For Immediate Release: March 26, 2015 Press Contacts: Eileen Chambers, 312.294.3092 Rachelle Roe, 312.294.3090 WINNERS OF 2015 CRAIN-MALING FOUNDATION CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA YOUTH AUDITIONS ANNOUNCED Pianist Kimberly Han of Lake Forest Wins First Prize CHICAGO—The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association announces that pianist Kimberly Han is the first-place winner of the 2015 Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions. Han, 14, is an eighth-grader at Deer Path Middle School and studies with Brenda Huang. Her winning performance was of Liszt’s Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major. As this year’s winner, Han will appear as a soloist in a Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Concert during the 2015/16 season. Han was one of seven talented musicians from around Illinois who auditioned in the final round on Saturday, March 14, 2015 on Orchestra Hall’s Armour Stage. Kimberly Han, an eighth-grader at Deer Path Middle School in Lake Forest, plays violin as well as piano, and is an active member of her school’s orchestra, chamber orchestra and choir. For her audition, Kimberly chose to perform Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-Flat Major. Franz Liszt is Kimberly’s favorite composer; she loves the multiple themes, voices and dances in his music. When Kimberly isn’t playing piano, she enjoys tennis, reading mystery and fantasy novels, and traveling with her family. Derek Chung, 15, of Long Grove, was named the first alternate for his performance of Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat Major. Derek is a freshman at Stevenson High School and a student of Sueanne Metz. Corey Chung, 14, of Naperville, was chosen as second alternate for his performance of the third movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27. Corey is a freshman at Neuqua Valley High School and studies with Paulette Moffett and Pawel Checinski. The other four finalists were (in alphabetical order): David Hou, 14, of Hawthorn Woods, a freshman at Stevenson High School; Nathan Metz, 16, of Gurnee, a sophomore at Warren Township High School; Jarrett Takaki, 16, of Wilmette, a sophomore at New Trier High School; and Alice Zhang, 13, of Vernon Hills, an eighth-grader at Hawthorn Middle School North. The CSO is grateful to the Crain-Maling Foundation as its title sponsor of the Youth Auditions. Special thanks to Beatrice Crain and Dr. Michael Maling for their enduring support and continued generosity. ### The Crain-Maling Foundation supports educational institutions, programming and scholarships, the arts, cultural events and festivals, medical translational research, venues for spiritual development, and human service organizations. The Crain-Maling Foundation is proud to sponsor the CSO Youth Auditions, a competition that shines the spotlight on many of the young musicians who will delight the world through their future musical performances. The Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Youth Auditions, presented by The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, offer an invaluable experience to young musicians. The program provides contact with other student instrumentalists, an opportunity to be evaluated by music professionals, and the chance to perform onstage with the CSO. Additionally, two Youth Auditions participants receive scholarships for further instrumental study: one applicant receives a full six-week summer scholarship to Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, provided by the League, and Interlochen Center for the Arts; one student receives a one-week scholarship to the Midwest Young Artists Summer Music Camp. Scholarships are awarded to promising students whom the judges determine will most benefit from the experience. The auditions rotate instruments every three years, focusing on strings, piano or winds/brass/percussion. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra has a long history of presenting competitions for young musicians. Music Director Frederick Stock initiated the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions during the 1919-1920 season. The winners would perform on the Children’s Concert Series, which was founded in the same season. In the early 1980s, the auditions were renamed Illinois Young Performers’ Competition, under which name they took place until 1994. Past winners of the Youth Auditions competition include pianists Walter Liberace, Eugene Istomin and Herbie Hancock; violinist Rachel Barton Pine; and several members of the CSO—former concertmaster Samuel Magad, former principal second violin Joseph Golan, former cellist Philip Blum and harpist Lynne Turner. The 2016 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Youth Auditions will feature woodwinds, brass and percussion. The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Built on tradition, The League of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (formerly known as The Women's Association) has been proudly serving the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1934. With the support of over 250 men and women, the League hosts a myriad of music education programs including the annual Crain-Maling Youth Auditions. The League raises more than a million dollars a year, and provides opportunities to meet world-class musicians, conductors, and visiting artists. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Its music director since 2010 is Riccardo Muti, one of the preeminent conductors of our day. Pierre Boulez is the CSO’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus; Yo-Yo Ma is the CSO’s Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant. Mason Bates and Anna Clyne are the CSO’s Mead Composers-in-Residence. From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast classical repertoire. With programs such as MusicNOW® and Beyond the Score®, as well as an annual spring festival, the Orchestra uses innovative approaches to develop new audiences. The renowned musicians of the CSO annually perform more than 150 concerts, most from September through June in Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center in downtown Chicago, and, each summer since 1936, at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago’s northern suburbs. In 2013, the CSO began to present concerts in June in Chicago’s western suburbs. The Orchestra tours nationally and internationally. Since 1892, the CSO has made fifty-eight international tours, performing in twenty-nine countries on five continents. At home and abroad, CSO concert tickets are in high demand and frequently sold out. Since 1916, recording has been significant in establishing the Orchestra’s international reputation, with recordings by the CSO earning a total of sixty-two Grammy awards. Muti’s first recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, with the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Released in 2010, it won two Grammy awards. The second recording, Verdi’s Otello, also with the Chorus, was released in 2013. It won an International Opera Award. The third, Riccardo Muti Conducts Mason Bates and Anna Clyne, and the fourth, Prokofiev’s Suite from Romeo and Juliet, were released in 2014. All are on the CSO’s own label, CSO Resound (cso.org/Resound), and all are available online, including iTunes. People around the globe listen to the sounds of the Orchestra through weekly broadcasts of the CSO Radio Broadcast Series on the WFMT radio network and online at cso.org/Radio. The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA), which also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus, directed and conducted by Duain Wolfe, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training ensemble for young preprofessional musicians that is led by a variety of distinguished conductors. Through a series called Symphony Center Presents, the CSOA brings internationally known guest artists and ensembles from a variety of musical genres—classical, jazz, pop, world, and contemporary—to Chicago. The Negaunee Music Institute at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra offers a range of youth, community, and education programs that engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages, incomes, and backgrounds. Through the programs of the Institute as well as many other activities, including projects at schools and community venues that are initiated by CSO musicians and a free annual concert with Riccardo Muti and the CSO, the CSO promotes the concept of Citizen Musicianship™: using the power of music to create connections and build community. A nonprofit charitable organization, the CSOA is governed by a voluntary board of trustees made up of leaders from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors and the community at large. The CSO is supported by tens of thousands of other volunteers; patrons; and corporate, foundation, government, and individual donors. The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO.