Victor Humphrey

Victor Humphrey is attending his first year at St. Louis University’s Chaifetz School of Business, majoring in accounting and minoring in Spanish and music. This is his third season with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra and he was a full-time member for his first two seasons. Victor has studied piano for 13 years and viola for 9 years. He has studied viola with Elizabeth Jankowski and Rudolf Haken previously, and now studies with Christine Banks at SLU. He studied piano most recently with Angela Kim. Victor was selected for the Illinois Music Educators Association All-District Festival for 7 years and was selected for ILMEA All-State three times, including selection for All-State Honors the past two years. Victor also played in Alton Youth Symphony for 5 years, both as a violist and as a piano accompanist. He recently performed “Rhapsody in Blue” on piano as an Arion Award for Musical Excellence winner at Alton High School.

Many of Victor’s favorite musical moments have been at Illinois Summer Youth Music in Champaign-Urbana at University of Illinois, where he has now attended 7 summer camps. His favorite year was summer of 2019, when he was selected for the Chamber Strings elective and first got to work with Rudolf Haken, who became his private instructor. Victor most recently worked with Professor Haken during ISYM’s Electric Strings camp this past summer. He loves the viola’s unique richness and the physicality of playing it but he loves the piano just as much.

When Victor isn’t playing music or studying, he can most likely be found running, lifeguarding or playing intramural pickleball. He was very proud to be a four-year letterman on AHS’s cross country, swim and tennis teams and enjoys staying physically active to balance with his musical and academic pursuits. Victor wishes to thank his parents and grandparents for helping him to pursue so many opportunities in high school and now in college. He is especially proud to have been awarded the Vice President’s Scholarship from SLU and local scholarships from the Alton Educational Foundation and the Miles Davis Jazz Festival Committee to support his academic pursuits. Victor is entering college as a second semester sophomore and hopes to study abroad at SLU-Madrid at some point in the next few years.