Get ready for some extraordinary playing this month! Madison Choo of Demarest, NJ, our 2025 Summer Music Scholarship Winner, will be performing with the Hanover Wind Symphony (HWS) on Wednesday, October 22, 2025 at Memorial Junior School in Whippany. She will be playing Bellini’s Concerto for Oboe.
Madison, who is a junior at Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest, is excited to perform with the HWS on the 22nd. This will be her first time performing as a soloist with an ensemble. She says it’s different being a soloist versus being a member of the ensemble: “your sound is most important rather than blending with the group.”
As well as playing her oboe in her school wind ensemble, Madison is a member of the New York Youth Symphony in Manhattan. She played in the NJ Region I Symphonic Band earlier this year. She spends her Saturdays at the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College which she describes as “one of the most fun experiences of my life.”
Madison started playing the oboe just two years ago in the ninth grade. Her band teacher recommended that she switch from playing the flute to playing the oboe since they didn’t have an oboist in the school. It was “probably the best decision of my life.” She describes the sound is pretty different from the flute and blends well with the other woodwind instruments. “The instrument has to choose the person.”
She used her scholarship money for oboe lessons with Yousun Chung, who is a Lecturer of Oboe at Princeton University, a member of the Oboe performance faculty member at The Juilliard School Pre-College Division, The Manhattan School of Music Pre-College division and the Mannes School of Music Prep Division, as well as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Oboe at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music.
Madison likes music because it brings a lot of people together. She considers herself an introvert, but with music, it’s a lot easier to express herself. She will keep music in her life somehow. She is working towards being an oboe performance major in college.
Mark your calendar for Wednesday, October 22 at 7:00 pm at Memorial Junior School in Whippany!
