Lavie Huang, now 14 years old, heard “The Swan” on the radio and immediately fell in love with the cello a couple of months before her sixth birthday. Soon after, she began her cello study and eventually landed with Avi Friedlander at Music Institute of Chicago (MIC) in 2017. Since then, Lavie has been invited numerous times to play for solo recitals and events including Families in Concert at Music Institute of Chicago, Ascent International Cello Festival, and Steinway Young Artist Series. She has played for masterclasses, workshops and private lessons by renowned cello teachers including Richard Aaron, Wesley Baldwin, Amy Barston, Tanya Carey, David Cunliffe, Nick Curry, Richard Hirschl, Yumi Kendall, Melissa Kraut, Rick Mooney, Nick Photinos, Astrid Schween, and Steven Pologe. In addition to her solo cello works, Lavie enjoys being the first chair of the cello section at her school orchestra and playing chamber music at MIC and summer music festivals. She is looking forward to being a freshman player in the Symphony Orchestra, New Trier High School’s highest orchestra level, in the fall.
Lavie is a Merit Scholar at Music Institute of Chicago (2022-2026). She was also a recipient of Curry Award of Excellence through the University of North Florida (2022-2023 and 2024-2025) for her cello study and Ilan Hurtado Cello Scholarship (2023-2024). In May 2025, Lavie was the first prize winner in Sigma Alpha Iota (SAI) Elsie Sterrenberg String Scholarship Competition. In January 2024 at Tennessee Cello Workshop Cello Competition, Lavie won the first prize in the Junior High School Division as well as the special professional bow prize, which was awarded out of all of the division winners, including Collegiate/Young Professional. She was also a prize winner of the Chicago Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition in 2024.
In addition to her musical endeavors, Lavie maintains a healthy, eclectic mix of other passions. She loves to blend science, coding, robotics, writing, art, ballet, composition, and video games in creative ways. In 2021, Lavie converted a Lego grand piano model into an actual playing instrument using homemade touch sensors, which was selected Favorite Project by the Head of Product at LEGO Education in the International Coolest Projects technology showcase and featured in “Award-winning Builds” in The MagPi, the International Raspberry Pi Magazine. As an avid ballerina, she has performed before over 1,000 audience members for the 2022 and 2023 Holiday concerts with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra. Lavie competed at the state robotics championship with her school robotics team 2 years in a row in 2023 and 2024, and her team recently won the best design award which was given to a team whose robot design was most sophisticated and best engineered. In Spring 2025, her robotics team presented their own built robot at the school maker faire. As a junior high school graduate, Lavie was selected as a graduation speaker to send her class off to high school.