LIVE | Esme Arias-Kim, 18, violin

We welcome a return guest, Esme Arias-Kim, who grew up in the Chicago area but has spent the last two years studying at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. She’s joined by Milana Pavchinskaya in music of Bach, Brahms, Debussy, Price, Wieniawski, and Tchaikovsky. Esme Arias-Kim, 18, recently graduated from the Colburn Music Academy as a Kohl Scholar, holding a full room, board and tuition merit scholarship. She is a student of the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair, Mr. Robert Lipsett, and will continue studying with him at the Colburn Conservatory in the Fall of 2024. She previously studied with Almita Vamos and Betty Haag-Kuhnke. Most recently Esme received the Silver Medal at the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition and Gold Medal at the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s 29th Annual Young Artist Competition. She also won the 2023 Crain-Maling Foundation CSO Young Artists Competition and soloed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in May 2024. Esme made her solo orchestral debut at the age of ten with the Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago and has continued to make solo appearances with the likes of the Minnesota Orchestra, Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Northwest Indiana Symphony, and New Philharmonic. She has also had solo recitals at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Peninsula Music Festival, the Chicago Cultural Center, 92Y New York, and Musikferien at Starnberger See in Germany. She has received masterclasses from Hilary Hahn, Midori Goto, Julia Fischer, Vadim Gluzman, Kirill Troussov, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Mihaela Martin, Ilya Kaler, and Philip Setzer, as well as the Borromeo Quartet and the Cavani Quartet. Esme plays on an 1866 J.B. Vuillaume, generously loaned to her by the Geeting Family. Esme previously gave a solo recital on Introductions in November 2020. She has also been featured as a concerto soloist in April 2023, April 2022, and October 2016; and as a chamber musician in August 2022, August 2021 and August 2020. She also performed on WFMT’s 70th Anniversary Day of Celebration in December 2021, and was featured on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight in April 2020.