Young Milwaukee cellist claims title as the 26th Annual Walgreens National Concerto Competition winner
Eighteen-year-old Amelia Zitoun is an exceptionally gifted 12th grader at Shorewood High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Since 2019, she has been a student at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy where she is a Scholarship Fellow. Amelia currently studies with Northwestern University’s cello professor, Hans Jørgen Jensen. Before studying with Jensen, she worked with Horacio Contreras for four years and has had the honor of playing for dozens of well-known accomplished musicians such as David Finckel, Lluis Claret, Richard Aaron and many more.
Zitoun has worked rigorously towards her career. Since 2020, she has been winning solo and chamber ensemble competitions each year. In 2020, she was a winner of the DePaul Concerto Competition in addition to her quartet ensemble winning First Prize in the Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition. In 2022, she was the winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Stars of Tomorrow Competition as well as the Civic Music Association of Milwaukee’s High School Competition that same year. In both 2021 and 2023, Zitoun won First Prize in the Schubert Club Competition and was the Gold Medal Prize Winner of the 2023 Stulberg International Strings Competition. As a member of the Pelios String Quartet, she won the Silver Medal at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition as well as the Gold Medal and Haydn Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition.
One of Zitoun’s most recent competition accomplishments includes winning the Overall Open Division of the 2023 Walgreens National Concerto Competition. She also was named the String Category Winner within her division. This year was the 26th annual year of the pre-college youth concerto competition with over 200 contestants from all over the U.S., making it the largest and most comprehensive of its kind throughout the Midwest. MYAC provided two panels of distinguished judges who delivered personalized comments to each performance as well as individual professional recordings for each student. The Annual Walgreens National Concerto Competition offers a nurturing and encouraging environment for all students.
Zitoun will be performing Samuel Barber’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra with the Midwest Young Artists’ Symphony Orchestra at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 24, at Northwestern University’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall. Winners from the MYAC Senior and Junior Divisions will also perform their solo pieces with the accompaniment of MYAC’s orchestral ensembles.
Secure tickets at givebutter.com/myacwinterconcerts, or call (847) 926-9898.