09/16/2025
Meet Desirée Ruhstrat, the violinist for Sunday's upcoming concert:
Praised for her "Intensive fire, sleepwalking assuredness and deeply grounded musical personality" violinist Desirée Ruhstrat made her professional debut at age 12 with Lukas Foss and the Milwaukee Symphony. Ruhstrat has appeared as a soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including the Berlin Radio Symphony, Radio Suisse Romande, Gottingen Symphony, Philharmonia Da Camera, Symphonica Auguescalientes Mexico, Colorado Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Concerto Soloists Of Philadelphia, Utah Symphony, Debut Orchestra of Los Angeles and National Repertory Orchestra. In the summer of 2024 Desirée made her solo debut at the RAVINIA Festival performing Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
She has worked with such renowned conductors as Eric Kunzel, Max Rudolph, William Smith, Rico Saccani, Brian Priestman, JoAnn Falletta, Victoria Bond, Carolyn Kuan, Carl Topilow, and Mats Liljefors among others. Ruhstrat has won numerous awards including first prize at the National Young Musicians Debut Competition in Los Angeles, where she was also lauded a special award for a young performer with extraordinary talent. She became the youngest prize winner at Switzerland's Tibor Varga International Competition and also won the award for best interpretation of the commissioned contemporary composition. She went on to earn top prizes at the Carl Flesch, Julius Stulberg, and the Mozart Festival Violin Competitions.
Ruhstrat's distinguished career as a chamber musician includes performances throughout the U.S. as a member of the GRAMMY-nominated Lincoln Trio. Highlights include Carnegie Weil Hall, Lincoln Center, Ravinia Festival, Indianapolis Symphony Beethoven Series, Poisson Rouge and a tour of Colombia South America performing the Beethoven triple Concerto with the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia. In addition to the Lincoln Trio, Ruhstrat founded Black Oak Ensemble with cellist David Cunliffe and violist Aurélien Fort Pederzoli in 2015. Their debut album, Silenced Voices, on the Cedille label, garnered numerous accolades including Chicago Tribune's TOP 100 Recordings of 2019, FANFARE Magazine "want list" and New York's WQXR Top 100 Best Classical Recordings of 2019. Black Oak Ensemble's latest CD release, Avant l'orage, was nominated for a 2023 International Classical Music Award and reached #1 on the BILLBOARD Classical Music Charts.
Ruhstrat has also appeared as guest artist of the Chamber Music Series of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Colorado Symphony, Apollo Chamber Ensemble, the Colorado Chambers Players, Sebago-Long Lake , the University of Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Tennessee, and Northwestern University Midwinter Series with Jorge Federico Osorio and Ani Kavafian, as well as collaborations with Shmuel Ashkenasi, Ilya Kaler, Rachel Kolly d'Alba, Roberto Diaz, Roger Chase and the Pacifica Quartet. Festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festival, Laurel Festival of the Arts, the Breckenridge Music Festival, Green Lake, University Of Wisconsin, Utah Music Festival, ARIA International Summer Academy, Curtis Institute of Music Young Artist Program and Ascent International Music Festival and the Heifetz Institute which she is currently on Faculty.
A champion of new music, Ruhstrat has worked with some of the worlds leading composers, Carl Orff, George Crumb, William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Shulamit Ran, Augusta Read Thomas, Joan Tower, Chen Yi, Zhou Long, and Laura Elise Schwendinger who composed a movement dedicated to Desirée in "Violinists In My Life."
Ruhstrat was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and began her studies at Milwaukee Conservatory of Music. Her distinguished pedagogues include Betty Haag, Harold Wippler and Josef Gingold. Desirée is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with the reknowned violinist Aaron Rosand.
Ruhstrat's impressive discography includes the Stamitz Duo for Violin and Viola for Centaur Records, the Ravel Duo for Violin and Cello for Albany Records, a 2013 GRAMMY nominated NAXOS release Annelies, based on the Diary of Anne Frank and multiple recordings with the Black Oak Ensemble and Lincoln Trio including 2017 GRAMMY nominated "Trio's From our Homelands" and the 2024 LATIN GRAMMY nominated "Fantasies of Buenos Aires."
A passionate teacher, Ruhstrat's students are prize winners of national and international competitions and members of professional orchestras worldwide. Ruhstrat has been on Faculty at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, and currently is on the Violin Faculty of Northwestern's Bienen School of Music. In 2014, Ruhstrat was awarded the American String Teachers Association Illinois Outstanding Studio Teacher Award.
Ruhstrat plays on a 1685 Goffredo Cappa violin on generous loan.
