MUSICIANS FROM RAVINIA’S STEANS INSTITUTE

The Ravinia Festival has been one of Chicago’s cultural gemstones for nearly a century. The summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1936, Ravinia hosts concerts in three venues, an open air pavilion, Martin Theatre and Bennett-Gordon Hall. Most concerts can also be heard from Ravinia’s lawn, where thousands of music lovers picnic while enjoying Chicago’s mild summer evenings. In addition to concerts by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ravinia also presents a wide variety of chamber, popular and world music concerts. Ravinia also seeks to nurture aspiring musicians through outreach initiatives and its Steans Institute for Young Artists.

The Steans Institute for Young Artists (SIYA) is Ravinia Festival’s residency study program for musicians at the beginning of their professional careers. The SIYA summer season comprises five programs: the Program for Jazz, the Program for Classical Piano and Strings, the Program for Classical Singers, the Program for Music Theater and, the Program for Vocal Chamber Music. Selected by the faculty chairman of the piano and strings program, Miriam Fried, the Musicians from Ravinia’s Steans Institute perform concerts, master classes and outreach programs in a continuing effort to bring the musical richness of Ravinia to a wider audience. 

Miriam Fried (violin) - Chairman of Faculty, Program for Piano and Strings

Violinist Miriam Fried grew up in Israel, studied with Alice Fenyves in Tel Aviv and won Israel’s Tenth Anniversary Violin Competition before coming to the United States to study with Ivan Galamian at The Juilliard School and Josef Gingold at Indiana University. Her solo career was launched after winning first prize in the Paganini International Competition in 1968. Three years later she became the first woman to win Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition. She made her Ravinia debut in 1974 and has played with every major orchestra in North America, Europe, Israel and Japan. Recitals, chamber music concerts and master classes have also taken her to the world’s most important music centers. In addition, she is first violinist of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and a faculty member of Indiana University School of Music. Miriam Fried has taught at Ravinia’s Steans Institute for Young Artists and performed at the Festival every year since 1991, becoming faculty chairman for the instrumental program in 1994.

Paul Biss (Viola) - Viola Faculty Member

Paul Biss is currently professor of music at Indiana University, where he teaches violin and chamber music and conducts a full season of orchestral concerts and opera. His own studies were with Josef Gingold and Ivan Galamian A former member of the Berkshire Quartet, he has appeared as soloist, chamber musician, conductor and teacher of master classes internationally. He has participated in such summer festivals as Marlboro, Lockenhaus, La Jolla, Finland’s Naantali Festival and the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades.

Finghin Collins (piano)

Since winning first prize at the Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Vevey, Switzerland in 1999, Dublin-born pianist Finghin Collins enjoys a busy career that embraces Ireland, Europe and the United States. He has already performed with such prestigious orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, garnering consistent praise from critics and public alike. Finghin has performed right across Europe in such prestigious venues as Symphony Hall Birmingham, Wigmore Hall London, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (both halls), Théâtre du Châtelet and Salle Cortot Paris, Salle Molière Lyon, Liederhalle Stuttgart, Palao de la Musica Valencia, Philharmonic Hall Warsaw, and the Auditorium Stravinski Montreux. He also performed recently at Carnegie Hall, New York. In November 2000 Finghin made his American debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. He was subsequently invited to make his debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Eschenbach at the Ravinia Festival in 2001. The main orchestral concert was followed by a four-hand piano recital with Collins and Eschenbach, which was broadcast on National Public Radio. He has also played recitals at the Ravinia and Gilmore Festivals and in 2002 gave his debut recital in New York. Last season, he returned to Houston Symphony to perform with their music director Hans Graf. Early studies with his sister Mary were followed by extensive study with John O'Conor at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, from where he graduated in 1999 with a first class honours degree awarded by Dublin City University. In June 2002 he completed three years of post-graduate study with French pianist Dominique Merlet at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, graduating with a premier prix avec distinction.

Liza Ferschtman (violin)

Born in 1979 into a family of Russian musicians living in Holland, Liza Ferschtman began playing the violin at age 5. Currently a pupil of David Takeno at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, she has also studied at Amsterdam’s Conservatory and The Curtis Institute of Music. Winner of numerous competitions, she has performed frequently as orchestral soloist in Holland and has been heard in many radio and television broadcasts. Also active as a chamber musician, she made her recital debut at the Concertgebouw in 1999.

Yuval Gotlibovich (viola)

Born in 1977, Israeli violist Yuval Gotlibovich began his studies at age 6 on the violin.
He is currently pursuing an artist diploma as a pupil of Atar Arad at Indiana University and serves as his teaching assistant. A frequent recitalist both in Israel and abroad, he is also a former member of the Tal String Quartet and appeared in many concerts and radio broadcasts in Israel with them. As a proponent of contemporary music, he frequently presents the premieres of new works for viola, including many which are dedicated to him.

Antoine Lederlin (cello)

Born in 1975, French cellist Antoine Lederlin studied at the conservatories in Valence, Lyon and Amiens before entering the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris at 14, where he completed the cycle de perfectionnement in 1995. He then became the second solo cellist in l’Orchestre Philarmonique de Radio-France and more recently first solo cellist in l’Orchestre Philarminoque de Monaco. He appears regularly as orchestral soloist and chamber musician, performing at such festivals as Prades and Les Musicades de Lyon.

Eric Nowlin (viola)

Mr. Eric Nowlin is the first-prize winner of the Irving M. Klein International String Competition in San Francisco. Previous awards include first prize at the 2002 Hellam Young Artist's Competition; grand-prize at the 2001 Naftzger Young Artist's Competition, and winner of the 2001 Juilliard viola competition, where he performed Hindemith's Konzertmusik with Roberto Minzcuk conducting the Juilliard Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall. Other awards include three-time winner of the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestra's Concerto Competition; and prize-winner in the Music Teacher's National Association and Corpus Christi Young Artist's Competitions. Recent performances include solo engagements with the Springfield Symphony, the Santa Cruz Symphony, and the Kumamoto Symphony in Japan, as well as recitals in Mexico and San Francisco. Mr. Nowlin has been featured on WQXR radio in New York, as well as in television programs in Wisconsin and California. He is and active chamber musician, and has participated in many festivals and seminars, including the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, and the New York String Seminar. Mr. Nowlin began studying the violin at age seven, and by age eleven had begun his formal training in viola. He began his early studies in Madison, Wisconsin, and continued at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. He received his Bachelor's Degree from The Juilliard School, where he will complete his Master's Degree in May 2004. Mr. Nowlin is a scholarship student of Samuel Rhodes, violist of the Juilliard String Quartet.

For more information about Ravania's Steans Institute,
please visit their web site at www.ravinia.org/steans/on_tour.cfm.