ESO's Isabella Lippi makes her debut with Chamber Music on the Fox March 21

Elgin Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Isabella Lippi will perform works by Bach, Mozart, Prokofiev, Chopin and Sarasate in her debut with Chamber Music on the Fox at 7:30 p.m. Monday, March 21, at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., eighth floor. Pianist Thomas Kasdorf will accompany Lippi. The event is sponsored by S.E. Ainsworth and Family. Tickets, which are $20 or $10 for students, are available for purchase online at ChamberMusicOnTheFox.org.

Isabella Lippi, who was born in Chicago, has been called "a standout, even among virtuosos." She began performing in public at the age of 10 when she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She has since performed in numerous recitals and has appeared as guest soloist with orchestras in the United States, Mexico, Europe and the Far East. Lippi's teachers have included Robert Lipsett at the University of Southern California, Dorothy Delay at the Juilliard School and Almita and Roland Vamos in Chicago. In addition to her work as a soloist, Lippi has participated in numerous chamber music festivals including those of Santa Fe, La Jolla, Mainly Mozart and the Aspen Music Festival. She was concertmaster of the Charleston Symphony from 1999-2002 and is currently concertmaster of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra.

In 1989, Isabella Lippi won the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition, so impressing Maestro Leonard Slatkin that for the first time in the 55-year history of the competition, the winner was invited to perform with the symphony in subscription concerts under Slatkin. Of this program, the St. Louis Post Dispatch declared, "Lippi introduced rhythmic subtleties into the music of the like that haven't been heard since the heyday of Heifetz."

In January 1998, Isabella Lippi made her New York City recital debut at the 92nd Street Y's Tisch Center for the Arts. Other important debuts included recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Chicago's Ravinia Festival and the famous Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

Lippi has been a featured artist on a number of radio stations throughout the United States including WQXR in New York, WNIB in Chicago and KFAC in Los Angeles; and in a nationally distributed educational program entitled Encounters. She is featured on a CD on the Koch International label which contains complete works for violin and piano and the solo works by the late composer, Miklos Rozsa.

Founded by ESO musicians Mark Fry and Sara Sitzer, Chamber Music on the Fox is a world-class classical chamber music series serving Elgin and the greater Fox Valley region, with a mission to present engaging, enriching, and immersive performances and cultural experiences that enhance and enrich the cultural offerings of the area. Their second season includes performances by many of the finest artists in the Chicago and Fox Valley regions, as well as an exciting collaboration with the Elgin Master Chorale's Chamber Singers. For more information, visit ChamberMusicOnTheFox.org.

For more on the ESO, visit ElginSymphony.org.