ALEX AYERS 2023 SCHOLARSHIP AWARDS JUDGES

A native of Wisconsin, ALEX AYERS has played violin with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra since 2013. He is currently the MSO’s acting assistant concertmaster. Ayers studied at Indiana University with Mimi Zweig and Alex Kerr. He has performed collaboratively with Joshua Bell, Alex Kerr, Jaime Laredo, Gilles Apap, and Soovin

Kim at IU. Ayers was a member of the Indiana University String Academy’s Violin Virtuosi ensemble for two years, performing in the group’s concert tours to France and Argentina. He has played at the Castleton Festival under Lorin Maazel and currently plays in the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra in the summer. Ayers received an honorable mention in the 2015 ASTA National Solo Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2010 WAMSO Young Artist Competition and the 2009 Lennox Young Artist Competition. He was the grand prize winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Stars of Tomorrow Competition in 2006. When not playing the violin, Ayers enjoys playing Scrabble, Bridge, and Hearts. He follows the tennis news closely and likes to watch the Bucks, Brewers, or Packers play.

JUN KIM serves as the director of orchestral activities and music director of the UW-Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the music director of the Washington Chamber Orchestra in D.C. He graduated with a Bachelor of Music from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, has a Master of Music from Indiana University, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music. He is the prize winner of several international conducting competitions, including first prize of the inaugural Malta International Conducting Masterclass and Competition, first prize winner of the American Prize in Opera Conducting, second prize winner of the Orquesta de Còrdoba International Conducting Competition in Spain, as well as being the recipient of the Beethoven Conducting Prize by the European Music Academy in Czech Republic. Kim has extensively conducted orchestras in the U.S. and Europe. He has appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the North Czech Philharmonic, Orquesta de Córdoba, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and collaborated with renowned artists, including Denyce Graves, Joshua Bell, Rachel Barton Pine, Seong-Jin Cho, Yekwon Sunwoo, Marina Piccinini, and Yeol-Eum Son, among many others.