Ilana Setapen, violin with the Academy Orchestra

Saturday, May 26 at 7:30 pm

Nichols Concert Hall

1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston

Tickets:  $30 adults | $20 seniors | $10 students

Concluding the Music Institute of Chicago’s Faculty and Guest Artist Series’ 2017–18 season, the Academy Orchestra performs with noted violinist Ilana Setapen Saturday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Ave., Evanston.
 
The program includes the Overture to Mozart’s opera The Impresario; Copland’s “Down a Country Lane”; and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 “Scottish.” Setapen joins the Orchestra for the program’s second half, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35. Conducting the program is Academy Director James Setapen, Ilana’s father.

Read an interview with Ilana and her father about the role of music in their lives, performing together and more >>

 
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 series 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.

More about Ilana Setapen

Ilana Setapen is associate concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, a position she also held with the Grant Park Music Festival Orchestra in Chicago for six years. She has held concertmaster positions with the Riverside Philharmonic in Los Angeles, the Juilliard Orchestra, the American Youth Symphony, and others. Setapen is also a favorite guest concertmaster with the Chicago Philharmonic. In recent summers, she has made guest appearances at the Olympic Music Festival on Bainbridge Island, and she spent two summers on the faculty of the Luzerne Music Center summer festival in Lake Luzerne, New York. She has won top prizes in many competitions, including the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, the Pasadena Showcase Competition, and the Kingsville International Competition. As a chamber musician, she guest-performs with the Rembrandt Chamber Players of Chicago and many other artists. Growing up in Amarillo, Texas, she comes from a musical family: her father, James, is a conductor and director of the Music Institute’s Academy, and her mother, Carol, was her first violin teacher.