Ellicott City violinist to join National Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, tour South America

“If I may suggest, make your vibrato a little bit wider,” music teacher Ronald Mutchnik told Olivia Cai.

It was the 18-year-old Ellicott City student’s final music lesson before she joins the National Youth Orchestra this summer at Carnegie Hall, where she will perform under the baton of former Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Marin Alsop and tour South America.

So Mutchnik wanted Cai to be at her best in such impressive company. He thought she might have a shot at being selected as the orchestra’s concertmaster, the player who helps the conductor guide the orchestra through the music.

“Even though ‘Scheherazade’ is imploring the sultan, don’t be too emotional at first,” Mutchnik told Cai. “Take that passage a little bit slower. Change the color so that it is a little thicker and less brilliant.”

Cai began the passage from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” again at a more stately pace. The music emanating from the violin was still lush and full of magic, but now it sounded more self-possessed. This was a violin in full command of its considerable powers, a violin capable of enchanting the most powerful potentate in the land and persuading him to do its bidding.

“Very good,” Mutchnik told Cai. “You’ve got it now.”

This will be quite a summer for Cai, a recent graduate of Marriotts Ridge High School. Following a family trip to China in June to visit relatives, she will perform in New York’s Carnegie Hall in July and play alongside the famed French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Then, she will join other members of the youth orchestra traveling to Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, and meet with Gustavo Dudamel, who will become music director of the New York Philharmonic in 2026.

And after that, she will begin college as a freshman at the University of Maryland.

That lineup would be enough to make anyone’s head spin. But for Cai, her violin has always been a stabilizing force.

“Music’s always been a huge part of my life,” Cai said. “When I’m trying to tell a story through music, I get into a kind of flow state. I try to really feel it and to bring my emotions out.”

The National Youth Orchestra was created in 2013, the brainchild of Clive Gillinson, Carnegie Hall’s executive and artistic director, who wondered why the U.S. didn’t have a youth orchestra similar to the one he had been part of in his native Great Britain.

Each summer, Carnegie Hall trains and tours three ensembles for students ages 16 to 19: the main classical orchestra in which Cai will participate, a junior orchestra for students ages 14 to 17 known as “NYO2” and a jazz ensemble.

Douglas Beck, director of artist training programs for the organization, said about 200 teens were selected for the three ensembles this summer, or about one-fifth of the roughly 1,000 young performers who auditioned.

In addition to Cai, other Maryland teens participating in the main youth orchestra include violinist Anna Hilderbrand from Mount Savage, oboist Kyle Cho from Potomac, and violists Katherine Eunbee Song from Potomac and Katie Hwang from Rockville.

The young musicians will have an opportunity to interact with their South American counterparts while on tour. After they return to the U.S., they will meet teen musicians from around the world during the first week of August as part of the new World Orchestra Week, which will bring five youth orchestras to New York from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.

Beck said he can’t wait.

“What happens over three or four days with young people can be transformative,” he said.

“These are orchestras that will play their hearts out with joy and energy and who are so responsive to feedback. They soak up everything that their teachers and conductors have to offer.”

In a way, Cai has been preparing for this summer for her entire life.

She comes from a musical family; her mother and grandmother teach piano, her older sister, Gloria, plays the cello, and her twin sister, Sophia, is a pianist who served as the accompanist for Olivia’s Carnegie Hall audition.

Like her twin, Cai started out on the piano at age 4. But when she was in the third grade, she switched to violin, began studying with Mutchnik and never looked back.

“The violin is so expressive and beautiful and you can do so much with it,” she said.

Cai participated last summer in NYO2, where she formed friendships with other gifted and passionate young musicians. But she said the part of the summer she’s looking forward to the most is performing under Alsop’s baton.

“I grew up going to concerts at the BSO when she was music director,” Cai said. “She’s so inspirational. I’m excited about having the chance to play under her.”

Alsop wrote in an email from Hamburg, Germany, where she was conducting North Germany’s radio orchestra, that she didn’t hesitate to interrupt her busy international career to work with the young performers at Carnegie Hall. This will be Alsop’s second appearance with the national youth orchestra, which she previously led in 2017.

“As you know, I am deeply committed to giving back,” wrote Alsop, who created the BSO’s acclaimed OrchKids program that uses music instruction to bring about social change.

“NYO is another manifestation of Carnegie’s unwavering commitment to future generations. I’m thrilled to be able to join for this anniversary tour.”

Noting that Cai won third place in the Radda Rise International String Competition last summer, Mutchnik said he has no doubt that his student could be a professional musician if she chose.

“Olivia has always been very precocious,” Mutchnik said.

“Many people can play the notes, but they don’t know what to do with them. But Olivia seems to innately understand how to express the subtlety of music. She plays with a depth that is equal to advanced college students.

“When I work with Olivia, I feel like I’m coaching and giving advice to an experienced adult. I’m not building her from scratch, I’m just putting on the finishing touches. Teaching her has been a total joy really.”