29 / 116
Right: Miriam Fried
enjoys a lighthearted
moment while
coaching a trio score
at Ravinia’s Steans
Music Institute during
the summer of 1998.
Below: Fried pauses
to offer some insight
during a practice
session with violinist
Tim Fain in his
second summer at
RSMI, in 1997.
“ is is part of my life,” the Boston-
based violinist says. “I’m eager to come
here every summer. I love the place, I
really do.”
e Steans Institute (RSMI for short)
is one of most sought-a er summer
training centers in the country, and it
can count a wide array of noted artists
as alumni. [No fewer than return to
headline Ravinia’s stages this summer,
including violinist Joseph Lin (with
the Juilliard String Quartet), pianists
Yuja Wang and Inon Barnatan, soprano
Nadine Sierra, mezzo-soprano Michelle
DeYoung, and tenor Paul Appleby, not
to mention ve that return annually
as members of the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, as well as two composers and
nine performers featured on the
Bridges
concert.] It encompasses three di erent
programs—for jazz, piano and strings,
and voice—at successive times in the
summer. is year, that second compo-
nent begins June and runs through
July , presenting more than a dozen
concerts on its home stage of Bennett
Gordon Hall. Ravinia’s June concert
in the Martin eatre will feature Fried
and her fellow RSMI faculty-artists
celebrating the th anniversary of the
institute (and, by extension, its founding
piano and strings program), and Fried
will celebrate her own milestone year as
soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto
with the CSO on July .
Setting RSMI’s piano and strings
program apart is its small size— or
so college-level musicians, ranging in
age from to , with a small ensemble
sometimes taking one of the slots—
and its singular focus on sonata and
chamber repertoire. “I think the idea,”
Fried says, “is to identify people who
are all talented and accomplished and
passionate and willing and interested in
working toward a common goal. ere
are a lot of other people who are not in-
terested in chamber music who wouldn’t
do very well here.”
In addition, she says, RSMI tries
to cut out the “competitive, negative
aspect” of some elite music schools by
eliminating hierarchies and treating
every student the same. Such an egali-
tarian approach and the curtailment of
as many other distractions as possible
help give participants the peace of mind
they need to just focus on the music. In
addition, there are few imposed dead-
lines; the musicians can take the time
they need to properly prepare a piece.
“It’s a very, very meaningful thing
that she’s built,” says Jonathan Biss, the
accomplished pianist who happens
to be one of her two sons. “I know so
many people—people who I went to
school with, from my generation, and
people who are my students and my
JUNE 18 – JULY 8, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
27