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’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:

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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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