Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 14

AIZURI QUARTET Based in New York City, the Aizuri Quartet was recently awarded the Grand Prize at the 2018 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition and has also been honored with top prizes at the 2017 Osaka International Chamber Music Competition in Japan and the 2015 Wigmore Hall Internation- al String Quartet Competition in London. The quartet’s debut album, Blueprinting , featuring new works written for the Aizuri Quartet by five American composers, was released by New Amsterdam Records and nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award. The foursome was in residence at the Metropolitan Museum of Art during 2017– 18 and presented five unique programs through- out the season. The Aizuri Quartet has also held residencies at Caramoor during 2015–16 and the Curtis Institute of Music over 2014–16. The quar- tet, formed in 2012, has performed extensively throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Japan, Mexico, Chile, Costa Rica, and Abu Dhabi, and has commissioned and premiered new works by Pulitzer Prizewinner Caroline Shaw, Lembit Beecher, Paul Wiancko, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Gabri- ella Smith, Rene Orth, and Alyssa Weinberg. The Aizuri Quartet was in residence at Ravinia’s Ste- ans Music Institute in 2014, and the three mem- bers present tonight attended RSMI individually for two seasons. Miho Saegusa, a 2009/2011 RSMI fellow, has played the violin since age 5 and since 2017 has also been a member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has also been a mem- ber of the Iris Orchestra since 2001 and a Valade Fellow and violin instructor at the Interlochen Arts Camp since 2013. Ayane Kozasa, a 2010/2011 RSMI fellow, solidified her career as the winner of the 2011 Primrose International Viola Compe- tition. She is also a member of the IRIS Orches- tra, and from 2012 to 2016 she served as principal violist of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadel- phia. She recently commissioned and premiered a work for viola and piano from Paul Wiancko. Karen Ouzounian, a 2010/2011 RSMI fellow, reg- ularly performs with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silkroad and is a member of both the self-conducted chamber orchestra A Far Cry and the critically acclaimed new music collective counter)induction. She has also been a guest principal cellist for the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, IRIS Orchestra, and Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. WELZ KAUFFMAN, piano Welz Kauffman has fostered a love for music since age 4, when he began listening to a wide variety of recorded music, and began playing piano at age 5. His classical training extend- ed through studies at Occidental College and Tanglewood and has included master classes with such artists as Leonard Bernstein, John Browning, Gilbert Kalish, Alicia de Larrocha, Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel, Tamás Vásáry, Mal- colm Frager, Johanna Harris, Rudolf Serkin, and Karl Schnabel. Equally comfortable in ga- rage bands, music theater, and jazz, Kauffman takes special satisfaction in collaborating with soloists, including flutists Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway and such acclaimed vocalists as sopranos Sylvia McNair, Nicole Cabell, and Mi- chelle Areyzaga. As president and CEO of Ra- vinia, Kauffman was named the Chicago Tribune 2018 Chicagoan of the Year for classical music for programming an expansive celebration of the Leonard Bernstein centennial. He has been responsible for both the artistic and the finan- cial integrity of Ravinia since his appointment in 2000, and he is the first artistic director to program all classical and nonclassical program- ming at North America’s oldest music festival. Building on four decades of artistic leadership from coast to coast—the New York Philharmon- ic to the Los Angeles Philharmonic—Kauffman is dedicated to preserving and building audi- ences for classical music through innovative programming that runs the gamut from beloved chestnuts to films accompanied by live perfor- mances, as well as major works commissioned expressly for Ravinia. Kauffman also often per- forms with students in Ravinia’s Reach Teach Play education programs, which he expanded to serve 85,000 people annually in Cook and Lake Counties by providing equitable access to mu- sic at the festival and throughout Chicagoland. Both of his parents were teachers, so education became a major pillar of Kauffman’s focus at Ra- vinia, and most recently, inspired by the all-vol- unteer Women’s Board, he installed “El Sistema” training and created student orchestras for local elementary schools without music programs of their own. SEPTEMBER 3 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 105