Miriam Fried and award-winning alumni will present chamber music performances in March
Ravinia Steans Music Institute—the Ravinia Festival’s distinguished summer training programme for young professional classical voice, jazz, and classical piano and string musicians—presents its annual spring touring programme in March 2023; its first road concerts since 2019.
Miriam Fried, the renowned violinist and director of the Steans Music Institute Piano & Strings programme for the last three decades, will join five award-winning alumni of the programme for chamber music performances at Ravinia’s Bennett Gordon Hall on 24 March, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York on 28 March, and the Terrace Theater at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC, on 30 March.
’Chamber music is about collaboration and communication. The pandemic made both impossible, so we are all very excited to resume our exploration of this great music in rehearsal and to share it with our audiences in concert. We will bring extra enthusiasm to both endeavours,’ Fried said. ’These concerts will be especially meaningful to me as it is going to be my final RSMI tour. What a beautiful way to say farewell.’
Joining Fried on tour are violinists Geneva Lewis (2017, 2018) and Maria Ioudenitch (2016, 2017), violist Zhanbo Zheng (2016, 2017), cellist Gabriel Martins (2018, 2019), and pianist Sahun Sam Hong (2016, 2017), who highlight the 35 years the Steans Institute has advanced the artistry of prizewinning jazz and classical musicians.
Fried has been a globally renowned performer since her groundbreaking Paganini and Queen Elisabeth Competition grand prizes, while Avery Fisher Grant winner Lewis is a BBC New Generation Artist for 2022–24 and Ioudenitch recently released her Warner Classics debut album after winning the Joachim Competition. Zheng was the first Chinese musician to win the Primrose Competition. Sphinx gold medalist Martins has had his cello editions of Bach’s Solo Violin Sonatas and Partitas featured in The Strad, while American Pianists Award winner Hong is a cofounder of ensemble132, which he regularly arranges music for.
This year the musicians proffer works of intense contrasts, from the folk-like patter and coiled-spring harmonies of Bartók to the quaking agony of sudden loss that filled some of Mendelssohn’s last writing. Musical America 2023 Composer of the Year Jessie Montgomery, who was in residence at Steans last summer, is also featured through the seamless shifts between written score and spirit of the moment in her transformative Break Away.
ABOUT THE RAVINIA STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE
Founded in 1988, the Ravinia Steans Music Institute is an international destination for young professional pianists and string players, classical singers, and jazz musicians devoted to honing and advancing their talents as collaborative artists. Entering into the Bridges Composition Competition, the Program for Jazz, the Program for Piano & Strings, or the Program for Singers, each participant receives a fellowship to engage in a tuition-free, life-changing summer of professional studies and performances. Since opening its doors, RSMI has offered private coaching, master classes, and performance opportunities to over 1,500 exceptional musicians, many of whom have cultivated highly visible and successful careers in performance, leadership, and music education.
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