NYFC Competition 2023 Winners

The 2023 New York Flute Club Competition was was held at the 2023 NY Flute Fair on Saturday, March 18. The three winners, selected from six finalists, were:

1st prize: Jae Hyun Moon
2nd prize: Jamie Kim
3rd prize: Blue Shelton

We look forward to hearing them at their April 23, 2023 concert, and would like to thank competition coordinator Kaoru Hinata and our esteemed judges, Alison Fierst, Beomjae Kim, Theresa Norris, Jill Sokol, and Pat Zuber.  

Special thanks to Phil Unger and the Flute Center of New York for sponsoring the first prize.

Jae Hyun Moon (first prize), age 24, is a Korean-American flutist who actively performs to give back to her community. Debuting with the Long Island Symphony at the age of 14, in NYC's Merkin Hall, she has been performing as a soloist, chamber musician, and ensemble musician ever since. She placed second in the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters (NSAL) woodwind competition and will be attending Brevard Summer Institute in 2023 on a generous full-tuition teaching scholarship. She has also independently started a recital project at a local church in Pittsburgh called "Spring Mixtapes," where flutists come together to celebrate the joy of making music and sharing with their communities. Jae Hyun has performed as principal flute at the 2019 Prague Summer Nights Festival touring in the Czech Republic, and her chamber group was featured in Suk Hall of the Rudolfinum. She received her BFA from Carnegie Mellon University, studying with Alberto Almarza and is currently studying for a doctorate degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with Jonathan Keeble, where she also received her master's. Her other influential teachers include Bart Feller, Soo-Kyung Park, Jeanne Baxtresser, and Jung Soo Nam.

Los Angeles native Jamie Kim (second prize), age 23, is a Los Angeles native currently pursuing a master of music degree at the Juilliard School with Carol Wincenc. She is a summa cum laude Trustee Scholar graduate of the University of Southern California, where she studied with Jim Walker and Catherine Karoly. Kim was a winner of the National YoungArts and Classics Alive Young Artist Competitions, a finalist in the NFA High School competition, and a semifinalist in the NFA Young Artist competition. She has soloed with the Santa Monica College, Brentwood Westwood, and Beach Cities Symphonies and the Culver City Chamber Orchestra, participated in festivals including the National Repertory Orchestra, Chautauqua Music Festival, and Music Academy of the West, and is currently a substitute for the New World Symphony. Education outreach activities have included participation in USC Thornton’s Community Engagement Program and work as a Juilliard Morse Fellow.

Blue Shelton (third prize), age 19, was born and raised in Philadelphia, where his involvement with the Temple Music Prep, Settlement Music School, Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra Fellowship, and Philadelphia Music Alliance for Youth made it possible for him to study privately with members and teaching artists of the Philadelphia Orchestra free of charge. In 2020, he was also chosen to appear on NPR’s “From the Top.” In 2021, Shelton was chosen as the first recipient of the Project 440 full tuition scholarship in collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music where he is currently pursuing a BM with Marya Martin. While in New York, he was also appointed as principal flute of the Grammy Award winning New York Youth Symphony, a position he has held since 2021. Second flute in Symphony in C, he has also played with Camerata New Jersey, Harlem Chamber Players, Greenwich Village Symphony Orchestra, and multiple MSM Ensembles.

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