Concerto Competition Winners Face Upcoming Performance With Grit And Creativity

UCI Symphony Orchestra students look ahead to their Spring 2026 performance

By Gamy Cortes

On June 5, 2026, the UCI Symphony Orchestra closes its season at the Irvine Barclay Theatre with performances from students, faculty and local musicians. A pre-show presentation will begin at 7 p.m., with the main performance at 8 p.m., conducted by Geoffrey Pope, D.M.A., the director of orchestral studies and assistant professor of teaching at UC Irvine. Tickets and pricing can be found at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts events website.

Caitlin Lui Walsh ’28, a double major in cello performance and psychology, will perform a movement from Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 by Antonín Dvořák. Ulises Reyes ’27, a piano performance and computer science major, takes on Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 by Edvard Grieg. Autumn Lorraine Anderson ’26, a flute performance major, looks to conquer the Flute Concerto by Carl Nielsen. And last but certainly not least, Christopher Reichun Wu ’28, a violin performance and international studies major, will tackle Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 by Johannes Brahms. Together, they represent the breadth of dedication and artistry that defines UC Irvine’s music program.

“As far as I’m aware, this is the first ‘concerto marathon’ concert the UCI Symphony has played,” said Pope. “This year’s judges felt that four entrants — rather than three — deserved to win. Rather than split their performances over several concerts, I decided to schedule them back-to-back this time, and they each sound fantastic. It’s also a great experience for students to work with one another in different settings. For example, Ulises Reyes, who majors in piano performance and is playing the Grieg Concerto, is also a fine trombonist, and for several years he’s played in the orchestra’s brass section. Until recently, many of the orchestra students only knew him in that musical context.”

Caitlin Lui Walsh — Cello

Growing up in a musical household, Caitlin Lui Walsh ’28 naturally cultivated a fondness for music before she even picked up a cello bow. Eventually, this led her to choir and her elementary school’s instrument program. She had planned on playing the viola until her teacher, introducing every instrument to her students, played the cello, and for Walsh, that was that.

Walsh will perform Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, First Movement, with the UCI Symphony Orchestra — a piece she has been after for nearly a decade. She first heard it in seventh grade when she began taking private lessons, and was moved to tears. Being admitted into college through her audition with it, Walsh was motivated to return to it later for UC Irvine’s Concerto Competition.

“It spoke to me right away,” said Walsh. “I knew if I ever got to play with an orchestra, it had to be this piece.”

Preparing for a performance of this scale has pushed Walsh to think beyond technique. Playing alongside a full orchestra for the first time, she found that the overwhelming sound made her forget everything she had practiced. To manage the mental weight of it all, she spent the competition weekend deliberately decompressing. Whether by watching her favorite shows, reading or spending time with friends, Walsh carried a positive attitude that losing does not equate to her musical talent.

“Every judge is different,” said Walsh. “I was really hard on myself last year about it, but just because I didn't win doesn't mean I wasn't good.”

Stage presence has been its own challenge. Walsh describes herself as naturally shy, and learning to let that go without looking performative has taken active thought. One strategy has been attaching each section of the piece to a mental image or color, giving herself something to express rather than something to execute. Having the concerto memorized helps too, freeing her eyes from the page and her body for the music.

Outside the concerto, Walsh has kept a packed schedule of chamber performances this quarter, including the Brahms Clarinet Quintet, a Ravel piano trio, and a solo cello composition by a fellow student. Alongside her duo partner, Andres Vaca, in Ten Leaf Clover, an Instagram page covering contemporary music, averaging thousands of views per video. She sees the workload as preparation for the career ahead.

“It’s kind of giving me a taste of what it'll be like once I graduate,” said Walsh. “Just constantly playing music.”

Ulises Reyes — Piano

Since his father first introduced him to the piano, young Ulises Reyes ’27 was hooked. He would practice on his own until his junior year of high school, when he received professional lessons. Despite receiving higher instruction relatively late, Reyes knew he could improve. Determined to realize his potential, he applied to UC Irvine as a music major.

“And right now, it's going fantastic,” said Reyes. “I have been honored by winning the competition, and I'm just very excited to play the concerto.”

Reyes will perform the Grieg: Piano Concerto in A Minor with the UCI Symphony Orchestra. He describes this piece as “iconic and bombastic,” one of his all-time favorites. He began preparing the concerto in the summer of 2025, working closely with his piano professor, Lorna Griffitt. The biggest technical challenge has been the concerto's demanding arpeggios, which involve shifting between delicacy and loudness.

Another challenge has been connecting his expression to the piece’s background. As the composer of the concerto, Edvard Grieg, was from Norway and incorporated this into his pieces, understanding Norwegian folk song and culture helped capture the high energy that defines the piece. To meet these challenges, Reyes leans on a mindset as much as muscle memory.

“Instead of fearing what I’m going to mess up, I like to imagine how awesome it would be if I were able to nail the entire concerto,” said Reyes. “It really boosts my confidence, and it reminds me why I enjoy playing the piano.”

That joy was on display during his audition before Geoffrey Pope, conductor of the UCI Symphony Orchestra. Reyes sought to surprise Pope as he had only heard Reyes play the trombone. Reyes walked away feeling like he had “the time of his life.”

With the performance still ahead, Reyes is focused on one thing: “Let's have fun and blow everyone away.”

Autumn Lorraine Anderson — Flute

For Autumn Lorraine Anderson ’26, picking up the flute was not entirely her choice. Her father, a musician who played in multiple bands, required his children to learn an instrument. Anderson started with piano, hated it, and struck a deal: she would switch to flute if she promised to practice every day.

Now a senior music major at UC Irvine, Anderson has made good on that promise, and the flute is now entirely her own. She leans toward the modern and unconventional, atonal music where notes sound "wrong" as they stray from the conventional music scales like“do re mi fa sol la ti do,” but are actually resolute.

“I think that sort of music is a lot more fun to play,” said Anderson.

Performing the Nielsen Flute Concerto, the second of the two most well-known flute concertos — the first of which she had already conquered years prior — demanded rigorous preparation: memorizing up to 20 minutes of music, coordinating rehearsals with an accompanist on her own time and often out of pocket, and refining every detail with her professor, Patricia Cloud.

“Day of, you hope everything you learned stays in your fingers,” said Anderson.

One of the less obvious challenges of performing the flute is the physicality. The instrument requires as much air as a tuba, and performance nerves can make breathing shallow, which, for a flutist, means chopping up the music. Stage presence is its own hurdle, too. Anderson admits she tends to go still when the music gets hard, something she's been working to unlearn.

“You have to plan it in advance a little bit,” said Anderson. “Make sure you're not just stiff and rocking upstage.”

With the Concerto Competition and senior recital ahead of her, Anderson appreciates the support she has received in her journey, especially from her professor, Patricia Cloud.

Christopher Reichun Wu — Violin

Christopher Reichun Wu ’28 grew up in Taiwan before moving to San Jose at 15, and music was always in his background. Piano lessons were given since his mother was a piano teacher. But as a self-described rebellious kid, Wu butted heads with his mother over practicing until she finally relented and began teaching him another instrument. A ceramic mug with a mustachioed violinist caught his eye, and they both agreed upon the violin.

“It turned out to be harder work for her,” said Wu. “When you start on the piano, however bad you might sound, at least there's some musicality, unlike being bad at the violin, which sounds like chickens dying.”

Yet Wu did not plan on becoming a music major. He arrived at UC Irvine with ambitions in international studies and biology, but an orchestra audition changed his mind.

Now Wu is performing the Brahms Violin Concerto in D major with the UCI Symphony Orchestra, a personal piece as it was often played in his family’s car growing up — his and his mother's favorite.

“Every time I listen to it, it's still fresh,” said Wu.

Wu approaches practice with a methodical intensity and a communal approach that might surprise those who think of music as purely instinctual and soloist. Before touching the instrument, he maps out his problems and how to solve them. Afterward, he evaluates whether the session was effective. He then shares changes to find a new synthesis of a piece.

“Repetition, experimentation and sharing are part of growing,” said Wu. “The amount of brain power required to practice efficiently is quite surprising to some people.”

What he wants audiences to understand about this particular concerto is that it isn't a showcase of one soloist against an orchestra. The Brahms, he explains, is different. The violin and orchestra are on equal footing, almost like a symphony with a violin voice woven in.

“They're featuring me as a soloist,” Wu said. “But I'm not the center of attention. I am a voice contributing to the overall orchestra.”

Currently, Wu is focusing on fundamentals, spending hours on a single scale or even a single note, all in hopes of giving the best possible performance.

To learn more about the spring UCI Symphony concert, visit here. To learn more about the Department of Music, visit arts.uci.edu/music.