Ravinia 2023 Issue 1

BRIAN URRA Faro de Luz A Chilean violinist and composer, Brian Urra blends jazz, soul, Celtic, and contempo- rary classical impro- visation in his music. Currently in his final year at Berklee College of Music in Boston, he is pursuing a dual degree in Jazz Compo- sition and Performance as a student at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. As a composer, Urra explores strong melodies and grooves coming from his Chilean in uences and roots. Some of his musical inspirations include composers like J.S. Bach, songwriters Violeta Parra and Víctor Jara, and artists like Kris Davis, John Coltrane, and elonious Monk. In , Urra released his rst single as a bandleader, exploring new sounds with the violin and drawing from experiences outside his country. He is currently working on a full album that will showcase the work of his band based in Boston. Last year Urra was commis- sioned to compose a piece of music based on the exhibition of the Massart Art Museum, an art piece made by the Portuguese artist Joana Vasconcelos titled Valkyrie Mumbet . Violinist Claire Bourg as appeared as a soloist and chamber musician in many leading ven- ues across the United States and Europe, including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, the Kimmel Center, Bremen’s Kleiner Saal, and Fryderyk Chopin University Hall in Warsaw. A lau- reate of many competitions, she earned the Luminarts Fellowship in and recently appeared with the Camerata Bern as part of the Joachim Violin Competition. Bourg is currently concertmaster of Symphony in C in Philadelphia, and she regularly performs with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Play- ers, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Cha- meleon Arts Ensemble. Her chamber music collaborators have included Mitsuko Uchida, Kim Kashkashian, Jorg Widmann, Ida Kava- an, and Frans Helmerson, and she recently returned to Marlboro Music and Caramoor’s Evnin Rising Stars as a resident artist, follow- ing her fellowships at RSMI in and , among other festival appearances. A Chicago native, Bourg holds an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute and a bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory, and she is continuing studies at e Juilliard School. Icelandic-Slovenian violinist Rannveig Marta Sarc is a ver- satile artist who has performed throughout Europe, North Amer- ica, and Asia. She has been a featured soloist with the Iceland Sym- phony and Slovene Philharmonic, and as a chamber musician, she has performed with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and at such festivals as Taos, Prussia Cove, and Aspen in addition to her and fel- lowships at RSMI. Sarc is an avid performer of contemporary music and recently com- missioned and premiered six Icelandic duos for violin and viola as a member of Duo Freyja, recording them on an album by the same name. A recipient of numerous hon- ors, including the Rotary Scholarship and the American Scandinavian Society Cul- tural Grant, she holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from e Juilliard School, where she was awarded a Kovner Fellowship. Her mentors included Catherine Cho, Laurie Smukler, and Donald Weilerstein, as well as Robert Mealy on Baroque violin. Sarc is on the violin faculty at Chicago’s Merit School of Music and frequently performs with the Chi- cago and Milwaukee Symphonies. A Texas native, Rob- ert Switala is the co-principal violist of the Sphinx Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, having won the Sphinx Competition’s Junior Division in and regularly collaborated with the Sphinx Organization on producing virtual content. Currently on the string fac- ulty at the Des Plaines School of Music in Chicago, he is also the concertmaster of the ompson Street Opera Company. Switala previously held positions in the El Paso, Las Cruces, San Angelo, and Grant Park Sym- phony Orchestras. Since his teens, Robert has regularly collaborated with his younger sis- ter, Alexandra, as a string duo, appearing on From the Top among many other broadcasts. As a chamber musician, Switala has been a guest of numerous master classes and music festivals around the world, including Kneisel Hall, Sarasota, Mimir, and Perlman, and he is a laureate of the Fischo Chamber Music Competition. Cellist Alexander Hersh is a winner of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant and Astral Artists National Auditions as well as several compe- titions, including the New York International Artists Association Competition ( ) and Schadt String Competition ( ). He also received critical acclaim at the inaugural Queen Elisabeth Cello Competition in . A passionate chamber musician, Hersh has performed the complete string quartets of Béla Bartok and Alban Berg among many more masterworks of the canon at such fes- tivals as Marlboro, Caramoor, Music@Menlo, Amsterdam Cello Biennial, and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, where he was a Piano & Strings Program fellow in and . A fourth-generation string player, he began playing the cello at age and attended the Academy at the Music Institute of Chicago. A er completing bachelor’s and master’s de- grees at the New England Conservatory, he continued studies in Berlin with Nicolas Alts- taedt at the Hanns Eisler University of Music. In Hersh co-founded NEXUS Chamber Music, the resident ensemble of Guarneri Hall in Chicago, which has also appeared at Ravinia in and . Saxophonist and com- poser Greg Ward was born in Peoria, IL, and is currently based in Chicago, where he cre- ated his critically ac- claimed debut album as a bandleader, Fitted Shards’ South Side Story , in . e RSMI fellow has also produced Phonic Juggernaut ( ), Touch My Beloved’s ought ( ), and Rogue Pa- rade’s Stomping O from Greenwood ( ) and Dion’s Quest ( ), as well as appeared on recordings on concerts with such artists as Prefuse , Lupe Fiasco, Tortoise, William Parker, Makaya McCraven, Linda May Han Oh, and Mike Reed. As a composer, Ward has received commissions from the Jazz Gallery in NYC, the Chicago Jazz Institute, the City of Chicago’s Made In Chicago: World Class Jazz Series, the Peoria Ballet Company, and the Brazos Valley Symphony Orchestra. He has also been awarded the New Music USA Van Lier Fellowship ( ) and a DCASE IAP grant ( ). Ward maintains an active international touring schedule with various ensembles, and he was recently appointed to the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University as Assistant Professor of Jazz Saxophone. Flutist and saxophon- ist JohnWojciechows- ki is originally from Detroit and has spent the last years per- forming and teaching in Chicago. In addi- tion to leading his own groups, he has been a member of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, Dana Hall’s spring, Je Campbell Trio, Chica- go Yestet, Ryan Cohan’s Sextet, and the New Standard Jazz Orchestra. A third place nalist in the elonious Monk, Wojciechowski has also collaborated with the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Woody Herman Orchestra, Chica- go and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, Clark Terry, Charlie Haden, and Kurt Elling, among many others. He has appeared on dozens of recordings as a sideman and two as a leader: ’s Lexicon and ’s acclaimed Focus . Besides being an active performer, he is an educator noted for versatility, creativity, and enthusiasm. Wojciechowski is on the music faculty at St. Charles North High School and appears across the country as a guest clinician and conductor, having previously taught at Northern Illinois University and Northwest- ern University. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE