Colette Wiering, an 8th-grade violinist from Two Rivers, WI, has played with MYSO for four years. This is her fourth MYSO concerto competition win. She also placed as a winner of the Madison Symphony Orchestra 2024 Youth Concerto Competition, where she performed a solo debut with the Madison Symphony. And with a solid win in the Junior Division, Colette now holds the title as Overall Open Division Grand Winner of the 2024 O'Malley Foundation (formerly Walgreen's) National Concerto Competition.

Colette is an avid participant in MYSO’s Chamber Ensembles Program, directed by Johnston Family Artist-in-Residence Frank Almond. She is a member of MYSO’s Bach Ensemble, directed by Ravenna Helson, and also a member of MYSO’s Chamber Orchestra. During the summers she has participated in MYSO’s Summer Chamber Conference and attended the Cugnon Summer School in Cugnon, Belgium. This summer she will attend Northwestern’s Bienen School of Music Summer Violin Institute and the Musica Mundi Festival in Waterloo, Belgium.

Colette wishes to thank the teachers who were influential at the start of her violin studies, including Carrie Kulas, for teaching the beautiful Beethoven "Spring Sonata;" Julie Fischer, who gave her invaluable recital experience; Stella O’Neill, for music theory at the piano; and Maite Iglesias, for baroque repertoire. Colette currently studies violin with Matous Michal, of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Kees Hulsmann, former concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.