Meet the Academy’s Youngest Chamber Trio

February 21st, 2025

The Amarela Trio is the youngest chamber group in the Academy this year, but that has not stopped these musicians from having an eventful fall semester full of performances and musical feats. Alexandra Dreesen, Edie Park, and Sylvia Pine are completing their first year in the Academy. In addition to regular weekly coachings by Academy faculty members Mark George and Stefan Kartman, these students are finding their own way among older and more experienced peers, with a fast track of making their own musical experiences.

15-year-old Edie Park competed in several competitions throughout the Midwest this fall. Edie won First Place and Best Interpretation of a Korean Piece in the Piano Senior Division of the 2024 Sejong Competition. She also won Second Place at the 2024 Illinois State Music Teachers Association Competition. As a winner of the 10th Annual 2024 Chicago Chamber Music Festival Concerto Competition for pianists and string players, Edie made her orchestral debut with the Northeastern Illinois University Orchestra, conducted by Dr. Benjamin Firer, in October. In April, Edie will be featured on WFMT’s classical music program Introductions. When she is not performing, Edie is a founder/president of the “Latin Music Initiative,” a club where the musicians at school gather together to share their musical talent with the community by performing at nursing homes and hospitals. Edie studies with faculty members Marta Aznavoorian and Winston Choi.

14-year-old Alexandra Dreesen is an eighth grader at Aptakistic Junior High School in Buffalo Grove, Illinois. She had been studying violin for six years before joining the Academy this past fall. In November, Alexandra performed in a master class with violinist Danielle Belen, who founded Center Stage Strings, a prestigious a summer camp and performance festival for gifted young musicians in central California. Recently, Alexandra also performed at a concert in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. in Flossmoor, Illinois. Alexandra studies with MIC faculty member Injoo Choi.

At 13-years-old, Sylvia Pine is the youngest member of the trio, and in the Academy program this year. Sylvia, a student of Almita Vamos and Davis King, had a robust performance schedule in the fall, and several alongside with her mother, accomplished violinist Rachel Barton Pine. In September, Sylvia performed her own arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner for a Chicago Cubs game and performed music by composers Jessie Mongomery and Pable de Sarasate at Barrington's White House later in the fall. She performed with her mother at the JCC Chicago Growing Hope Concert, where they premiered a piece called "Escape to the Light" --composed for Sylvia and Rachel by Joe Deninzon. In October, Sylvia joined her mother again at WFMT's Levin Studio to make the Midwest premiere recording of a new Mozart piece, uncovered more than 230 years after the composer's death. In November, Sylvia gave a full recital at The Mather in Evanston, where she performed works by Schubert, Mozart, and Grieg, and later in December, Syliva was a guest artist for the baroque period instrument group Trio Settecento, for Early Music Now in Milwaukee.