Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 15

QUINN KELSEY, baritone The 2015 recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Award, baritone Quinn Kelsey is widely in demand for featured roles in works by Verdi and Puccini and French repertoire, frequently taking the stages of the Metropolitan and San Francisco Operas, Lyric Opera of Chi- cago, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, and Zurich Opera. Last season he returned to the Met as Amonasro in Verdi’s Aida and as Gi- orgio Germont in a new production of Verdi’s La traviata , a role he is reprising with the com- pany this winter. Kelsey also brought his inter- pretation of Germont to Hawaii Opera Theatre and Spain’s Festival Castell de Peralada this past season, and he reprised his critically lauded take on Verdi’s titular Rigoletto in Zurich, where he twice previously essayed the role. Additional- ly, he made his Dallas Opera debut as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff . A former member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, Kelsey most recently appeared on the company’s main stage as Miller in Verdi’s Luisa Miller , and recent seasons has seen him star as Rigoletto and as Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor . Fu- ture projects include his Vienna State Opera de- but and a return to Zurich as Guido de Monforte in Verdi’s I vespri siciliani . Recent highlights also include Count di Luna in Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Met and Covent Garden, Rodrigo in Verdi’s Don Carlo for his Washington National Opera debut, Amonasro for his Chorégies d’Orange Festival debut, Athanaël in Massenet’s Thaïs for his Australian debut, Germont for his Cov- ent Garden debut, Enrico at the Met and Oper Frankfurt, Peter in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Marcello in Puccini’s La bohème at the Met, and Rigoletto at San Francisco Opera, Oper Frankfurt, and Paris Opera (house debut). In concert, Kelsey was the baritone soloist in Mahler’s “Symphony of a Thousand” at the BBC Proms in 2018 and recently gave solo recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall and in Frankfurt. Quinn Kelsey previously appeared at Ravinia in 2005 and 2007 and tonight returns for his first recital at the festival. MUSICIANS FROM RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE The director of the RSMI Program for Piano and Strings since 1994, Miriam Fried be- gan taking violin lessons as a child in Tel Aviv, where she met Nathan Milstein, Yehudi Menuhin, and Isaac Stern, who encouraged her to study abroad. She became a student of Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and later Ivan Ga- lamian at The Juilliard School. During the latter period, Fried won her first competition, the 1968 Paganini Contest in Italy, and three years later she became the first woman to win the grand prize of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. She has since been a guest of nearly every major orchestra in the world, including the Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and London Symphony Orchestras; Cleveland, Paris, and Philadelphia Orchestras; and Israel, New York, Los Angeles, Czech, and Berlin Philharmonics, and she was first violinist of the Mendelssohn String Quar- tet until it disbanded in 2009. During 2015–16, Fried intensely studied Bach’s Sonatas and Par- titas for Solo Violin, touring and recording the works and creating a series of online lectures. Violinist Maria Ioudenitch was at RSMI in 2016 and 2017 and was fea- tured on the 2018 tour. She began playing at age 3, when she emigrat- ed from her native Russia to Kansas City, studying at Park University from 2005 to 2014. In 2012, Ioudenitch was awarded the top prize in the Kansas City Symphony’s Young Art- ists Competition. At the Curtis Institute, she was named concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for the 2016/17 season, which includ- ed a tour of Finland, Germany, Austria, the UK, and Poland. In addition to RSMI, Ioudenitch has participated in such festival programs as the Salzburg Mozarteum Summer Academy and In- ternational Music Academy of Lichtenstein, and will attend the Marlboro Music Festival in 2020. Currently pursuing a master’s degree under Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, she has recently been featured as a soloist with such ensembles as the Utah, Mariinsky, Kansas City, and Mississippi Symphony Orchestras, the Signature Symphony at TCC, and the National Orchestra of Uzbekistan. Violinist Geneva Lewis was at RSMI in 2017 and 2018 and has per- formed as a cham- ber musician and soloist through- out the United States and Europe. A New Zealand native, she is a member of the Ravos Quartet, which was named a New England Conservato- ry Honors Ensemble in 2016/17, and the Callisto Trio, which earned third prize in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and was the youngest group ever to compete in the finals. The trio was also recently invited on the Masters on Tour series of the International Hol- land Music Sessions, including a performance at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. As a soloist, Lew- is has appeared with such ensembles as the Pas- adena Symphony and Pops, Diablo Symphony Orchestra, Culver City Symphony, Sierra Sum- mer Festival Orchestra, Brentwood Westwood Symphony Orchestra, and Antelope Valley Sym- phony Orchestra. A student of Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory, she has earned top honors from YoungArts, the Music Center Spotlight Awards, M-Prize, and St. Paul’s String Quartet Competition, among others. Violist Tanner Menees was at RSMI in 2016 and 2017 and was fea- tured on the 2017 tour. Primarily a chamber musi- cian, he has also performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Chamberfest Cleveland, Menuhin Fes- tival String Academy, Edinburgh Music Festival, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, and McGill In- ternational String Quartet Academy. Menees is a member of the Los Angeles Ensemble piano quartet, and he has collaborated with such art- ists as Martin Beaver, Denis Bouriakov, Miriam Fried, Clive Greensmith, Lynn Harrell, Frans Helmerson, Gary Hoffman, Marcy Rosen, and Peter Stumpf. As principal violist of the Colburn Orchestra, Menees performed under the batons of Neville Marriner, Robert Spano, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Edo de Waart, and he has been a soloist with that ensemble under Thierry Fischer and with Symphony New Hampshire. Menees is currently a Master of Music candidate under Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory, having completed both a Bache- lor of Music and an Artist Diploma at the Col- burn School. RAVINIA MAGAZINE | OCTOBER 5, 2019 – MAY 9, 2020 94 MARCH 28, 2020 APRIL 11, 2020