Ravinia 2019, Issue 7, Week 15

Cellist Timotheos Petrin was at RSMI in 2017, having made his US debut with the Kansas City Symphony Or- chestra under Robert Spano the previous year. He subsequently became a finalist in the 2018 In- ternational Paulo Cello Competition, and he has also been a featured soloist with the Hel- sinki Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki. The Greek-Russian cellist has also collaborated with the Lahti and Athens Symphony Orchestras, Tapiolla Sinfonietta, Thessaloniki State Sym- phony, and the Greek-Turkish Youth Orches- tra. Petrin has spent two seasons in residence with the Performance Today radio program, including a recital tour of France, and has per- formed at the Marlboro Music Festival, Cham- berfest Cleveland, Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, and the Moritzburg and Dimitria Festivals. A Bachelor of Music student of Car- ter Brey and Peter Wiley at the Curtis Institute from 2012 to 2017, he has also been featured with the Curtis on Tour ensemble. Petrin is currently a pupil of Laurence Lesser at the New England Conservatory. Pianist Sahun Hong was at RSMI in 2016 and 2017 and has been a Young Steinway Artist since 2010. Most recently the winner of the 2017 Vendome Prize at Verbier, he also earned second prize at the International Bee- thoven Competition Vienna and was a finalist in the American Pianists Awards that same year. Hong has been featured as a soloist with the Mil- waukee, Indianapolis, Camerata New York, and Fort Worth Symphony Orchestras, among other ensembles, as well as at such venues as Carne- gie’s Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Église de Ver- bier, Merkin Hall, and the Kennedy Center. An avid chamber musician, Hong is the pianist of the award-winning Trio St. Bernard and has re- cently collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Colin Carr, Ani and Ida Kavafian, Daniel Phillips, and Steven Tenenbom. Having completed a Bache- lor of Music at Texas Christian University at age 16, he is currently a doctoral student of Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute. DANIELA LIEBMAN, piano Born in Mexico in 2002, Daniela Liebman be- gan studying piano at age 5, and three years later she became the youngest artist in the nation’s history to appear as a soloist with a professional orchestra, performing Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 8 with the Aguascalientes Symphony. She was soon tapped to appear with numerous oth- er ensembles, including the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmon- ic, and Jalisco, Flademex, Michoacan, Sinaloa, and Zapopan Symphony Orchestras. In 2013, Liebman made her Carnegie Hall debut per- forming Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, and that same year she debuted at Mexico’s Palacio de Bellas Artes as a soloist with the Orchestra de Camera de Bellas Artes, giving two performanc- es of works by Mozart and Shostakovich. Most recently the winner of the 2017 Piano Texas Concerto Competition, she has also earned top honors from the 2011 Night in Madrid and Lang Lang Telefonica competitions, 2012 Russian Mu- sic International Piano Competition in San José, CA, and the 2013 Lang Lang Junior Music Camp Competition. In 2014 Liebman was honored with Mexico’s National Youth Award, and she has subsequently been named among both the “40 Most Creative Mexicans in the World” and the “100 Most Creative and Powerful Women” by Forbes Mexico as well as featured in GQMexi- co , Vanity Fair , and Amy Poehler’s “Smart Girls.” She was also a musical ambassador to the 2018 Mexico Conference at Harvard University. To date, Liebman has appeared with more than 25 orchestras on four continents, recently includ- ing the Boca del Río and Orlando Philharmon- ics, Corpus Christi Symphony, Guatemala City Orchestra, and the Ecuador and Bogotá Nation- al Symphonies, and this year she will appear as a soloist with the Flagstaff and Hartford Sym- phonies, and the Minas Gerais, Massapequa, and Ontario Philharmonics. In June 2018 she re- leased her debut album on Warner Classics, fea- turing works by Schubert, Chopin, and Ponce. Daniela Liebman was a special guest at the 2015 inauguration of Ravinia’s onsite Sistema Ravinia student orchestra program and made her festi- val debut in 2017. EVAN RUGGIERO, singer/dancer Evan Ruggiero began dancing at the age of 5 in his hometown studio, and by age 10 he was ac- cepted into the famed New Jersey Tap Ensemble. Upon entering his sophomore year at Montclair State University while pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts in musical theater, Ruggiero was sud- denly diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer, in his right leg. Enduring nine surger- ies in a six-month period in an effort to save the leg, the cancer returned more aggressively than the original diagnosis. He was faced with the ultimate decision of amputation in order to stop the cancer and save his life, as well as undergoing chemotherapy for sixteen months. Eighteen months after the amputation, and only two days after receiving his “peg-leg,” Ruggi- ero was tapping again. In 2018 he received the Clive Barnes Award in Theatre, as well as nom- inations for both a Drama Desk Award for Best Actor in a Musical and a Chita Rivera Award for Best Dancer in a Musical, for his portrayal of Tom Jones in the off-Broadway hit Bastard Jones . This past year he was seen performing at Carnegie Hall and at the 90th Oscars ceremony. He has performed for many notable individuals, including Ellen DeGeneres, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden, and Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and he recently appeared onstage alongside two-time Grammy winner Jason Mraz. Evan Ruggiero and his S’Evan Legs combo are making their Ravinia debut. OCTOBER 5, 2019 – MAY 9, 2020 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 95 APRIL 25, 2020 MAY 2, 2020