Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

JIYANG CHEN (LIPMAN); FAY FOX (CHEN) WHAT COULD BE MORE EXCITING for rising stars violinist Stella Chen and violist Matthew Lipman than performing again in front of a live audience after more than a year of a pandemic-forced hiatus? How about making their Ravinia Pavilion stage debuts together, performing for the first time with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? “It’s overwhelming,” Chen said in a video call alongside Lipman. “I always get nervous just before any perfor- mance, but these days, the few perfor- mances I’ve been able to do, I feel so grateful. I forget the nerves. You need an audience. It’s a dream.” It is meaningful for Chen and Lipman to be making their joint CSO debut at Ravinia August 8. Both attended the Ravinia Steans Music Institute (RSMI), Lipman in 2012 and 2013 and Chen in 2013 and 2014. But they met at the age of 15 at the Perl- man (as in Itzhak) Music Program’s Summer Music School. “We’ve been playing together for 13 years,” Lipman said. “The first day, we sat next to each other on the bus. We have become not only close friends, but collaborators.” Each took different paths to RSMI. Chen grew up in Palo Alto, CA. Neither of her parents, she said, is “musical whatsoever.” But her mother, who had wanted to learn a musical instrument when she was growing up, but didn’t have the financial means, “did everything she could to make sure I had the chance,” Chen said. Chen began on the piano when she was 5. “It was one of the 500 things she started me on,” she said with a laugh. “Soccer, basketball, fig- ure skating, chess; you name it, I tried it.” But it was love at first sound when she saw a girl play the violin. At 7, she made the switch. Fortu- itously, her mother found Li Lin to teach her. Lin would eventually teach at Juilliard, “because his students did so well,” Chen said. “He was my first violin teacher, and I never had anyone else until I was 18.” Chen herself never listened to any popular music on the radio, nor did she watch musicians on television. Her parents did not have a record collection. Once she began studying under Lin, her mother took her to see local orchestras and then recitals by such artists as Pinchas Zuker- man, Itzhak Perlman, and Sarah Chang. Among her own first album purchases were recordings of Bach and Paganini by “Mr. P.” That’s what Chen and Lip- man both affectionately call Perlman. Lipman, a native Chicagoan, grew up listening to classical music. His mother, a visual artist, played it while she painted. As a child, there was an early interest in the trumpet, but he didn’t pursue playing an instrument until the fourth grade when his school offered a string orchestra. His plan was to play any instrument just to get a head start before the trumpet was offered the next year. Because he had no preference, the music director gave him a viola because no one else want- ed to play it. As it turned out, Lipman never made the switch. Both have a shared appreciation for the importance of arts education and how it greatly impacted their lives. “I read the stories about the arts being the first thing cut [in schools],” Chen said. “I didn’t know how lucky I was. Music teaches so much about com- munication and empathetic listening. I was really shy as a kid; I barely spoke a word until I was 14 and went to the Perlman music program. Suddenly through chamber music and meeting other kids who loved the same thing, I started opening up. Meeting other people who were equally passionate to create wonderful things together brought that out in me.” RSMI looms large in their artistic maturation. Lipman ranks it along- side the Marlboro Music Festival as among the country’s highest-level chamber music festivals. “It is the only Stella Chen and Matthew Lipman enter a new Ravinia stage with Chicago Symphony debuts By Donald Liebenson Returns W E L C O M E RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 24 – AUGUST 15, 2021 24 I I ;