Violinist Kaylin Liu wins top honors in Chippewa Valley Symphony's Young Artist Competition

Kaylin Liu, an 18-year-old violinist from Naperville, Ill., has earned the top honors in the 32nd annual Chippewa Valley Symphony Young Artist Competition.

Liu receives $1,300 in prize money and the opportunity to perform as the featured soloist with Chippewa Valley Symphony. She entered the competition playing the first movement of Violin Concerto No. 5 in A Minor by Henri Vieuxtemps.

Runners-up in the competition were Sophia Jiang of Madison, Wis., piano (first runner-up); Evelyn Rohrbach of Hammond, Wis., piano (second runner-up), and Katy Meffert of Edina, Minn., horn (third runner-up).

Kaylin attends Metea High School. For the past two years, she has been a Merit Scholarship recipient at the Music Institute of Chicago's Academy Program, a training center for advanced pro-college musicians. She studies with Almita Vamos.

During her years in the Academy Program, Kaylin and her string quartet have performed in a preconcert program at Harris Theater in Chicago and on radio show WFMT - Introduction. The quartet also advanced to the quarterfinal round of the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition twice. Kaylin had been a prize winner from 2020 National YoungArts, the Chinese Confucius Competition, Society of American Musicians Competition, and Glen Ellyn-Wheaton Music Scholarship Contest, and has earned honorable mentions from Walgreens Concerto Competition, DePaul Concerto Competition, and Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra-Stanger Young Artist Audition.

Kaylin made her debut with Camerata Chicago Academy Orchestra at age 13 performing Bach's Double Concerto as first violin. She also served as concertmaster of DuPage Youth Symphony Orchestra in Naperville during her freshman year in high school and assistant concertmaster of her high school chamber string orchestra.

Through summer festivals and master classes, Kaylin has had opportunities to work with Ivan Zenaty, Gerardo Ribeiro, Midori, Rachel Barton Pine, Ilya Kaler, Rami Solomonow, Johanne Arel, Julie Trudeau, Joan Kwuon and Laurie Smukler.

The Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra recently concluded its 45th season in Eau Claire, Wis. The ensemble's mission is to provide excellent symphonic experiences to audiences in the Chippewa Valley, with goals to increase understanding and appreciation of orchestral music to an expanding audience, provide audiences with a diversity of orchestral selections and artists, and provide an opportunity for talented local musicians to perform. Its motto is "Music you love by people you know."

CVSO employs professional musicians to play its five concerts per year, almost all of whom are residents of the Chippewa Valley. CVSO also brings in guest artists from across the world to solo with the ensemble.

For more information about Chippewa Valley Symphony, see www.cvsymphony.org, call the CVSO office at 715-832-6366, or follow CVSO on Facebook and Instagram.