The trio has performed throughout the Chicago area, including the Metropolis Performing Arts Center Classical Music Series, Music Offering Recital Series, The Japanese-American Association Concert Series and Ossia Fine Arts space Concert Series. The trio is strongly involved in fundraising concerts and lecture recitals to promote the broadening of music education in the local community. Their recent engagements include a benefit concert for Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief efforts.
The members of the Chicago Trio have won prizes individually from various international competitions and have also performed as soloists in the United States, Japan and Europe.
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Violinist, founder, Artistic director 2006- An Australian Violinist, Christie-Keiko Abe performs as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician. She has given solo recitals in the USA, Austria, Japan and Australia.
She received her Bachelor of Music degree with Honors from The Sydney Conservatorium of Music at The University of Sydney, her Master of Music from the Australian Institute of Music, her PhD Specialist in Music in performance with Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honors from The University of Michigan School of Music, and post-graduate program Artist Certificate in performance from The University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music where she served as an assistant to Prof. David Perry. She has attended master-classes of Dorothy Delay, Cho-Liang Lin, Pamera Frank, Igor Ozim, Ruggiero Ricci and Igor Oistrakh. She also studied Suzuki Pedagogy for Violin & Piano.
As a soloist performer, Ms Abe has appeared with the Sydney Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra, the Schubertiade Series, Saturday at Sherwood, Columbia College Chicago Recital Series, Metropolis Performing Arts Center Classical concert series, Australian Musicians Academy Recital Series, Pan Pacific Piano Festival, Starling recital series in Aspen, Akademie Konzert series in Austria, International Chamber Artists Recital series, Concert series sponsored by the Chicago Japanese American Association and Sound Stage for the WTTW 11 and ABC television networks.
She has recorded on the NAXOS, Arabesque,and Albany labels with the IRIS Orchestra, and the Equillibrim label with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra. Among many others, Ms. Abe is a founding member of the Chicago Trio, Ensemble 312 and the IRIS Orchestra under music director Michael Stern in Memphis, Tennessee. She is also a member of the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, Ravinia Festival Orchestra and the Elgin Symphony Orchestra. She was the Concertmaster at the Michigan Musical Theater Orchestra, International Pacific Music Festival and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra.
Currently, Ms. Abe is a faculty member in the String, Piano and Suzuki Departments at the Sherwood community music division at Columbia College, Illinois, where she is also a staff accompanist. In 2015, She was awarded the Suzuki Association of the America's Certificate of Achievement, an award given to teachers that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to excellence in their teaching.Her major teachers include Harry Curby, David Perry, Paul Kantor, Masao Kawasaki. She has studied piano with Junko Nagata, Margaret Hair, Gabriel Pusner, Lev Vlasenko and Oleg Stepanov from the Moscow Conservatory.
(英語。日本語 / English, Japanese)
Cellist, Assistant coordinator 2015-Martine Benmann is an active free-lance performer and teacher. She has performed with various chamber ensembles in Europe, Russia and the United States. She has collaborated in a number of new productions, including instrumental, theatrical pieces and film scores. Martine is a member of the Lincolnwood and Bach and Beyond chamber orchestras. She has performed with the CUBE Ensemble, Ars Musica Chicago, Syntagma, and has served as principal cellist with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She regularly collaborates with colleagues, performing at the University of Chicago, Sherwood Music School, Blackstone Public Library, Montgomery Place, Self-Help Home, PianoForte"Schubertiades"and PianoForte Salon Series broadcasts on WFMT.Martine Benmann is an Artist Diploma graduate from Roosevelt University. She received an Advanced Certificate in Cello Performance from the Moskow Conservatory of Music (Russia), a Master Degree from the American Conservatory of Music ( Chicago), and a Bachelor Degree (Kuenstlrische Abschlusspruefung) from the Folkwang Hochscule ( Essen, Germany).Her teachers include Kim Scholes, Natalia Chakhovskaya, Nathaniel Rosen, Maria Kliegel and Jean Deplace. She is an SAA certified Suzuki teacher. She is founder of the Cello Suzuki program, co-founder of the Suzuki Program and the founder of String Fest at Sherwood Community Music School.
Ivana Bukvich earned her Bachelor of Music in performance from the University of Arts in Belgrade, Serbia, and her master of music in performance from Indiana University where she studied under Prof. Alexander Toradze. Ms.Ivana was the head of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music, Columbia College Chicago from 2000-2015 and coached chamber music for Gallery 37 Summer programs. She is a full time lecturer at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she teaches applied piano, keyboard classes and UIC choirs. She is a founding member of Ensemble 312 (Abe-Bukvich Duo). She has performed at Music festivals in Scotland, St,Peters Burg Russia, Netherlands, Finland and Ravinia Festival in highland park. Ms.Ivana is an active adjudicator and collaborative musician in the Chicago area. Professional affliations included CAMTA, MTNA and Royal Conservatory of Canada.
