Ravinia Steans Music Institute 2019

RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE 23 PIANO AND STRINGS FELLOWS RSMI Nicholas Algot Swensen , viola The Butz Foundation Fellowship, Esther G. Klatz Fellowship, Elizabeth Ferguson Fellowship, Lester B. Knight Charitable Trust Fellowship Danish/American violist Nicholas Algot Swensen, 19 years old, started playing the viola at the age of 7 taking his first studies with the former Menuhin academy-professor Johannes Eskær. At age 15 he joined the class of prof. Barbara Westphal at Lübeck Musikhochschule and is currently studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Music with Lars Anders Tomter. Nicholas has been awarded numerous prestigious prizes in his home country and abroad, e.g. the Øresunds Solist competition 1st prize, Copenhagen Summer Festival talent prize and is a prizewinner at the 2019 international Max Rostal Competition. He holds grants from important Nordic foundations, among others Folmer Jensens foundation, Augustinus Fonden, Van Hauen Stipendium and Jacob Gade Foundation. He has participated in several music festivals around the world including Music@Menlo in California, Accademia Isola Classica in Italy and Oberstdorfer Musiksommer in Bavaria and has performed alongside prominent musicians such as The Danish String Quartet, Trio Con Brio and Nils Mönkemeyer. Besides viola playing Nicholas Swensen studies conducting at the Malko school of conducting at the Danish Radio. Janice Carissa , piano Harriet and Harry Bernbaum Piano Fellowship Janice Carissa, from Surabaya, Indonesia, entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2013 and studies piano with Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald. All students at Curtis receive merit-based, full tuition scholarships, and Ms. Carissa is the Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest Fellow. A recipient of numerous awards and honors, Ms. Carissa was recently awarded the 2018 Career Grant Winner of CharlotteWhite’s Salon De Virtuosi. In the same year, Ms. Carissa was also invited to collaborate with players of Berlin Philharmoniker’s Scharoun Ensemble at Penderecki Center in August 2018 performing works by Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Bach. Ms. Carissa was a Young Scholar of Lang Lang’s International Music Foundation (2014- 2016); the runner-up in the 2014 piano competition at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen Music Festival and School; Star Performance Award Winner of the 2012 American Protégé International Music Talent Competition in New York; the runner-up in Indonesia Pusaka International Piano Competition in 2011; and the Top Prize Winner of the IBLA Foundation’s 2006 International Piano Competition. In 2016, Ms. Carissa was invited to perform for the Auditorium opening at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. Other notable venues include The Sydney Opera House, Stern and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall in New York, Miller Theater in Columbia University, the Richardson Auditorium at Princeton University, the Kimmel Center, United Nations in New York, Oxford University’s St. Hilda’s College, Chicago’s Jay Priztker Pavilion, the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, and performances in Rimini, Ragusa, and Cesena in Italy. Audrey Chen , cello Richard Byron Stevens Memorial Fellowship A Washington native, cellist Audrey Chen has performed extensively as a solo and chamber musician around the world. Audrey has appeared on NPR’s From the Top Radio Show, soloed with the Seattle Symphony, Eastside Symphony, and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and has appeared as a guest artist alongside A Far Cry, the Silk Road Ensemble, the Parker Quartet, and the Borromeo Quartet. Her festival appearances include the Ravinia Steans Music Institute, Perlman Music Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Taos School of Music, Youth Cultural Music Guangzhou, and Sarasota Music Festival. She is scheduled to perform in the Boston Chamber Music Society series next season. A graduate of Harvard College, Audrey graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Molecular and Cellular Biology as part of the Harvard/NEC dual-degree program, where she also received her Master’s in Music studying under Laurence Lesser this past May. Samuel DeCaprio , cello Richard Byron Stevens Memorial Fellowship Currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at The Juilliard School, cellist Samuel DeCaprio is quickly establishing himself as one of today’s most creative artists and educators. Winner of the 2018 Aldo Parisot Prize from the Yale School of Music, awarded to “gifted cellists who show promise for concert careers,” he has won numerous prizes including the Arlington, Eastern Connecticut Symphony, Oneppo Chamber Music, William C. Byrd, and Windham Arts Council competitions, as well as the prestigious Performer’s Certificate from the Eastman School of Music. Passionate about chamber music, his festival appearances include Aspen, IMS Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music, Kneisel Hall, Lake George, and the NAC Young Artist Program led by violinist Pinchas Zukerman. He has also recently recorded an album for ECM Records with Cuban-jazz composer David Virelles as a member of the Nosotros Ensemble. Mr. DeCaprio holds degrees from the University of Connecticut, Eastman, Mannes, and Yale. Peter Eom , cello The Negaunee Foundation Fellowship A United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts and an Americans for the Arts Roundtable Fellow, cellist Peter Eom is recognized for bringing together a unique synthesis of thoughts into musical actualization. As soloist, Peter has worked with an eclectic selection of artists and organizations, including the National Symphony Orchestra, Bill T. Jones, Americans for the Arts, YoungArts, and Universal Music Group. An avid chamber musician, Peter has also collaborated or otherwise worked in a chamber setting with artists including Joshua Bell, Peter Frankl, Augustin Hadelich, Robert McDonald, and members of the Tokyo, Emerson, Brentano, Miró, Dover, and Guarneri String Quartets. His recent music festival appearances include the Ravinia Steans Music Institute (from last summer), the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival, NorfolkMusic Festival, and the Taos School of Music. A proponent of exploring many different sound worlds, Peter also involves himself in the tradition of historically informed performance practice as well as in the world of more recent music, having performed works by composers such as Boulez, Carter, Ives, Marsalis, Saariaho, Sciarrino, Stockhausen, and Zorn. Peter is currently pursuing a master’s degree in cello performance with Hans Jensen at Northwestern University, after completing his undergraduate studies with Clive Greensmith at the Colburn Conservatory of Music. Motti Fang Bentov , piano Mrs. C. F. Andes Music Fellowship, Gitta Gradova Cottle and Maurice H. Cottle Memorial Fellowship from Mr. and Mrs. H. George Mann, Jack Harris Memorial Fellowship from Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Epkins and family and friends of Jack Harris, Carl and Frances Korn Fellowship Motti was born in 1997 in Beijing, China, to an Israeli father and a Chinese mother. He grew up in Israel, starting his musical education at the age of 5, when he took his first piano lessons. In his youth and adolescent years he studied with two prominent musical figures that established the base of his pianistic craftsmanship and cultivated his passion and devotion for music: Ms. Hanah Shalgi and Prof. Vadim Monastyski. At the high school and early collegiate stage, Motti continued his musical education under Prof. Tomer Lev at the Buchmann- Mehta School of Music at the Tel-Aviv University, joining his studio in 2012. Under their guidance he went on to win numerous national prizes, including first prizes at the Ashdod Piano Competition, The Pnina Zaltsman Piano Competition and the Chopin Competition in Tel Aviv. During that period he also appeared in solo performances with numerous orchestras, such as the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra and Haifa Symphonic Orchestra. In May of 2017, during his freshman year at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music, he was chosen to play in the school’s annual Gala concert in Heichal Hatarbut Tel-Aviv, performing Tchaikovsky’s 1st Piano Concerto with the BMSOM Symphonic Orchestra, under the baton of Maestro Zubin Mehta. He is now continuing his artistic path at the New England Conservatory with Prof. Alexander Korsantia, under the mentorship of whom he won the NEC Concerto Competition and subsequently performed Ravel’s Concerto in G with the NEC Philharmonia and Maestro David Loebel in March 2018.