# Harvard Office for the Arts Announces 2026 Arts Prize Winners April 23, 2026 - [ Department News ](/news-categories/department-news) ![Top (from left): Paola Lee-Vega ’26, Carolyn Hao ’26, Bernardo Sequeria ’26, Texaco Texeira-Ramos ’26, Adam Bartholomew ’26, Joseph Foo ’26, Miranda Morales ’26, Elizabeth Bennett ’26, Kate LeBuhn ’26, Justin Levy ’26. Enoch Li ’26, Ethan Chaves ’26, Katherrin Billordo ‘26](/sites/g/files/omnuum12086/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/2026-04/2026%20OFA%20Arts%20Prize%20Recipients_0.jpeg?itok=WcwyLurB) Top (from left): Paola Lee-Vega ’26, Carolyn Hao ’26, Bernardo Sequeria ’26, Texaco Texeira-Ramos ’26, Adam Bartholomew ’26, Joseph Foo ’26, Miranda Morales ’26, Elizabeth Bennett ’26, Kate LeBuhn ’26, Justin Levy ’26. Enoch Li ’26, Ethan Chaves ’26, Katherrin Billordo ‘26The Office for the Arts at Harvard and the Council on the Arts at Harvard, a standing committee of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, announce the recipients of the annual undergraduate arts prizes for 2026. The awards, presented to more than 230 undergraduates over the past 43 years, recognize outstanding accomplishments in the arts undertaken during a student’s time at Harvard. This year, five students from the Department of Music were honored with Arts Prizes in recognition of their academic and artistic achievements at Harvard. To see the full list of winners, visit the [Office for the Arts website](https://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/news/2026/04/office-arts-announces-2026-arts-prize-winners). ## Robert E. Levi Prize **Katherrin Billordo ’26, Joseph Foo ’26, and co-awardees Adam Bartholomew ’26 & Elizabeth Bennett ‘26 and Paola Lee-Vega ’26 & Miranda Morales ’26** are the recipients of the **Robert E. Levi Prize**. This prize goes to a Harvard College senior who has demonstrated outstanding arts management skills over the course of an undergraduate career. The recipient’s dedication, organizational talent and creative problem-solving, as well as ability to nurture artistry, have been critical factors in the success of one or more arts organizations and/or projects. The award honors the memory of Robert E. Levi, Harvard College class of 1933 and Harvard Business School, MBA, 1935. **Adam Bartholomew,** (co-awardee with Elizabeth Bennett) a resident of Adams House and student in the Harvard–Berklee Joint Studies Program, explores the intersection of music and film through coursework in Music and Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard and Film Scoring at Berklee. While concentrating in Molecular and Cellular Biology, he has also pursued creative projects that connect artistic practice with cultural storytelling and community-building. In the spring of his first year, for a Harvard musicology course, Adam directed and edited a documentary on his uncle’s pioneering jazz steelpan ensemble, Panazz, from Trinidad. The film won the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and has since screened internationally, from London to Japan. Through a sponsorship from the MITTCO Ltd. Steelpan factory that supported the film’s Digital Cinema Package production, Adam acquired steelpans that helped launch the Harvard College Steelpan Ensemble, which he co-founded with Elizabeth Bennett ’26 in September 2024. Rehearsing in Adams House and open to musicians of all experience levels, the ensemble fosters a welcoming space for collaborative music-making while sharing the vibrant tradition of steelpan music with the Harvard community. In January 2026, after a year of fundraising, the ensemble traveled to Trinidad to engage with the instrument’s cultural roots and collaborate with leading steelpan virtuosos in a culminating concert. A resident of Dunster House, **Elizabeth Bennett** (co-awardee with Adam Bartholomew) concentrates in Music with a secondary in Government. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of these two disciplines with a focus on arts advocacy; this is reflected in the leadership roles she has embodied on campus. She is the co-founder of the Harvard College Steelpan Ensemble, a no-auditions-required group where she teaches members to play from a beginner level. With her co-founder, she planned and executed the ensemble’s inaugural trip to Trinidad, where they performed a sold-out concert collaborating with local artists. Elizabeth’s work with the steelpan ensemble is documented in articles by T*he Harvard Gazette*, *The Trinidad Express*, and *The Trinidad and Tobago Guardia*n; she was also interviewed on the breakfast show Trinidad and Tobago Today. Last year, Elizabeth was the music director of the Radcliffe Pitches, leading more than two hundred alumnae in their 50th Anniversary Reunion Jam. She is a dedicated member of the Harvard University Choir and the Ferris Choral Fellows, where she is also the social secretary. Next year, Elizabeth plans to pursue a master's degree in education at the University of Cambridge specializing in Arts and Creativity: her first step towards a lifelong career in the arts. ## Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Prize **Carolyn Hao ’26** is the recipient of the **Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Prize**. The prize recognizes a Harvard undergraduate who combines talent and energy with outstanding enthusiasm for musical theater at Harvard. The prize honors the memory of Doris Cohen Levi '35 and is conferred upon a student who has made a consistent contribution of high quality to the production or performance of musical comedy, opera, dance and all other forms of theater which combine music and theatrical performance at Harvard. A resident of Leverett House, **Carolyn Hao** is a double concentrator in History of Science and Music, and a part of the Harvard-Berklee Joint Studies program concentrating in Jazz vocal performance. At Harvard, Hao has occupied and explored many of the different corners of Harvard's artistic opportunities as performer, playwright, music-director, and choreographer. She was a soloist at President Claudine Gay and President Alan Garber's respective inaugurations. She performed "Somewhere," a tribute to Rita Moreno, at Harvard's 374th Commencement. She has also been a soloist numerous times in Berklee's "Singers Showcase" at the Berklee Performance Center. Hao has been a part of 9 different theater productions at Harvard as a performer, music director, sound designer, and writer. In her final year at Harvard, she wrote an original musical titled "The Crane Wife's Return of a Favor:" an amalgamation of various East Asian folk tales retold in a contemporary setting. During her junior summer, Hao worked for the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) as a Music Assistant under Ryan Cantwell and Nadia DiGiallonardo on WONDER. She also acted as Afong Moy in the A.R.T.’s reading of "The Chinese Lady" at the Schlesinger Library's exhibit. Hao was a two-time choreographer of the Asian American Dance Troupe, the Music Director of the Din and Tonics, and a Ferris Choral Fellow with the University Choir. ## Robert Levin Prize in Musical Performance **Enoch Li ’26** is the recipient of the **Robert Levin Prize in Musical Performance**. This prize has been established to recognize an extraordinarily gifted undergraduate musician. The award honors Robert Levin ’68, professor emeritus and former Dwight P. Robinson Jr. professor of the Department of Music at Harvard University. A resident of Adams House and concentrator in Mathematics, **Enoch Li** is a Hong Kong-born and raised conductor and violinist. Enoch started learning conducting with Dr. Yip Wai Hong and subsequently studied with Samuel Pang and Federico Cortese. This past year, Enoch was the Assistant Conductor of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and Music Director of the Bach Society Orchestra and the Harvard College Opera. This past summer, Enoch was a conducting fellow at the Aspen Conducting Academy. A recipient of the James Conlon Conducting Prize, he is looking forward to returning to Aspen this coming summer. As a violinist, Enoch formerly studied with Nicholas Kitchen and Lewis Kaplan. He was previous a violin fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and has played with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta and the Boston Symphony Orchestra as a section violinist. He was also a substitute violinist for the New World Symphony. ## Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts **Ethan Antonio Chaves ’26** is the recipient of the **Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts**. The prize recognizes outstanding artistic talent and achievement in the composition or performance of music, drama, dance or the visual arts. This prize honors the sum of a student's artistic activities at Harvard. A resident of Winthrop House and concentrator in Music and Philosophy, **Ethan Antonio Chaves** is a composer, performer, and improviser from Charlton, Massachusetts. He is the Artistic Director and Composer for Lowell House Opera, for which he created an original opera based on Jean-Paul Sartre’s *No Exit*. He also serves as Concertmaster of the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and has been co-principal violist of the Brattle Street Chamber Players and violist and orchestra manager for Harvard College Opera. Chaves has studied composition with Chaya Czernowin, Michael Gandolfi, Hans Tutschku, John Harbison, and Julian Anderson, and has participated in festivals including the Darmstadt Ferienkurse and Valencia International Music Festival. His recent and upcoming projects include the premiere of his orchestral work *cloud of unknowing* with the Apollo Ensemble of Boston, new works for loadbang and Ensemble Dal Niente, and the U.S. premiere of his Blodgett Prize–winning string quartet *MIXED SIGNALS*— by the Parker Quartet. --- **Council on the Arts members at the time of selection were:** Sean Kelly (Chair) Teresa G. and Ferdinand F. Martignetti Professor of Philosophy; Dean of Arts and Humanities; Remo Airaldi, American Repertory Theater; Lecturer on Theater, Theater, Dance & Media; Alicia Anstead, Producer, Harvard Arts Festival; Associate Director for Programming and Communications, OFA; Daniel Chong, Professor of the Practice in Music, Parker Quartet; Fiona Coffey, Director, OFA; Angélica Durrell, Director of Programs, OFA; Elizabeth Epsen, Manager of College Dance, OFA Dance Program; Phillip Howze, Associate Senior Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media; Ruth Stella Lingford, Senior Lecturer on Art, Film and Visual Studies; Laura Quinton, Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies, Lecturer on Theater, Dance & Media; Matt Saunders, Professor of Arts, Film and Visual Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies; Yosvany Terry, Senior Lecturer on Music, Director of the Jazz Orchestra; Laura van den Berg, Senior Lecturer, Director of Creative Writing, Department of English Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)