Rebekah Hou to Make Asheville Symphony Debut as Winner of 2024 Payne Fund Prize

The longstanding partnership between CIM and North Carolina’s Asheville Symphony is about to blossom again. 

On Saturday, March 15, in another sign of the strong bond between the two organizations, CIM alum Rebekah Hou (BM ’23, MM ’24, Kondonassis) will join the Asheville Symphony and conductor Darko Butorac in two performances of Mozart’s Concerto for Flute and Harp. 

The concerts are the public face of CIM’s Payne Fund Prize, a prestigious award of which Hou was the 2024 winner. 

"I am humbled and grateful to receive the Payne Fund Prize from CIM last year,” said Hou. “Preparing the Mozart Flute and Harp Concerto for Asheville this year has been exciting, and I'm especially grateful because it’s always been a bucket-list project to play it with an orchestra.”

The partnership between CIM and the Asheville Symphony is profound and ongoing. It is the brainchild of Cleveland native Tom Bolton, Distinguished Director of the Asheville Symphony Society Board of Directors. 

The prize is granted with support from the Payne Fund, a longtime and generous supporter of CIM founded in 1930 by Bolton’s relative, Frances Payne Bolton, the first woman elected to Congress from Ohio.

The most prominent expression of the prize is the annual opportunity for a CIM Concerto Competition winner to perform with the Asheville Symphony. After this high-profile debut, many go on to enjoy distinguished careers as soloists or members of major orchestras or chamber ensembles.

Such would appear to be Hou’s destiny, if Butorac’s opinion is any guide. After working with Hou on a program that includes works by Bizet and Jessie Montgomery (the featured artist at CIM’s Young Composers Program for 2025), the orchestra’s music director said she has a bright future. 

Hou “is a mesmerizing artist and a true virtuoso of the instrument,” Butorac said. “It is a treat to support the best up-and-coming American musicians at the outset of their careers.” 

About the ASO

The Asheville Symphony Orchestra (ASO) performs and promotes symphonic music for the benefit, enjoyment, and education of the people of Western North Carolina. Related organizations include the Asheville Symphony Guild, Asheville Symphony Chorus, Asheville Symphonettes, and education initiatives such as the Asheville Symphony Youth Orchestra, Music in the Schools, MusicWorks, Symphony Talk, and pre-concert lectures. Learn more at www.ashevillesymphony.org.