Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

STOPPING BYAFTER STEANS THE VIANO QUARTET AND AUGUSTIN HADELICH HAVE SEASONED THEIR PERFORMANCES FROM SUMMER EXPERIENCE BYDAVIDLEWELLEN RAVINIA’S LONG-RUNNING summer training program for young professional musicians, the Steans Music Institute, has nurtured many careers— over 1,600 individual artists since 1988—at impressionable moments, and those who go on to bigger things often return in later years as part of main- stage programming. Among others, this summer violinist Augustin Hadelich will solo with the Chicago Symphony on July 25, more than 20 years after he spent a summer at the Steans Institute playing chamber music. And on July 18, the Viano Quartet will appear in the Martin Theatre, only four years after their virtual Steans experience during the pandemic year of 2020. From its founding, the Steans Insti- tute has concentrated on chamber music for classical piano and strings (later adding programs focused on classical voice and instrumental jazz), but it’s also an opportunity for young performers to make new connections and learn more about how to build a career. “You meet new people, and you share something with people who have a different per- spective,” said Hao Zhou, violinist for the Viano Quartet. “It’s a great contrast, but it’s also a chance to meet people with the same passion as you.” In the Viano’s case, when the pan- demic shut down in-person gatherings, the Steans Institute’s pivot to streaming and Zoom meetings was reassuring to them. It displayed a commitment to the participants, Zhou said, and they could “still work on music and share ideas with each other.” The foursome—Zhou, violinist Lucy Wang, violist Aiden Kane, and cellist Tate Zawadiuk—got together as undergraduates at the Colburn School in Los Angeles, and have stayed together through graduate school at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and many other residencies and festivals. “You grow with these people,” Zhou said. “I think we’re very lucky that we met the way we did and grew with each other. Musically, we all get along very well.” “My time at the Steans Institute in 2003, as an awkward teenager not used to being away from home, was a time of discovery,” Hadelich said. “It was there, actually, that I fell in love with chamber RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 1 – JULY 21, 2024 18 KEVINCONDON