Sinfonia Concerto winner set to perform Wednesday

DeKALB – Cellist Manou Magdalena Chakravorty, winner of the Sinfonia 2018 Concerto Competition, will join the Northern Illinois University Community School Sinfonia to perform Concerto in E Minor for Cello and Orchestra by Edward Elgar on Wednesday.

The free concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the Boutell Memorial Concert Hall in the NIU Music Building. It is open to the public.

Of Indian and Austrian heritage, Manou studies with Richard Hirschl, a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and head of strings at Roosevelt University, and Oleksa Mycyk of Northwestern University.

She began her cello studies at the age of 4 with Karen Schulz-Harmon. At the age of 11, she performed in her first master class, for the celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma at Chicago’s Symphony Center.

She also has received instruction from eminent cellists, including Amir Eldan, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Catherine Jones and others.

Manou’s recent performances include chamber music and solo at the 15th International Music Workshop and Festival in Kirchberg-an-der-Jagst in Germany (August 2018), in the La Magia del Borgo in Brisighella, Italy (August 2018) and in Fredonia, New York, as part of the Castleman Quartet Program (July 2018). In October 2018, she won first prize in the Great Composers Competition for the 2018 Masters of Cello Concerto. In March 2018, she was the winner of the 61st DuPage Symphony Young Artist Auditions.

A high-school sophomore at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, Manou has been a member of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras from the age of 6 and is an avid participant in chamber music ensembles during the year in Chicago and during the summer at courses. She also studies piano with Ivana Bukvich of the School of Theater and Music at the University of Illinois in Chicago and performs Bharatnatyam, a form of Indian classical dance, at Mandala South Asian Performing Arts with training from Pranita Nayar and Ashwati Chennat.

Sponsored by the NIU Community School of the Arts, the audition-only youth orchestra attracts some of the best high school musicians in the region.

The concert program also includes Prelude to Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck and Symphony No. 5 in D Major, Op. 107 “Reformation” by Felix Mendelssohn.

Linc Smelser directs the orchestra. He is the conductor of the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra and CSA Symphonette.

For information, visit www.csa.niu.edu or call 815-753-1450.