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–Tessa Lark, a longtime protégée of Miriam Fried’s and two-time RSMI alumna
“
She opened up my world to all these amazing
new ideas on interpretation
…
she was blowing
my mind with every sentence out of her mouth
.
”
Above: Fried leads a
string quartet rehearsal
during the summer of
2008 with Tessa Lark
(second from right),
who studied with the
violinist for eight years,
including two at RSMI,
before winning an
Avery Fisher Career
Grant in 2016.
Left: Fried invited
Lark to be part of the
2012 Musicians from
RSMI tour, performing
Bernard Rands’s
Second String Quartet
alongside (from right)
violist Ayane Kozasa
and cellist Nathan
Vickery.
In one of her rst sessions with
Fried, the teacher asked what Lark was
trying to do in a particular phrase from
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, and the
young violinist responded that she didn’t
know. She remembers Fried telling her,
“You can tell me anything. I can hate
the idea that you have here. But ‘I don’t
know’ is never a good response.” e
lesson was evident: Always have a sound
conviction behind what you are doing.
A big part of Fried’s approach is
direct, hands-on mentoring. Each sum-
mer, she serves as second violinist for
a string quartet that she puts together
with three participants in the RSMI
program, rehearsing and performing
with them, and several of the other fac-
ulty members do the same. “We try to
have every kind of interaction possible,”
she says, “so we eat together, we work
together, and we try to interact socially
some. It’s a total package.”
Although there is much talk about
the di erences between those who
come from before, during, and a er the
millennial generation, Fried has found
that the musicians who come to RSMI
haven’t varied much over the last quar-
ter-century. Sure, some of the demo-
graphics have shi ed, and the way that
teachers are addressed has become more
informal, but those are minor things. “In
the fundamental ways that I care about
how they are—their talent, accomplish-
ment, and dedication to what they do—
they haven’t changed,” she says.
At , Fried has reached an age when
many people are already retired, but
she remains as active and enthusias-
tic as ever. While she has reduced her
performing schedule, the violinist has
no plans to scale back her teaching or to
stop spending her summers at Ravinia.
And for his part, Ravinia President and
CEO Welz Kau man says, “For as long
as Miriam wants to to be with us, we’re
honored to have her leading the RSMI
piano and strings program evergreen.”
“I don’t see myself stepping away,
and I’ll tell you why,” Fried adds. “First
of all, I love it. So, why would I stop
doing what I love? Secondly, I really feel
that spending time with young people
is a privilege. ey’re great, especially
the ones I spend time with. It keeps me
young.”
Kyle MacMillan served as classical music critic
for the
Denver Post
from 2000 through 2011.
He currently freelances in Chicago, writing for
such publications and websites as the
Chicago
Sun-Times
,
Wall Street Journal
,
Opera News
, and
Classical Voice of North America
.
RUSSELL JENKINS/RAVINIA (2008); PATRICK GIPSON/RAVINIA (2012)
RAVINIA MAGAZINE | JUNE 18 – JULY 8, 2018
32