Youth Orchestra

Micaela Chyu

Co-Concertmaster
Ladue Horton Watkins High School

Micaela Chyu, a senior at Ladue Horton Watkins High School, is very excited for her fifth season with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra.

Micaela has been passionate about music since she started learning the violin at the age of 6. She made her solo debut at the age of twelve, playing the Bruch Violin Concerto with the Alton Symphony Orchestra, as their Deborah Fox Guild Award winner. She has also won prizes in the Stars of Today and Tomorrow competition, soloing with the Belleville Symphony Orchestra, and in the University of Missouri-St. Louis Young Artist competition. She was the first place winner of the inaugural Webster University Community Music School Preparatory Program Scholarship competition.

In 2022, Micaela competed in the national finals of the MTNA Senior Strings competition, after winning the Missouri and then the West Central Region divisions. More recently, Micaela won first prize in the Florence Frager Young Artist competition, and soloed with the St. Louis Civic Orchestra, as well first prize in the Schatzkamer Young Artist competition, thus soloing with the University City Symphony Orchestra.

Micaela has also played chamber music in Webster’s Prep Program, and has been a member of a competition quartet for the past two years, which has been sponsored by the Chamber Music Society of St. Louis.

In past summers Micaela has studied at various music festivals, including Tanglewood Institute, Sounding Point Academy, Center Stage Strings, and the Bowdoin Music Festival. Next year, she hopes to continue her musical studies at a conservatory.

Micaela would like to thank her past teachers, including Nora Teipen, Joseph Kaminsky, and Almita Vamos. She would also like to thank the GA, Jr. and Kathryn M. Buder Charitable Foundation for their continuing support of her studies. She is also incredibly grateful for the guidance and care that she receives from her current teachers, Angie Smart of the SLSO, and Kurt Sassmannshaus of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.