Latest news with #ChicagoYouthSymphonyOrchestra
Chicago Tribune
10-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Tinley Park violinist who has played London, Paris and Broadway graduates to Grant Park Music Festival
All those hours of practice on the violin, first alongside her mother and later for hours on her own, have paid off for Amanda Schuler, who will be performing with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra at the Grant Park Music Festival June 12 and then at Lollapalooza later in July. 'This marks the first time in Lollapalooza history that an orchestra will perform solo on one of the festival's main stages,' said Schuler, who recently graduated as valedictorian from Mother McAuley High School in Chicago. 'We have been invited to perform at many places, but this one brought on the loudest cheers when the orchestra found out.' The free concert June 12 in Grant Park is a way to celebrate the orchestra's upcoming 10-day concert tour of Spain. Though Schuler, who lives in Tinley Park with her family, won't be able to make that trip, she said she is excited about being part of the concert. The orchestra will be playing its repertoire for the Spain tour. The CYSO's Kaiso Steelpan Orchestra will be performing in the North Promenade Tent. Schuler picked up the violin at about 3 years old and her mother, Dorothy, learned to play just so she could be there doing so next to her daughter. 'It was a great help to have her learning the violin with me,' Schuler said. She kept at it and auditioned for the CYSO at age 8, was accepted and started in the organization's Preparatory Strings orchestra at 9. 'I was eager to connect with other kids my own age who shared my passion for music, especially classical music,' Schuler said. Then every year she pushed herself to audition for the next higher orchestra. 'I was so excited every June to say, oh, I finally made it to the next orchestra,' she said. Along the way, Schuler said she found tremendous inspiration from Christie-Keiko Abe, her violin teacher for 11 years. 'She's helped me in so many ways,' Schuler said. 'She's such a positive person with so much energy and that energy she puts into making her students better. She really cares about her students, which is why I've been with her for so long.' Schuler said Allen Tinkham, CYSO's music director, had been a great influence, too. 'I think what makes him such a great conductor is he breaks things down into little pieces of music and he really knows how to identify problems in tempo, dynamics, etc.' she said. 'Another reason is that he relates it to the outside world really well, so if an instrument or brass is rushing, he says, 'Don't be in such a hurry to get there like cars on the street.' Her talent also was nurtured at Mother McAuley, where Schuler was concertmaster of the string ensemble each year. She was also Illinois Music Education Association's High School State musician in her sophomore, junior and senior years and part of the school's golf cart ride tradition. She also went to state for math each high school year. Plus she was invited to perform in one of her school alum's weddings. Schuler also won first place in two Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competitions, where she got to perform as a soloist at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Philharmonie in Paris, received the Music Inspiration Award from the CYSO, and was a finalist in the Houston International Music Competition and received an honorable mention in the DePaul Concerto Competition. She was also part of the orchestra's recording of Good Night, Oscar, which played on Broadway. Tinkham, the CYSO music director, applauded Schuler for her accomplishments. 'There are so many of our students who excel in all areas of their lives and she is a perfect example of someone who does everything she does to the highest level,' said Tinkham. 'She's so dedicated and she's one of those students we love to assign to special projects because she's dependable.' The program receives roughly 300 applications and accepts only the top 40, but also wants students who are well-rounded and making a path to other future careers. 'You know, one of the reasons we trademarked the phrase, 'Listen to the future,' is because that really is what you're hearing at the CYSO and not just the future of music, but the future of so many disciplines … law, medicine, business,' said Tinkham. 'This is what we mean when we talk about nurturing leaders on and off the stage. 'It's about so much more than just cranking out notes,' he said. Schuler will be attending Purdue University, majoring in nursing, starting classes this summer, and auditioning for their orchestra. She's been working for Adventures in Mr. Math, an online non-profit for gifted students, which she plans to continue. But the CYSO will always be with her in spirit. 'It's definitely been a big part of my life,' said Schuler. 'I will miss it, now that I have graduated, but I am happy for the friendships that I have made over the years.'
Chicago Tribune
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Andrew High School musician named state's top young composer
When Dash Wilson composes a new piece of music, it's not just the notes that are important but the story they tell, and his creativity earned him first place this year in the 2025 Illinois Young Composer contest. His composition 'Echo of a Raindrop – From Within the Cave' also received an honorary mention at the Illinois Music Education Association Student Composition Contest in the Senior Instrumental Large Ensemble Category. 'I would say when I was writing it there were two things I had in mind. There was kind of a rainy mountain and an adventurer traveling through the mountain,' the Victor J. Andrew High School junior shared. 'So the subtitle of the piece is 'From Within the Cave.' The idea is the adventurer stumbles across the cave and then you're hearing the rainstorm within the cave and it echoes.' The music for the composition, his ninth, came to Wilson when he found a chord on the piano. 'Once I get that idea, I open my voice recorder and capture it as an audio note. I head downstairs and start writing and use that as a reference,' he said, adding that he plays each note of a chord separately so he can remember it. 'Echo' features 16 instruments, with the clave, a wooden percussion instrument often associated with Cuban music, being the most unusual. 'For the most part it's a pretty standard orchestration. Clave and marimba. This piece feels a little bit Latin to me. It's one of my favorite styles,' he shared. 'It feels kind of jazzy but it's also orchestra.' Its jazzy nature is likely due to Wilson's love of jazz piano and improvisation. He is the pianist for Andrew's jazz ensemble and a member of its wind symphony and chorale, as well as being an oboist and English horn player with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra's Philharmonic Orchestra and its Windy City Quintet Chamber Ensemble. The talented Orland Park musician has played oboe for about six years but began taking piano lessons when he was just 4 years old, adding jazz lessons about six years ago. He's not a newcomer to entering this contest. In fact, it's the third time he's entered. 'I have never gotten first before, so I didn't have super high expectations. I was very surprised and excited when I got first place in the contest,' he said. One of the challenges of writing the piece was keeping it within five minutes, one of the requirements of the CYSO's nine-month composition seminar, led by Eric Malmquist and Mario Pelusi. Another is the software he uses, MuseScore, which had glitches in its latest version while he was writing it. 'I think four or five times my flute part corrupted and I had to fix it and save copies. It was a bit of a struggle to get crescendos to go in the right spots.' Wilson isn't resting on his laurels, however, and already has started working on a new piece to be performed by Andrew's wind symphony. During a concert sophomore year, he was challenged by band director Mark Iwinski to write a composition senior year. 'It's a very cool opportunity,' he said. 'It's going to be more exciting. There will be more contrast between the fast and the slow, and it's going to be longer – about twice as long.' Wilson's family couldn't be happier about his latest awards. 'I never fail to be amazed at the music he creates. It's so rich and complex,' said dad Shane Wilson. 'We're just thrilled that it's gotten him such recognition.' His dad, a lifelong music lover, 'can't think of anything cooler than to have music created in your own home. Dash's music just fills our house, and it's wonderful to hear all the things he can do,' he said. 'Dash starts out with these little musical ideas, and over the course of days and weeks, they just grow into these elaborate compositions. He amazes me every time.' Michelle Clairmont-Wilson shares that pride and said she was so happy when 'Echo' earned an award. 'This was his third time I'd placed him in this (contest),' she said. 'He got honorary mention two years in a row, basically fourth place, so it was great he got first place.' She said her son's compositions have a similarity despite their differences. 'I would say a unifying thing I notice is I think all of his pieces have joy and melody. He loves melody. I think a challenge someday might be 'Please write this atonal ear mangler,'' she joked. 'But I'm always surprised there's a depth of emotion and some of those pieces have quite a bit of that. It's surprising for someone of his age to tap into emotion. And some of his pieces, tiny bits of humor come through. Like in 'Echo' there's this moment where there's a slur on the clarinet that makes me laugh. That is his sense of humor sneaking into this.' His mom wears many hats while supporting Dash and his music, including helping with his website, and guiding his interests. 'I guess we were nontraditional in that we were pretty adamant: Be a creator (of content) not a consumer. We really tried to encourage him to build it, make it, film it, instead of being the person sitting there passively watching it,' she shared. 'So I think that was always my role: trying to find interesting opportunities for him and find teachers who were doing the stuff he was interested in.' Claremont-Wilson said writing a composition takes a lot more time than people think, averaging about a month for every minute of music her son creates. 'Fifteen seconds of music can take three to four hours to notate in software like MuseScore. Over the course of a month, it would take about 12 to 16 hours to yield a minute of notated music,' she explained. 'Because Dash is obviously a student, he can't devote to this full time. If you could give Dash anything, it would be a sabbatical where he could just devote himself full time to his two passions: coding and writing music.' After graduating from Andrew, Wilson expects to stay involved with music. 'Regardless of what happens, I think I'll always be doing music,' he shared. 'I'm looking at schools that have a strong music program as well as computer sciences.' He also hopes to continue creating new work. 'I enjoy the process of writing and I also enjoy the end result. But moreso, I love to share with others,' Wilson said. 'I've tried painting and I've tried drawing, and it doesn't come naturally to me like music does. Having a natural way to express my creativity is one of the main reasons I keep writing.'
