Ravinia 2024 Issue 5

STELLA CHEN The grand prize winner of the 2019 Queen Elis- abeth Violin Competition, American violinist Stella Chen has since been awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant and as a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, both in 2020, and Gramo- phone named her Young Artist of the Year for 2023 with the release of her all-Schubert debut album on the Apple Music label Platoon. Chen is currently a teaching assistant to longtime mentor Li Lin at The Juilliard School, where she completed her doctorate in music after earning a Master of Music from the New England Con- servatory and a Bachelor of Arts in psychology with honors from Harvard, where she was the inaugural recipient of the Robert Levin Award. Among the highlights of her 2023/24 season, Chen debuted with orchestras in Japan, China, North America, and Europe, including debuts at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Tokyo’s Sun- tory Hall; performed the US premiere of Jörg Widmann’s Second Violin Concerto (conducted by the composer) and the world premiere of a concerto written for her by Jon Cziner; and gave recitals at the Heidelberg Festival, making her debut alongside Igor Levit, and on the San Fran- cisco Symphony’s Spotlight Series. She recent- ly made debuts with the New York and Israel Philharmonics, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Baltimore Symphony, and Belgian National Orchestra, including perfor- mances at Vienna’s Musikverein and Berlin’s Philharmonie. In recital, recent appearances in- clude Lincoiln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Phil- lips Collection, and Italy’s Nume Festival. She appears frequently with Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center both in New York and on tour as a member of the Bowers program. At such festivals as the Kronberg Academy, Moritzburg, Ravinia, Seattle Chamber Music, Perlman Mu- sic Program, Music@Menlo, Bridgehampton, Rockport, and Sarasota, Chen has collaborated with the likes of Itzhak Perlman, James Ehnes, Matthew Lipman, Jan Vogler, and many others. Stella Chen first appeared at Ravinia as a Steans Music Institute fellow in 2013 and 2014, returned for chamber performances in 2018 and 2019, as well as in 2021 to make her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. MATTHEW LIPMAN The 2019 artist-in-residence of the American Viola Society and a 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, Matthew Lipman has also been featured among WFMT’s Chicago’s “30 under 30” top classical musicians around the world. A former student of Heidi Castleman at The Juilliard School and Tabea Zimmermann at the Kronberg Academy, he has also earned a Kovner Fellowship and the Jack Kent Cooke Award, and has been a major prize winner in the Primrose, Tertis, Washington, Johansen, and Stulberg International Viola Competitions. Lipman currently occupies the Wallach Chair at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Cen- ter, having previously participated in its Bowers program. In recent seasons he has been a fea- tured performer with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, American Symphony Orchestra, Mu- nich Symphony Orchestra, and the Minnesota Orchestra, and in 2019 he appeared alongside Zimmermann at Michael Tilson Thomas’s Vi- ola Visions Festival with the New World Sym- phony. Recent highlights also include recitals at Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, and Zürich’s Tonhalle, as well as performing cham- ber music with Anne-Sophie Mutter at Berlin’s Philharmonie and Vienna’s Musikverein, which was later released on Deutsche Grammophon’s STAGE+. Lipman regularly performs at a variety of festivals, including Saint Petersburg’s White Nights, Bridgehampton, Marlboro, Music@ Menlo, and Saratoga, with such collaborators as Mitsuko Uchida, Itzhak Perlman, András Schiff, Jeremy Denk, and Pinchas Zukerman. His 2019 album Ascent on Cedille Records featured first recordings of Shostakovich’s recently discovered Impromptu and Clarice Assad’s Metamorfose , which Lipman commissioned. In 2022, he made his Sony Classical debut on The Dvořák Album , and he has also recorded Mozart’s Sinfonia Con- certante with Rachel Barton Pine and the Acad- emy of St. Martin in the Fields. Matthew Lipman first appeared at Ravinia with the string quartet Polaris in 2008 and returned in 2012 and 2013 as a Steans Music Institute fellow, then in 2014 for a Musicians from RSMI tour. He made his Chica- go Symphony Orchestra debut in 2021 alongside fellow Steans alum Stella Chen. BRANNON CHO Cellist Brannon Cho has emerged as an out- standing artist of his generation, winning first prize at the 6th International Paulo Cello Com- petition as well as top prizes of the Queen Elis- abeth, Naumburg, and Cassadó International Cello Competitions. Most recently, he has been the recipient of the 2020 Janos Starker Foun- dation Award, the Landgraf von Hessen Prize from the Kronberg Academy, and the 2019 Ivan Galamian Award (previously held by James Ehnes), and he is a scholarship holder in the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation. Cho has appeared as a soloist with many top orches- tras around the world, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Belgian National Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Brussels Philharmonic, led by world-renowned conductors such as Susanna Mälkki, Stéphane Denève, Christian Arming, and Hugh Wolff. As a lover of chamber music, Cho is a founding member of two groups: Trio Seoul with violin- ist Jinjoo Cho and pianist Kyu Yeon Kim, and a string trio with violinist Stella Chen and violist Matthew Lipman. Trio Seoul’s upcoming per- formances take them to Cleveland, Cincinna- ti, Toronto, and Montreal, among other music centers. The string trio gave its debut recital at Kronberg Academy’s 2023 Alumni Festival to critical acclaim, and has upcoming debuts at the Ravinia Festival and Rockport Music. Cho’s recent and upcoming performance highlights include Carnegie Hall’s Zankel and Weill Halls, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Rhein- gau Musik Festival, Arte Amanti Festival, Cello Biënnale Amsterdam, and Seoul Arts Center. Recently, he substituted for Alisa Weilerstein in Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Belgian National Orchestra to critical acclaim. Born in New Jersey, Cho received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music under Hans Jørgen Jensen and later earned an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. He has also studied with Frans Helmerson in the Professional Studies program at the Kronberg Academy. Brannon Cho is making his Ravinia debut. RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 19 – SEPTEMBER 1, 2024 72 ABIGAILKRALIK(CHEN,LIPMAN);CARLINMA(CHO)