Metropolitan Youth Symphony announces 2024 Student Composition Competition winner
The Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra recently named Yeeun Sim as the 2024 Student Composition Competition winner.
Her winning composition, titled “A Song of the Wind,” will be performed by MYSO at their 65th anniversary concert celebration under the direction of Peter Lipari. It will be at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, at Lewis University in Romeoville.
Sponsored by New Music Engine, MYSO’s competition received several student submissions from all around the world.
A composer and pianist from South Korea, Yeeun Sim (b. 2002) started composing music at the age of 15 and playing the piano at 5 years old. Sim’s main objective as a musician is to convey her messages and feelings through her music while considering its influence in the context of diverse audiences. Sim believes that art can influence people in diverse areas in numerous ways, which have the potential to cause a big change in the world.
Sim is a prizewinning composer having won Second Prize in the Senior International Division of Golden Key Piano Composition Competition in 2020 and was a finalist of the 2022 ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Award and 13th Fidelio International Piano Composition Contest. She is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in Composition at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, studying with Dr. Kevin Puts.
“I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, having my first orchestra piece performed in a public concert,” Sim said. “This piece is initially inspired from small flower petals’ fluttering motion with windblown scents, which I experienced while walking through my hometown forest pathway. All the unpredictable, beautiful movements of those flower petals created an unforgettable moment for me, and the moment lead me to write a piece to share this magical memory with people.”
The Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra welcomes young musicians to explore and develop their talents through musical expression. Together, we foster a lifelong love of music for our performers and the diverse communities in the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Membership consists of junior high and high school student from Joliet and 21 surrounding communities as well as students from Lewis University and Joliet Junior College.
MYSO rehearses every Wednesday evening from late August through early June at Lewis University in Romeoville. For more information, visit www.mysomusic.org.