Ravinia Steans Music Institute 2019

26 RAVINIA’S STEANS MUSIC INSTITUTE has won top prizes at competitions such as TEMSIG- National Music Competition of Slovenia and Iceland Symphony Soloist Competition. A passionate chamber musician, Rannveig has appeared at festivals including Taos School of Music, IMS Prussia Cove, Kneisel Hall, Sarasota and Aspen. In 2016-2017, she was a member of the Kahlo Quartet, as part of Juilliard’s Honors Chamber Music Program. Rannveig graduated with a Bachelor of Music from The Juilliard School in 2018 under the tutelage of Laurie Smukler. She is now pursuing her Master of Music at Juilliard as a proud recipient of the Kovner Fellowship, studying with Donald Weilerstein and Catherine Cho. Emily Shehi , violin The Thoresen Foundation Fellowship Violinist Emily Shehi is currently a student of Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music and served as concertmaster and principal second of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra for its 2018-2019 season. She won first prize at the Kansas City Symphony Young Artist Competition and bronze medal at the 2015 Irving M. Klein International String Competition. Emily has collaborated and performed with Jonathan Biss, Ani Kavafian, Steve Tenenbom and Peter Wiley. She has attended the Four Seasons Chamber Music Festival Winter Workshop, Taos School of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School, Music@Menlo, and the New York String Orchestra Seminar. Additionally, she performed in masterclasses given by Noah Bendix-Balgley, Sarah Chang, Midori, Sylvia Rosenberg and Mihaela Martin. This past summer, Emily studied chamber music with musicians of the Borromeo String Quartet, Miró Quartet and Brentano String Quartet as well as pianist Robert McDonald at the Taos School of Music. Zexun Shen , cello Jane W. and Irving H. Goldberg Memorial Fellowship, Susan and Roger Stone Fellowship, Bogert-Marshall Fellowship Born in Shanghai, China, Zexun Shen (Jason) has studied with Timothy Eddy at the Mannes College of Music where he attended on full scholarship, graduated with honors and received the Goldsmith Foundation Award. He completed his professional study with Dean’s Award under the guidance of Philippe Muller at Manhattan School of Music in 2016. Mr. Shen is a tenured cello musician in the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and is studying under Colin Carr at Stony Brook University where he is enrolled in the DMA program. Mr. Shen has performed extensively in the US and abroad as a soloist and chamber musician, playing at Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, Steinway Hall, Merkin Hall, Metropolitan Museum and Morgan Library. He has participated in music festivals including Gong Geng Academy (China), Heifetz, Taos, and Sarasota where he worked with the members of the Borromeo Quartet, Brentano Quartet, Guarneri Quartet, Moscow Rachmaninoff Piano Trio, and Orion Quartet, among others. Mr. Shen has performed with world-renowned musicians including Shmuel Ashkenazi, Vladimir Feltsman, Herbert Greenberg, Ralph Kirshbaum, Joseph Silverstein and Mark Steinberg. Ben Solomonow , cello The Goldyne and Herbert Heyman Memorial Fellowship from Susan and Sy Frolichstein, Judy and Jay Heyman, Gerry and Steve Keen Ben Solomonow is a winner of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and has been featured on WFMT and NPR. He has been invited to perform at Disney Concert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Ravinia and the SOKA Performing Arts Center. Ben’s collaborations include those with Josef Silverstein, Gary Hoffman, Emanuel Ax, Roberto Diaz, Shmuel Ashkenasi, Martin Beaver, Meng- Chieh Liu, Anton Nel, Rami Solomonow, Vadim Gluzman, Ilya Kaler, Paul Coletti, Atar Arad, and members of the Tokyo, Cleveland, Vermeer, Pacifica, and Avalon String Quartets. In addition to concerto appearances with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the Colburn Orchestra, he has been invited to participate in the Colburn Chamber Music Society, and is a guest artist with the Chicago Chamber Musicians. Ben is a Masters of Music candidate at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he studies with Clive Greensmith. Ben performs on an 1898 Vincenzo Postiglione cello on generous loan by the Stradivari Society of Chicago. Cosima Soulez Lariviere , violin A gift from Betsey and Dale Pinkert in honor of George Perlman & Betty Haag, Louella and Michael Sachs Fellowship Franco-Dutch violinist Cosima Soulez Larivière was born in Paris. At the Joachim Violin Competition (2018), Cosima received 3rd prize and prize for best interpretation of commissioned work. In 2017, she received 1st prize at the Bartok World Competition. In 2015, she won 1st prize at Brahms Competition and 3rd prize and Bach prize at Postacchini Competition. Cosima participated in master-classes with Zakhar Bron, Lewis Kaplan, Ana Chumachenko and Donald Weilerstein. In 2016 she became fellow at Tanglewood Music Centre. In 2018, she participated at ‘Chamber Music Connects the World’, Kronberg Academy and Verbier Festival Academy where she received the APCAV Award. Cosima holds ESU Music Scholarship (2015), Live Music Now Hannover e.V. Scholarship (2015), the Deutschland Stipendium (2016) and the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes (2017). At 8, Cosima obtained scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School. Currently, she studies in Hanover with Prof. Krzysztof Wegrzyn. Since 2019, Cosima plays a 1675 Giovanni Grancino, on loan from Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. Ursula Steele , viola Max and Lottie Gerber/ Oscar Gerber Fellowship from the Max and Lottie Gerber Foundation, Inc., Miriam B. Hotchkiss Memorial Fellowship, Hav and Lloyd Stone Fellowship Ursula Steele, born in Chicago in 1996, is a student of Atar Arad at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She started violin at age 4 and switched to viola eight years later. She formerly studied with Stacia Spencer at Northwestern University String Academy. She has toured and performed in cities throughout France, Italy, Spain, and China with the Northwestern Strings and with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. In 2014, during her experiences in the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra chamber music program, her quartet placed first in the Saint Paul String Quartet Competition. Ursula was the violist of Von Quartet for three years at the Jacobs School of Music, during which time the quartet was the recipient of the Kuttner Quartet Scholarship, and was also awarded a residency at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. Ursula is currently in the first year of her Master’s Degree. Meagan Turner, viola Ravinia Women’s Board Program for Piano and Strings Fellowship A violist with a powerful imagination and natural instinct, Toronto-native Meagan Turner is the two-time recipient of the Felix Galimir Award for Excellence in Chamber Music and has appeared at the Toronto Summer Music Festival, the St. Lawrence String Quartet Seminar, the Luminato Festival, the Orford Arts Center, the Lunenburg Academy, Tanglewood, and Ravinia, and also as the viola fellow in the Canadian Opera Company Academy (2016). Additionally, she has served as principal violist of the New York String Orchestra Seminar, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Centre Orchestra, and The Juilliard Orchestra. Meagan was chosen as a recipient of a Rachel Elizabeth Barton Pine Foundation Career Grant and is the current recipient of scholarship from the Virtu Foundation. She received her Bachelorʼs and Performance Certificate from the University of Toronto under the tutelage of Erika Raum and Eric Nowlin, and her Masterʼs degree at The Juilliard School as a full-scholarship student of Samuel Rhodes. She is currently a diploma candidate at the Manhattan School of Music and a young artist in residence with Carnegie Hallʼs Ensemble Connect. Amarins Wierdsma , violin Grace E. Hokin Fellowship Amarins Wierdsma, Born in Utrecht in 1991 to a musical family, began playing the violin at the age of two. Her teachers have included Coosje Wijzenbeek, Vera Beths and David Takeno. Amarins has taken part in festvals including: Ravinia Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, The International Holland Music Sessions among several others. Amarins has won RSMI PIANO AND STRINGS FELLOWS