Paul Juhn
(Mundelein, IL)
Emilio del Rosario

none

Alice Huang
(Verona, WI)
Shu-Ching Chung

(Tie)
Susie Lee
(Naperville, IL)
Emilio del Rosario

Matthew Sun-Oo Scherer
(Winnetka, IL)
Soo Lee

none

Christopher Park
(West Lafayette, IN)
Nadya Dubikovsky

Samantha Bennett
(Evanston, IL)
Almita Vamos / Marko Dreher

Gallia Kastner
(Arlington Heights, IL)
Almita Vamos / Marko Dreher

Shelley Liu
(Winnetka, IL)
Almita Vamos

Susie Koh
(Buffalo Grove, IL)
Almita Vamos / Marko Dreher

Hannah Selonick
(Evanston, IL)
Desiree Ruhstrat

Connie Liou
(Elk Grove Village, IL)
Julie Maura

Emily Hyun
(Winnetka, IL)
Betty Haag-Kuhnke

Tabitha Oh
(Chicago, IL)
Desiree Ruhstrat

Benjamin Lash
(Evanston, IL)
Tanya Carey

Jessica Cho
(Glenview, IL)
David Cunliffe

none

David Mei
(Elmhurst, IL)
Hans Jensen

Paul Juhn, age 16, attends Vernon Hills High School. He began playing the piano when he was four years old. He currently studies piano with Emilio del Rosario, cello with Blake Brasch, and chamber music with Mr. Hans Jensen at the Music Institute of Chicago. His former piano teacher was Dr. Soo Lee at the Music Institute of Chicago. He won prizes at many competitions including CAMTA, the North Shore Music Teachers Association, the Illinois Music Teacher’s Association, and the Granquist Music competition. He has placed first in the Primary, Junior, Intermediate, and Senior division of the Society of American Music competition and was the alternate in the MTNA Junior competition in 2004. In 1998, he was the youngest winner in the piano division of the Midwest Young Artists Concerto competition and an overall win at the 2003 Walgreens Concerto competition. Paul has won first place in both the junior (2005) and senior (2007) divisions of the Sejong Music Competition and was a finalist in the CSO Youth Auditions. He has given many public performances, including the Young Steinway Series at the Skokie Public Library (2001) and on WNIB radio station as one of “Chicago’s Most Promising Student Pianists”. Recently, Paul performed at a Gala Celebration for the Music Institute of Chicago and in the “East meets West” series with Korean themes. Paul will be making his orchestral debut playing the Carnival of Animals with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in February and in March will play in the “Music in the Loft” Series.

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Alice Huang, age 14, is a 9th grader at West High School of Madison, Wisconsin. She started piano lessons at the age of five and currently studies with Shu-Ching Chuang. She has also studied violin with Eugene Purdue for 5 years and currently is a violinist in Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra (WYSO). Alice has the distinction of being the first young musician over the decade to win the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) Fall Youth Concerto Competition two years in a row on two different instruments - piano in 2005 and violin in 2006. Because of her achievement and performance with MSO, she was featured in the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper last year. In addition to the Sejong music competition, Alice has received many awards and honors in other piano competitions, including the Wisconsin Music Teacher Association Badger competition, the Music Teacher National Association state junior competition, the WYSO concerto competition, and the Chopin competition in Milwaukee.

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Matthew Scherer, age 15, is a freshman at New Trier High School and he began piano at the age of six. Since then, he has won numerous awards and prizes including the regional division of Illinois State Music Teachers Association, North Shore Music Teachers Association and the Sonata-Sonatina Festival (CAMTA and NSMTA). Matthew also plays the piano in the Music Institute Chamber Music program. He participates in the New Trier High School Swim Team and loves to play basketball in his spare time. He has played alto saxophone as a member of a jazz band in his school. Currently, he is a student of Dr. Soo Young Lee at the Music Institute of Chicago.

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Susie Lee is 6th grade in Crone Jr. High School in Naperville.  She began playing the piano when she was five years old with her Mom (Hyen S. Lee). Susie currently studies piano with Mr. Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. Her former piano teacher was Dr. Ching R. Cheung at College of Du-Page.  Susie won prizes at many competitions including Granquist Geneva Competition, New Praise Society Piano Competition in 2005, St. Charles Music Festival in 2006.  She was invited to Carnegie Hall as a winner of New Praise Society Piano Competition in June of 2005 and Norris Hall as a winner of St. Charles Music Festival in July 2006.  She also plays the piano in her school Jazz Ensemble. Susie’s other interests include swimming, reading and dancing.

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Dhongkyu Yoon, age 13, attends Wisconsin Hills Middle School. She began playing the piano when she was six years old. She currently studies piano with Dr. Michael Thiele at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music and violin with Jeanyi Kim. She likes to play the music of Beethoven and Chopin. She won first prize at the Talent Show of Elmbrook district and also won first prize at the scholarship competition in Wisconsin Conservatory of Music. She participated in the State honor orchestra as a first violinist and plays in a Jazz Ensemble as a pianist. She actively participates in her school cross country team and ping-pong team.

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Emma Michalak is 11 years old and a student at the Lycée Francais de Chicago. Her dream is to become a concert pianist and someday perform at Carnegie Hall. She has been studying piano with Dr. Soo Young Lee for six years. She enjoys swimming, theatre, reading and travel.

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Samantha Bennett (age 18), student of Almita and Roland Vamos and Marko Dreher at the Music Institute of Chicago, began Suzuki violin study at age 6. At age 11, Samantha made her solo orchestral debut with the Central Iowa Symphony after winning their concerto competition. In September 2007, she soloed London’s Wigmore Hall at the invitation of the Razumovsky Academy. Samantha won the 58th Annual Union League Civic and Arts Foundation’s High School String Competition in 2007. She is the winner of the 2006-2007 Walgreens National Concerto Competition. As the winner of the Tri-State Rising Stars Concerto Competition, Samantha soloed twice with the LaCrosse Symphony in Wisconsin in 2007. She was named a National Finalist Runner-Up in the 2007 ASTA Solo Competition. Samantha was the youngest of nine nationwide semi-finalists to compete in The Second National Violin Competition presented by the National Society of Arts and Letters and Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, FL in 2007. She was a semi-finalist in the 2007 WAMSO Young Artist Competition (Minneapolis, MN) and in the 2006 Johansen International Competition. In 2005, she won both the Grand Prize and the Performance Award at the Des Moines Symphony Young Artist Competition and was featured soloist at three of their concerts. Samantha won first place in both state and regional Music Teachers National Association’s (MTNA) Solo Competitions 2004-2005, and received third place as the youngest Senior String National Finalist at the MTNA’s Performance Competition in 2005.

As a current Merit Scholarship Award recipient at the Music Institute of Chicago, she is a member of their premier Academy program. Her Ridere String Quartet won the 2007 Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition and St. Paul String Quartet Competition and was a semi-finalist at the 2007 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Samantha is a National Merit Commended Scholar and is accomplished in ballet, pointe and Irish dance; she has also been twice named an Iowa Governor’s Scholar.

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Shelley Liu is 16 years old and a junior at New Trier High School. She began playing violin at the age of 8, and had been a two time highest scorer in Singapore for the Associated Board of the Royal School of Music before she moved to the United States. She now studies at the Music Institute of Chicago with Roland and Almita Vamos. Shelley has performed in master classes with Mimi Zweig, Cyrus Furough, Meng-Chieh Liu, and Andy Simionescu. As a member of Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, she has toured Prague, Budapest, and Vienna, that performed in the Palace of the Arts' Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. She had been concertmaster and concerto competition winner of the Oak Park River Forest High School Symphony Orchestra.  Besides violin, Shelley enjoys reading, writing, and mathematics.

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Hannah Selonick is a senior at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois. She has been studying the violin for eleven years, and is a student of Desiree Ruhstrat at the Music Institute of Chicago. For the past two years she has been Concertmistress of the ETHS Symphony Orchestra.  She has participated in the pit bands of many school shows. As a member of the Gioco Quartet, Hannah performed on the nationally syndicated radio show “From the Top” and was selected as a quarter-finalist for the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. In 2002, she performed live with the quartet on WFMT for the station’s 51st Anniversary program.  Hannah performed as a soloist with the Mozart Symphonia, a professional community orchestra. In 2003, she participated in the Utah Music Festival. Hannah has won prizes and honorable mentions at the Musichorale Competition and at the Midwest Young Artists Competition. Hannah has also performed at a variety of venues including the Art Institute of Chicago and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall during Holiday and fund-raising events.

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Gallia Kastner, age 10, started private lesson with Betty Haag-Kuhnke at five and a half performing in local events and then traveling with the violin ensemble and as soloist to Colorado, New Mexico and Lincoln Centre in New York as well as performing at WFMT, Channel 11, and WGN Chicago.  Currently, she studies with  Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago and participates in the Junior Academy Orchestra and chamber music coached by Marta Aznavoorian from Lincoln Trio.  This year she won 1st place in the Junior I Division at the 2007 Chinese Fine Arts Society and  2007 Sejong Competition.  She participates in the swim team and sings in youth choir at St James church. 

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Susie Koh, a 13-year old student of Almita Vamos and Marko Dreher, began her violin studies at the Rubin Conservatory of Music (Israel).  Susie was the grand prize winner in the YeHang International Hymn Competition, and she has won first place in the SAI String Scholarship Competition, the Illinois Music Teachers National Association String Competition, the Huntington University Annual Concerto Competition, and the Society of American Musicians Competition.  She has twice been the recipient of the Keren Sherett Music Competition and the Max Varon Music Foundation Awards. She has appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall, and she performed with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra when she was seven years old, in addition to performing on Israeli national television in a program titled “Wunderkids.”

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Connie Liou is currently an 8th grader at Margaret Mead Junior High School in Elk Grove Village.  She studies violin with Julie Maura at the Community School of the Arts at Wheaton College.  Connie has won awards and prizes from the Music Festival in honor of Confucius, Sejong Society Music Competition, Harper Symphony Young Artist Competition, Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Musichorale, and Geneva Grandquist Music Competition. Connie played violin solos with the Wheaton College Symphonic Band at age 10 and with the Wheaton College Symphony Orchestra at 13.  She has played in master classes for renowned violinists such as Rachel Barton, Brian Lewis, Ronda Cole, David Updegraff, William Preucil, and Mimi Zweig. She has been a member of the Vivaldi Strings and has performed in Greater Chicago, Canada, and Paris.  She was concertmistress of the Elgin Youth Symphony Philharmonia and was the youngest member of the Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestra. Connie is an active member of the yearbook and newspaper clubs, student council, track and field, and is a selected Student Ambassador at her school.  During her free time, she enjoys reading, playing tennis and volleyball, and spending time with her family and friends. 

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Benjamin Lash is 16 years old and is a junior at Evanston Township High School.  He has studied cello since he was six years old and is a student of Tanya Carey at the DePaul University Community Music Division.  Ben’s first place awards include the Society of American Musicians, Music Teachers National Association State and Regional Junior String Divisions, the North Suburban Symphony, the Oak Park and River Forest Symphony, Kishwaukee Symphony, and 2007 Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra competitions.  He has received honors in the Chicago Symphony Youth Auditions, the Stulberg International Competition, and the Illinois American String Teachers Association Competition.  Ben has performed on From the Top, the Skokie Library Young Steinway Series, and on the WFTM "Introductions" series.  In 2007-2008, he will perform Schelomo with the Chicago Youth Symphony and the Haydn D Major Concerto with the Northwest Symphony Orchestra.  Ben is a member of the Evanston Township High School Symphony and the Chicago Youth Symphony.

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Hyunjin Jessica Cho, 17, a senior at Glenbrook South High School, started playing the cello at the age of eleven with David Cunliffe at the Music Institute of Chicago. She has played the violin for four years with Betty Haag, and was involved with the Magical Strings of Youth where she traveled to Australia, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore, China and all over the US. She journeyed to Beijing as one of the guests of the Chinese government and the Motorola Corp. She is currently a member of the MIC Academy Program. She is a member of the Glenbrook Symphony Orchestra, where she is the principal cellist, and American Chambers Strings. With the American Chamber Strings, she traveled to Italy in the spring of 2006. She has performed with the En Gedi Ensemble twice as a soloist. Jessica has had masterclasses with renowned musicians such as Julliard violinist Tai Murray, Avalon String Quartet, the Pacifica Quartet, Soo Bae, teacher Richard Aaron, Amit Peled and much more. Recently Jessica has been asked to perform in front of violinist Midori at the MIC’s 75th anniversary. In the spring of 2006, Jessica also performed in the Young Steinway Concert Series. Her awards include first places in the Junior and Senior divisions at the Confucius Chinese Fine Arts Competition, concerto winner at the Glenbrook Concerto Competition 2005 and 2007, and her most recent: first place in the 2006 SAM Senior Division, first place in the 2006 Music Chorale Competition, Most Outstanding Player in the Senior Division 2006 Music at Trinity Competition, third place in the Sejong Music Competition 2007 and second place in 2008.

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