Bolz Young Artist Competition Finals

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James Gill

The 2023 Bolz Young Artist Competition finalists.

The 2023 Bolz Young Artist Competition finalists (from left): Sophia Jiang, Lucy Wu, Amelia Zitoun and Arisa Okamoto.

media release: PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) will present the final round of the Madison Symphony Orchestra’s Bolz Young Artist Competition in Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte. This event will feature four of Wisconsin’s most talented high school musicians, including Sophia Jiang, a junior at Vel Phillips Memorial High School, who will play a piano solo. 

In anticipation of the competition, Jiang reflects on what music means to her. “I think music is so special because there's just so much diverse imagination coming from different people,” she said. “Music is a way to just bring people together, and it's a universal language that all people can enjoy.” 

Watch Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte live 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 8 on PBS Wisconsin and on pbswisconsin.org/the-final-forte. The program will also be rebroadcast at 8 p.m. Friday, March 10 and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 11 on The Wisconsin Channel (PBS Wisconsin-2). 

The Final Forte is open to the public and free to attend, but reservations are required. Please reserve your seats to attend The Final Forte using the form here. With any questions, please contact Amanda Dill at (608) 257-3734 or adill@madisonsymphony.org. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. and close at 6:45 p.m. due to the broadcast and the event begins at 7 p.m. No tickets will be issued. Seating is general admission in select areas of the hall.

The full audio program will air live on Wisconsin Public Radio’s NPR News & Music Network at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 8, with an encore presentation 12:30 p.m. Sunday, March 12. 

Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte will also air on Milwaukee PBS  (Channel 36 - WMVT) at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 18. 

Find more information and livestream Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte online at pbswisconsin.org/the-final-forte. 

Presented at the Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, the concert will be hosted by Lori Skelton, host of WPR’s Afternoon Classics and Wisconsin Classical, and Angela Fitzgerald, host of PBS Wisconsin’s Why Race Matters and Wisconsin Life. 

The Bolz Young Artist Competition is a highly regarded statewide competition in which Wisconsin’s young musicians compete for scholarships and the opportunity to perform as soloists with the Madison Symphony Orchestra at Overture Hall. The winner receives a $2,000 scholarship and other awards. 

The finalists in the 2023 Final Forte are:

Sophia Jiang is a junior at the Vel Phillips Memorial High School. She has been playing piano since she was four and currently studies with Bill Lutes. Sophia was the first place winner of the 2021 Chippewa Valley Symphony’s Young Artist Competition and a winner of the National Steinway Junior Piano Competition in 2018 and 2019.

Arisa Okamoto is a senior at Brookfield Eat High School. She has been playing the violin since the age of four and currently studies with Ilana Setapen, Acting Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. Arisa was a national finalist of the 2020 Japan Classical Music Competition, and winner of the 2023 Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition.

Lucy Wu is a Scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians. She has been playing the cello since the age of seven, and she currently studies cello with Dr. Stefan Kartman, Professor of Cello at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2022, Lucy was the recipient of the Anne French Burnham scholarship award at the Schubert Club Competition. 

Amelia Zitoun is a is a scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college students.  She currently studies cello with Hans Jensen. In October of 2022, Amelia played the Barber Cello Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra on their Family Concert and Youth Performance Series. Earlier this year, Amelia was the winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Stars of Tomorrow Competition. 

Major funding for Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte is provided by Diane Ballweg, W. Jerome Frautschi, Barbara & Norm Berven, Fred & Mary Mohs, and Trust Point, with additional support from James Dahlberg & Elsebet Lund, Julie & Larry Midtbo, Dr. Sandra L. Osborn, Kato Perlman, Cyrena & Lee Pondrom, Sentry Insurance Foundation,. A. Beyer-Mears, Darcy Kind & Marc Vitale, the Focus Fund for the Arts and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.  

Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte is a partnership among the Madison Symphony Orchestra, Wisconsin Public Radio and PBS Wisconsin. Wisconsin Young Artists Compete: The Final Forte is part of PBS Wisconsin’s multiyear Young Performers Initiative, a statewide effort to raise the visibility of the arts, celebrate the creative achievements of Wisconsin's young people and support the arts in education. 

PBS Wisconsin is a service of the Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  

PBS Wisconsin is a place to grow through learning on WHA-TV, Madison; WPNE-TV, Green Bay; WHRM-TV, Wausau; WLEF-TV, Park Falls; WHLA-TV, La Crosse; and WHWC-TV, Menomonie-Eau Claire.