The Final Forte

Vivian Van de Sype Cucu, 17, is a Scholarship Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians. She currently studies Viola with Davis King. She began playing viola at age 4 at the Cleveland Institute of Music. This coming fall, Vivian will attend the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University to study with Helen Callus.

Vivian made her solo debut with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra (MYSO) at age eleven as a 2019 Concerto Competition Winner. Vivian was a member of MYSO for 7 years and served as Principal Violist for their Senior Symphony. Additionally, she has taken top honors at the Wisconsin School Music Association’s (WSMA) Solo and Ensemble festivals from 2019-2023 and served as Principal Violist in the WSMA State Orchestra for 3 seasons.

Vivian is also an active chamber musician. In 2024, she was a member of the Elysian Quartet of MIC Academy. The group won the Gold Medal, BIPOC Prize, and Audience Prize in the St. Paul String Quartet Competition and earned an honorable mention in the Rembrandt Chamber Musicians Competition. Additionally, she participated as a quarterfinalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Competition. This year, she is a member of the Caspian Quartet at MIC Academy.

Vivian has attended several summer music programs including the Heifetz International Music Institute (Senior Division), Bowdoin International Music Festival, and Astona International Music Academy in Switzerland. She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts Summer Camp program from 2017-2022 and was Principal Violist of their World Youth Symphony Orchestra.

Vivian is also a co-founder, along with five colleagues, of a non-profit organization called Musicians for Hope (MFH). The group strives to foster a love for music and nurture the academic growth of young students. MFH raises funds and resources to support underfunded music programs in elementary and middle schools through fundraising concerts. Currently, MFH has raised more than $30,000. She has been honored to participate in selective masterclasses with Roberto Diaz, Paul Neubauer, Milan Milisavljević, Eric Nowlin, and James Thompson.

Lucy Wu, 16, is a Richard D. Colburn Scholarship for Artistic Excellence Fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college musicians. She studies with Dr. Stefan Kartman. Lucy began cello studies at age 7. She made her solo orchestral debut at age 10 with the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra as winner of the 2019 MYSO Concerto Competition and has since performed as a soloist with the Milwaukee, Madison, Chippewa Valley, and Oistrakh Symphony Orchestra’s. She has had the honor of working with professors including David Ying, Clive Greensmith, Hans Jensen, Alan Rafferty, Melissa Kraut, Paul Katz, Stephen Balderston, and Guy Johnston.

Lucy has won top honors in numerous competitions. Most recently, she won 2nd grand prize at the 2024 Chicago International Music Competition, selected out of 100 contestants from 13 countries and across 6 divisions. She is the winner of the 2024 Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Audrey G. Baird Stars of Tomorrow Competition with a finalist performance of Dvorak Concerto with the Milwaukee Symphony. As winner, she performed 4 more times with the MSO in their 2025 Rhythm Rhapsody concert series. She was also the winner of the 2024 Enkor International Music Competition and 2024 DePaul National Concerto Competition. In 2023, she was the winner of the 2023 Chicago International Music Competition (Young Artist 1 division), winner of the 2023 Chippewa Valley Symphony Young Artist Competition, and finalist in the 2023 Madison Symphony Bolz Young Artist Competition, where her performance was broadcasted live on PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio. Additionally, she is a laureate of the Walgreens National Concerto Competition (2024), the Schubert Club Competition (2022/2023/2024), and Civic Music Association of Milwaukee Competition (2024).

Lucy also enjoys playing chamber music. She has attended the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Ascent International Chamber Music Festival, and Saint Paul Chamber Music Institute. Her quartet, Quartet Meraviglia, won the 2024 Junior Division Bronze Medal at the world’s largest chamber music competition- the Fischoff Competition, Silver Medal at the 2024 Saint Paul National String Quartet Competition, and overall open division first prize at the 2024 MYA Chicago National Chamber Music Competition. As cellist of the Luminos Piano Trio, she advanced to semifinals at the 2023 Fischoff Competition. She has been featured on Chicago’s classical music radio network-WFMT Introductions with both ensembles.

Lucy is a junior at Whitefish Bay High School where she is vice president of the Music Society, varsity debate team captain, Coding Club Co-President, and a Tower Times reporter.

Catherine Kautsky, the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Professor of Music and Chair of Keyboard Studies at Lawrence University, has been lauded by the New York Times as a pianist whose “music spoke directly to the listener.” Her recent recording of the complete Debussy Preludes was said to “bring out all the power, majesty, and mystery of Debussy’s conception,“ and her recording of the Brahms Sonatas for Violin and Piano with Wen-Lei Gu was praised as “characterize[ing] these sonatas to a degree that one seldom encounters in the recital hall or on recordings.”

Ms. Kautsky has concertized widely in both the United States and abroad, performing on six continents and in major halls such as Carnegie Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall of New York, Jordan Hall of Boston, and Powell Hall of St. Louis. She has taught piano, chamber music, and piano literature at Lawrence University since 1987, with a 6 -year interval as a faculty member and Chair of Keyboard at UW-Madison. She is the winner of the 2016 Lawrence University Excellence in Teaching Award and the 2013 Faculty Convocation Award.

While at UW-Madison, Ms. Kautsky was awarded the Arts Institute Creative Arts Award for her work on the intersections of literature, music, and social history. Her book, Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque, appeared in September, 2017, and her 24- segment lecture-recital series for Great Courses entitled Great Works Piano Works Explained was released in October, 2022.

Website: www.catherinekautsky.com

Oriol Sans, assistant professor and director of orchestral activities, directs the UW–Madison Symphony Orchestra, conducts opera productions, and teaches graduate students in conducting. Before his appointment at the University of Wisconsin, he was associate director of orchestras at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

His professional conducting activities include performances with a long list of renowned soloists, collaborations with celebrated composers, and concerts with orchestras and ensembles, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Michigan Chamber Winds and Strings, the New Mexico Philharmonic, the San Juan Symphony (Colorado), the Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco in Guadalajara (Mexico), the Flint Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, the International Contemporary Ensemble and the Four Corners Ensemble.

Since 2016 Mr. Sans has held the position of music director of the Detroit Symphony Youth Orchestra. His reputation working with young and college musicians has brought him to serve in several occasions on the conducting faculty at the Interlochen Summer Academy, to guest conduct at the Sewanee Summer Music Festival, and to be a conducting clinician and guest conductor for numerous youth ensembles.

As an opera conductor, his eclectic repertoire includes performances of Verdi’s Falstaff, Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and David Little’s Dog Days. Most recently, he conducted a production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors at the Michigan Opera Theatre and collaborated with the Opera Theatre Saint Louis in a production of Awakenings, a new opera by composer Tobias Picker that will be premiered in 2020.

A native of Catalonia, Spain, Mr. Sans studied orchestral and choral conducting at the Barcelona Conservatory, receiving the school’s Honors Award in both specialties upon graduation. Following his training in Spain, he studied with Kenneth Kiesler at the University of Michigan where he received his master’s degree in orchestral conducting and his doctorate in musical arts. In addition to his degrees in music, Mr. Sans also holds a bachelor’s degree in humanities from the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona.

Benjamin Whitcomb is a Professor of Cello and Music Theory at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater, where he has received awards for his teaching, research, and service. An active recitalist and chamber musician, he performs frequently throughout the country and abroad. He is a member of the Ancora String Quartet and the UW-Whitewater Piano Trio. His solo CDs are available from MSR Classics.

Benjamin is a prolific author, having published dozens of articles in six different journals and presented over thirty papers at national and international conferences. He has contributed to three books and published ten, including The Advancing String Player’s Handbook series, Cello Fingerings, and Bass Fingerings, all of which have received rave reviews from Strings magazine plus the journals of ASTA and AUSTA. More recent books include the Compendium of Chords series and the Guide to Practicing the Popper Etudes.

Benjamin’s cello students have won numerous awards locally and nationally and have pursued graduate degrees at leading institutions. Benjamin is very active in the American String Teachers Association, having served as Wisconsin state president, national Secretary, Chair of several committees, and Articles Reviewer for the American String Teacher.

At UW-Whitewater, Benjamin initiated and continues to coordinate the Theory/History Colloquium speaker series, the Musical Mosaics Concert Series, and the Summer String Camp. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and Oklahoma State University, and he has studied with Phyllis Young, George Neikrug, and Evan Tonsing.