While most students had already started February break, a few orchestra members stayed late on Friday night to watch the performance of cellist Sebastian Bäverstam, the third and final performer of the Harker Concert Series.

Bäverstam, a musician from the age of four, has a variety of impressive musical accomplishments: debuting in Carnegie Hall at 14, performing all around the globe, earning the 2006 Harvard Music Association Young Artist Award, and winning the 2009 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Orchestra conductor Chris Florio strongly encouraged all cellists to attend his performance and the master class Bäverstam conducted beforehand.

“In the master class, Sebastian basically gave me and the other cellists some tips on how to improve quality and emotional sense and range of our playing skills,” Kayla Kim (9) said. “On an emotional range the quality of the music changes and it has a much more mature level.”

Like Kayla, cellist Matthew Huang (10) attended both the class and the performance.

“He opened me up to a whole new entire world of cello playing and understanding how to express myself,” Matthew said.

According to Matthew, another major incentive in attending the concert was the “crew workshop credits.” Most of the orchestra students who came helped usher or worked backstage.

Violinist Eugene Gil (10) chose to usher the show not only to receive Conservatory credit, but also to learn from Bäverstam’s playing.

“[The concert] might not help me as much as it would a cellist, but still, music is music and I just want to see his interpretation on these pieces,” Eugene said.

The universality of music inspired Jason Jeong (10), an oboist, to come as well. He has attended all three performances of this year’s concert series.

“There’s nothing better than developing your musical skills and listening to professionals at this high caliber perform,” he said. “It’s through performances like these that we develop musical abilities of our own.”

Bäverstam spent time after the performance to chat and take pictures with Upper School orchestra members.

“I hope [my performance] encourages the people who are playing music to keep playing and also to make sure that it stays something that you always try to find the joy in,” he said. “Don’t play because somebody tells you you have to, but just play because you know you want to and you know you will be happy that you kept it up.”

Although the 2012-2013 concert series has come to an end, the tradition launched in 2010 will continue next year with new artists.