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The sculpure hanging
in the lobby of the John
D. Harza Building, the
home of RSMI and
Bennett Gordon Hall,
was designed by metal
sculptor and Ravinia
Life Trustee Richard
Hunt to represent
the Edward Gordon
Award, which was
inaugurated in 2013
and first honored
Miriam Fried for her
leadership of RSMI.
extend her teaching time there, and that
led to her fateful phone call with Mehta.
e conversation happened on a
Friday, so Fried asked if she could think
about his proposal over the weekend—
and she was reluctant at rst. “It’s one
thing to waltz in here and teach and
leave,” she admits, “but it’s quite another
to be responsible for so much of what
happens here.” But her family nudged
her toward accepting the job. She recalls
her older son, Daniel Biss, now an
Illinois state senator who recently was a
popular Democratic candidate for gov-
ernor, being particularly persuasive.
“She valued this institution,” Daniel
remembers thinking, “and if she were
really able to put her stamp on it, it
would be a way to impart an important
system of values to a whole lot of young,
talented musicians in a way and, frankly,
on a scale that being a teacher in a par-
ticular institution doesn’t a ord her.”
Daniel, his wife, and their two
children live not far from Ravinia’s
grounds, so an added bonus of Fried’s
annual summer residency has been an
almost daily opportunity for all of them
to spend time together. “I imagine that’s
not what Ravinia was planning for,”
he says with a laugh, “but we certainly
appreciate it.” [In fact, that has since
entered into the plan of the experience
Ravinia o ers the musicians attending
RSMI—the festival owns several of
the residential homes adjacent to its
grounds and houses them there to foster
the familial summer retreat atmosphere
of the institute, rather than creating a
commuter school.]
In talking to Fried’s two sons and
others, what is frequently mentioned
are the closely held values that are at the
root of her teaching. Jonathan describes
these as being “ferociously honest”
and incapable of faking a sentiment or
thought, and possessing a total devotion
to music and expecting other musi-
cians to do the same. At the same time,
she is a highly analytical thinker who
can bring clarity to complex musical
concepts.
In short, says Jonathan, who has
twice taught at RSMI himself and o en
seen his mother in action, she has every
quality one would want in a teacher.
“Obviously, I’m not objective,” he admits.
“But I also think I happen to be right.”
Ask Fried about her approach to
teaching, and it quickly becomes clear
that it is grounded in her approach to
music. She sees the performer as an
intermediary between the composer and
the audience, and she believes the per-
former needs to understand the com-
poser’s intentions as much as possible
and communicate those with listeners.
It’s also important that an artist love the
music and possess the “generous spirit”
to help the audience to love it as well.
“My job is to illuminate the material in
the music,” she says, “and to gure out
how to help them [students] commu-
nicate that with passion, commitment,
and understanding. Just like in a speech,
if you don’t know what you are talking
about, don’t talk. But if you do know
what you are talking about, and you talk
in a monotone, it’s still not very good.”
Rather than emphasizing technique,
Fried talks about providing tools to the
young artists so they understand such
things as musical structure and harmo-
ny and can develop their own approach
to musical works. “I don’t believe that
a teacher should tell people how to
play the music,” she says. “ at should
be the result of thinking—deep think-
ing—by the students, and they come to
a conclusion based on knowledge and
experience.”
For -year-old violinist Tessa Lark,
who in her early training was focused
on technical perfection, such an ap-
proach was startling. e
recipient
of a prestigious Avery Fisher Career
Grant calls Fried a “second mother,”
because she grew up so much during the
eight years she studied with the elder
performer, rst privately at Indiana
University and later at the New England
Conservatory. “She opened up my world
to all these amazing new ideas on inter-
pretation and being well informed,” says
Lark, who spent two summers at RSMI,
in
and
. “She was blowing
my mind with every sentence that was
coming out of her mouth.”
PATRICK GIPSON/RAVINIA
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 18 – JULY 8, 2018
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