LIVE | Sidney Lee, 18, viola

Introductions goes live once again with viola soloist Sidney Lee of Arlington Heights. She presents music by Rebecca Clarke, J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, and Sergei Prokofiev, joined by Milana Pavchinskaya on piano. Thank you to the Rhapsody Theater in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood for hosting Introductions this morning. Sidney Lee, 18, is a Merit Scholarship Fellow at the Academy of the Music Institute of Chicago, where she studies with Roland Vamos and Davis King. A native of San Francisco, Sidney began playing violin at the age of 4, and later started viola at 14. As a member of the Perlman Music Program, she has spent her summers studying under Itzhak Perlman, Carol Rodland, and Kirsten Docter. Sidney was named a finalist in the International Anton Rubinstein Competition in Germany, and a semifinalist in both the 9th Johansen International Competition in Washington DC and the Stulberg International String Competition. In addition to being a 2022 National YoungArts Winner, she has received 1st prize from the National Federation of Music Club’s Wendell Irish Viola Award, American Opera Society of Chicago, and the Musicians Club of Women. She has taken masterclasses from Paul Neubauer, Matthew Lipman, Richard O’Neill, and Phillip Ying. An avid chamber musician, Sidney won first prize in the St. Paul String Quartet Competition and was a semifinalist in the 2021 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. She is also a mentor for the No Repeats Project, a group that teaches music to incarcerated teens in juvenile detention. Graduating from Buffalo Grove High School in May 2022, Sidney has been accepted into both the Harvard-New England Conservatory and Columbia-Juilliard dual degree programs. Playlist Rebecca Clarke: Viola Sonata I. Impetuoso Johann Sebastian Bach: Cello Suite No 3 in C, BWV 1009: Bourrée 1 & 2 Gigue Johannes Brahms: Viola Sonata in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1: II. Andante un poco adagio Sergei Prokofiev arr. Vadim Borisovsky: Romeo and Juliet: I. Introduction III. Juliet, the Young Girl V. Dance of the Knights Sidney Lee, viola; Milana Pavchinskaya, piano Some music is removed from the podcast version for copyright reasons.