Library concert to feature Manalapan cellist virtuoso
Courtney Lin Kaita, a budding 17- year-old cellist virtuoso and lifelong Manalapan resident, will present a performance of great cello masterworks at 2 p.m.May 3 at theMonmouth County Library Headquarters, Symmes Drive,Manalapan. Admission is free.

Courtney is an award-winning cellist who has soloed in major concert halls internationally and in the United States, including Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Courtney will perform in collaboration with her mother, world-renowned pianist and musician Chiu-Tze Lin. She is the music director of the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra. Chiu-Tze Lin is a Steinway Artist whose active solo career has taken her to Europe, Asia and across America.

Courtney will be joined by the other two members of the Manalapan Trio: pianist Melissa Chan, 17, and violinist Constance Lin Kaita, 13.

Courtney is a student of Julie Albers. Her previous cello teachers have included Katrina Kormanski, Qiang Tu, Irene Sharp and Marnie Kaller. Courtney has been a first-prize winner in the New Jersey Music Teachers Association Young Artists Competition, and has represented New Jersey multiple times in the solo Junior and Senior Strings Performance competition for the Eastern Division of the Music Teachers NationalAssociation Competition, according to a press release.

Courtney has appeared as a soloist with the Edison Symphony, Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, Manalapan Battleground Symphony and High Mountain Symphony. She has also given solo performances in Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center,Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, and Merkin Concert Hall. As a laureate of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Concerto Competition, Courtney gave a solo performance in the State Theater, New Brunswick. Courtney was featured as a rising star for the first Beijing Music Festival, performing in venues including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Ministry of Culture. Her performance was broadcast on China Central Television across China.

Courtney is currently the youngest teacher in the New Jersey Music Teachers Association, as well as its former newsletter editor. She is also a diploma recipient and licentiate of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. She will be graduating from the Freehold Regional High School District's Medical Sciences Learning Center at Freehold High School in June.

Courtney intends to pursue a double major degree programin cello performance and applied mathematics in college. She has been accepted by two of the most wellknown cello teachers in the country at the University of Michigan and at Northwestern University. She is still deciding where she will attend this fall.

Chiu-Tze Lin (Courtney's mother) is an acclaimed music director and concert pianist who was selected as a "HottestArtist in New Jersey" in 2001. She is a Steinway Artist who has appeared as a touring soloist with the Chicago Symphony, as well as with the Cincinnati Symphony. Lin's compact disc featuring the works of J.S. Bach for solo piano has been described by the NewYork Concert Reviewmagazine as a "most satisfying performance, with eloquence and sensitivity," according to the press release.

She is currently themusic director and conductor of the Bravura Philharmonic Orchestra, an orchestra based in central New Jersey.

The Manalapan Trio consists of threeaward winning Manalapan youngsters: Courtney Lin Kaita; her sister, Constance Lin Kaita, 13; and Melissa Chan, 17. The trio formed in 2005.

Melissa has won first prize in the Steinway Society Piano Competition and was a finalist in the International Young Artists Piano Competition. She has soloed with numerous orchestras, including the Maryland Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Westfield Symphony, and the Manalapan Battleground Symphony. Melissa made her Carnegie Hall debut in June 2005, and was selected as a rising star in New Jersey in 2007 with a performance at the Algonquin Arts. Melissa was chosen as a scholar for the Governor's School of the Arts and will attend the programthis summer. She is a junior in the Freehold Regional High School District's Medical Sciences Learning Center at Freehold High School.

Constance made her solo debut with the Westfield Symphony when she was 9 years old. Her violin teacher is NancyWilson, a professor of violin at Princeton University. Her previous teachers have included Ning Mu and Dee Lu. Constance has won first prize at the New Jersey Music Teachers Association Young Artists Competition in piano and violin. Constance has performed at the Alice Tully Hall of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, and Steinway Hall. She was also recognized as a rising star in the first Beijing Music Festival.