Saturdays at 11:00 am
Members of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras perform during a live broadcast of Introductions from Millennium Park. (Photo: Tipping Point Photography)
Hear talented pre-college classical musicians from the Chicago area
Introductions is WFMT’s weekly Saturday morning program that features talented pre-college classical musicians in the Chicago area. Soloists and chamber ensembles perform live in WFMT’s Levin Performance Studio. Large ensembles, including orchestras, choirs, and bands, are recorded at their home venues and broadcast at later dates. The program also features youth music competition winners. While many Introductions alumni pursue careers outside of music, some have gone on to study at some of the most prestigious music schools around the world and maintain careers as professional musicians.
2015 DePaul Concerto Festival Winners Part 2 of 2, CYSO
January 2, 2016
On the first half of Saturday’s broadcast, we present the second of two programs featuring winners from the 2015 DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers. This annual competition gives young musicians the opportunity to perform movements of a concerto with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mina Zikri. On the second half of the program, we’ll hear another concerto, but ...
2015 DePaul Concerto Festival Winners Part 1 of 2
December 26, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the first of two programs featuring winners from the 2015 DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers. This annual competition gives young musicians the opportunity to perform movements of a concerto with the Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Mina Zikri.
Rabia Mohammadi, 14, violin
December 5, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we feature 14 year old violinist Rabia Mohammadi. Rabia has been studying violin since the age of three. She has studied with Lei Hou of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Olga Kaler of DePaul University. Presently, she studies with violinist Alexander Belavsky of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago. She also studies piano with Chicago-based Canadian concert ...
2015 MYA Walgreens Concerto Winners Selections; Marissa Takaki, bassoon
November 28, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we begin by featuring two winners from the Midwest Young Artist’s 2015 Walgreens Concerto Competition: Alice Zhang performing the second movement, Larghetto, from Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in f minor, Op. 21 and Daniel Kaler performing the first movement, Allegro, from Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in b minor, Op. 104. These selections were performed on Sunday, March ...
Joshua Brown, 2015 2nd Place and Audience Award Winner, Cooper International Violin Competition
October 31, 2015
Fifteen year old Joshua Brown studies violin with Almita and Roland Vamos at the Music Institute of Chicago’s (MIC) Academy, a rigorous precollege training program for young musicians. Joshua is a Rachel Barton Pine scholarship winner (2014/15) and an Academy Laureate (2015/16). This past summer, Joshua was awarded both Second Place and the Audience Award in the 2015 Cooper International ...
Emilio del Rosario International Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition Part 3 of 3
October 24, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the third of three programs featuring the 2015 Emilio del Rosario Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition. The competition was held at Symphony Center on June 14, 2015. Francesco Milioto conducted the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago. The First Prize Winner, 19 year old Aaron Kurz, will be heard in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in ...
Bryce Dessner of The National with CYSO and Emilio del Rosario Youth Piano Competition Part 2 of 3
October 17, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the second of three programs featuring the 2015 Emilio del Rosario Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition. The competition was at Symphony Center on June 14, 2015. Francesco Milioto conducted the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago. The Second Prize Winner, 19 year old Yijia Wang, will be featured in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C ...
CYSO; Emilio del Rosario International Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition Part 1 of 3
October 10, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the first of three programs featuring the 2015 Emilio del Rosario Young Artist Piano Concerto Competition. The competition was at Symphony Center on June 14, 2015. Francesco Milioto conducted the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago. The Third Prize Winner, Jiaqi (Dragon) Long, will be featured in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor. To ...
Torin Bakke, clarinet
September 26, 2015
On Saturday’s rebroadcast, we feature Torin Bakke, clarinetist and winner of the 2013 Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions.
CYSO Encore Chamber Orchestra Plays Scheherazade
September 19, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present selections from the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Encore Chamber Orchestra concert at the Joan W. and Irving B. Harris Theater for Music and Dance on December 7, 2014. The Encore Chamber Orchestra is made up of student musicians from the CYSO who plan to pursue a career in music. They are led by CYSO Music ...
Gallia Kastner, violin, 2014 CSO Youth Audition Winner
September 12, 2015
Gallia Kastner is an 18 year old violinist from Arlington Heights who studied with Almita and Roland Vamos. She will be attending the Colburn School to study violin with Robert Lipsett this fall. She commenced her private violin study at the age of five and a half with Betty Haag-Kuhnke. Gallia has won numerous competitions locally, nationally, and internationally, both ...
Chicago Duo Piano Festival: Part 2
September 5, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the second of two programs featuring the Winner’s Concert from the 2015 Chicago Duo Piano Festival Competition. Piano duos from across the Chicago area and the Midwest performed on Saturday, May 30 in Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston. Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem of the Music Institute of Chicago are the Artistic Directors of the Duo Piano ...
Chicago Duo Piano Festival: Part I
August 29, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we presented the first of two programs featuring the Winner’s Concert from the 2015 Chicago Duo Piano Festival Competition. Piano duos from across the Chicago area and the Midwest performed on Saturday, May 30 in Nichols Concert Hall in Evanston. Claire Aebersold and Ralph Neiweem of the Music Institute of Chicago are the Artistic Directors of the ...
Lockport Township High School Wind Symphony
August 22, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we featured the Lockport Township High School Wind Symphony, another wind ensemble selected by the judges of the 2014 Chicagoland Band Festival at John Hersey High School to appear on Introductions. The ensemble is directed by Brian Covey. In recent years, the Lockport Wind Symphony has earned consistent Superior Division Ratings at state organization contests and has performed ...
Merit School of Music: Performathon Part 2
August 8, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the second of two programs featuring the Merit School of Music’s 2015 Performathon, an annual two day music and fundraising extravaganza featuring the students of the Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory. This broadcast featured numerous chamber ensembles that performed on Saturday, February 28, 2015 in Anne and Howard Gottlieb Hall at the Merit School of Music. ...
Merit School of Music: Performathon Part 1
August 1, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we present the first of two programs featuring the Merit School of Music’s 2015 Performathon, an annual two day music and fundraising extravaganza featuring the students of the Alice S. Pfaelzer Tuition-free Conservatory. Our first broadcast featured the Merit Wind Symphony in the opening night concert for Performathon on February 27, 2015 in Anne and Howard Gottlieb ...
New Trier High School Symphonic Wind Ensemble
July 18, 2015
We feature the New Trier High School Symphonic Wind Ensemble on this Saturday’s broadcast in a diverse program of music for wind and percussion instruments. The ensemble was selected by the judges of the 2014 Chicagoland Band Festival at John Hersey High School to perform on Introductions. Matt Temple is the director of bands at the Winnetka high school.
MYA Symphony Orchestra Plays the Rite of Spring
July 11, 2015
On this Saturday’s broadcast, we featured the Midwest Young Artists Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Stravinsky’s ground breaking 20th century masterpiece The Rite of Spring. The MYA Symphony Orchestra performed this piece in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston as a part of their spring concert on Sunday, May 3, 2015. The program also featured ...
Fortis Piano Quartet
July 4, 2015
Fortis Piano Quartet was formed in the fall of 2014 by the chamber program of the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a pre-college training program for highly gifted young musicians. All four members are Fellows at the Academy. Joshua Brown, violinist/violist (15), Kitsho Hosotani, violinist/violist (15), Nathan Mo, cellist (16), and Daniel Szefer, piano (16) are passionate and awarded young ...
Shannon Kollasch, 17, violin and Campanella Children’s Choir
June 27, 2015
On Saturday’s broadcast, we feature a violin soloist and a children’s choir. Shannon Kollasch, 17, has been studying the violin for 14 years. For the past ten years, she has studied under Desirée Ruhstrat of the Lincoln Trio. Shannon has served as the concertmaster of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Symphony and Encore Orchestras. Her performances with these orchestras include ...
Jeremy Liu, piano
September 12, 2026, 11:00 am
Jeremy Liu, 15, is a 10th grader at Neuqua Valley High School in Naperville. He has been under the tutelage of Mrs. Sueanne Metz since the age of six. Jeremy is the 2025 winner of the Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition. As a result, he had the honor of performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra last fall. He also ...
