Brookfield Boy, 11, Wins Madison Concerto Contest

An 11-year-old Brookfield boy won the 2011 Madison Fall Youth Concerto Competition.

Violinist Julian Rhee will get the chance to perform “Carmen Fantasy” by Pablo de Sarasate solo with the Madison Symphony Orchestra, conducted by John DeMain, at the Fall Youth Concerts.

He also will receive a scholarship to attend the UW-Madison Summer Music Clinic, said Michelle Kaebisch, MSO's director of education and community engagement. The other youth winner at Saturday's competition was pianist Audrianna Wu of Madison.

Julian's recognition is the latest in a long string of orchestral successes.

At age 7 he won the Bach Double Competition sponsored by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and got to perform with the MSO at age 7 and 8.

When Julian joined the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra at age 9, he was its youngest member. He won two consecutive annual concerto competitions, the 2010 Sinfonia and 2011 Philharmonia contests.

He also was selected as a winner in the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, 2011 Society of American Musicians, Chinese Music Festival Competition and Sejong Music Competition in Chicago.

Julian has won scholarships to study at the Music Institute of Chicago, where he trains privately with Hye-Sun Lee.

But music is not everything to the sixth grader, who loves to play video games (Pokemon is a favorite), read and study history, his mother said.

It was tough at times in recent weeks when he had to miss some of the Packers and Brewers games on television in order to practice his violin. He practices about two to three hours during the week and about five hours on the weekends, often practicing with his mother, who plays piano. 

"He dislikes practicing the violin but loves to perform and dreams about performing with symphonies," Angela Chae said. 

She said he was "surprised" to win the Madison concerto on Saturday, but he knew he had prepared well and played the best he could.

"We are all very proud of him," his mother said.