The CSO welcomes three Fellows, with two newly appointed, for 2025/26

The Chicago Symphony Orchestra is set to welcome three CSO Fellows for the 2025/26 Season. Violinist Jesús Linárez, the Michael and Kathleen Elliott Fellow, has been invited to return for his third and final year in the program. Joining the Orchestra as Fellows for the first time this season are Ariel Seunghyun Lee (violin) and Olivia Jakyoung Huh (cello). Introduced in 2022, the CSO Fellowship Program has grown to attract more than 100 candidates each year through its auditions.

Linárez, who was recently appointed concertmaster of the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra, has experienced a wide variety of performance opportunities with the CSO since his first season in the Fellowship in 2023/24. Highlights include concerts with Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä performing Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 10 in 2024 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 in 2025, his first concert appearance at Carnegie Hall during the CSO’s 2025 U.S. Tour with Music Director Emeritus for Life Riccardo Muti and an appearance on the CSO’s MusicNOW series in 2025.

Lee, originally from Seoul, South Korea, is currently pursuing her doctor of musical arts degree as the Benjamin Armistead Doctoral Teaching Fellow at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. An award-winning artist, she earned second prize at the 2023 Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition in London and at WDAV Classical Radio’s 2019 Young Chamber Musicians Competition, as well as recognition at the New York Concerti Sinfonietta Concerto Competition. She received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the Juilliard School, where she also served as concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra and the Verbier Festival Orchestra. As a soloist, she has appeared with the Morocco Symphony and the London City Philharmonic. She has also appeared as a substitute violinist for ensembles including the New World Symphony, Houston Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony.

Cellist Olivia Jakyoung Huh has been performing since a very young age, making her solo debut recital at the age of 9 on the Kumho Prodigy Concert Series in Seoul, South Korea. The same year, Huh made her concerto debut with the Guri Philharmonic Orchestra. She has gone on to win prizes at several international competitions, including first prize and a special prize at the Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld International String Competition and first prize at the International Johannes Brahms Competition. More recently, Huh was invited to compete in the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Geneva Competition, leading to performance opportunities in the United States, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, China, Spain, Japan, Malaysia and South Korea.

In recital, she has given performances at the Stradivari Society and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago. An avid chamber musician, Huh has performed at prestigious festivals such as the Yellow Barn Summer Festival, the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, the Perlman Music Program Chamber Music Workshop, the Tanglewood Music Festival and the New York String Orchestra Seminar.

Huh attended Yale School of Music, graduating in spring 2025 with a master of musical arts degree in cello performance after studies under Paul Watkins and receiving the 2025 Aldo Parisot Prize. She also earned a master’s degree from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music under the tutelage of Hans Jørgen Jensen. She was a longtime student of Myung-Wha Chung before attending the New England Conservatory, where she earned her bachelor of music degree after studying with Laurence Lesser. She has been a member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and performed as a cello section substitute with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 2023.

The CSO Fellowship Program was developed with support from the Orchestra’s Members’ Committee and Chicago Federation of Musicians and aims to give early career string musicians significant experience in rehearsing and performing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, along with the opportunity to work with renowned conductors while receiving training and mentorship from CSO musicians to better equip them to win auditions for major U.S. orchestras. CSO Fellows also receive compensation to perform a minimum of 20 subscription weeks with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as financial support to attend auditions, and have access to as many as 10, one-hour private lessons with a CSO musician annually. CSO Fellows may be invited to extend their tenure for up to three years.

The Fellowship has already benefited several other musicians, including former CSO Fellow Olivia Reyes, who participated in the Fellowship for two seasons and completed her time in the CSO’s bass section in June 2025. As part of her culminating performances with the Orchestra, Reyes appeared in performances of Mahler’s Sixth and Seventh symphonies during the CSO’s 2025 European tour with conductor Jaap van Zweden. The first CSO Fellow, Gabriela Lara, participated in the program for two seasons before winning a position with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in 2024. Later that year, she won a CSO audition for a position in the first violin section, a historic appointment as she was the first Latina to become a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Zell Music Director Designate Klaus Mäkelä’s first musician appointment.  

To learn more about the CSO Fellowship Program, visit cso.org/fellowship.