Ravinia 2021 - Issue 2

high-level chamber music institute that also offers private lessons and solo work,” he said. “That’s proba- bly why it is so intense, but also so incredibly valuable.” Chen describes her RSMI experi- ence in similar terms, as “extremely intense,” but in a good way. “At the time I was freaking out but I learned so much,” she said. “I got to play with incredible people. I had lessons with Midori. I treasure those summers.” [Midori’s first years on the RSMI faculty aligned with Chen’s, and the recent Kennedy Center Honoree now returns regularly to the group of luminaries helmed for over 25 years by Miriam Fried.] Chen and Lipman, both 28, come to Ravinia with impressive honors. In 2019, Chen became the first Amer- ican since 1955 to win the Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2020, she was the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award. She was the first recipient of the Robert Levin Award from Harvard University, where she was a graduate of the Harvard/New England Conser- vatory Dual Degree Program. Lipman is a recipient of the first Kovner Fellowship at the Juilliard School and was the first-prize winner of the Washington, Stulberg, and Johansen International String Competitions. He was the only violist fea- tured on WFMT Chica- go’s “30 Under 30” list of the top international classical musicians. For Chen, performing with the CSO is a dream that was deferred. “I was supposed to play a Beethoven Romance with the CSO last Decem- ber, so I was absolutely crushed,” she said. The prospect of appearing with the august orchestra at Ravinia is “pretty freaking awesome,” she exclaimed. “It means a lot,” Lipman added. “When I was a kid, the first time I heard the CSO, Pinchas Zukerman came to play. It was the first time I went to hear a viola soloist. It was in June, and that night there was a tornado warning in the southern suburbs. My parents said we couldn’t drive to the city, and I said, ‘Under no circumstances am I missing Pinchas Zukerman playing viola with the CSO.’ We drove and there were trucks tipped over on the side of the high- way; I would do anything to get there. Now, I’m quite close with members of the orchestra, and when I’m in town I’ll hang out with a lot of them. I recently played a concert with the [violist] daughter of concertmaster Robert Chen. For me, it feels like coming home and playing with the people I know.” A highlight of the August 8 program will be a performance of Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for vio- lin and viola. Lipman’s 2014 recording of the piece with Rachel Barton Pine and the Academy of St. Martin the Fields conducted by Sir Neville Marriner, reached number 3 on Billboard ’s classical chart. “Mozart was a member of the Freemasons,” Lipman said. “Any time he wrote a piece in E-flat major, with three flats, it sym- bolized his fraternity, so by definition this was a significant piece for him.” “One of the things that drew me to the violin was the sound and how aesthetically beautiful I find it,” Chen said. “This piece is the per- fect place for us to live in that kind of sound. Mozart is incredibly beautiful and incredibly complex, but it has to come off like it’s the most simple thing in the world, and that is something we both adore about the language.” In anticipation of their joint per- formance, the two have been playing together since the vaccine rollout. They recently performed dual recitals, including a concert with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. “She has the ide- al violin sound for me,” Lipman said. “When I think of what sound I want to emulate, I think of her. To play with Stella is really inspiring. She raises my level.” He added with a laugh, “By the time we get to Ravinia, we should be pros.” Denied the opportunity to perform in front of an audience during the pandemic, Chen and Lipman contrib- uted to the online Violin Channel. In addition to performances, they each interviewed their mentors, including Perlman and violist Heidi Castleman. “We did a lot of Zoom teach- ing,” Chen said. “There were a lot of recorded performances in empty halls and our living rooms, or interviews and discussions; anything we could to keep arts in people’s minds.” Lipman took the opportunity for “a lot of self-reflection,” he said. “One of the realities of being a professional musician pre- and post-COVID is being on the road in different cities. Just because you’re onstage doesn’t mean you have time to reflect on the music. I spent a long time exploring my private relationship with music, which was incredible for the first several months. After that, it was like, ‘I’m ready to share it with an audience again.’ ” Donald Liebenson is a Chicago-based entertainment writer. His work has appeared in the Chicago Sun- Times , Chicago Tribune , and Los Angeles Times , as well as on RogerEbert.com. The first Ravinia concert he attended without his parents was Procol Harum in 1970. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 25