Musicians from the Steans Music Institute
Friday, April 6
Beethoven - Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 11
Bernard Rands - String Quartet No. 2
Miriam Fried, violin
Tessa Lark, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Deborah Pae, cello
Nathan Vickery, cello
Adam Golka, piano
“The young musicians who played my Second String Quartet so beautifully were extraordinary both in technical accomplishment and sensitive, musical intelligence.”
- Bernard Rands, composer
The Steans Music Institute is Ravinia's summer conservatory, bringing together each summer talented young musicians from around the world to make music together under the supervision of an internationally renowned faculty. Through its three programs—jazz, piano and strings, and singers—young artists at the Steans Music Institute attend master classes given by musical luminaries, have daily coaching with the institute's faculty, and present recitals offered as part of Ravinia Festival's summer programming. Many of the institute's alumni have gone on to achieve notable successes in solo performance, opera, jazz, and chamber music.
Miriam Fried
Program director at the Steans Music Institute’s program for piano and strings since 1994, Miriam Fried also teaches at New England Conservatory.
She served as first violinist of the recently disbanded Mendelssohn String Quartet and for many years was distinguished professor of music at Indiana University.
Winner of Israel’s Tenth Anniversary Violin Competition, Genoa’s Paganini International Competition, and Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, she has appeared as soloist with world’s greatest orchestras and is equally active as recitalist and chamber musician both in the United States and abroad.
Tessa Lark
Kentucky native Tessa Lark has toured nationally and internationally as a violin soloist. At age 16, she performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto in G major with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and has since then performed other concerti with the Santa Cruz Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, Chinese Opera and Ballet Symphony Orchestra, and New England Conservatory’s Symphony Orchestra as a result of winning the school’s Violin Concerto Competition in 2010 with the Walton Violin Concerto. Lark has given many solo recitals, including concerts for the radio broadcasted Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert series, the Chamber Music Tulsa series, and the Caramoor Wednesday Morning Concert series. As part of the Starling Chamber Orchestra until 2006, Ms. Lark performed as soloist at the Kennedy Center and toured with the orchestra as both concertmaster and soloist in England, Europe, China, and Russia.
An avid chamber musician, Tessa has participated in the Music in the Vineyards festival and Caramoor’s Rising Star Series, and has attended many summer festivals including Yellow Barn, Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, and the Perlman Music Program’s Chamber Music Workshop. She has collaborated with renowned artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Miriam Fried, Donald Weilerstein, Pamela Frank, Anthony Marwood, Peter Frankl, Atar Arad, Roger Tapping Ralph Kirshbaum, Timothy Eddy, and Ronald Thomas.
Miss Lark was the first prize winner in both the 2008 Irving Klein International Strings Competition and the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. Other awards include fourth prize in the 2009 Michael Hill International Violin Competition and first prize for the Kentucky division of the Stillman-Kelley Competition, and the top prize for NEC’s Honors Ensemble Competition as part of the Sonica String Quartet.
Tessa started playing violin at age six, studying with Cathy McGlasson. She joined the Starling Strings Program at University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music in 2001 and studied with Kurt Sassmannshaus. She entered New England Conservatory in the fall of 2006 and currently studies with Miriam Fried and Lucy Chapman.
Keeping in touch with her Kentucky roots, Tessa enjoys playing bluegrass music. She has played with Narrow Road, her father’s gospel bluegrass band, since she was eight years old, and has attended Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle Camp in Tennessee for several years.
Tessa plays a Giovanni Tononi violin, dated ca. 1690, on loan from the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.
Ayane Kozasa
Twenty-three-year-old Ayane Kozasa from Chicago entered the Curtis Institute of Music in 2009 and studies with renowned violist Misha Amory and Roberto Díaz, former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra and president of Curtis. At Curtis she has also studied with Michael Tree, violist and founding member of the Guarneri String Quartet. All students at Curtis receive merit-based full-tuition scholarships, and Ms. Kozasa is the George and Marie Hecksher Annual Fellow.
Since beginning her musical studies at age four, Ms. Kozasa has achieved recognition as a soloist and chamber musician. She has been awarded first prize in numerous competitions, including the Kingsville International Competition (at which she was also awarded the Bach Prize) and Skokie Valley Symphony Concerto Competition. She has been a prizewinner in the Cleveland Institute of Music Concerto Competition, as well as the prestigious Irving M. Klein International String Competition. Ms. Kozasa currently performs as a substitute in the viola section of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician, Ms. Kozasa has been a part of several active chamber ensembles. As the violist of the Iannis quartet, she was invited to participate in the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and studied chamber music with many distinguished artists including the Tokyo String Quartet and the Vermeer Quartet. The quartet also participated in outreach programs sponsored by the Cleveland Chamber Society and was selected to perform at the Kennedy Center as a part of the Conservatory Project. As the violist of the Juniper quartet, she was invited to Music from Angel Fire’s Young Artist Program.
Ms. Kozasa is a frequent participant in festivals, and she has attended the Meadowmount School of Music, Aspen Music Festival and School, Mimir Chamber Music Festival, and New York String Orchestra Seminar. In 2010 she participated in Ravinia's Steans Music Institute.
Ms. Kozasa graduated with a Bachelor of Music in viola performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music studying with Kirsten Docter. She also studied violin performance with William Preucil while at CIM, and has worked with notable teachers such as Nathan Cole, Cyrus Forough, and Philip Lewis.
Deborah Pae
Cellist Deborah Pae is captivating audiences on world stages as a seasoned recitalist and chamber musician. Since her international debut in 2003 at the 45th Annual Grammy Awards honoring cellist Mstislav Rostropovich and her European recital debut in 2005 on the Musée de Louvre recital series in Paris, Ms. Pae has performed across four continents and appeared in recital at the invitation of the Colony Club, Young Musicians Forum, Neue Galerie, Musée de Grenoble, Artists Ascending Recital Series, and the Van Wezel Foundation’s Young Artists Series. She has performed extensively at several festivals including the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute (Chicago), the 7th Adam International Cello Festival in New Zealand, the International Musicians Seminar (IMS) and Open Chamber Music (OCM) at Prussia Cove (UK), the Perlman Music Program (NY), and Kneisel Hall (ME), and has participated in master classes by Alfred Brendel, Wolfgang Emmanuel Schmidt, and Ralph Kirshbaum.
In March 2006, Ms. Pae became the first cellist in 16 years to receive the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s first prize Henry Lewis Award in their 30th Annual Young Artist Auditions. She made her solo debut with the NJSO in a series of concerts at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and Red Bank Theatre, and since then, has also performed as soloist with the Livingston Symphony Orchestra and Westchester Philharmonic.
As an avid chamber musician, Ms. Pae has been described by the New York Times as “an alert cellist…a solid foundation” after performing Mozart’s String Quintet in G minor with violinist Itzhak Perlman at the Metropolitan Museum. As alumna of the Perlman Music Program, she collaborates on many occasions with Mr. Perlman including performances of Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence and Mozart’s Viola Quintet in D-Major at the MET Museum and McCarthur Theater Center at Princeton University, and multiple performances of Mendelssohn’s Octet which was played at the opening night of the Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. Ms. Pae has also traveled with the program to Israel, China, and Sarasota, Florida. She has appeared on PBS’s “Live From Lincoln Center” in 2003 and CBS’s Kennedy Center Honors with Mr. Perlman and Pinkas Zuckerman, and has been heard in broadcast on Radio France and Chicago’s WFMT 98.7 Music from Ravinia and Live from the Mayne Stage.
Ms. Pae has enjoyed collaborating and performing with a multitude of artists including Pamela Frank, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Donald Weilerstein, Kim Kashkashian, Roger Tapping, Marcy Rosen, Peggy Pearson, and Hamish Milne. During the 2009-10 season, she appeared at Chamber Music Live at Le Frak Auditorium at Queens College, the Schneider Concert Series at the New School, the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Series, the National Arts Club, the Brooklyn Friends of Chamber Music, and Kean University’s Ars Vitalis Concert Series.
Ms. Pae has been a young artist fellow for two summers (2010, 2011) at the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago where she has performed extensively at Bennett-Gordon Hall including Beethoven’s String Quartet Opus 130 and Grosse Fuga with violinist Miriam Fried. She has also been guest artist on the “Music for Food” concert series in Boston created by renowned violist Kim Kashkashian and will be returning on its roster this year. Highlights over the last year include concerts in Jordan Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C., and Jazz at Lincoln Center in collaboration with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and Perlman Music Program. Ms. Pae looks forward to performing with members of the Manhattan Piano Trio, Eugenia Zukerman, and appearing as a guest artist in a series of concerts with Beyond the Chamber in Colorado in the 2011-12 season.
Ms. Pae began her musical studies at the age of four with Nellis Delay, sister of the late Dorothy Delay, and shortly thereafter, at the age of seven, was the youngest cellist accepted into the Pre-College Division of the Juilliard School under André Emelianoff. She completed her undergraduate studies at Juilliard in 2010 with Joel Krosnick and is currently pursuing a masters degree with Laurence Lesser at New England Conservatory with sponsorship from the Gregor Piatigorsky and Virginia Donlon Scholarships. Combining her love for chamber music and deep commitment to music education and outreach, Ms. Pae has spent her time as a chamber music and orchestral mentor at the Juilliard Pre-College, New England Conservatory Prep School, Kneisel Hall, and Perlman Music Program. Ms. Pae plays on a Vuillaume cello ca. 1860 generously on loan to her from the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.
Nathan Vickery
Twenty-one-year-old cellist Nathan Vickery, from Indianapolis, began his musical studies at age five, and currently studies with Peter Wiley at the Curtis Institute of Music. His previous teachers include Susan Moses at the Indiana University String Academy and Csaba Onczay at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Mr. Vickery has been a prize-winner in numerous competitions. In 2006 he won first prize in the Second International David Popper Cello Competition (high-school division) held in Varpalota, Hungary. He also won first prize in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s 2005 Maurer Young Musician’s Contest and 2006 Side-By-Side Concerto Competition, the Carmel Symphony Orchestra’s 2006 Young Artist Competition, and the 2008 New World Youth Orchestras Young Artist Competition. Additionally he has appeared on National Public Radio's program “From the Top,” as a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Carmel Symphony Orchestra, and most recently with the Virginia Beach Symphony Orchestra.
In May 2011, Mr. Vickery participated in a three-week chamber music tour of Europe with Curtis on Tour. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with violinist Joshua Bell, pianist Jonathan Biss, and with contemporary music ensemble Eight Blackbird. In collaboration with the Indiana University String Academy Chamber Orchestra, Mr. Vickery, as solo cellist, has performed with violinists Jaime Laredo, Alexander Kerr, Soovin Kim, and Stefan Milenkovich. And in May 2009, he participated in a two-week tour of France with the IU String Academy.
He has participated in master classes with Janos Starker, Antonio Meneses, Timothy Eddy, Gary Hoffman, Frans Helmerson, Sharon Robinson, and Richard Aaron, among others, and has studied chamber music with Pamela Frank, Steve Tenenbom, Ida Kavafian, Miriam Fried, and Meng-Chieh Liu. In the summer of 2010 he participated in the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago.
Adam Golka
Pianist Adam Golka, 24, is the winner of two of America's most prestigious pianistic awards: the 2008 Gilmore Young Artist Award, and most recently the 2009 Max I. Allen Classical Fellowship Award of the American Pianists Association.
Golka has maintained a highly-active performing schedule in his consistently growing career, ever since he won the first prize in the 2nd China Shanghai International Piano Competition in 2003. His extensive concerto appearances have included engagements with the Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Phoenix, San Diego, Fort Worth, Syracuse, Lansing, Knoxville, Albany, Ann Arbor, Wichita, South Dakota, Pensacola, Mobile, Silicon Valley, West Virginia, Erie, and Grand Rapids symphonies, the Grand Teton and Colorado music festival orchestras , and outside the US with the BBC Scottish Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Warsaw Philharmonic, Sinfonia Varsovia, Shanghai Philharmonic, Orchestre Poitou-Charentes, Teresa Carreno Youth Orchestra (Caracas) and Orquesta Filarmonica de Jalisco (Guadalajara). He has collaborated with such eminent conductors as Donald Runnicles, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Pinchas Zukerman, Mark Wigglesworth, Michael Christie, Andreas Delfs, Edwin Outwater, David Lockington, Daniel Hege, Julian Kuerti, Michael Morgan, Timothy Muffitt, Ryan McAdams, as well as his brother, conductor Tomasz Golka.
In March 2010, Adam made his Isaac Stern Auditorium debut at Carnegie Hall, playing Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto with the New York Youth Symphony. Golka's solo and chamber music appearances have taken him to famous venues such as the Concertgebouw (Kleine Zaal) in Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall) in New York, Musashino Hall in Tokyo, Nakanoshima Hall in Osaka, the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, and prestigious festivals such as the Gilmore Keyboard Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Music@Menlo, the New York City International Keyboard Festival at Mannes, the Newport Music Festival, and the Duszniki Chopin festival. His upcoming engagements include concertos of Mozart, Liszt, and Ravel with the Phoenix, Santa Fe, Fairfax, and Duluth Superior symphonies; recitals at the Piano Texas International Academy and Festival, Washington International Piano Festival, and Dakota Sky International Piano Festival; a tour with Musicians from Ravinia's Steans Institute; and a two-night marathon of the complete Beethoven piano concertos with the Lubbock Symphony and his brother Tomasz at the podium.
Adam has amassed a broad performing repertoire in his young career; he has performed more than twenty piano concertos and enough solo works to fill at least twenty recital programs, among others the thirty-two sonatas of Beethoven. In his current recital appearances, Adam can be heard performing esteemed American composer Richard Danielpour's "Piano Fantasy" (2008), which he premiered in 2009, thanks to a commission by the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival for Adam. He is also a dedicated chamber music and lieder collaborator.
A 1st generation American, Golka comes from an immigrant family of Polish musicians. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Golka moved to Fort Worth, Texas, when he was 15 years-old, in order to pursue studies with Jose Feghali at Texas Christian University. Currently, Adam is studying with the legendary Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, but his primary residence is in New York City. Adam's earlier teachers were Dariusz Pawlas, in Houston, as well as his mother, Anna Golka.
His website can be found at www.adamgolka.com.