Introductions | WFMT: Recent Episodes
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Introductions is WFMT’s weekly Saturday morning program that features talented pre-college classical musicians in the Chicago area. Soloists and chamber ensembles perform live in WFMT’s Levin Performance Studio. Large ensembles, including orchestras, choirs, and bands, are recorded at their home venues and broadcast at later dates. The program also features youth music competition winners. While many students who appear on Introductions pursue other careers, some have gone on to study music at some of the most prestigious music schools around the world and pursue careers as professional musicians.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute and mentor Jessie Montgomery took six young composers and guided them through workshops of new pieces throughout the year. The Young Composers Initiative culminated in a concert featuring fellows of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as performers.
Two of the composers have previously appeared on WFMT:
– Sylvia Pine performed as a violinist on Live from WFMT in May 2025;
– Clara Frantzen was featured in two Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras Introductions episodes: as a violinist and composer in July 2025 and as an interviewee about Lollapalooza in August 2025.
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Today we hear from 16-year-old violinist Elle Cho. She plays Bach, Beach and Tchaikovsky with pianist Milana Pavchinskaya.
Elle Cho began violin studies at the age of three and is a Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians. As a winner of the DePaul Concerto Competition, she made her solo debut at age eight with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago. Since then, Elle has been a prizewinner in numerous competitions and was awarded the prestigious Anthony Quinn Foundation Scholarship in recognition of her artistic excellence.
She has performed in masterclasses with leading artists including Martin Beaver, Midori, Ani Kavafian, Rachel Barton Pine, Boris Garlitsky, Yair Kless, James Ehnes, Vadim Gluzman, and Ilya Kaler. Elle has also participated in renowned summer festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Encore Chamber Music Institute, Musica Mundi, Mozarteum Summer Masterclasses, and the Menton Summer Festival.
A dedicated chamber musician, Elle is a member of Quartet Meraviglia, which was awarded Bronze Medal at the 2024 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the 2024 St. Paul String Quartet Competition, and the Grand Prize at the Chicago National Chamber Music Competition. She currently studies violin with Almita Vamos.
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This week, two string quartets from the Music Institute of Chicago Academy play Haas, Dvořák, Brahms, Prokofiev, and a double helping of C major Haydn.
Some players have previously appeared on Introductions:
– Mingshi Xia and Simon Updegraff played with Trioscuro in September 2024
– Simon Updegraff additionally did a live solo recital in November 2023
– Lucy Wu has been broadcast in previous Academy chamber groups in November 2024 and in November 2024
– Additionally, Elle Cho is set to give a live recital on September 20, 2025.
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Our annual Labor Day-weekend recap of 27 graduating seniors, some highlight performances, and where they’re heading next.
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On Saturday August 2, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras had a primetime spot at Lollapalooza in Grant Park, the opportunity to play for its biggest audience in history. Robbie Ellis was there and talked to the players and those who made it happen.
More from WFMT: Adela Skowronski’s story CYSO Makes History at Lollapalooza.
More from CYSO: Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra Selected for 2025 Lollapalooza Lineup.
This episode contains interviews with Introductions alumni Angelika Wang, Kevin Harte, Clara Frantzen, Chloe Nam, Zachary Guo, and Chloe Cohen. Also interviewed is trumpeter Bennett King, who is booked to appear on Introductions on December 6, 2025.
Other voices in the episode belong to composer Jonathan Bailey Holland and CYSO staff: Program Manager Reanna Panlilio, Director of String Ensembles Daniella Valdez, Executive Director Jennie Oh Brown, and Music Director Allen Tinkham.
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We hear from three chamber groups who reached the semifinals of this year’s Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, including the Bronze Medal-winning Quartetto Speranza.
Many of today’s players have appeared previously on Introductions:
– Tristan Zhu most recently gave a solo recital in March 2025
– Lily Sullivan most recently appeared live in November 2024
– Vivian Van de Sype-Cucu performed with a previous Academy string quartet in November 2024
– Jan Vargas Nedvetsky most recently performed live in September 2024
– Violinist Neal Kotamarty Eisfeldt previously appeared as a chamber music violist in October 2023
– Ella Wimbiscus had a solo recital in May 2022
– Cecilia O’Malley and Callia Murray have performed together in chamber groups in December 2023 and in August 2024
– Diego Dahle featured solo in June 2025.
Neal Kotamarty Eisfeldt is also booked to perform live on Introductions twice before the end of the year: on September 13 he joins steelpan player Jaden Teague-Núñez in a duo by Jan Bach; and on December 20 Neal has his own feature violin recital.
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We feature four graduating seniors from CYSO’s flagship orchestra on viola, horn, tuba and violin.
Chloe Cohen, Elyse Schlesinger, Kevin Harte and Clara Frantzen at their final Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras concert, May 18, 2025. (Photos: Ed Spinelli.)
Chloe Cohen is a 17-year-old violist from Chicago and a senior at Lincoln Park High School. They began playing the viola at age six and currently study with Danny Lai of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Professor Helen Callus of Northwestern University. Chloe serves as principal violist of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s flagship Symphony Orchestra and Classical Orchestral Repertory Ensemble, and is joining the ensemble on tour in Spain this June and at Lollapalooza later this summer. In addition to their work as a performer, Chloe is passionate about community leadership, musical and otherwise. They tutor beginning orchestra students at their school and are the founder and president of Lincoln Park’s Trans Advocacy Club, creating space for LGBTQ+ voices and visibility. A committed student, Chloe is also an Illinois State Scholar. This fall, they will begin a dual degree at Northwestern University in Political Science and Viola Performance.
Credit: Ashley Deran.
Elyse Schlesinger is an 18-year-old horn player. A senior at William Fremd High School in Palatine, her finalist performance in the 2024 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition played on Introductions in April 2024. She was also a finalist in the Ocala Symphony’s Young Artist Concerto Competition in Florida, and won the Fremd Concerto Aria Competition. Her horn quartet is a finalist in both the Elmhurst Concerto Competition and the CYSO Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Elyse has participated in the ILMEA District and All-State festivals, earning top chairs in both the Honors Band and Honors Orchestra. This summer, she will join the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA), touring East Asia. She is currently Co-Principal Horn of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras and participates in CYSO’s chamber music program, performing in both brass and woodwind quintets. This fall, she will attend the New England Conservatory, studying horn with Rachel Childers.
Credit: Mazeltography.
Kevin Harte, 17 of Arlington Heights, is a senior at John Hersey High School. He started playing the tuba at the age of 10. He has performed with Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, District 214 Honors Orchestra, ILMEA All State Honors Band, and other top youth ensembles. He received an honorable mention in the 2024 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition. His teachers have included Josh Wirt, Professor of Tuba at Elmhurst University, and his current teacher Serena Voltz of Axiom Brass. When he is not playing low notes in the back row, he can usually be found watching sports with his dad or listening to the works of his favorite composer, Gustav Mahler. In the fall, Kevin will begin a Tuba Performance degree at Carnegie Mellon University with Craig Knox of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.
Clara Frantzen is a violinist, composer, and conductor from Oak Park. They study violin with Rachel Brown and conducting with Anthony Barrese. As a violinist, Clara plays in the CYSO Symphony Orchestra and CORE as Principal Second Violin. Last year, Clara also played alongside Civic Orchestra musicians for the Chicago Youth in Music Festival. This year, Clara won their high school’s concerto competition with Ravel’s Tzigane, and as a jazz violinist they won an Outstanding Soloist Award at the 2024 Purdue Jazz Festival. Clara was the assistant conductor for Korngold’s opera Die Kathrin at University of Chicago, and conducted a vocal and instrumental group in the 2022 Korngold in Song concert. As a composer, Clara studies under Jessie Montgomery through the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Young Composers Initiative, they won first place in the 2025 ILMEA Composition Competition for instrumental large ensemble. This fall, Clara will be attending Boston Conservatory as a violin major and studying under Sharan Leventhal.
Other Class of 2025 CYSO players appearing as soloists on Introductions are:
– David Roche, viola; Diego Dahle, cello and Sarah Morris, clarinet on June 7, 2025
– Henry Auxenfans, violin on June 14, 2025
– Zoe Strange, flute on July 26, 2025.
Additionally, highlights from these players’ last CYSO concert will air on July 19, 2025.
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Today we hear from Lily Yoshihara, a violinist from Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative and from Midwest Conservatory in Schaumburg, and a student of Taka Matsunaga and Bernardo Arias. Lily plays Brahms, Bach and Wieniawski; plus the Fantasy No. 1 of Japanese composer Ikuma Dan. Yoahn Jon Kwon plays piano.
Lily Yoshihara has been studying the violin under the instruction of Taka Matsunaga and Bernardo Arias at the Midwest Conservatory of Music since the age of five. Achievements include being named a finalist for From the Top‘s Learning and Media Lab Fellowship, playing as Concertmaster for the 2025 ILMEA All-State Honors Orchestra, honorable mentions at the Musical Festival in Honor of Confucius and the DePaul Concerto Festival, and winning the Birch Creek Clampitt Concerto Competition in Door County, Wisconsin, with the opportunity to perform solo with the orchestra in 2024.
Lily has been a member of the Midwest Philharmonic Orchestra since 2013, where she performed at the Chicago International Music Festival and Los Angeles International Music Festival. Throughout the years, she has also participated in masterclasses under Robert Chen, Rachel Barton Pine, and Baird Dodge. In 2024, Lily joined the Chicago Music Pathways Initiative. As a member of CMPI, Lily was selected to participate in the Equity Arc Pathways Orchestra where she served as Co-Principal and performed alongside members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In the fall, Lily plans to pursue a Dual Degree in Violin Performance and Computer Science at the University of Michigan.
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You can join us in person for this live Introductions episode – come to Merit School of Music (38 S Peoria St, Chicago). Doors open at 10:30am on Saturday June 21 for the live broadcast starting at 11:00am sharp. Robbie Ellis hosts. Free entry, no reservation required.
This event is part of Make Music Chicago, a one-day festival of free music-making across the city.
Jacob Cornejo, from Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood, is an 18-year-old flute player. He began his music education at the Merit School of Music, where went through the Music Conservatory Program. He served as a section leader in the Merit Philharmonic, Wind Symphony, and the award-winning chamber ensemble The Purple Hippopotami. As a fellow of Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative (CMPI), Jacob has received intensive pre-professional music training and has performed in masterclasses with internationally acclaimed flutists and chamber musicians. This year, he performed as Principal Flute with the National Pathways Festival Orchestra, alongside musicians from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In addition, through the Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO, Jacob was invited to perform Mozart’s Concerto in G major at Symphony Center last March.
Jacob studies flute woith Mariana Gariazzo and recently graduated from the Chicago High School for the Arts. In the fall he will begin Flute Performance studies at DePaul University studying with Aaron Goldman and Alyce Johnson.
He previously appeared on Introductions as a member of The Purple Hippopotami Flute Trio in September 2024.
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We welcome return guest Henry Auxenfans for a feature violin recital. He’s joined by his brother Louis Auxenfans on clarinet and pianist Nathan Canfield for Mozart, Glazunov, Perkinson, Fuchs, Franck and Wieniawski.
Henry Auxenfans, 17-year-old violinist, is a senior at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools. He has been honored with many regional, national and international competition successes including Grand Prize in the 2024 Enkor International Competition; First Prize at the 2022 United States Marine Band Concerto Competition in 2022; and being named a YoungArts winner in 2023, 2024 and 2025. Henry has performed at Carnegie hall twice as the First Place Winner of both the New York International Artists Association violin competition and of the American Protégé Competition. In addition, he also won first prizes & top prizes at the International Grumiaux Violin Competition, Leonid Kogan International Competition, the Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artist Competition, MTNA National Competitions, the DuPage Symphony Young Artists Auditions and the CYSO Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. As a result, he has soloed with many fine orchestras, including the United States Marine Chamber Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Lakeview Orchestra, and more.
For the past five seasons, Henry has served as Concertmaster of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ flagship Symphony Orchestra, which included performing the extensive concertmaster solos of Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben. His violin teachers have included Robert Hanford, Frank Almond and Stacia Spencer; his chamber coaches are Larry Neuman, Qing Hou, Hsing-Huei Huang and Matous Michal; and his piano teacher is Laura Fenster. In addition, Henry has had the privilege of taking masterclasses with Midori Goto, Anne Akikko Meyers, Miriam Fried, Paul Huang, Rachel Barton Pine, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Ani Kavafian, Peter Zazofsky, Nikki Chooi, Agata Szymczewska, Timothy Chooi, Daniel Stabrawa, and Ronald Copes.
Giving back to the community is at the top of his priorities. He performs at the Veteran Hospital, senior homes and local schools either solo or with his chamber groups. Henry is also the founder of the University of Chicago Laboratory School’s Music Ambassador Club, which provides performing opportunities for high schoolers. He performs on the fine 1730 “Royale” Seraphin, a violin by Sanctus Seraphin on a generous loan from the Hooper Family Foundation via the Becker Family Foundation. In the fall, he begins at Princeton University majoring in Violin Performance and Chemistry.
Henry Auxenfans made his first appearance on Introductions as a 13-year-old in February 2021. He was on the show with CYSO as a soloist in August 2023 and as featured concertmaster in January 2023. He performed alongside his brother Louis live from Navy Pier in July 2022 and live from the Fay & Daniel Levin Performance Studio in June 2023; and Louis and Henry were on Show 419 of NPR’s From the Top.
Henry Auxenfans at a Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras concert, May 18, 2025. (Credit: Ed Spinelli.)
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Today we feature Chloe Nam, a flute student of Hideko Amano and a finalist in the most recent Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition. We hear her competition performance once again before a recital of CPE Bach, Mozart, Rocherolle and Chaminade with pianist Kay Kim.
Chloe Nam is a junior at Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago. Under the expert guidance of Hideko Amano, Chloe has developed a deep passion for flute performance. Chloe recently performed at Symphony Center as a soloist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, as a finalist in the 2024 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition, and that performance was broadcast on Introductions in April.
Since 8th grade, Chloe has been a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, where she currently plays flute and piccolo in the flagship Symphony Orchestra. She has also been recognized in various music competitions such as the Chicago Flute Club Student Competition, the Music International Grand Prix, the DePaul National Concerto Festival, and the Walgreens Concerto Competition. Chloe has also taken masterclasses with Aleksandr Haskin, Jennifer Gunn, Nancy Stagnitta, and Jonathan Keeble.
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We welcome a return guest for the first live recital of the new school year: Jan Vargas Nedvetsky of Wilmette is just starting his final year at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He and pianist Liang-yu Wang play Tchaikovsky, Locatelli, Weir and Beethoven.
Cellist Jan Vargas Nedvetsky is a Merit Scholarship Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago where he studies cello performance with Hans Jørgen Jensen and Oleksa Mycyk. Jan is a 2023-2024 scholarship recipient at the Academy of Music in Liechtenstein where he participates in masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz and takes part in the intensive music weeks and activities. Previously Jan studied with Gilda Barston, Vladimir Perline, Horacio Contreras and Jihee Kim.
As a solo and chamber performer, Jan has won numerous awards in competitions and soloed with orchestras in the US and Europe. In 2023 Jan made his Symphony Center solo debut with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago as a prize winner of the 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artist Competition. In the 2023-2024 season, Jan performed recitals in Lake Placid; Liechtenstein; Detroit, Washington DC, Miami, Boise; and soloed with the Central Oregon Symphony Orchestra and Chicago’s Lakeview Symphony.
Jan was named a 2024 YoungArts Winner with Distinction in Cello Performance. Additionally, Jan won First Prize in the 2023 Central Oregon Concerto Competition, 2023 Lakeview Orchestra Concerto Competition, 2022 Society of the American Musicians Competition, 2022 Chicago Chamber Orchestra Concerto Competition, and 2021 Chicago International Music Competition; received multiple awards in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition and DePaul National Concerto Festival, and was a finalist in the 2024 United States Marine Band Concerto Competition and 2024 Sphinx Competition.
With his chamber groups, Jan has been a multi-year winner at the St Paul National String Quartet Competition and the Barnett Chamber Music Competition; and a semi-finalist at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition for four years running. He has played in solo masterclasses with Jens Peter Maintz, Richard Aaron, Jerome Pernoo, Lluis Claret, John Sharp, Richard Hirschl, Ivan Karizna, Brannon Cho, Brandon Vamos, and Edward Arron; and has been coached in chamber music masterclasses by Menahem Pressler, Ivri Gitlis, Mathias Tacke, Sang Mee Lee, Paul Zafer, and Jasmin Lin; as well as the Leipzig String Quartet, the Talich Quartet, and the Pražák Quartet.
In the summer of 2024, Jan attended the Gstaad Menuhin String Academy in Switzerland, the inaugural Cleveland Institute of Music Chamber Music Intensive, and the Meadowmount School of Music in upstate New York. He has been featured on television stations including ABC, WTTW and TV Com Belgium; and is booked to perform on NPR’s From The Top. His previous appearances on WFMT include an Introductions solo recital in January 2021; as a concerto soloist in April 2023; on WFMT’s 70th Anniversary Day of Celebration in December 2021; and further chamber music appearances in August 2020, in May 2021, in August 2022, and in December 2023. He appeared on the front cover of the WTTW-WFMT Program Guide in April 2023 in conjunction with the commemorative album Introductions Turns 15.
Jan is a 12th grader at the North Atlantic Regional High School. In addition to performing and composing music, Jan pursues advanced studies in literature and economics.
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A recap of 32 graduating seniors, some highlight performances, and where they’re heading next.
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Today we hear a live recital from cellist Xavier Miyazaki, a student of Hans Jørgen Jensen of Northwestern University. He’s joined by pianist Liang-yu Wang in music of Beethoven, Dall’Abaco, Schumann, Mayuzumi and Popper.
Xavier Miyazaki, 18, went to Saint Ignatius College Prep for high school and was a fellow in the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, where he played for the likes of Paul Katz and Lluís Claret and performed for older adults in isolation through an MIC outreach program. He was named a 2024 YoungArts winner and was invited to attend the interdisciplinary YoungArts lab.
This fall, he will begin at Northwestern University, studying Manufacturing and Design Engineering & Cello Performance. Xavier studies with Hans Jørgen Jensen and plays a German cello from around 1890, generously loaned to him by the Carlsen Cello Foundation.
Thank you to cellist Jean Hatmaker of the Kontras Quartet for lending her instrument at the last minute for this recital.
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Highlights from CYSO’s 2024 Spring Concert at Symphony Center – Allen Tinkham conducts music by Stacy Garrop, Richard Strauss and Igor Stravinsky.
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Today we feature two recent high school graduate composers. Tyler Shaver and Zachary Guo present their own works, performed by themselves and by others.
Tyler Shaver, 18, is a student composer and pianist based in Chicago. He graduated from Saint Ignatius College Prep and is about to start a dual degree from Northwestern University in Music Composition and Philosophy. He has written music for the Nu Deco Ensemble, the Honors Music Institute at Penn State, Jacobs Composition Academy at Indiana University, the Saint Ignatius Wind Symphony, and Interlochen Ensembles. His music explores sonic realms through experimenting with fixed media and electronics, extended instrumental techniques, and repetition, creating expansive soundscapes and vivid images.
Zachary Guo, 18, was a scholarship fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He studies piano with Dr. Matthew Hagle, composition with Dr. Christopher Jones, and organ with Peter Morey as the Opus 327 Junior Organ Scholar at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Evanston. Zachary’s versatility as a pianist has led to success in several competitions, receiving first place in the Illinois MTNA piano competition, Sejong Music Competition, and the Chicago Steinway Piano Competition. In 2023, he performed Gabriel Lena Frank’s piano concerto Cuentos Errantes with Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras in Symphony Center.
Zachary was named a 2024 YoungArts Award winner in composition as well as the first-place winner of the 2022 ILMEA solo composition competition and Illinois MTNA composition competition. He has worked with Ensemble Dal Niente as a part of the 2022 Depaul + Dal Niente New Music Residency. In addition to piano, organ, and composition, Zachary sings bass in the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Choir and plays viola in his school orchestras. Outside of music, Zachary has won Scholastic Art and Writing Awards in photography and creative writing.
Zachary Guo has previously been featured on Introductions as a pianist in August 2023 and in October 2023, and in the fall he begins studies at Stanford University.
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Today we hear from four graduating seniors from Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, representing four different instruments of the orchestra.
Other CYSO 2024 seniors have recently been featured soloists on Introductions: flutists Anna Huelke and Destina Sarussi on March 16; and bassoonist Fabrizio Milcent and horn player Hayden Joyce on May 18. Pianist Zachary Guo is featured next week, on June 29; and trumpeter Natalia Noriega appears on July 13.
Ethan Weingust is a 17-year-old bassoonist who lives in Downers Grove and recently graduated from Downers Grove North High School. He has studied bassoon privately for 4 years with Dan D’Andrea and Dianne Remillard, and also studies saxophone with Alex Beltran. He has participated in masterclasses with Keith Buncke, Ben Kamins, Conrad Cornelison, and others.
Until recently, Ethan served as Assistant Principal Bassoon and Contrabassoon of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ flagship ensemble, and played Second Bassoon with CYSO’s chamber orchestra. He also has subbed with the DuPage Symphony Orchestra on multiple in-season membership concerts and public summer community concerts. Ethan has been selected for ILMEA All-District and AllState ensembles each year he has been eligible, and has been selected for other local honor bands as well. Ethan was also selected to attend Interlochen Art Camp’s Advanced Bassoon Intensive last summer.
In the fall, he will begin a dual-degree program at Northwestern University, combining Chemical Engineering and Bassoon Performance.
Photo: Eileen Molony
Maxine Gimbel, from Oak Park, Illinois, attended Oak Park and River Forest High School. She began studying the double bass at age 12 with Mohannad Al Zahabi, and now studies with Ian Hallas of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She was a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, where she served as Principal Double Bass in both the Symphony Orchestra and Classical Orchestral Repertory Ensemble. She won an honorable mention at the Walgreens National Concerto Competition in 2022, served as principal bassist in the Illinois Music Education Association’s 2023 Honors state orchestra, and attended the Boston University Tanglewood Institute in 2023.
She is a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the USA (NYO) for its upcoming international tour in 2024 and was awarded the International Society of Bassists’ 2024 Jane Little Scholarship for outstanding female bass players. She has been accepted to study classical bass performance with Harold Robinson at The Juilliard School in the fall, and hopes to one day be a member of a professional orchestra.
Ayden Hunt began playing lever harp near the end of fourth grade, and took up pedal harp with teacher Faye Seeman after attending the Birch Creek Music Festival in Door County in the summer of 2022. For the past two years, Ayden was a harpist in the Illinois All-State Orchestra, and this year he was Principal Harp of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras.
Ayden is also an accomplished horn player, beginning in fifth grade in the band at Peterson Elementary School in Chicago, and continuing with the Lincoln Park High School Wind Symphony and Jazz Band. He also played in CYSO’s horn section.
In the fall, he will begin Harp Performance studies with Yolanda Kondonassis at the Cleveland Institute of Music.
Ophir Dahari is an 18-year-old violinist and a recent graduate of Highland Park High School. She has been studying the violin with Jennifer Cappelli since age four. Over the past 12 years, Ophir has been a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, performing with many of the organization’s ensembles and finishing as a Concertmaster of the flagship Symphony Orchestra.
In the summer of 2023, Ophir participated in the National Youth Orchestra of the USA on their North America Tour. In 2022, she won the Paul Vermel Young Artist Award, and performed with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra. Ophir has performed in masterclasses led by Andrés Cárdenes and Mathias Tacke. Along with Ophir’s achievements, she volunteered in multiple community events; at the Israeli Consulate of Chicago’s Holocaust Memorial Day service where she played on a Violin of Hope, and senior living homes.
Ophir will soon begin Violin Performance studies with Grigory Kalinovsky at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
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Today we’re joined by Serge Kalinovsky, a resident of Indiana and a recent graduate of the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He’s joined by pianist Lyudmila Lakisova in music of Piatti, Debussy, Clara Schumann, Piazzolla, and Martinů.
Serge Kalinovsky, 17, studies cello with Richard Aaron and Brandon Vamos, and continues to work with his long-time teacher Susan Moses. He lives in his home town of Bloomington, Indiana and recently graduated from IU High School. He is also a Merit Scholarship Student at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, where he has participated in multiple prize-winning chamber groups.
Serge has participated in numerous music festivals, including Pinchas Zukerman’s Young Artists Program, the Indiana University Summer String Academy, the Heifetz International Music Institute, the Chamber Music Northwest Young Artists Institute, and the Music@Menlo Young Performers Program. In 2022, he performed the first movement of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and participated in the inaugural “Food for Music” Benefit Concert in Bloomington. As part of the Heifetz Ensemble in Residence program, he performed in several concerts in Virginia, including playing the Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 with famed violinist and pedagogue Ani Kavafian. In 2023, he performed Bruch’s Kol Nidrei with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago.
Notable competition successes include First Prize at the 2020 Indianapolis Symphony Maurer Young Musicians Contest, joint Second Prize at the 2023 International Young Artists Concerto Competition, and joint Third Prize at the 2023 Ronald Sachs International Competition. Serge previously appeared on Introductions as a chamber musician in October 2023 and August 2022. He has also performed as part of WFMT’s Bach to School Program.
In the fall, he will start college studies at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
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We welcome a return guest, Esme Arias-Kim, who grew up in the Chicago area but has spent the last two years studying at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. She’s joined by Milana Pavchinskaya in music of Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Price, Wieniawski, and Tchaikovsky.
Esme Arias-Kim, 18, recently graduated from the Colburn Music Academy as a Kohl Scholar, holding a full room, board and tuition merit scholarship. She is a student of the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair, Mr. Robert Lipsett, and will continue studying with him at the Colburn Conservatory in the Fall of 2024. She previously studied with Almita Vamos and Betty Haag-Kuhnke.
Most recently Esme received the Silver Medal at the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition and Gold Medal at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 29th Annual Young Artist Competition. She also won the 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition and soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May 2024.
Esme made her solo orchestral debut at the age of ten with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and has continued to make solo appearances with the likes of the Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Northwest Indiana Symphony, and New Philharmonic. She has also had solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Peninsula Music Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, 92Y New York, and Musikferien at Starnberger See in Germany.
She has received masterclasses from Hilary Hahn, Midori Goto, Julia Fischer, Vadim Gluzman, Kirill Troussov, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Mihaela Martin, Ilya Kaler, and Philip Setzer, as well as the Borromeo Quartet and the Cavani Quartet. Esme plays on an 1866 J.B. Vuillaume, generously loaned to her by the Geeting Family.
Esme previously gave a solo recital on Introductions in November 2020. She has also been featured as a concerto soloist in April 2023, April 2022, and October 2016; and as a chamber musician in August 2022, August 2021 and August 2020. She also performed on WFMT’s 70th Anniversary Day of Celebration in December 2021, and was featured on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight in April 2020.
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We hear one group each from Midwest Young Artists Conservatory and the Music Institute of Chicago Academy in music of Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Haydn, Brahms, and Babadjanian.
Some musicians in today’s show have been on Introductions before:
- Kay Ito and Jocelyn Gao previously appeared as members of the Aurum Quartet in November 2023.
- Lily Sullivan previously appeared with the Goya Piano Trio in October 2023 and is set to give a live violin recital of her own on November 2, 2024.
- Amelia Zitoun most recently gave a live cello recital in October 2023, and previously appeared with chamber groups.
- Noah Kim gave piano recitals on Introductions in December 2023 and in March 2021, and has also appeared with chamber groups.
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Today we hear from two instruments not so often heard on Introductions. Horn player Hayden Joyce and bassoonist Fabrizio Milcent are both principal players in Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. They perform pieces by Bach, Gallay, Mozart, Elgar, and Strausses Richard & Franz.
Hayden Joyce is a home-schooled high school senior from Middlebury, Indiana, and is a student of David Griffin, Fourth Horn of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hayden has won both the 2021 Naperville Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition and the 2024 Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras Concerto Competition (2024). Hayden also performed at the YoungArts National Competition where he was awarded Winner with Distinction and nominated as a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. He has participated in many summer festivals including the Eastern Music Festival, NYO2, and the Interlochen Arts Camp where he was principal of the World Youth Symphony Orchestra. He is currently a principal horn of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and hopes to one day perform with a professional orchestra. He was the featured horn soloist in CYSO’s performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5, broadcast on Introductions in January 2024.
Fabrizio Milcent is an aspiring young bassoonist studying at The Chicago High School for the Arts. Fabrizio grew up in Little Village, Chicago. He began studying the bassoon at the Maria Saucedo Scholastic Academy in 2016, and is currently a student of Bill Buchman. Fabrizio is a fellow of Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, which has provided Fabrizio with many opportunities, one of which was to attend the Kinhaven Music School during the Summers of 2021 and 2022. He was also fortunate enough to attend the Interlochen Arts Camp in the summer of 2023. Fabrizio also attended the Merit School of Music from 2020 to 2023. Fabrizio is also a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, where he has performed with the flagship Symphony Orchestra, the Classical Orchestral Repertory Ensemble, and the Ambassadors Woodwind Quintet.
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Today we hear from cellist Jeffery Tong of Lisle. He’s joined by pianist Liang-yu Wang in music of Saint-Saëns, Beethoven, Bach, Perkinson, and Nadia Boulanger.
Jeffery Tong is a cello student of Tanya Carey, on the artistic faculty at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University. He was named a 2024 Classical Music Award Winner by the National YoungArts Foundation and was selected to perform for the Young Steinway concert series. He was invited to perform in Carnegie Hall as the first-place winner of the 2023 American Protégé International Piano and Strings Competition. He has also won awards at the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, London Grand Prize Virtuoso International Competition, Society of American Musicians, DuPage Symphony Orchestra Young Artists, Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra Dr. Robert Stanger Young Artists Competition, and the Rockford Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.
He has been a part of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras for three years, serving as Principal Cello of the Philharmonic Orchestra and a selected member of the Symphony Orchestra and Classical Orchestral Repertory Ensemble (CORE). He has won awards in CYSO’s concerto competitions for both the Philharmonic and Symphony Orchestras.
Jeffery is a sophomore at Naperville North High School. Outside of music he enjoys cooking, skiing, collecting souvenirs, and playing card games. He plays a 1980 Gunther Reuter cello generously loaned from Bein & Fushi.
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This morning we hear from all three finalists in the 2024 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition, including a historic first appearance by a steelpan soloist. Chloe Nam, Elyse Schlesinger and winner Jaden Teague-Núñez are joined by the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Kyle Dickson.
Finalist: Chloe Nam, 15, fluteChloe Nam is a sophomore at Northside College Preparatory High School in Chicago. Under the expert guidance of Hideko Amano, Chloe developed a deep passion for flute performance. Since eighth grade, she has been a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, where she currently plays flute and piccolo in the flagship top orchestra. Before then, she studied at Merit School of Music for three years.
She has been recognized in various music competitions such as the Chicago Flute Club Student Competition, DePaul National Concerto Festival, Society of American Musicians Competition, CYSO Concert Orchestra Concerto Competition and Walgreens Concerto Competition. Chloe also participated in the Illinois Music Education Conference All-State Band in 2023. Chloe has had the privilege of performing in masterclasses or had lessons with Jennifer Gunn, Nancy Stagnitta and Johanthan Keeble.
Onstage at Symphony Center (L-R): Robbie Ellis, Fernando Meza, Kyle Dickson, Chloe Nam, Jaden Teague-Núñez, Elyse Schlesinger, William Ward, Margaret Tung, Daniel Gilbert. (Photo: Todd Rosenberg)
First Alternate: Elyse Schlesinger, 16, hornElyse Schlesinger started horn in fifth grade and developed a lasting passion for music and the collaborative creativity of ensembles. She is a member of the top band, chorus and orchestra at William Fremd High School in Palatine, and she served as Principal Horn of the Barrington Youth Symphony.
She has attended many music camps and festivals, including the ILMEA All-State Honors Band and All-State Honors Orchestra. She has been Co-Principal Horn of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ flagship orchestra since 2022, as well as a member of CYSO’s top woodwind quintet, Windy City Winds, and is in the Ambassadors Program performing around the Chicagoland community.
Elyse began her horn lessons with Melody Velleuer, and has worked with Katelyn Halbert, Brent Shires, and Momo Hasselbring Seko. She currently studies with CSO horn David Griffin and Kate Warren.
Winner: Jaden Teague-Núñez, 16, steelpanJaden Teague-Núñez was born in Panama City, Panama. He moved to the USA in 2011 and began studying steelpan and piano (classical and jazz) at age 8 and 10, respectively. He attends DeKalb High School where he serves as the drummer for the Jazz Ensemble and Steelband and is a member of the Marching Band.
Among his growing list of accomplishments, Jaden has been a guest steelpan soloist with the Humboldt State University Steelband in Arcata, California, and performed with the Northern Illinois University Steelband. He has performed at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention in Indianapolis, and on several occasions has appeared at the ILMEA Conference.
Jaden studies steelpan with his father, Liam Teague; piano with Austyn Menk; and drum set with Joshua Bedeau. As the winner of the 2024 Crain-Maling Foundation Young Artists Competition, he has been offered a live solo recital on Introductions at a later date.
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We welcome a return guest, pianist and composer Zarin Mehta. In addition to music of Bach, Beethoven, and Lyapunov, Zarin presents a composition and a transcription of his own, plus the North American premiere of Augusta Read Thomas’s Amalgam.
Zarin Mehta, 16, has burst onto the classical music scene as a concert pianist and composer, winning first prize in Senior Piano and twice winning second prize in Composition with the Music Teachers National Association Competitions. He has also claimed prizes in the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the International Young Artist Concerto Competition (3 times), the Chicago National Chamber Music Competition, the Rembrandt Young Artist Chamber Competition, YoungArts (twice), and more.
In 2023, he made his Ravinia Festival debut with a recital that included his original composition Glimpses. Zarin has also performed at the Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, Millennium Park for the Grant Park Music Festival, the Roy O. Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and with the Todi Music Masters Festival Ensemble in Italy. To date he has gained nearly 25,000 subscribers and almost 650,000 views on his YouTube channel @ZarinMehta-Pianist-007.
Zarin made his concerto debut at the age of 11 with the Chicago Arts Orchestra and conductor Vladimir Kulenovic. This has been followed by a half dozen further concerto performances, including with the SEEN Worldwide Orchestra (three times) and the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago. He has also collaborated with the Latika Roy Foundation, creating virtual musical content for students with disabilities and fundraised for the Oscar-nominated documentary To Kill a Tiger.
He has been studying piano for 12 years at New Music School in Chicago where his teachers include Winston Choi, Jeffrey Panko, and Sean Bennett. Zarin also studies composition with Matthew Hagle of the Music Institute of Chicago. He has also studied piano with Antonio Pompa-Baldi, Steven Osborne, Emanuel Ax, Jorge Federico Osorio, Mary Sauer, Boris Slutsky, and Stephen Hough; as well as chamber music with Desirée Ruhstrat and David Cunliffe. In a few months, he is set to attend the 2024 Juilliard Summer Piano Program.
Zarin is in 11th grade at the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, where he is a Senate Head in the Francis Parker Upper School. Outside music, he plays varsity ice hockey and chess. He previously gave an Introductions piano recital in November 2020 as a 13-year-old. He has also been featured as a concerto competition finalist in April 2020, in March 2021, and in April 2022. His composition Glimpses was broadcast in full in May 2023.
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Chicago-raised pianist Kené Obiaya is an alum of the Hyde Park Suzuki Institute and is now a high school senior at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. He presents music of Chopin, Bach, Still and Brahms.
Kené Obiaya is 17 years old and began taking piano lessons at age 3. Kené currently attends Interlochen Arts Academy where he studies piano with Dr. Kara Huber. He previously attended the Chicago Academy for the Arts, and previously studied piano with Laura Fenster and Bethany Stefanut. In the summer of 2023, Kené attended Indiana University Piano Academy where he was selected for the honors recital and won second place in the duet competition. In the past he has attended Interlochen Arts Camp and the Curtis Institute’s Young Artists Summer Program (YASP). He has participated in masterclasses with Sara Davis Buechner, Claire Huangci, Robert Shannon, Michael Coonrod, Amy Yang, Lara Driscoll and the Euclid Quartet. Kené is also passionate about the viola which he studies with Renee Skerik.
He is a six time Gold Medalist at the CAMTA Sonata Festival and a top prize winner at the Roberta Savler contest where he last placed 2nd. In June 2023 he won 3rd prize in the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition. He has received accolades in other piano competitions that include the Illinois Federation of Music Clubs (IFMC) state concerto and piano solo; Society of American Musicians; and Music Festival in Honor of Confucius. Kené has been invited to perform at the Chicago and American Suzuki Institute’s Honors recitals each of the last seven years, as well as to the Illinois Federation of Music Club Piano Honors recital each of the five years he contested. He has also performed on WBEZ’s The Morning Shift with Tony Sarabia and been featured on the ABC7 news.
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Live on Introductions today is pianist Clara Zhang, a student of Matthew Hagle. She plays a recital of Bach, Chopin, Ravel, Haydn, Walker, Rachmaninoff, and Bowen.
Clara Zhang, 16, is a Merit Scholar at the Music Institute of Chicago. She has won prizes and honors at the Illinois State Music Teachers Association Competition, the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, the Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition, the Piano Star International Piano Competition, the London Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition, and the Clara Schumann International Piano Competition. As a winner of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition, Clara has performed as a soloist with the Northeastern Illinois University Symphony Orchestra.
In her spare time, Clara runs her Music Ambassadors program with her musician friends, bringing classical music concerts to the doorsteps of senior communities. She regularly performs at the Arbor Terrace in Highland Park, the Avidor in Glenview, the Dickinson Hall in Lake Forest, the Mather Place in Wilmette, and the Sedgebrook in Lincolnshire.
Clara is a junior at Highland Park High School and she is the president of the school’s World Music Club. Outside music, Clara also enjoys ice skating, baking, zip lining and snorkeling. Her favorite performer is pianist Martha Argerich.
Her elder brother Harry Zhang gave a live piano recital on Introductions in September 2021.
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This week, the latest performance from the CYSO Symphony Orchestra in Orchestra Hall in downtown Chicago. Allen Tinkham conducts the Chicago premiere of a new Augusta Read Thomas piece, followed by works of Claude Debussy and Gustav Mahler.
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Following his win in the 2022 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artist Competition, Vernon Hills pianist Noah Kim returns to Introductions for a second solo recital playing Bach, Mozart, Schumann and Kapustin.
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We’re featuring twin sisters on Introductions today: Isabel and Anna Edgcomb are 18 and they play flute and oboe respectively. They both hail from Long Grove, are seniors at Adlai E. Stevenson High School, and attend Midwest Young Artists Conservatory. They’re joined by pianist Lyudmila Lakisova in music of Telemann, Kalliwoda, Liebermann, Poulenc, Taffanel and Cimarosa.
Isabel Edgcomb studies flute with Hideko Amano and is in the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Symphony Orchestra, where she has performed many major symphonies at Symphony Center in Chicago. Isabel is the 2023 Principal Flute for the ILMEA District 7 Orchestra as well as a 2024 All-State orchestra selectee. She won third place at the 2023 Chicago Flute Club Competition and second place in the Intermediate Flute Division of the 2022 Society of American Musicians Competition. She was a finalist for the Fox River Grove Concerto Competition for two concertos. She has also soloed for the Stevenson High School Patriot Orchestra as the winner of the Senior Solo Competition. Isabel has taken master classes or had lessons with Nancy Stagnitta and Jonathan Keeble.
Anna Edgcomb, a student of Marisa LeFevre, has been playing oboe for seven years and in the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Symphony Orchestra for three. She was Principal Oboe of the ILMEA District 7 Band in 2021 and 2022, and of the 2023 District 7 Orchestra in 2023. In the Illinois All-State Honors Band, she was third chair in 2022 and Principal Oboe in 2023; and she has been selected for the 2024 Illinois All-State Orchestra. In 2021, she was winner of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition playing Pasculli’s Concerto on themes from Donizetti’s La Favorita, and she won the 2023 Charleston International Music Competition playing Kalliwoda’s Oboe Concertino in F.
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Live on Introductions this morning is cellist Simon Updegraff from the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He begins on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month with Elgar’s Cello Concerto, followed by works of Bach and Bloch; a cello suite of Chad “Sir Wick” Hughes, and Monti’s Csárdás. Sung Hoon Mo plays piano.
Simon Updegraff, 16, is a Scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy, a program for advanced pre-college musicians. He began Suzuki cello lessons at age four and studies with Avi Friedlander.
Simon is a winner of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition and has soloed with the Northeastern Illinois University Orchestra. He is a first-place winner of the Primary, Junior, and Intermediate cello division competitions of the Society of American Musicians. He received honorable mention in the 2022 Walgreens National Concerto Competition and was selected for the 2023 Illinois Music Education Association all-state honors orchestra. He has performed in the Young Steinway Concert series at the Skokie Public Library and played twice as assistant principal in the Suzuki Youth Orchestra of the Americas at the Suzuki Association of the Americas Biennial Conference. Simon has taken master classes with Natasha Brofsky, Richard Aaron, Melissa Kraut, and Benjamin Lash.
Simon is a junior at New Trier High School where he is the co-captain of the Varsity Scholastic Bowl Team and founded the school’s Classical Music Club. He is a member of the New Trier Symphony Orchestra and performed with them at Lincoln Center in New York City.
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Today we feature two chamber groups from Midwest Young Artists Conservatory – one piano trio, and one string quartet.
The violinists of these groups have appeared previously on Introductions:
– Ruth Kim played in the Ardente String Quartet in August 2020 and in August 2021;
– John Lee gave a live solo recital in May 2023 and appeared previously in other chamber groups;
– Vincenzo Zuppardo previously appeared with Quartet Feroce in August 2021.
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Two brothers appear, both as soloists and as a duo.
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It’s our annual Labor Day Weekend round-up of graduating seniors, their highlight performances, and what they’re doing next. Today’s episode features 26 young musicians in total.
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Four graduating seniors from Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative: a violinist, a horn player, and two percussionists.
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Today on Introductions, we feature four soloists from within Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. Principal Oboe Zachary Allen takes the podium to conduct his orchestra; Henry Lazzaro and Owen Riordan play solos with piano; and Henry Auxenfans triumphs in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto. Zachary Allen is an oboist heading to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in the fall. He was a ...
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This week, two different chamber ensembles. The Pelios String Quartet plays Debussy, Bartók and Haydn; then Sofia Radovic and Miriam Kessler play Saint-Saëns’ Fantaisie for violin and harp. The Pelios String Quartet won the Silver Medal in the Junior Strings Division of the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Made up of violinists Ellen Zhou and Clark Snavely, violist Tristan ...
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This week we feature two double bassists, both of whom have just graduated from both high school and Midwest Young Artists Conservatory.
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Ma’ayan Kertcher plays the music of Reena Esmail and Johannes Brahms, joined by Shirley Trissell on piano.
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Today, a piano recital from Samuel Lam presenting works by Domenico Scarlatti, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók, and Tan Dun.
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Introductions welcomes a return guest for a full clarinet recital: Louis Auxenfans of Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood.
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Live on Introductions this weekend is violinist John Lee, a student at Midwest Young Artists Conservatory. After solo pieces by Eugène Ysaÿe and Jessie Montgomery, he's joined by pianist Milana Pavchinskaya in music of Johannes Brahms and Fritz Kreisler.
Violinist John Lee, 18 years old, is currently a senior at Vernon Hills High School. He has been playing violin for 13 years and studies under Almita Vamos and Injoo Choi. He has been a member of Midwest Young Artists Conservatory for 9 years, currently serving as the principal violinist in the MYAC Symphony Orchestra.
As a soloist, he has won prizes at the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, the Society of American Musicians Competition, the DePaul Concerto Festival, the Sejong Competition, the Vancouver International Music Competition, and the Sherer Violin Competition. In addition, John was invited to the Cooper International Competition in 2022 and International Young Artists Concerto Competition in 2023. He has appeared as a soloist with the Lake Forest Symphony and the MYAC Symphony Orchestra.
As an avid chamber musician, John has won prizes from the Rembrandt Chamber Competition and Chicago National Chamber Competition as well as performing in the quarterfinals of the Fischoff National Chamber Competition. Two of his chamber groups appeared on Introductions in July 2020 and in August 2021.
In the fall, he will begin a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at the Juilliard School.
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Today we feature a flute recital from Hanna Oyasu of Palatine, a principal player in Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. She’s joined by pianist Beilin Han for music of Ibert, Chaminade, Telemann, Enescu, and Prokofiev; before collaborating with 18-year-old singer Sophia Katsma on two Japanese songs.
Hanna Oyasu is a senior at William Fremd High School and studies flute under Hideko Amano, and previously, James Donahue. Her recent awards include First Place in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, DePaul Concerto Festival, Society of American Musicians Competition and Wisconsin Flute Festival Competition, and placing second in the Enkor International Music Competition and Chicago Flute Club Student Competition. She received an Honorable Mention in the 2023 YoungArts National Competition. Hanna performed the first movement of the Ibert Concerto with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago as a winner of the 2023 DePaul Concerto Festival. Hanna performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2021 as a first-place winner of the American Protégé Music Talent Competition. She was selected as Principal in the 2022 Honors Band and 2023 Honors Orchestra at the ILMEA All-State Festival.
Hanna has had the privilege of playing in masterclasses for Stefán Ragnar Höskuldsson, Emma Gerstein, Jonathan Keeble, Christina Smith, and Marina Piccinini. This summer, she will attend the Tanglewood Institute’s Young Artist Orchestra. Hanna is a member of the CYSO Symphony Orchestra. She has also been studying piano for 13 years, and enjoys reading and baking. In the fall, Hanna will begin a dual degree in Neuroscience and Flute Performance at Northwestern University.
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Album cover for Introductions Turns 15.
It’s 15 years (and three days) since the very first episode of Introductions. Join host and producer Robbie Ellis and Weekend Morning host LaRob K. Rafael for great past performances, available on a 2-CD commemorative album in WFMT’s Spring Membership Drive.
Give $60 or more at wfmt.com/donate on the morning of Saturday April 8 to acquire this album for yourself.
Additionally, listen to Mornings with Dennis Moore on Wednesday April 5 and Weekend Mornings with LaRob K. Rafael earlier on Saturday April 8 to hear more highlights.
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Today on Introductions, we hear from the Winner and First Alternate of this year’s Crain-Maling CSO Young Artists Competition, a prestigious concerto contest held at Symphony Center. Hear violinist Esme Arias-Kim and cellist Jan Vargas Nedvetsky with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, plus a look back at their past radio recitals.
See more: Esme Arias-Kim, 17, Wins 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artist Competition (news story from January 25, 2023).
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Live this morning, an unusual two-instrument recital: Miriam Kessler from Midwest Young Artists Conservatory is an accomplished performer on two different instruments. She brings harp music by Claude Debussy, Paul Hindemith, and Carlos Salzedo; piano music by Sergei Rachmaninoff and William Grant Still; and her own composition, *Op. 55*.
An accomplished harpist, pianist, and composer, Miriam Kessler of Elgin enjoys playing solo, orchestral, and chamber music. This past winter, she won both the Midwest Young Artists Conservatory Senior Division of the Walgreens Concerto Competition and NIU’s Community School of the Arts Sinfonia Concerto Competition. She has been selected as a participant in the American Harp Society’s Young Composers Project and was a finalist in ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2020 and 2022. Miriam placed first in the Greater Chicago Chapter of the American Harp Society’s scholarship competition (junior division) in 2020.
In the summers, she has participated in various enrichment camps such as the Illinois Summer Harp Class, where she was a featured young talent (2022); Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute (2021, virtual); Young Artist’s Harp Seminar; and OPUS Chamber Music Camp. Miriam is especially thankful to all those who have helped her develop musically, including: her harp teacher, Dr. Erin Freund; her orchestra director, Dr. Allan Dennis; her composition instructor, Dr. Jonathon Kirk; her piano collaborator and music coach, Sooka Wang; her church music director, Jonathan Gilley; and her late piano teacher, Constance Hughes. Miriam is looking forward to beginning collegiate harp studies in the fall.
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This Introductions piano recital features Tyler Wang of Wilmette, a student of Katherine Lee. His program comprises music by Fanny Mendelssohn, Ludwig van Beethoven, Frédéric Chopin, and Maurice Ravel.
Tyler Wang is currently a senior attending New Trier High School, and he will be attending the University of Chicago as a Biological Sciences major on the pre-med track starting in fall 2023. In 2022, Tyler performed in the Skokie Public Library Young Steinway Series. After being named a winner of the 2021 DePaul Concerto Competition, Tyler performed with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago. In 2020, he was selected to participate in a masterclass led by Grammy-nominated pianist Joyce Yang at Millennium Park.
Other accolades include an honorable mention at the 2015 Confucius Competition, finalist in the 2020 & 2021 Sejong Competitions, third place at the 2018 ISMTA Competition, and being selected as a three-time MIC Merit Scholarship recipient. Tyler is a nationally rated Varsity épeé fencer; leader of the New Trier Biology Club; a tutor in Chinese, English, and Math; and euphonium player in New Trier’s Symphonic Wind Ensemble.
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Today on *Introductions*, Ethan Zheng of Lake Zurich, a piano student of Marta Aznavoorian. His recital features the music of Johannes Brahms, Frédéric Chopin, Chen Yi, and Sergei Prokofiev.
Ethan Zheng, 16, is a junior at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire. He is a Scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. He started playing the piano at the age of 5 and has won numerous top prizes in competitions, including the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, U.S. New Star Piano Competition, United States International Music Competition, Young Baroque Artists Competition in Champaign-Urbana and Sejong Music Competition. Ethan has taken masterclasses with Ning An, Michael Brown, Stephen Pierce and Frank Wiens.
Aside from playing the piano, Ethan is also a passionate clarinet player, and is a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ top orchestra. He has also been selected as a clarinetist of the ILMEA All-State Honors Band in 2022 as well as All-State Honors Orchestra in 2023. Ethan is an active keyboardist of his school’s Baroque Ensemble and Jazz Combo. In his free time, he enjoys playing soccer and chess.
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Enjoy highlights from the last twelve months of Introductions performances, with music by eight different women composers.
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Anna Knight (formerly Anna Yurchenko) was born in 2004 in Ukraine. She started to play the piano at the age of 6, and from 2018 until 2022 she studied with Svetlana Zakharova and Natalia Balycheva at the Vladimir Krainev State Music Lyceum in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. She received her Diploma, graduating cum laude in 2022 (marked an 11 on a scale of 12).
On February 24, 2022, Anna had to leave her country because the Russian army attacked her city. For two months she stayed with family friends in Frankfurt, Germany, and in May 2022, Anna moved to the United States. She is continuing her piano studies with Marta Aznavoorian and lives in Highland Park, Illinois.
Anna was first featured on Introductions in August 2022, alongside fellow Ukrainian musicians.
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This week we go live once more: violinist Sameer Agrawal joins pianist Milana Pavchinskaya for a live recital of Arutiunian, Perkinson, Bach, and Ravel.
Sameer Agrawal, 17, is a Merit Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago and studies violin with Sang Mee Lee. He is also a Fellow of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative. Sameer made his solo orchestral debut at age 12 with the NEIU Symphony and has also appeared with the Canton Symphony Orchestra, Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, and the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest, among others.
This year Sameer won second prize in the Cooper International Competition, was a semifinalist in the Johansen International Competition, and was a National YoungArts winner. He also received prizes at the DePaul Festival, Walgreens Competition, Society of American Musicians, Sejong Cultural Society, and the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius. Sameer has been featured on the Young Steinway and Stars of Tomorrow concert series, Make Music Chicago, the Thirsty Ears Music Festival, and the CSO Salon Series.
Sameer performs with the MIC Academy Chamber Orchestra and was co-concertmaster of the Chicago Youth-in-Music Festival Orchestra. He has played in several chamber ensembles through MIC and in the CMPI String Quartet. He first appeared on Introductions as a soloist in December 2019, and has appeared on WFMT as a member of four different string quartets in August 2020, in August 2021; in December 2021; and in August 2022.
Sameer performs on a violin by Paul Blanchard, 1884, courtesy of Guarneri Hall NFP and Darnton & Hersh Fine Violins, Chicago.
Instagram: @sameeragrawalviolin
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Tabitha plays music by Nielsen, Mozart, Still, and Sarasate in WFMT's Fay and Daniel Levin Performance Studio, joined by pianist Inah Chiu.
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Prasad's live recital in WFMT’s Fay and Daniel Levin Performance Studio features music of Rachmaninoff, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Danielpour.
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Joined by pianist Qi Kong, Bianca presents music of Bach, Beethoven, Montgomery, and Ysaÿe.
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It’s a graduation special for Labor Day Weekend: we mark 18-year-olds who are now our alumni, having performed on Introductions in the past few years.
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Two prize-winning string quartets perform Haydn, Hindemith, Puccini, Ravel, and Bartók.
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This week on Introductions is the first of two programs featuring chamber ensembles from the Music Institute of Chicago Academy. Today has piano trio movements by Beethoven and Arensky; and string quartet movements by Haydn and Grieg. Members of these two groups have previously appeared on Introductions:: – Carrie Wang appeared with the Salice Piano Quartet in August 2021. – Amelia ...
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18-year-old pianist Myroslav Mykhailenko is joined by young friends and colleagues with selections by five different Ukrainian composers.
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This week on Introductions, the flagship group of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras performs Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, the Titan. This was recorded on May 22, 2022 in Orchestra Hall in downtown Chicago.
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Today we feature flute player Hanna Choi before she heads off to U of I.
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Today on Introductions, we hear from four departing seniors from the flagship group of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, all featured as soloists.
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Catherine is already an active violin and piano teacher, and in this recital she presents music by Bach, Beethoven, Boulanger, and Saint-Saëns.
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In this recital of Brahms, Bacewicz, Messiaen and Wieniawski, Tara Hagle is joined by her father, Matthew Hagle, on piano.
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Starting the clarinet at age three, Noah Jung is a graduate of the Colburn Music Academy, where he studied with professor Yehuda Gilad.
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Along with three of his own pieces, he presents music by Clara Schumann, Robert Nathaniel Dett, Maurice Ravel, and Lowell Liebermann.
The post Bazyli Siwek, 17, piano and composer appeared first on WFMT.
Only 11 years old, Ella Wimbiscus has already been playing the cello for nearly a decade.
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Five principal players from the CYSO present wind quintet music by Paul Taffanel, Carl Nielsen, and Paul Hindemith.
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A live broadcast of Beethoven, Bach, Perkinson, Gershwin and Sibelius from the Rhapsody Theater.
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A live performance — from Rogers Park's Rhapsody Theater — of music by Clarke, Bach, Brahms, and Prokofiev.
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In our continuing coverage of recent concerto competitions, Introductions plays all four finalists from the 2022 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition. This year, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Negaunee Music Institute opened the competition up to piano soloists, and all four finalists performed their chosen concerto movement with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and conductor Andrew Grams on Saturday March ...
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This week, Introductions returns with the finalists from the 2022 International Young Artist Concerto Competition, with performances from Sunday January 30. Formerly known as the New Music School Concerto Competition, WFMT covered this event in 2020 and in 2021. First-Place Winner: Esme Arias-Kim. Runner-Up Tie: Kimiko Darcy and Zarin Mehta. Third Place: Luis Villa. Esme gave a solo recital on ...
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A viola recital today on Introductions: Sarah Wejman is a high school senior and student of Desirée Ruhstrat. She presents music of JS Bach, H. Leslie Adams, Max Reger and Ernest Bloch, with pianist Liang-yu Wang. Thanks to Delmark Records for hosting this recording session. Sarah Wejman is a senior at New Trier High School, and has played viola since ...
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Today on Introductions, a live recital from Katya Moeller, a fellow of the Music Institute of Chicago Academy and a student of Almita Vamos. With her mother Ksenia Noskiova at the piano, Katya performs music by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Eugène Ysaÿe and George Gershwin; plus a set of Lera Auerbach preludes including two world premieres. Thanks to ...
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Today on Introductions, we feature 17-year-old Rosie Wang, winner of the 2019 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition. As part of her prize package, Rosie was due to perform a live recital on WFMT in June 2020. In this program, we feature chamber recordings made last year, plus her prize-winning performance from 2019, first broadcast on Music in Chicago. Rosie ...
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This weekend on Introductions, we rebroadcast a recital from Nicholas Boettcher, a Principal Double Bass of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. This episode first aired on October 16, 2021. More details and podcast at the original episode page.
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The CYSO Symphony Orchestra returned to Symphony Center for the first time in two years. Last week we heard from their Concerto Competition winners, and this week we hear the centerpiece work of the Fall 2021 concert: Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4. The interview guests are Principal Oboe Zachary Allen and Principal Bassoon Taki Salameh. Playlist Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4, ...
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The flagship groups of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras returned to Symphony Center for the first time in two years, and they had a lot of catching up to do. On the program were features for two years’ worth of Concerto Competition winners: violinist Bianca Ciubancan and clarinettist Louis Auxenfans won in 2020 and 2021 respectively. (Louis Auxenfans appeared on Introductions ...
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This week on Introductions, we feature four seniors who are all fellows of Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative. Founded in 2019 and linked with sister organizations in other US cities, its mission is to support high school orchestral musicians from underrepresented backgrounds, with the eventual goal of diversifying America’s professional orchestras. Thank you to Merit School of Music for allowing WFMT to record in Gottlieb Hall.
Autymn Williams, 18, violin Autymn Williams is a home-schooled high school senior from Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. She has studied at the Hyde Park Suzuki Institute with Lucinda Ali-Landing since the age of 3. Autymn has attended summer programs such as the Sphinx Performance Academy, Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and DePaul Summer String Intensive. Along with being a Lift Music Fund Fellow, she has competed in the Society of American Musicians and Sejong competitions, won honors in the Music Festival in Honor of Confucius, and made the semifinals of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Talent Hunt.
She currently plays in the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra and formerly played in the Merit School of Music Philharmonic Orchestra and the Protégé Philharmonic. She has also performed in master classes with musicians such as Desirée Ruhstrat, Danielle Belen, and Rachel Barton Pine. In her free time, Autymn enjoys painting, playing soccer, and watching anime. She is also heavily involved in community service in her neighborhood with the Yale and Harvard Home Association.
Nathaniel Mathew, 18, percussion Nathaniel Mathew is a percussionist from Schaumburg and a senior at James B. Conant High School. He studies percussion with Michael Kozakis, and formerly with Russ Knutson. He is a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ flagship group, and has attended the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. He also plays drum set in Conant High’s top jazz ensemble and an indie jazz combo called Swingin’ 7. Nate hopes to pursue his passion by attending college for music.
Julia Seabron, 17, viola Julia Seabron is a senior at Elmwood Park High School and has been a student at Merit School of Music for 12 years. She studies viola with Danny Lai. She is currently Principal Viola in Merit’s Philharmonic Orchestra, and also plays in a piano quintet there. She has attended both the Credo Festival and the Heifetz Summer Program, and became a Fellow of Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative in their inaugural cohort in 2019. Julia also studies classical voice, singing in Merit’s Chamber Choir and the Spirito Singers.
Deaglan Sullivan, 17, trombone Deaglan Sullivan plays in a number of top ensembles across Chicago. A student of Tim Riordan and a senior at Evergreen Park Community High School, Deaglan has managed to work his way into Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras’ flagship group, Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, and first chair in the Merit School of Music Trombone Choir. He is also a member of The Bone Rangers, Merit’s top trombone quartet, and appeared on Introductions episodes in May 2021 and July 2021.
Playlist Johann Sebastian Bach: Solo Violin Sonata No. 1 in G minor, BWV 1001
IV. Presto
Autymn Williams, violin
Camille Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61
I. Allegro non troppo
Autymn Williams, violin; Beilin Han, piano
Nick Woud: Timpani Etude No. 9
Nathaniel Mathew, timpani
Éric Sammut: Variations on Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess
Nathaniel Mathew, marimba
Johann Nepomuk Hummel: Fantaisie, Op. 94
Julia Seabron, viola; Beilin Han, piano
Eugène Bozza: Ballade
Deaglan Sullivan, trombone; Beilin Han, piano
Some music is excluded from the podcast version for copyright reasons.
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In advance of WFMT’s 70th Anniversary on December 13, 2021, WFMT celebrates two of the adults behind the Chicago area’s finest young performers: violin and viola teachers Almita and Roland Vamos. Their past students include Rachel Barton Pine, Jennifer Koh, Benjamin Beilman, and Ryan Meehan of the Calidore Quartet; and their present students appear on Introductions rather frequently, as well as ensembles they coach through the Music Institute of Chicago Academy.
This feature-length interview with Robbie Ellis goes into their personal histories and their teaching styles, and features WFMT archival audio of performances by their students, past and present. Listen to the episode below.
Coming up On WFMT’s 70th anniversary on Monday December 13, 2021, current Vamos students Abigail Park, Tara Hagle, Elinor Detmer and Esme Arias-Kim will perform live as part of two different teenage string quartets. More details on the program page.
Playlist Eugène Ysaÿe: Solo Violin Sonata No. 3, Ballade (excerpt)
Esme Arias-Kim, violin
First broadcast on Introductions, November 21, 2020.
Jean Sibelius: Valse, Op. 81, No. 3
Karisa Chiu, violin; Inah Chiu, piano
First broadcast on a Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert, January 4, 2017.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Solo Violin Sonata No. 3 in C, BWV 1005:
I. Adagio
Maya Anjali Buchanan, violin
First broadcast on Introductions, May 12, 2018.
Max Bruch: Double Concerto in E minor, Op. 88:
II. Allegro moderato
Almita Vamos, violin; Roland Vamos, viola; Eugenia Monacelli, piano
Recording supplied by Almita Vamos.
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2:
II. Scherzo (excerpt)
Pacifica Quartet: Simin Ganatra & Kyu-Young Kim, violins; Kathryn Lockwood, viola; Brandon Vamos, cello
First broadcast on Live from WFMT, January 19, 1998.
Peter Tchaikovsky: Serenade for strings, Op. 48
1st movement (excerpt)
Music Institute of Chicago Academy Orchestra; Roland Vamos, conductor
First broadcast on Introductions, May 2, 2009.
Johann Sebastian Bach: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A, BWV 1015:
1st movement
Rachel Barton Pine, violin; Paul Cienniwa, harpsichord
First broadcast on Live from WFMT, November 1, 2010.
Robert Schumann: String Quartet in A, Op. 41, No. 3:
III. Adagio molto (excerpt)
Calidore String Quartet: Jeffrey Myers & Ryan Meehan, violins; Jeremy Berry, viola; Estelle Choi, cello
First broadcast on Impromptu, 19 October, 2016.
Amy Beach: Romance, Op. 23
Isabella Brown, violin; Milana Pavchinskaya, piano
First broadcast on Introductions, July 24, 2021.
Transcript MUSIC: Esme Arias-Kim playing Eugène Ysaÿe’s Solo Violin Sonata No. 3, Ballade. Music fades under talking.
ROBBIE ELLIS: It’s a couple of days before WFMT’s 70th anniversary. And this program, Introductions, has been part of that history for 13½ of those years featuring the Chicago area’s finest young performers Saturday after Saturday. And there are a couple of names that keep coming up on our episodes time and time again.
(Montage of David Polk, Michael San Gabino, Robbie Ellis and Lisa Brownstone mentioning the names Almita and Roland Vamos.)
ROBBIE ELLIS: I’m producer and presenter, Robbie Ellis. And now I get to say: Almita and Roland Vamos, welcome to Introductions.
ALMITA VAMOS: Thank you.
ROLAND VAMOS: Hi.
ROBBIE: So the violinist that I’ve just put in the background, Esme Arias-Kim performing some blistering solo Ysaÿe on Introductions last year at the age of 14: first of all, she’s going to be on the radio in two days’ time performing in a string quartet, live on WFMT. Second of all, I did not realize this when I had her on the program last year, but she is the great-grandpupil of [Eugène] Ysaÿe himself, I guess.
MRS. VAMOS: That’s correct. My teacher studied with Ysaÿe and talked about him frequently.
ROBBIE: So your two teachers were Mischa Mischakoff and Louis Persinger at the Juilliard School. What sort of teachers were they?
MRS. VAMOS: Very different. I studied with Mischakoff from the age of eight and I was probably one of the youngest students he ever had. And at the time that I studied with him, he was Concertmaster of the NBC Symphony. So I would have my lesson between the rehearsal with us when he was with Toscanini and then he would sandwich me in in a corridor in the NBC studio. Sometimes it didn’t go very well and I imagine he was quite nervous for the concert that took place, the recording that took place right after.
He was short on patience. He was fabulous. I owe so much to him because even though he didn’t always know how to explain things, he would pull my arm, he made you play well. He did not allow anything to escape and he repeated and repeated, he shouted a lot. But sometimes if he was happy, he danced! You know, sometimes it was really pretty harsh but I owe so much to him.
ROBBIE: And then Louis Persinger, quite different.
MRS. VAMOS: Well, Mischakoff left and went to Detroit. He wanted my parents to send me at the age of 11 to Detroit and live with somebody, and I didn’t want to do it and my parents wouldn’t do that. So he actually recommended, “I’m calling Mr. Persinger.” He looked at me and he said, “You will like Mr. Persinger; he’s a gentleman.” Greatest musician I have ever met. I can’t describe, I can’t teach the way he taught. He had the imagination of the gods. And when I’d take a lesson, I’d go home. Sometimes I’d walk on air; I’d feel like I didn’t feel the ground. Very inspiring.
ROBBIE: And Roland, who were your teachers and what were they like?
MR. VAMOS: I had one teacher that isn’t very famous but I think I owe almost everything that I can do right now to her teaching. That was Suzanne Gusso, from the time I was about 12 to the time I was 18. I didn’t go from high school to college. Because of circumstances and lives we have to earn a living. So, at 18 I found myself in Denver playing in the Denver Symphony. I asked for a raise and they said no, so I quit. Then the next year I was in the Houston Symphony. From there, I think I went to Miami and became a strolling violinist in the nightclubs, and you have to play violin in a way I was not accustomed. They didn’t play from music, they just knew, what you’d call, “know the tunes”.
ROBBIE: And were you at Juilliard while you were in high school, or did that kind of come after all this jobbing itinerant work?
MR. VAMOS: Quite a bit after. I mean I was, as I said, in Denver for one year; Houston for one year; two years in Miami…
MRS. VAMOS: And the Army.
MR. VAMOS: And then I was in the U.S. Army Band in Washington, DC. And then finally I went to Juilliard and that’s where I studied.
ROBBIE: When you think of Juilliard at the time that you two were there; we’re talking 1950s, 1960s, I’m guessing. How does that compare at that time to major music schools today?
MRS. VAMOS: Well there weren’t that many major music schools. I was from New York and of course I didn’t realize that there was any other place than New York. I didn’t hear of New Zealand then, where you’re from.
ROBBIE: Well, quite a lot of New Yorkers could say that about Chicago, even.
MRS. VAMOS: Yes. I thought Chicago was a little town; I had no clue. Anyhow, Juilliard was the school and Curtis was also an important school at the time. There was Indiana and that grew, but at that time it wasn’t. Fortunately I lived in New York, I was with Persinger, I continued… I think a school is the teacher. I think a school is a school. Many people don’t realize that, but you have to find the teacher that suits you, [your] personality and what you want to get, and the person that really takes interest in you. I had that teacher there, and Roland had that teacher there.
ROBBIE: So you grew up in the New York City suburbs, in New Jersey, and Mr. Vamos, you were in New York City. Do you think that you would have become musicians and become music teachers if you hadn’t grown up in that area?
MR. VAMOS: You know, I sort of believe in faith. You are going to be something. You don’t know it, but there’s a certain path that’s gonna take you and of course, you know, you can walk down the street and if you go to the right or to the left…
MRS. VAMOS: That’s how we got married. We were standing in Juilliard and somebody said, “Come to eat!” We were a bunch of kids and we got our fortune cookies. Then they said, “Read yours out loud,” and it said, “Your fate is waiting outside the door.” We never would have found each other if I hadn’t had that fortune cookie. And then he met me outside the door and we walked back to Juilliard. We became friends.
ROBBIE: But Mr. Vamos, did you position yourself outside the door?
MR. VAMOS: I sure did!
(all laugh)
MRS. VAMOS: I think he was just in front of me.
MUSIC: Karisa Chiu and Inah Chiu play Jean Sibelius’ Valse, Op. 81, No. 3.
ROBBIE: That was Karisa Chiu on violin and Inah Chiu on piano, with the Waltz by Jean Sibelius, Op. 81, No. 3. Not a performance from Introductions, but Karisa was of Introductions-eligible age at the time: she was 17 when she performed that Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert five years ago. Throughout this Introductions episode, I’ll be playing WFMT archival recordings by students, past and present, of Almita and Roland Vamos.
I asked Mrs. Vamos when a young violinist or violist comes knocking, how does she determine they’re a good fit for her and vice versa?
MRS. VAMOS: When they play for me first of all, if they’re not set up as I’d like them to be, I have… Mr. Vamos used to… we used to team-teach a lot. He does less with me now; we do some together. But I have a wonderful assistant, Davis King, who’s marvelous. He studied with us at Northwestern and he knows musically, he knows technically, he’s been through all of Mr. Vamos’ étude books and scale books. So if [I] feel that they’re not ready but I see that they’re gifted and they’re interested – and most of the time they come to me, they’re interested and Chicago is a great place to be; this is very live musically – when he [Davis King] thinks they’re ready, they switch to me. You know, it’s great teaching young ones because they have parents behind them, mothers who sit at the lessons and arrange their schedules. It’s so much easier for them than it is when they get to college.
ROBBIE: Without naming names, have you ever turned down a student because the parents were too much? (pause) I can imagine it’s possible.
MRS. VAMOS: I don’t have parents now that are too much. But when I was younger… I know one of my students Sibbi Bernhardsson said, because he was young and he didn’t have gray hair… He said, “When my hair turned white, I had much more respect from the parents.” But there was a period where I had some extremely difficult parents. And I would not tolerate that now, but it doesn’t happen anymore. They see how old I am; they’re not going to be that disrespectful.
ROBBIE: Well, you are in a position where you can pick and choose your work a lot more easily.
MRS. VAMOS: Fortunately I’ve had wonderful parents and I love having them because they’re very helpful to me. You know, [Ivan] Galamian said that he wished all his students were orphans because the parents could be so difficult! But in my experience I don’t feel that way.
MUSIC: Maya Anjali Buchanan plays the Adagio from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Solo Violin Sonata in C, BWV 1005.
ROBBIE: The opening movement of Bach’s solo violin sonata in C major, live on Introductions on WFMT in 2018. Maya Anjali Buchanan, who was 18 at the time, commuted from South Dakota to Chicago for lessons with Almita Vamos.
Vamos [pronounced VAY-mose] is spelled V-A-M-O-S, the same as the Spanish for “let’s go”. And that’s something I always wanted to clear up. So to set the record straight about that name, here’s Roland V.
MR. VAMOS: My background is Hungarian, and “Vámos” [VAH-mosh] is the way you would pronounce it. The ‘á’ has an accent on it to give it an “ah” sound, and ‘s’ is pronounced “sh”. So by rights it’s “Roland Vámos” [ROL-ond VAH-mosh]. But Americanized, “Roland Vamos” [VAY-mose].
MRS. VAMOS: When people say, “Is it [VAH-mos] or [VAY-mos], I say “Yes.” I do use [VAH-mos] when somebody’s haughty with me and I’m annoyed. (pertly) “It’s [VAH-mos].”
ROBBIE: Or if you’re encouraging people to get a move on, it’s like, “¡Vamos! ¡Ándale!”
(laughing)
ROBBIE: There’s a lovely recording [of Max Bruch’s Double Concerto] that you sent me of the two of you: Mr. & Mrs. Vamos on violin and viola [correction: viola and violin] with Eugenia…
MRS. VAMOS: Monacelli [MO-na-CHEL-ee].
ROBBIE: Monacelli, thank you.
MRS. VAMOS: We used to be the Hyman Sisters. We performed together; I performed with my sister. She was 2½ years older than me and we performed since we were young. We played in Carnegie Recital Hall together; we toured together. She was an absolutely phenomenal pianist, so phenomenal as a young child that my parents gave me the violin because they knew I would not ever be able to keep up with her. I had a brother who died before I was born. He was a pianist, supposedly very talented. I had an older sister who was married when I was born, fantastic pianist, she studied at Juilliard with James Friskin.
And Jeannie, my sister, whom we just lost in Covid time – the summer that took her, we were planning the whole summer to rehearse together and do all the Beethoven again, all the Beethoven sonatas that we had done before, and we were really looking forward to it. So this Bruch concerto, it’s really not a piano accompaniment as you can see, it’s really a trio almost for violin, viola and piano. And it’s very close to my heart because we just played that a few years ago with her.
ROBBIE: And this recording, you said it was from your time at Oberlin [College] when you were teaching there?
MRS. VAMOS: Or we went back and did a recital. I think it was when we were teaching there.
ROBBIE: It is wonderful, big sweeping playing on that recording. I do like it.
MRS. VAMOS: You know I told you, I don’t really like to listen to my recordings. I listened to several of them and I came upon this one. I was actually moved by it. So I said, okay, this is Roland and I, this is how we feel music together. And my sister.
MUSIC: Almita Vamos, Roland Vamos and Eugenia Monacelli play the middle movement of Max Bruch’s Double Concerto, Op. 88.
ROBBIE: A family making music with Max Bruch’s Double Concerto. An old trio recording made at Oberlin College with Eugenia Monacelli on piano; Eugenia’s sister Almita Vamos on violin, and Almita’s husband Roland Vamos on viola. Not sure of the date on that, but thank you to Almita Vamos for supplying the recording.
Today is a special episode of Introductions for WFMT’s 70th Anniversary. Normally, this show features young musicians, but today I’m interviewing Roland and Almita Vamos, teachers of violin and viola and mentors to so many of Chicago’s finest young performers who have appeared on this program.
And if you want to join the ranks of said young musicians, Introductions accepts auditions at any time. Go to wfmt.com/introductions for more, and if you’re a high school senior, your deadline is February 1.
I’m Robbie Ellis and you’re listening to Classical WFMT.
—
KERRY FRUMKIN: Music of Mendelssohn, played by the Pacifica Quartet, live from WFMT’s Studio One. The members of the Pacifica Quartet are violinists Simin Ganatra and Kyu-Young Kim, violist Kathryn Lockwood, and cellist Brandon Vamos.
MUSIC: The Pacifica Quartet playing the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn’s String Quartet No. 4 in E minor, Op. 44, No. 2. Music fades under talking.
ROBBIE: From a WFMT broadcast in 1998: Kerry Frumkin introducing, among others, the son and daughter-in-law of my interview guests today. I’m Robbie Ellis and you’re listening to Introductions, a show that features the Chicago area’s finest young musicians, quite a lot of whom are trained by Almita and Roland Vamos. As WFMT approaches its 70th anniversary on December 13, Mr. and Mrs. Vamos invited me to their downtown apartment for an interview over tea and chocolates. And here’s my attempt, so to say, to spill some tea.
ROBBIE: (in the room) Is it true that two of your kids married two of your students?
MRS. VAMOS: Yes, it’s very true!
ROBBIE: You weren’t trying to play matchmaker or anything like that?
MRS. VAMOS: No, not at all. In fact, my youngest son is married to a girl and his wife just sent me a program [from] when she was eight years old. I was in Texas and we were doing masterclasses; it was a conference or something and she played in a Suzuki program. She was eight and I wrote on her program something beautiful and Roland said, “You were so cute I could steal you, I’d like to steal you.” Little did we know she would marry my [then] four-year-old son, but they’re together now. She lived with us.
And Simin [Ganatra] – Brandon, my son who’s in the Pacifica [Quartet], his wife – she lived with us when Brandon was in college. So I didn’t have to do any matchmaking.
ROBBIE: You two have been recognized seven times with a Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. Is that through the National Endowment for the Arts?
MR. & MRS. VAMOS: Yes.
ROBBIE: [You’ve] been to the White House, I’m guessing a number of times. Any stories about one of your White House visits?
MRS. VAMOS: I would say my favorite was Clinton. All the other presidents got up on a balcony and said a few words; I would sit in the garden and I was afraid to move my hand because the Secret Service was staring at us and I was afraid if I lifted my hand, who knows what would happen? But Clinton invited us into the Rose Garden and he got up and spoke to us. After he spoke, he didn’t run away like all the other presidents, he walked out into the yard and went over to the teachers and shook their hands. I was too shy to go over to him. I didn’t know what I would say at the time; I can think of things now. He was fantastic.
ROBBIE: Is it true – I don’t know about you, Mr. Vamos, but Mrs. Vamos – that you work and you teach seven days a week?
MRS. VAMOS: True. Very true. Not only seven days a week, pretty close to eight hours sometimes a day.
ROBBIE: So okay. I like my job. I don’t like my job seven days a week. What keeps you going to do that much, to take up so much of your time with teaching?
MRS. VAMOS: The reason I’m answering is Roland is doing a little less than I am doing now. But he’s eight years older than me, so he deserves to have a little time to read and watch TV; I let him do that. But we do teach together a lot and many times I ask him to come in.
Some of the reason I’m teaching so much is because… I teach at Roosevelt [University] and I love teaching there. You don’t know how many students are gonna come, so it’s a numbers game. You think “oh maybe two will come,” but this year twelve came. Sometimes I wish I had a little free time to get the doctor’s appointments in, the surgeries in, everything as you get older. You know things happen.
ROBBIE: Thank you for making the time for me today.
MRS. VAMOS: Oh my pleasure, because we had chocolate and tea too.
MR. VAMOS: Hear hear!
MRS. VAMOS: When you get older and you lose friends, you lose relatives, it’s good to be busy. And so I appreciate the fact that I’m surrounded by wonderful students. They’re all… I mean, I love them all; personally I love them all. It doesn’t matter if they’re great or if they’re not so great. I just take a lot of interest in them and it keeps my mind off listening to the news, for instance. This is a good thing. And so I think I’m pretty happy that I’m busy. I would love to have an afternoon off, but maybe next year.
ROBBIE: Mr Vamos, you’ve also been a conductor here and there. We’ve got recordings of you conducting the Music Institute of Chicago Academy Orchestra that’s been on Introductions once or twice. There’s a lovely thing that you you said in that interview in 2009:
(applause fades out)
DAVID POLK: What are you putting in the water when you give lessons?
MR. VAMOS: (in 2009) Well, the trick is to find marvelously talented students and try not to ruin them.
(laughs)
MR. VAMOS: (present day) Oh, yeah, it’s not what you do to them. It’s how you can let them do themselves and then you take the credit!
(laughs)
ROBBIE: How do you approach conducting a teenage ensemble versus conducting adults?
MR. VAMOS: Well, you know, our students are very talented and I don’t play down to them. I just treat them like grown-up adults: I make demands on them that I would make on a professional orchestra and expect them to make it work out.
MRS. VAMOS: Roland is very explicit with his hands. So when I watch him and he gets a sound out of the orchestra, he’s not a huge talker. When he’s working with the kids, he does it more, getting them to respond. And these are talented kids, they don’t always need to be told exactly where in the bow [to play]. Sometimes he has to, but I’ve watched him conduct and I’ve learned an awful lot, actually, from him. He sings a lot too. I sing a lot at the lessons and it’s just a very natural thing.
MUSIC: The Music Institute of Chicago Academy Orchestra playing the first movement of Peter Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for strings, conducted by Roland Vamos (excerpt).
ROBBIE: The opening of Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings: the Music Institute of Chicago Academy Orchestra conducted by Roland Vamos, live on WFMT’s Introductions in 2009. Back to my interview with Roland and Almita Vamos.
ROBBIE: (in the room) When you’re teaching teenagers, do you have a feeling whether they’re destined for an orchestra job, a chamber career, a solo career, something different entirely? Can you kind of have that feeling that early?
MRS. VAMOS: Well, solo careers are hard to come by and most people who are soloists do other things too. However, it’s the same training to be a soloist as it is to play in an orchestra or to play in a chamber group. It’s musicianship, it’s technique, it’s sound, it’s intonation, it’s all the same. Last night I had a studio class and I told the students that it’s a very serious business – I was trying to get them to practice more if they could – and that you need to want it so badly. It has to be something that you have such a desire that you’ll do anything.
I’ll tell you a quote from Rachel Barton when she was a little girl. Her Mom picked us up and I said to Rachel, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” She said, “I’d like to be a soloist, I’d like to play in an orchestra, I want to play in a quartet, I want to compose, I want to conduct, and I want to be a teacher just like you.” And I said, “You know what, Rachel? I’m not worried about you.” She is going to and she has done all of those things.
What I worry about: if somebody would say to me, “All I want to do is be a soloist.” That’s dangerous. You have to love it so much, you just want to be a musician.
ROBBIE: Rachel Barton as she was then, Rachel Barton Pine as she is now: one of your more prominent students. What’s it like following your past students’ careers?
MRS. VAMOS: I have a very close relationship with most of my students. I just talked to a boy whose mother sent me some gifts; he studied with me at Northwestern years ago. Many of them keep up. The one thing that Roland and I do not do: we don’t run after the students. If they want to keep the relationship, I always tell them “Door’s open.” You want to play for us? We will never charge you. You’re always welcome to come and play for us again. It’s really nice to have that relationship.
Rachel and I, I’m going to see her tonight. She’s going to listen to some of my students. And I’m going to take notes. They’re gonna do some Bach and she has done a lot of, I’ve learned a lot from her about… now I’m using a Baroque bow and whenever I don’t know something I call her up. “Is it okay to do this? Is it okay to do [that]?” Because she’s spent more time doing Baroque music than I have, and I love it and I like to get her.
She did a masterclass; she heard three of my students. She always calls me right after and tells me how they did, and what she felt they needed. I have students who come back and they do play for me and then I ask them, “What did your teacher tell you?” Then I can steal all kinds of ideas!
MUSIC: Rachel Barton Pine and Paul Cienniwa playing the first movement of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata in A, BWV 1015.
ROBBIE: Rachel Barton Pine playing Baroque violin, live from WFMT in 2010 with harpsichordist Paul Cienniwa, playing the Sonata in A major, BWV 1015, by Bach.
Rachel Barton, as she used to be called, studied with Almita and Roland Vamos, who’ve been teaching young musicians for decades. I asked the Vamoses: what non-musical lessons do they try to instill in their students?
MRS. VAMOS: Good character. I think it’s really important. Roland used to tell the students, “Be careful how you behave. That person next to you could be your stand partner for life later on.”
Don’t we always tell them: Don’t talk down anybody at school. Don’t say anything. Don’t bad-mouth anything. It could be your roommate, who you love and you think they’ll be quiet and you never know. Always character, I think is extremely important.
I always question my motives when I do something, I think about it. Roland is extremely kind to his students. They like to study with him more than me because he doesn’t even show on his face. He doesn’t grimace; he doesn’t act sarcastic. He’s really sweet at his lessons and they really appreciate that. Hopefully they take a little of that away from their lessons.
I don’t tolerate meanness. I don’t tolerate rudeness and I don’t tolerate ugly competitiveness. There’s good competitiveness and ugly competitiveness.
ROBBIE: What’s the difference now for the teens of today heading out into the world, versus three or four decades ago? Has the industry changed in a lot of ways and is how you prepare the students changed?
MRS. VAMOS: Roland, you went to Denver took an audition, you got the job. Then he left when he didn’t get the salary raise. And then what did you say?
MR. VAMOS: Well, I went to Houston and auditioned, and I got that job. And that gave me more than my raise than I was asking for in Denver.
MRS. VAMOS: And today some of our best students do 40 auditions before they can get a job. So the competition is huge now. It’s tougher, and there are so many good players. There was, I don’t know if you were the [host] on WFMT, they were interviewing Jaime Laredo…
ROBBIE: (in the studio) Edit: nope wasn’t me. It was Bill McGlaughlin who interviewed Jaime Laredo for Exploring Music a couple of weeks ago. Here’s what Mrs. Vamos was remembering.
JAIME LAREDO: I have a little standing joke with my students. I will tell them I don’t want you to listen to violinists of today. I only want you to listen to dead violinists, because everyone had their own distinct sound, their own distinct personality. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen today. And yet the playing today is more brilliant and on a higher level than it’s ever been.
BILL McGLAUGHLIN: Technically.
JAIME LAREDO: Technically, yes.
MRS. VAMOS: In those days, the playing was very different, very unique. But there weren’t these hundreds of thousands of talented people who played their instrument very well. So they could afford to have, maybe different personalities. Now it’s more difficult to distinguish.
ROBBIE: Earlier this year, I was doing a pre-concert talk at St. James Cathedral and one of the violinists on the concert was Allison Lovera, who was a student of yours at Roosevelt [University]. She was never on Introductions and there’s a very good reason for that, because she grew up in Venezuela and made her way to the United States. I think she said something along the lines of: she was in touch with you and you’d assured her…
MRS. VAMOS: From her.
ROBBIE: What’s that?
MRS. VAMOS: These earrings.
ROBBIE: Oh, the earrings that you have on are from Allison! That’s lovely.
MRS. VAMOS: I wear them every day.
ROBBIE: [She’d said] that you two were in touch and you told her: “Just get yourself to Chicago. I’ll take care of the rest.” What was that deal there?
MRS. VAMOS: I went to the Dean. I said this is a very talented girl; we want her. And they’re very receptive. I said we need to help this person. It’s a wonderful school. They try their best and they’re very open.
I have seven Venezuelan students. I went to Venezuela many years ago and I gave masterclasses. They have a wonderful teacher there who had been a Galamian student, and he sent a lot of students to me. And every time I went to Roosevelt, the school has helped. I have seven here at the school. I help a little bit when they need something because it’s difficult. They have a really difficult time.
ROBBIE: For context, I think Allison said she made her way overland from Venezuela through Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico…
MRS. VAMOS: Hard to get out, hard to get in…
ROBBIE: Hard to get into the United States at the best of times…
MRS. VAMOS: These students are so amazing. They come from a very difficult background. I have a student, he’s a fabulous musician. He tells me he gets up at 6 o’clock and he does grocery deliveries. He goes to school, he plays the violin and the piano practically equally as well. He accompanies all my students, gets up and plays in a quartet, plays solo, enters competitions, then he goes to school, he does his schoolwork. But on top of that: never complains. None of them do. None of them say “I have to work, this is terrible.” They just do it.
MUSIC: The Calidore String Quartet playing the third movement of Robert Schumann’s String Quartet in A, Op. 41, No. 3 (excerpt).
ROBBIE: From Robert Schumann’s String Quartet in A major, the Calidore String Quartet performing on Impromptu in 2016. One of the violinists is Ryan Meehan, who performed on WFMT in the very first year of Introductions, 2008. His family moved from Florida to Illinois so he could study with Almita Vamos, my interview guest today.
ROBBIE: (in the room) You’ve alluded to this earlier, but: Mrs. Vamos, you’re teaching seven days a week; Mr. Vamos a little bit less. You said a couple of years ago in an interview with Madeline Frank: “Teaching is an ever-learning process. You cannot perfect it, you can only keep improving. [That’s] what makes it continuously interesting. When I lose the desire to get better, I will quit. (May that never happen.)” And you’re still learning, is that right?
MRS. VAMOS: Totally. And I’m practicing. I have the violin out all the time and if I have five minutes I run to the instrument and I practice. I have programs that I’m doing, playing more now. We will not teach if we don’t feel that we’re growing as teachers. Also as psychologists a little bit, because students have very hard lives these days and they’re packed up with so many things to do.
And we make mistakes; we have to learn from our mistakes. It is much more challenging when you’re working with young people. I think for the most part, we’re doing okay, but I’m always thinking about it.
Sometimes I ask the students to give me some feedback. Yesterday I said, “Are you not practicing because I’m not inspiring you? Do I need to give you more literature? Am I too picayune about little things?” I got an answer.
ROBBIE: What was the answer?
MRS. VAMOS: I think they would have liked me to give more repertoire, because when I’m picky, I’m there, but when they’re alone, they don’t always know how to be that picky. So they run out of ideas. They’re not ready yet. They’re not at my level where I am teaching myself constantly. I can spend thousands of hours on the first three lines of a piece, thousands of hours over and over. But they don’t know quite what to do. So that was informative. And I also found out by asking them, I didn’t know that they weren’t getting enough practice in.
ROBBIE: Almita and Roland Vamos. This has been a wonderful conversation. Thank you so much for appearing on Introductions. Thank you for sending so many students to Introductions over the years. I’ll speak on behalf of my former colleagues, Michael San Gabino and David Polk, and say that as well.
MRS. VAMOS: Thank you very much for coming.
MR. VAMOS: It’s our pleasure.
ROBBIE: And thank you for inviting me over for tea and chocolates.
MRS. VAMOS: You’re very welcome.
MR. VAMOS: Hear, hear.
MUSIC: Isabella Brown and Milana Pavchinskaya playing Amy Beach’s Romance, Op. 23.
ROBBIE: Violinist Isabella Brown, with pianist Milana Pavchinskaya, from her Introductions recital in July of 2021. After eight years of study with Almita Vamos, she’s now a freshman at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
This interview with Almita and Roland Vamos was the 70th Anniversary special edition of Introductions, WFMT’s show that features the Chicago area’s finest pre-college classical musicians. In today’s program, you heard WFMT archival content from Introductions, the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts, Live from WFMT, Impromptu and Exploring Music; with presenters David Polk, Michael San Gabino, Lisa Brownstone, Kerry Frumkin, and Bill McGlaughlin.
This program is available to listen to again as a podcast, and we’ve got a transcript on the web too. Go to wfmt.com/introductions. And make sure to tune in this coming Monday December 13 for our Day of Celebration. We’ll have live performances all day long and among the scheduled performers are four of the Vamoses’ current students. Details at wfmt.com.
Thanks to Weston Williams for production and research assistance on today’s episode. My name’s Robbie Ellis, producer and presenter of Introductions. Catch you next time, where we profile more young local musicians, Saturday mornings at 11 on Classical WFMT.
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Today on Introductions is a rarity: a solo double bass recital. Nicholas Boettcher is Principal Double Bass of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras‘ flagship orchestra, a senior at Naperville North High School, and founder of The No Repeats Project. Nicholas is joined by Sooka Wang on piano.
Nicholas Boettcher studies double bass with Andy Anderson and music with Sooka Wang. In addition to his CYSO role, he is an Associate Member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.
In 2021, Nicholas won the International Society of Bassists Performance Competition, the Louisiana Bass Fest, and the National Federation of Music Clubs Mary-Alice Cox Award. Past concerto competition wins include the DuPage Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Auditions; the Illinois American String Teachers Associations Competition; the NIU Sinfonia Concerto Competition; and the CYSO Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.
Nicholas was also a finalist in the 2020 Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artist Competition, and soloed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He was named a National YoungArts Foundation Winner for 2020 and 2021.
In 8th grade, Nicholas created The No Repeats Project, a 501(c)(3) organization, where young musicians work with incarcerated teens to provide opportunities learn instruments and experience different musical genres. For his work, he was named the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice’s Volunteer of the Year for 2020. He has also received the 2020 President’s Volunteer Service Award, the Prudential Spirit of the Community Award, and School District 203’s Mission Makers Award. In addition to music, Nicholas enjoys a good steak.
Playlist Johann Baptist Vanhal: Double Bass Concerto in E-Flat:
I. Allegro moderato
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 6 in D, BWV 1012:
I. Prelude
II. Allemande
Vittorio Monti: Csárdás
Andrés Martín: Temperamental
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On Introductions this Saturday, 17-year-old Joanna Choe, a flute student of Hideko Amano. She performs music by Adolphus Hailstork and Philippe Gaubert; concerto movements by Mozart and Ibert; and the François Borne Carmen Fantasy. Thank you to Delmark Records for allowing WFMT to record in their Riverside Studios in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood.
Joanna Choe is 17 years old has been playing flute for 7 years. Some of her musical achievements include being named Principal Flute of the ILMEA District 7 Senior Honor Band in both 2018 and 2019, and sitting 2nd chair at the 2020 ILMEA All-State Honor Band. She also won first prize in the the 2021 Society of American Musicians Flute Competition and 2018 Chicago Flute Club Competition; and honorable mentions in the 2021 Discover FAA High School Music Competition and the Senior Division of the 2018 National Walgreens Concerto Competition.
Joanna was also selected to participate in the 2021 Galway Flute Festival where she performed in masterclasses for Nicola Mazzanti and Lady Jeanne Galway. She was also selected for the 2021 ARIA Academy Flute Program, and will be performing in Carnegie Hall this December. When she’s not playing flute, Joanna enjoys trying exotic produce, brewing coffee, and swimming.
Playlist Adolphus Hailstork: Flute Set:
1st movement
Philippe Gaubert: Fantasy for flute and piano
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Concerto in G, K. 313:
I. Allegro maestoso
II. Adagio ma non troppo
Jacques Ibert: Flute Concerto:
I. Allegro
François Borne: Carmen Fantasy
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This morning on Introductions, we’re going live again: 17-year-old Harry Zhang delivers a solo recital of Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Liebermann, and Prokofiev. Thank you to Delmark Records for allowing WFMT to broadcast live from their Riverside Studios in Chicago’s Ravenswood neighborhood.
Harry Zhang was the first-place winner of the 2020 Steinway Piano Competition Chicago Regionals, 2020 Illinois State Music Teachers Association Piano Competition, and 2020 Beethoven with a View International Competition. He is also the second-place winner of the 2021 Carmel Klavier International Piano Competition and the 2020 Piano Star International Competition, and gold medalist of the 2019 New York Schubert International Music Competition.
He was featured in the 36th Young Steinway Concert Series and has performed at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall, Nichols Concert Hall, Northeastern University Recital Hall, Indiana University’s Auer and Ford-Crawford halls, and Make Music Chicago. Harry was invited to perform at both the Carnegie Hall as one of the winners of the 2020 American Protégé Competition and the Music Institute of Chicago’s 2020 Anniversary Gala honoring pianist Evgeny Kissin.
Harry has participated in piano masterclasses of Dr Svetlana Belsky, Dr Robert Weirich, Dr Peter Miyamoto, Professor Asaf Zohar of Tel Aviv University, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian of the Lincoln Trio.
He has devoted his summers to further hone his piano skills at the Curtis Institute of Music, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Chicago Chamber Music Festival, and the Chicago Duo Piano Festival. Harry has been a Merit Scholar at the Music Institute of Chicago for the past three years, where he studies piano with Dr Soo Young Lee.
Playlist Johann Sebastian Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1:
Prelude and Fugue No. 18 in G-sharp minor, BWV 863
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 18 in E-Flat, Op. 31, No. 3:
I. Allegro
II. Scherzo
III. Menuetto
IV. Presto con fuoco
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C-sharp minor
Lowell Liebermann: Gargoyles, Op. 29:
I. Presto
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat, Op. 83:
III. Precipitato
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This week on Introductions, we profile eight young composers, all of whom participated in Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras‘ 2021 Composition Seminar. Under the tutelage of composers Eric Malmquist and Ben Hjertmann, participants had the chance to write for string quartet, and have their music recorded by ATLYS.
This episode was produced by WFMT’s Andrew Patner Fellow Adela Skowronski.
Playlist Emily Bear: Les Voyages (excerpt)
Performed by Emily Bear, piano; with the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony conducted by Noreen Green
First broadcast on Introductions June 30, 2018.
Jonathan Miller: String Quartet No. 1
Jaime García-Añoveros: Episodes for string quartet
Ellen Campbell: Across the Abyssal’s Crater
Hannah Thill: Dedication
Tommy Johnson: String Quartet No. 1
Tom Gotsch: A Handful of Seeds
Nando Cordeiro: String Quartet No. 1
Fiona Abney-McPeek: Flowing Farther
Recorded by ATLYS: Jinty McTavish & Sabrina Tabby, violins; Rita Andrade, viola; Genevieve Tabby, cello.
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It’s a graduation special for Labor Day Weekend: we mark 18-year-olds who are now our alumni, having performed on Introductions in the past few years. Some are now majoring in music, some are majoring in other subjects, a few are double-majoring, one’s taking a gap year, and one’s enlisted in the military. It’s a great variety of music this week.
Playlist Edward Elgar: “Pomp and Circumstance” March No. 1 in D, Op. 39, No. 1 (excerpt)
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Georg Solti, conductor
(Decca 417719)
Nikolai Kapustin: Concert Etude No. 8
Joshua Mhoon, piano
First broadcast May 1, 2021
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008:
III. Courante (excerpt)
Kailie Holliday, cello
First broadcast March 6, 2021
Jacques Ibert: Flute Concerto:
III. Allegro scherzando (excerpt)
Miguel Rodriguez, flute; Beilin Han, piano
First broadcast March 6, 2021
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47:
I. Allegro moderato (excerpt)
Isabel Chen, violin; Milana Pavchinskaya, piano
First broadcast July 31, 2021
Alfredo Piatti: Caprice in A minor
Noah Chen, cello
First broadcast October 3, 2020
Frédéric Chopin: Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor
Ashley Kim, piano
First broadcast November 16, 2019
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Vocalise, Op. 34, No. 14
Eric Bahena Figueroa, bassoon; Beilin Han, piano
First broadcast March 6, 2021
Giovanni Sollima: Lamentatio (excerpt)
Brandon Cheng, cello and voice
First broadcast May 8, 2021
Johannes Brahms: Clarinet Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 120:
III. Allegretto grazioso (excerpt)
José Vidal, clarinet; Matthew Hagle, piano
First broadcast November 28, 2020
Emmanuel Séjourné: Marimba Concerto:
II. Tempo souple (excerpt)
Meher Sethi, marimba
First broadcast June 12, 2021
Felix Mendelssohn: String Quartet, Op. 44, No. 1:
IV. Finale, Presto agitato
Carmen Quartet: Katharine Nelson & Veronica Rokicki, violins; Kimberly LaFranzo, viola; Eytan Raviv, cello
First broadcast July 17, 2021
Traditional German arr. Johann André: “Gaudeamus igitur” (excerpt)
Wernigerode Radio Youth Choir; Friedrich Krell, conductor
(BT-Music 1327570776227)
Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No. 3 in C, BWV 1009:
I. Prelude
Bella Kim, viola
First broadcast March 13, 2021
Henryk Wieniawski: Polonaise brillante in A, Op. 21 (excerpt)
Isabella Brown, violin; Milana Pavchinskaya, piano
First broadcast July 24, 2021
Johannes Brahms: Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38:
I. Allegro non troppo (excerpt)
Xavier Perry, cello; Beilin Han, piano
First broadcast June 12, 2021
Antônio Carlos Jobim: Desafinado (excerpt)
Marco Villela, trumpet; Robbie Ellis, piano
First broadcast August 14, 2021
Henry Purcell: Music for a While (excerpt)
Volodymyr Lymar, countertenor; David Schrader, harpsichord
First broadcast June 26, 2021
Henri Rabaud: Solo de concours
Ethan Montgomery, clarinet; Beilin Han, piano
First broadcast June 12, 2021
Robert Schumann: Träumerei, Op. 15, No. 7
Daniel Mies Nass, piano
First broadcast June 19, 2021
Eugène Bozza: New Orleans
Rafael Noriega, bass trombone; Beilin Han, piano
First broadcast March 6, 2021
Some music is excluded from the podcast version of this episode for copyright reasons.
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