Charleston Symphony Orchestra League, Inc.

Scholarship Recipients, 2020

We are pleased to announce that Ashley Yoon is the recipient of the 2020 David and Karen Stahl Memorial Scholarship in the amount of $2,500. Ashley plans to attend the Juilliard School and study violin performance.

In addition, we are pleased to announce the winners of two college scholarships of $2,000 each to Lydia Pless, cello and Jesse Young, bassoon. Lydia is graduating from Academic Magnet High School and will attend the University of South Carolina where she will study cello performance and biochemistry. Jesse attended Wando High School and will study music education at the Jacob School of Music at Indiana University.

Please visit their audition videos here:

Ashley Yoon, violin

Lydia Pless, cello

Jesse Young, bassoon

The awarding of scholarships is a fundamental part of the CSOL mission to support the Charleston Symphony youth education program. Typically, we conduct live auditions for 80-90 youth and make awards in three categories: college scholarships, matching grant lesson scholarships for members of the Charleston Symphony Youth Orchestra and Charleston Symphony Youth Strings, and summer study scholarships. In the past, our awards have totaled $32,500.

Our funding for scholarships relies heavily on the success of the Designer Show House, which was cancelled this year due to the pandemic. We were unable to host the traditional live auditions, given the concerns about distancing. Consequently, we were able to conduct virtual auditions only for the college applicants. Seven qualified applicants submitted their virtual, unaccompanied auditions via YouTube. We are grateful to our volunteer judges Barry Goldsmith, Enoch Sherman and Barbara Borg, for making the difficult decision on final award winners.

The David and Karen Stahl Memorial Scholarship, which is awarded each year to the college applicant with the highest audition score, is funded by donations and an ongoing commitment of the CSOL and not dependent on fundraising. The other two scholarships awarded this year were funded by generous donors.