is from a city you haven't heard of in Canada. His hobbies include listening to loud music, making loud music, and not sleeping. If you ever see him without headphones on, he probably lost them (again). He's either not as cool as he seems, or much cooler than he seems. His least favorite colour is chartreuse.

Christian Phanhthourath (Social Media Manager)

Christian is from Marietta, GA, a suburb of Atlanta, and started the cello at the age of eight, even though no one in his family had ever touched an instrument. He is currently on his sixth hair color and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. When he’s not actively frying his hair, Christian enjoys sipping overpriced matcha at cute cafes and filming lifestyle vlogs for his YouTube channel.

Lishore Kumar (Tour Manager)

Lishore (think Lebron but with “shore”) is from Tomball, TX. When he was six, Lishore tried to play the oboe and viola but hated the taste of reeds and didn’t hate himself, respectively. Thus, he settled on the obvious compromise: cello. When he’s not playing, you’ll find Lishore doomscrolling Tiktok or studying with Subway Surfers in the background.

Mateo Vidali

Mateo is from Holden, Massachusetts. When he was 5, he picked up the cello. In the 5th grade, he started yo-yoing. Now he is Yo-yo Mateo. He also claims the title of most bent endpin in Low Strung history.

Nicholas Boettcher

Born and raised in Naperville, IL, Nicholas started cello at age 4. He later picked up the bass because the cello was too easy to travel with. You can spot him on campus trying to wrangle a bass, cello, and backpack on his way to the nearest practice room. He also likes food.

Madeline Buchowski

Madeline Buchowski ‘27, from St. Louis, Missouri, started taking cello lessons at the age of five and has been learning how to enjoy practicing since. While she knows very little rock music, you can often find her playing cello karaoke to Taylor Swift songs on Youtube. In the near future, Madeline aspires to do the splits, find a perfect way to make a dorm room with Yale furniture look cute, and determine the perfect Low Strung sticker placement on her cello case.

Edward Kong

This is Edward from the great state of Illinois. He started cello at the age of 7 because he saw a cool video of ThePianoGuys once. In addition to jamming away on his cello, you can often find Edward lost on campus. If you see him, please do help him find his way. Edward hopes that one day when he’s 40, the genes of his distant relative actor Gong Yoo will kick in.

Justin Kim

Justin is from Potomac, Maryland, having sailed from Busan in a little rowboat at age seven. He started taking cello lessons in third grade because he hates John Kim. When he isn’t not practicing, Justin can usually be found watching movies, consuming reelz, or chillin in Silliman.

Sarah Lee

Sarah is from Portland, Oregon. Besides hiking on trails and hanging out at the Nike headquarters, she sometimes also plays the cello. When she isn’t in class, you can find her in her dorm napping, or sleeping, or taking a nap that turns into the night’s sleep. 

Yuki Heeger

Yuki hails from the distant land of New Haven, Connecticut. She chose the cello at the age of six because she’d never have to stand while playing it, unlike the violin. Her hobbies include drawing old people, jaywalking, touching grass, and regretting spending all her paychecks on clothes and coffee.

Josef Bell

Josef is from the quaint town of New York City, and started the cello at three years old. He wanted to play the bass originally, but is very glad his family said no and saved him the extra hassle. His hobbies include reading classics, buying Celsius, trying new foods, and sleeping.

 
 
 
 
 

Alumni

David Rector* (founder), Hermes Huang (founding manager), Peter Aronoff, Devon Breton-Pakozdi*, Sam Brickman Raredon, Noah Capurso, Sofia Checa*, Jennifer Chen, Dayle Chung, Agnes Coakley, Emily Cornett, Harry Doernberg*, Francis Fedora, Susanna Ferguson, Eric Fishman*, Benji Fleischacker*, Laura Gaynon, Giacomo Glotzer*, Jacqueline Gosnell, Anna Graber, Yuan He, John Heroy*, Walter Hsiang, Matthew Johnson, Sarah Kabay, Max Lauring*, Dimitri Lippe, Megan Lim*, Geoffrey Litt, Maria de Leon*, Dan Lewis, Jaja Liao*, Ian Marpuri, Alexander Oh, Miranda Margulis-Ohnuma, Kirill Miniaev, Nicolas Vivas Nikonorow, Allison Park, Olivia Pavco-Giaccia, Tess Ryckman, Ezra Seltzer, Isaac Selya, Henry Shapard, Leo Singer, Claire Solomon, Soren Sudhof, Han-ah Sumner, Matthew Udry*, Veronica Wallace, Henry Wilkin, Johnny Xu*, Niu Niu Zhang, Chloe Zhou, Jerry Zhou


*Arrangers