Rolling Meadows teen takes top honors in concerto competition

Cellist Nathan Mo, 17, of Rolling Meadows, took top honors in the DuPage Symphony Orchestra's 2016 Young Artists Auditions, Concerto Competition. Mo received $500 and will perform with the DuPage Symphony Sunday, March 20, at Wentz Concert Hall in Naperville. Mo is the Beatrice P. Russell Memorial Academy Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago's Academy program. He has numerous honors to his credit, including a performance at Carnegie Hall in 2014.

Second place in the competition was awarded to pianist Tyeese Braslavsky of Buffalo Grove. She received $300.

Pianist Antony Simonoff of Buffalo Grove received an honorable mention.

• High School District 214 board of education named longtime educator Frank Mirandola to an administrative position at Prospect High School for the 2016-2017 school year. Mirandola, a history teacher with extensive coaching and leadership experience, will serve as the school's assistant principal effective July 1. Mirandola has spent his entire career at Prospect, teaching U.S. history, human geography and American studies courses since 2002. He holds a bachelor's degree in history from Illinois Wesleyan University and master's degrees in educational administration and curriculum and instruction from Northern Illinois University.

• A vase, titled "Animal Print Vase," designed by West Leyden High School senior Lisett Vidales was named the winner in a competition sponsored by the National Council on Education of the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). A total of 1,344 ceramic pieces were entered into the K-12 competition. Vidales' vase will be on display at the 50th annual NCECA conference in March in Kansas City. As a show exhibitor, she is eligible to apply for a NCECA scholarship.

• Student musicians Nicole Arvidson (flute, Buffalo Grove High School); Bethany Sorman, (flute, William Fremd High School); Jose Trujillo, (oboe, Maine East High School); and George Lucaciu, (tuba, Maine East High School) were invited to join the Northshore Concert Band onstage for its annual "Lifetime of Music" program at Northwestern University's Pick-Staiger concert hall in Evanston. The 100-member symphonic band, whose mission is "to foster and promote wind music and the adult band concept and to assist in the music education of young people," is celebrating its 60th anniversary.

• Kerry Lavelle, a partner at Lavelle Law, Palatine, spoke at the American Bar Association's Midyear Conference in San Diego. Lavelle presented on "The Business Guide to Law: Creating and Operating a Successful Law Firm," as part of the Solo, Small Firm and General Practice Division CLE program. In 2015, the American Bar Association published Lavelle's book on the topic and the firm recently launched a Law Practice Management practice group. Lavelle was appointed as chairman of a new Law Practice Management Committee at the Northwest Suburban Bar Association in 2015.

• Send your 'Neighbors in the News' items to Norrine Twohey at ntwohey@dailyherald.com.