STRINGS UNMATCHED

As a teenager, Benjamin Beilman spent nearly as much time in his family’s car as the gloves in the glove compartment did.

The future violin virtuoso attended schools in Ann Arbor, Michigan, for most of the week and—for five consecutive years—commuted to the Music Institute of Chicago for weekend classes. That’s a round trip of 500 miles, or the distance of a certain race held in Indianapolis each May.

“I did fly out of Detroit and take the train sometimes,” says Beilman, now a 34-year-old New Yorker in his second year as a faculty member (violin/performance) at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. “I’d get there mostly by car, with my dad (Ted). At times he’d let me drive when I had my driver’s permit. We’d talk about anything and everything—his life, my music, all kinds of topics. We’d listen to books on tape and music he liked, like Van Morrison and The Beatles. I went through a phase where I’d speak with a Russian accent and other accents.”

Dad would listen, stay focused while driving, and smile.

So, what in the world fueled the Beilman family to pump more gas each week than a UPS driver does during the holiday season? The opportunity for young Benjamin to blossom under the guidance of acclaimed Music Institute of Chicago (MIC) faculty members/ spouses Roland and Almita Vamos.

The violin and viola instructors have been recognized at the White House numerous times and were named Distinguished Teachers by the National Endowment for the Arts.

“I consider the five years I spent studying with Mr. and Mrs. Vamos at the Music Institute some of the most formative and important years of my life,” says Beilman, who lived in Washington, D.C., Houston, Atlanta, and suburban Western Springs before moving to Ann Arbor in 2003. “I still rely upon the inspiration and natural musicianship provided to me by the Vamoses during my weekly visits to the Music Institute as a teenager. These values continue to shape my music-making, both as a performer and now as a teacher at the Curtis Institute. For that, I am eternally grateful to both the Music Institute and the ever-supportive Vamoses.”

Beilman returns this weekend to Nichols Concert Hall—MIC’s state-of-the-art, 550-seat performance space in Evanston—as a part of Curtis on Tour, the Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative of the Curtis Institute of Music.

On March 9 he’ll join celebrated violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, award-winning cellist Oliver Herbert, and a trio of emerging artists from the Curtis Institute (violinist Na Hyun Della Kyun, violist Emad Zolfagheri, and cellist Francis Carr) for an electrifying program, including Richard Strauss’s Sextet from his final opera, Capriccio, a rare performance of Brahms’s exhilarating String Sextet No. 2 in G Major; Alban Berg’s Sonata in B Minor Op. 1; and a commission by Alyssa Weinberg (b. 1988), Illuminating Arches.

“I have so many fond memories of the Music Institute and of performing at Nichols, a beautiful, intimate setting where the audience gets to see the musicians’ facial expressions,” Beilman says. “The Music Institute was my haven, a Hogwarts school for obsessed, fully invested musicians like me who liked to practice four, six, sometimes eight hours a day. Fifteen-year-olds there performed complete concertos, which amazed me.”

Founded in 1931, the nonprofit Music Institute of Chicago provides music lessons and performance opportunities for beginners, casual learners, and aspiring professionals. Its seven locations are Chicago-Gratz Center, Chicago-St. James, Downers Grove, Evanston East, Lake Bluff, Lake Forest, and Winnetka.

Beilman, post-MIC, graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2012 and then earned a performance degree from Kronberg Academy in Taunus, Germany. In 2022 he became one of the youngest artists ever to be appointed to the faculty at the Curtis Institute, where he teaches one-on-one violin lessons to future Benjamin Beilmans and hosts a weekly performance class. Curtis caps its enrollment at 160, accepting only 4 percent of applicants, and the student-to-faculty ratio at the institute— which turns 100 on October 13—is a highly personalized 4:3.

“It’s so fulfilling, the teaching element in my career,” says the recently married (to Tracy) Beilman, the recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a London Music Masters Award. “Some of my students are using approaches to overcoming obstacles, technically or musically or expressively, that I used when I attended Curtis. And most of our faculty members are actively performing musicians, so our students are also receiving real-world, hands-on training.”

In recent seasons Beilman debuted with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and performed in a return engagement with the Philadelphia Orchestra both at home and at Carnegie Hall. Beilman made his Chicago Symphony Orchestra subscription debut this past December, performing Camille Saint-Saens’ Violin Concerto No. 3 with Semyon Bychkov and the CSO.

Reviews of his work have been glowing.

A few:

Washington Post: “Mightily impressive” (Beilman’s deep, rich tone).

New York Times: Praised Beilman’s “handsome technique, burnished sound, and quiet confidence.”

Strad: “Pure poetry.”

Boston Globe: “Mr. Beilman’s playing already has its own sure balance of technical command, intensity, and interpretive finesse.”

“I’d wanted a Suzuki violin of my own when I was 3 and sitting on the floor while listening to my older sister (Elizabeth, then 5) take violin lessons,” Beilman recalls. “She’d play the viola in high school and attend The Juilliard School. Music was one of our joint activities, growing up. We were both motivated, both passionate, and our parents (Ted and Judy) chose to invest in that interest.

“I feel lucky, what music has given me and where it has taken me. When I’m up there performing on a stage, there’s a sense of communion with the audience, a joining together. You can’t help but detect a force, an aura, from those listening to you. There’s a lot to love about music-making.”

Beilman commutes mostly via train once or twice a week these days, from New York City to Curtis Institute in Philly. That’s a wink or two compared to the Ann Arbor-to-Chicago automobile trek, but it’s still a lengthy commute.

He’s also been racking up the miles on streets and sidewalks.

“I’m training for a half-marathon,” Beilman says.

Curtis on Tour takes place Saturday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at Nichols Concert Hall, 1490 Chicago Avenue, Evanston. Tickets are $60 preferred, $40 standard, and $30 value. The performance also will be available via livestream ($15 at nichols-concert-hall.ticketleap.com.). All programming subject to change. For more information, visit nicholsconcerthall.org or call 847-448-8326.