YOUNG MUSICIANS FROM RAVINIA

INDIVIDUAL BIOGRAPHIES

Miriam Fried (violin)

Program director for the Steans Institute’s program for piano and strings since 1994, Miriam Fried is also first violinist of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and for many years was distinguished professor of music at Indiana University. She is now a faculty member at New England Conservatory. Winner of Israel’s Tenth Anniversary Violin Competition, she came to the United States to study with Ivan Galamian and Josef Gingold, later winning the Paganini International Competition in Genoa and becoming the first woman to win Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition. She has appeared as soloist with world’s greatest orchestras and is equally active as a chamber musician both in the United States and abroad. Master classes regularly take her around the world.

Min Ji Kim (cello)

Min Ji Kim began cello lessons at age 6, later entering the Korean National University of the Arts and then New England Conservatory, where she earned a master of music degree and an artist diploma. She then spent a year at the Toulouse Conservatory’s professional performance program as a pupil of Lluis Claret and is now assistant principal cellist of the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in Spain. The recipient of prizes and honors worldwide in such competitions as the Pablo Casals International Cello Competition, New Zealand’s Adam International Cello Competition, the Irving Klein International String Competition, the Hudson Valley String Competition and Chicago’s Holland American Music Society Competition, she appears frequently as orchestral soloist, chamber musician and recitalist in Korea, the United States and Europe.

Yura Lee (violin)

Born in South Korea, violinist and violist Yura Lee came to the United states in 1994 to study with the late Dorothy DeLay at The Juilliard School, later continuing her studies with Miriam Fried at Indiana University and New England Conservatory. She has performed extensively in the United States and throughout the world as orchestral soloist and has been heard internationally on radio and television, as well as participating in the Verbier, Caramoor and Marlboro festivals. Recipient of a 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant, her many other awards include First Prize, Audience Prize and Children’s Jury Prize in the 2006 International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart and second prize in Italy’s Premio Pagannini. She plays a 1778 Joseph and Antonio Galgiano violin on loan to her from the Ravinia Festival.

Dima Murrath (viola)

Belgian violist Dima Murrath began his studies with Natalia Boyarsky at the Yehudi Menuhin School and continued with David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He is currently the first violist ever selected for the artist diploma program at New England Conservatory, where he is a pupil of Kim Kashkashian. He has appeared at Boston’s Jordan Hall, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and London’s Royal Festival Hall, Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room in addition to concerto appearances with the London Mozart Players, the Guildhall Chamber Orchestra and the Flemish Radio Orchestra. Recipient of many awards and scholarships, he has participated in the Lockenhaus Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, Verbier Festival Academy, the Gstaad Festival, the Chamber Music Connects the World project of the Kronberg Academy and the Emerson String Quartet’s Carnegie Hall workshop.

Amy Jiaqi Yang (piano)

Born in China, pianist Amy Jiaqi Yang completed a bachelor’s degree at The Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Claude Frank, and is now a pupil of Robert McDonald at The Juilliard School. Winner of first prizes at the International Sonatina and Sonata Competition, Lennox National Young Artists Competition, International Frederic Chopin Piano Competition, the International Corpus Christi Young Artists’ Competition and the National Chopin Piano Competition of the Kosciuszko Foundation, she has performed internationally as orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. Appearances include a New York recital debut presented by the Chopin Society of Texas and chamber music at the White House for First Lady Laura Bush and in Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Art Alliance’s Connoisseur Series. She has participated in the Music Academy of the West, PianoFest, the Verbier Academy and Music from Angel Fire.