Ravinia 2024 Issue 2

Midori is a visionary art- ist, activist, and educator who explores and builds connections between music and the human ex- perience. Since her New York Philharmonic debut at age 11, the violinist has performed with many of the world’s top orchestras and has collaborat- ed with world-renowned musicians including Leonard Bernstein, Yo-Yo Ma, and many oth- ers. Midori celebrated the 40th anniversary of that debut in 2022 with her Warner Classics re- cording of the complete Beethoven violin sona- tas with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet. Over the past year, she gave two performances of An die Unsterbliche Geliebte , a concerto written for her in 2019 by Detlev Glanert, and she toured with Festival Strings Lucerne performing Beethoven’s Romance No. 2 and Schumann’s Violin Con- certo, among many other highlights. Her non- profits Midori & Friends (New York) and Music Sharing (Japan), celebrated their 30th anniver- saries in 2022–23. In recognition of her artistic and humanitarian work, Midori serves as a UN Messenger of Peace and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2021. Midori is the newly ap- pointed Artistic Director of the Steans Institute Piano & Strings Program, having joined the fac- ulty in 2014. She made her Ravinia debut in 1987, and this is her 11th season at the festival. Swedish cellist Frans Helmerson launched his career as the win- ner of the 1971 Gaspar Cassadó Competition in Florence—the first of many distinctions—hav- ing trained with Mstislav Rostropovich as well as Guido Vecchi, Giuseppe Selmi, and William Pleeth. During the 1970s he was principal cel- list of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and became a protégé of Sergiu Celibidache. Helmerson continues to play with many ma- jor orchestras as a soloist, creating highly rated recordings of concertos by Dvořák and Shosta- kovich. He is equally dedicated to chamber mu- sic, regularly guesting at such music festivals as Casals, Kuhmo, Naantali, Prades, and Verbier. Between 1994 and 2001 he was artistic director of the Umea-Korsholm International Chamber Music Festival in Finland, then in 2002 he be- came a co-founder of the Michelangelo Quartet. Previously a professor in Oslo and Stockholm, as well as at Madrid’s Escuela Superior de Mu- sica Reina Sofia and Cologne’s University of Music and Dance, he is currently on the fac- ulties of the Hanns Eisler University of Music and Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin as well as the Kronberg Academy. Frans Helmerson joined the Steans Institute faculty in 1999 and first performed at Ravinia in 2001. Romanian-born violinist Mihaela Martin is one of the most outstanding virtuosos of her gener- ation, displaying a cha- meleon-like versatility of musical expression. Following her prizewinning Tchaikovsky, Mon- treal, Sion, and Brussels Competition peror- mances, Martin’s gold medal at the Indianapolis Violin Competition launched her international career. Over the past year Martin has appeared with the Bucharest Philharmonic and Staatsor- chester Hamburg as well as at the Verbier, Enes- cu, Budapest Academy, Kronberg, and Suntory Hall Festivals. Past highlights have included the BBC Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Montre- al Symphony, and Salzburg Mozarteum and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, as well as collaborations with Daniel Barenboim, Sergei Babayan, Lera Auerbach, Krill Gerstein, Denis Kozhukhin, Sharon Kam, Nobuko Imai, and Gabor Takacs. Martin is a founding member of the Michelangelo Quartet, with whom she has performed at Carnegie, Wigmore, and Boulez Halls, the Library of Congress, the Concert- gebouw, and the Theatre de Champs-Élysées. Since 2017, she has been Artistic Director of the Rolandseck/Bad Honnef Chamber Music Fes- tival. Mihaela Martin first appeared at Ravinia and on the Steans Institute faculty in 2003. From 1999 until its final season in 2013, cellist Clive Greensmith was a member of the renowned Tokyo String Quartet, giving over 100 perfor- mances each year in ma- jor international venues, including Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, London’s Southbank Centre, Paris’s Théatre du Châtelet, Berlin’s Phil- harmonie, Vienna’s Musikverein, and Tokyo’s Suntory Hall. Alongside collaborations with such artist as Andras Schiff, Pinchas Zukerman, Leon Fleisher, Lynn Harrell, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Alicia de Larrocha, and Emanuel Ax, he has reg- ularly guested in chamber music at the Aspen, Marlboro, Music@Menlo, and Santa Fe Festival, as well as with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. As a soloist, Greensmith has performed with the London Symphony, Roy- al Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic, and the RAI Orchestra of Rome, among others. In his more than 25-year career, Greensmith has built up a catalog of landmark recordings, notably the complete Beethoven and Mozart’s “Prussian” Quartets with the Tokyo Quartet, Brahms so- natas with Boris Berman, and Beethoven and Brahms clarinet trios with Jon Nakamatsu and Jon Manasse. In 2013 he joined the faculty at the Colburn School, and since 2019 he has been Artistic Director of the Nevada Chamber Music Festival. This is Clive Greensmith’s first season on the Steans Institute faculty. Violist KimKashkashian is recognized worldwide for her work as perform- ing and recording artist and pedagogue. She won a Grammy Award with Kurtág and Ligeti solo vi- ola works in 2013 and the Opus Klassik in 2018 with Bach’s solo cello suites transcribed for viola. Kashkashian was elected a Fellow of the Amer- ican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2016 and an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in 2020, and she has received the George Peabody Medal and Switzerland’s Golden Bow Award for her contributions to music. As a so- loist, Kashkashian has performed with the or- chestras of Berlin, London, Vienna, Milan, New York, Cleveland, and many others. Her passion for chamber music includes long-standing duos with pianist Robert Levin and percussionist Robyn Schulkowsky, as well as collaborations with the trio Tre Voce and many other artists. Kashkashian has often been heard in recital across Vienna, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Munich, Tokyo, Athens, London, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Philadelphia. She is the founder and Artistic Director of Music for Food, an initiative by musicians to fight hunger in their home communities. Kim Kashkashian first appeared at Ravinia and on the Steans Insti- tute faculty in 2003. Pianist Marc-André Hamelin is known worldwide for his musi- cianship and technique in great works of the es- tablished repertoire and his intrepid exploration of rarities of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. He regularly performs around the globe with leading orchestras and in recital at major con- cert venues and festivals worldwide. Highlights of the past year include concerts with the Phil- harmonisches Orchester Hagen (Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3), Netherlands Radio Phil- harmonic (Reger’s Piano Concerto), and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (music by Franck and Boulanger). Chamber music has brought Hamelin to Prague, Poland, Oslo, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, as well as to Bre- vard Music Center with Johannes Moser and across the US with the Takács Quartet. Hamelin has more than 70 albums as an exclusive Hype- rion recording artist, recently including Fauré’s nocturnes and barcarolles, a two-disc set of C.P.E. Bach’s sonatas and rondos, and a two- disc set of William Bolcom’s complete rags. He has also composed music throughout his career, with over 30 compositions to his name. He pre- miered his most recent work, a piano quintet, in August 2022 with the Dover Quartet at La Jolla Music Society. This is Marc-André Hamelin’s first season on the Steans Institute faculty. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 63 NIGELPARRY(MIDORI);STEVERISKIND(KASHKASHIAN);FRANZHAMM(HELMERSON); SHAYNEGRAY(GREENSMITH);SIMCANNETY-CLARKE(HAMELIN)