Chicago Youth in Music Festival participants at Symphony Center with Chicago Symphony Orchestra Music Director Riccardo Muti.
“In a first-of-its-kind concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Monday night, the spotlight was on gifted young musicians from backgrounds often underrepresented in classical music, … led by none other than Maestro Riccardo Muti,” writes Charlie De Mar in Monday’s (4/11) CBS Chicago. “Anika Veda … a high school senior from Palatine [Illinois] … played flute alongside professional members of the [CSO]…. It is all part of the 2022 Chicago Youth in Music Festival. ‘There are so many great musicians of color, but you never see them all in one room, playing …,’ Veda said. Veda is just one of the 50 gifted young musicians from 10 different states who spent the weekend at the Symphony Center for a summit of diverse performers…. The Festival Orchestra held a rehearsal that was open to the public … ‘I came to … this as a young trumpet player growing up in Atlanta when the Chicago Symphony hired their first Black musician in 2002,’ said Stanford Thompson. Thompson … is now the board chair of the National Instrumentalist Mentoring and Advancement Network…. ‘It … sends the signal that they aren’t alone; that they are on this journey with others … trying to become professional musicians,’ Thompson said.”
