Palatine Musician Takes 2nd in International Violin Competition

Two alumni of the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy for gifted pre-college pianists and string players have placed first and second in the prestigious and widely respected 10th International Violin Competition Leopold Mozart in Augsburg, Germany.

Joshua Brown, who moved to Gurnee, Ill. from Washington DC to study with Academy faculty Almita and Roland Vamos for five years, earned first prize; he also won the Kronberg Academy’s Special Prize, which provides a scholarship for active participation in a master class at the Academy, and Prize by Jury Chairman Benjamin Schmid, which includes a personal invitation from Schmid to perform at the International Chamber Music Festival Kempten 2019. A recipient of the Stradivari Society of Chicago since 2016, Brown has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York City, Severence Hall in Cleveland, Symphony Center in Chicago, and Arnold Katz State Concert Hall in Novosibirsk, Russia. He has been a top prize winner in dozens of regional, national, and international competitions and was named a 2018 Yamaha Young Performing Artist, the youngest and only precollege winner for 2018, as well as the only violinist to receive that distinction since 2014. While at the Academy, alternating between first violin and viola as part of Kairos String Quartet, he won First Prize at the A.N. & Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Music Competition and the Rembrandt Chamber Music Competition and earned Gold Medals in the Junior Division of the 2018 Fischoff National Chamber Competition and the Junior String Division of the 2018 M-Prize International Chamber Arts Competition, making Kairos the only chamber group ever to win the top prizes at both Fischoff and M-Prize in the same year. Brown currently studies at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Karisa Chiu, from Palatine, Ill., took second prize. While at the Academy, she studied with Almita Vamos for five years. She has won top prizes at numerous other national and international competitions, including the Blount-Slawson Young Artists Competition, the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the Stulberg String Competition, the Cooper International Competition, and the Walgreens National Concerto Competition. In 2017, she gave a solo recital at the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series in Chicago and was a 2017 YoungArts finalist. Chiu has performed as a soloist with the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony, the Montgomery Symphony, the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, among many others. She is one of the few students invited to the 2019 Angel Fire Music Festival in New Mexico where she will collaborate with the faculty artists. Chiu currently studies at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Music Institute of Chicago Academy alumni have gone on to prestigious careers, among them Matthew Lipman, a violist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Hannah Selonick, director of product development at artificial intelligence startup NexLP who was just named one of Crain’s Chicago Business’s “20 In Their 20s”; Gabriel Cabezas, a cellist with the yMusic Ensemble who also recently played backup for Paul Simon; and Leah Ferguson, a violist with the New York Philharmonic.

The Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, led by Director James Setapen, is a nationally recognized training center for highly gifted pre-college pianists and string players that provides a comprehensive music education for students who aspire to be professional musicians. Faculty, staff, and students come together for an intensive 30-week program that includes private lessons with Academy artist faculty, a rigorous chamber music component, a stimulating chamber orchestra experience, and accelerated music theory classes. Pianists additionally study keyboard history and literature, improvisation, and keyboard skills in an intimate group setting. A hallmark of the Academy is the weekly master class when students perform for and observe acclaimed musicians and educators who share their knowledge. The Academy faculty, who teach at some of the country’s most prestigious conservatories and music schools, have a passion for developing young talent and an established track record of student achievement.

Music Institute of Chicago

The Music Institute of Chicago is dedicated to transforming lives through music education. Foundedin 1931, the Music Institute has grown to become one of the largest and most respected community music schools in the nation. Offering musical excellence built on the strength of its distinguished faculty, commitment to quality, and breadth of programs and services, the Music Institute isa member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Pre-collegiate Arts Schools (ACCPAS). Each year, the Music Institute’s teachers reach thousands of students of all ages and levels of experience. Music Institute locations include Chicago, Evanston, Winnetka, Lincolnshire, Lake Forest, and Downers Grove. In addition, the Music Institute is proud of its longstanding partnership with the Chicago Public Schools through its Arts Link program. The Music Institute offers lessons and classes, and concerts through its Community Music School, Academy, and Nichols Concert Hall.