Stevenson Student Torin Bakke Wins Chicago Symphony Orchestra Contest

This musician's dedication is playing off in a big way.

Clarinetist Torin Bakke will have the opportunity to perform a solo in a Chicago Symphony Orchestra education concert as a reward for placing first in the 2013 Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra youth auditions.

Bakke, 15, played the first movement of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622 in his March 30 audition on Orchestra Hall’s Armour Stage. He was among seven youths to audition.

Bakke, of Buffalo Grove, is homeschooled in the morning. In the afternoon, the freshman heads to Stevenson High School for physical education, German and French classes, he wrote on his blog.

Outside of school, he studies the clarinet with Dileep Gangolli and Burt Hara.

"Music is extremely important to me, because with music I can express my thoughts and emotions in a way that everyone will understand, regardless of language or culture. Music is a language that everyone speaks. I love playing the clarinet, because it just makes me feel happy to do so," he wrote in an October 2012 blog post.

"I want to be a professional musician, so I have to practice a lot. I play at least 3 hours a day, usually more," his blog profile states. "I play in Midwest Young Artists, which is a youth orchestra in Highwood, Illinois. I am in the Symphony Orchestra and the Wind Symphony as well as three Chamber groups, which are really great ensembles. I also play piano for 45 minutes to an hour each day."

Bakke comes from a musical family – all four of his siblings play different instruments, according to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's press release. In addition to the clarinet, he plays the piano. When asked if he had 24 hours to do absolutely anything, Bakke said he would play a duet with his favorite musician, clarinetist Martin Frost, in Norway.

Bakke also participated in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's 2013 Chicago Youth in Music Festival, as a member of the Festival Orchestra and was among a small group of high school students who performed Feb. 4 with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He dreams of playing the clarinet with a major orchestra like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the future.

Among the finalists in the Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra youth auditions was marimba player Max Farbman, 17, a junior at Buffalo Grove High School.