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Nicholas Bodnar, a 2007 graduate of The Lawrenceville School and currently a freshman at Harvard University, will perform later this month at Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania. An added fillip to this performance will be the presence in the audience of Nicholas’s 99-year-old teacher, Orlando Cole, a retired professor from the Curtis Institute.

Son of Dr. Andrew Bodnar and Dr. Amy Pruitt-Bodnar of Princeton, Mr. Bodnar is co-principal of the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra. He also plays with the Harvard’s Brattle Street Chamber Players, and has collaborated with the university’s dance and opera ensembles. He was principal cellist of the Youth Chamber Orchestra at Temple Music Prep’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians, and in 2005 was heard on Public Radio International’s “From the Top” program.

Does the 18-year-old anticipate any last-minute advice from his teacher of seven years? “He hasn’t specified thus far,” Mr. Bodnar said. “He’s pretty confident in my ability.”

Mr. Bodnar will perform at 3 p.m., January 27 at Glencairn Museum, 1001 Cathedral Rd. He will be joined by Nozomi Takashima, staff piano accompanist at the Temple Center for Gifted Children in Philadelphia. The hour-long performance will feature Brahms’s Cello Sonata in F Major, but will also include some “less-heavy, more showy pieces,” said Mr. Bodnar.

Winner of numerous competitions, Mr. Bodnar performed with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra in the 2006 Young Artists Auditions, and in Miami as the national winner of the 2007 National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts scholarship competition. During the summers of 2001 thru 2005, he studied at the ENCORE School for Strings at the Cleveland Institute of Music. This past summer Mr. Bodnar received a scholarship to participate in the Colorado College Summer Music Festival. He has studied at Temple’s Boyer College of Music since the age of 10.

Mr. Bodnar claims that he discovered music through his older brother Benjamin.

 “He played the violin and I’d sit around listening to him practice,” recalled Mr. Bodnar. “One day I stole his violin and held it in the position of a cello. I demanded a musical instrument of my own and it caused my parents to have me start the cello.”

Mr. Bodnar is not yet certain whether he’ll pursue a career in music or the sciences.

Doors for the January 27th concert open at 2:30 p.m. Admission is $5; free for museum members. For additional information, call Glencairn at (267) 502-2600 or visit www.glencairnmuseum.org.

Diana Goodman of Princeton, and Johanna Schneider of Skillman, were among those students named to both the Honor Roll and the Head of School’s List for the first term of the 2007-08 school year at George School. Both girls are seniors at the Newtown, Pa. boarding and day school. Head of School’s List is comprised of students nominated by at least 5 faculty and staff members for their diligence, constructive attitude, thoroughness, dependability, punctuality, and overall commitment to excellence.

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