April, 2026
Chicago Philharmonic Presents Artist in Residence Njioma Grevious
Event Details
Chicago Philharmonic Presents
Artist in Residence Njioma Grevious
Njioma Chinyere Grevious, Violinist
The Chicago Philharmonic
Scott Speck, Principal Conductor & Artistic Director
Date: Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Time: 6:00 PM
Venue: Studebaker Theater, Fine Arts Building
This concert is free! Registration is required. A suggested donation is encouraged to support this program.
Description:
On April 1, the Chicago Philharmonic spotlights Artist in Residence Njioma Chinyere Grevious, one of classical music’s most electrifying young stars. Celebrated for her passionate artistry and virtuosic command, Grevious has already earned the Robert F. Smith First Prize at the Sphinx Competition, a 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and recognition as one of Classic FM’s 2024 Rising Stars.
For her second annual Artist in Residence showcase, Grevious joins the Chicago Philharmonic under Artistic Director Scott Speck to perform Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3, a jewel of the repertoire that will shine with her dazzling talent.
The program also highlights the voices of women in classical music today. Audiences will experience the Chicago Premiere of Liquid Air by Elżbieta Sikora, a distinguished living composer whose pioneering work bridges tradition and bold innovation. Together with Grevious’ radiant artistry, the evening celebrates the creativity and talent of women shaping the future of music.
“Grevious plays with a sensitive and supple bow arm, deep in the core of the violin’s strings for a tone that is both strong and active — a big sound that never gets stuck in its own power.”
– Nicholas Jones | San Francisco Classical Voice | October 1, 2024
Program:
Camille Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Andantino quasi allegretto
III. Molto moderato e maestoso – Allegro non troppo
Elżbieta Sikora Liquid Air
Learn More About the Artist in Residence Program
Notes on the Program: Elżbieta Sikora’s Liquid Air
Uncertainty, passing away, interpenetration…The air transforms from liquid to gaseous state. Captured in this form, it assumes a new one. Mystery…
A low sound, to begin with. A dense sound texture accumulates around it, penetrated, as by a gust of air, by brief woodwind interventions in a high register. This interplay of opposites takes up the first section of the piece, slow and pensive.
Section two, different in character, starts with a fast passage in the strings, which functions as a form building element, undergoing various transformations, and is contrasted to the sharp accents in the brass. Then a delicate and quiet sequence emerges drawing on sounds that already appeared in the first section until fast rhythmic passages return, and the section ends with an ascending progression flowing through the various orchestral groups.
Sections three opens with a quiet third motifs which constitutes its leitmotif. Then transformed elements from the previous sections recur as a kind of recollection of what happened; these are not fully stated and take on ever new form.
The work was commissioned by the Warsaw Autumn Festival for its 2021 edition.
Njioma Chinyere Grevious with the Chicago Philharmonic | Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Concerto for Violin in G Minor
Community Engagement:
Njioma’s artist residency with the Chicago Philharmonic will also serve as a powerful platform for community engagement.
As part of her weeklong residency with the Philharmonic, Njioma will engage with nearly 1,000 Chicago students, visiting and performing at Chi Phil AMP partner schools on the South and West Sides, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago, Polished Pebbles, and more. In addition to performing, she will meet with students, answer their questions about music, and share her experiences as a professional musician.
Violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious | WGN’s Spotlight Chicago
Podcast | Njioma Grevious: BACKSTAGE PASS
About Njioma Chinyere Grevious, Violinist
Praised for her expressive tones, elegant playing and a “dazzling performance” with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious is a passionate and versatile solo, chamber and orchestral musician. A winner of the prestigious 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, she has been described as “superb” by the Chicago Classical Review.
A graduate of the Juilliard School in 2021, Njioma was awarded the John Erskine Prize for scholastic and artistic achievement. In 2023, She won the Robert F. Smith First Prize and the Audience Choice awards in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition as well as the Grand Prize of the Concert Artist Guild (CAG) and the Young Classical Artist Trust (YCAT) Elmaleh Competition.
As a soloist, during the 2024-25 season Njioma made her debut at the world-renown Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Brussels Philharmonic and at Carnegie Hall in New York City with the Sphinx Virtuosi. She also debuted at the iconic Wigmore Hall, undertaking a UK tour as a YCAT artist. Njioma has performed in solo recitals across the United States including at the Seattle Chamber Music Society, Cal Performances, Strathmore Mansion, Mesa Arts Center and Pepperdine’s Wengler Center for the Arts. Named this year as the Chicago Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist in Residence, Njioma will be a featured soloist over the next three years in addition to building upon her outreach and mentoring of local children. In past years, Njioma has performed with the Boston Pops, Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Florence Symphony Orchestra and Western Michigan Symphony, among others.
Njioma can also be heard with Tai Murray collaborating on the high-energy, cross-genre “Double Down” Invention No. 1 for Two Violins by contemporary composer Curtis Stewart. The piece is featured on the upcoming Sphinx Virtuosi album “American Mirror” to be released by Deutsche Grammophon in August.
A founding member of the Abeo Quartet, Njioma completed graduate studies with Ryan Meehan and the Calidore String Quartet at the University of Delaware where she was a fellow in the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence Program. Abeo is the Third Prize winner of the 2023 Bad Tölz International String Quartet Competition. In 2022, Abeo won First Prize and the Audience Favorite Prize at the Yellow Springs Chamber Music Competition and was invited to participate in the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition. The quartet was also a finalist in the 2022 Young Concert Artists competition and has been a winner of Silver Medals in the Chesapeake International and Fischoff chamber music competitions. Abeo has appeared on WQXR Midday Masterpieces and WETA Classical Radio as well as in performances in the Schneider Concert Series, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, Emerald City Music, in Montreal, Oslo, Norway, and in residence at the Glenstone Museum, where they premiered “Moonshot” by Alistair Coleman. At Juilliard, the quartet studied under the tutelage of the Juilliard String Quartet and has also been coached by members of the Alban Berg, Quatuor Ebene, Takács, Artemis, Brentano, Miró and Emerson quartets.
In 2024, Njioma became a member of New York City’s self-conducted, collaborative Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has also been invited to perform in numerous series and festivals including the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla SummerFest, Jupiter Chamber Players, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Gateways Music Festival, North Shore Chamber Music Festival, Chiarina Chamber Players, CMSCVA, ChamberFest Cleveland, Music@Menlo, Perlman Chamber Music Workshop, Juilliard String Quartet Seminar, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Music Academy of the West, Montreal International String Quartet Academy, Meadowmount, Fontainebleau Schools, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.
When she was four years old Njioma began her violin studies, becoming a scholarship recipient through Boston’s Project STEP string training program for Black and Latino youth as well as through Winsor Music. Her other principal teachers have included Ronald Copes, James Buswell, Irina Muresanu, Mariana Green-Hill and Farhoud Moshfegh. With her siblings at first, Njioma has performed in hundreds of outreach concerts. As a Juilliard Gluck Fellow she performed regularly for the medically vulnerable, retirees and children. Njioma also taught composition and collaboration to NYC elementary and middle school students from underrepresented communities through the Opportunity Music Project.
Njioma is the recipient of an outstanding violin by Pietro Guarneri of Mantua c. 1679 on generous loan from the Stradivari Society.
Learn more at www.njiomagrevious.com.
About Scott Speck, Artistic Director & Principal Conductor
With recent performances in London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, Scott Speck has inspired international acclaim as a conductor of passion, intelligence, and winning personality. Scott Speck was named Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Chicago Philharmonic in June of 2013 and has been Music Director of the Joffrey Ballet since 2010. He has become a frequent guest for the Chicago Symphony’s family concerts. His work with Chicago Philharmonic earned him the award “2021 Conductor of the Year” from the Illinois Council of Orchestras.
Scott Speck is the co-author of two of the world’s bestselling books on classical music, Classical Music for Dummies and Opera for Dummies. These books have received stellar reviews in both national and international press, have garnered enthusiastic endorsements from major American orchestras, and have been translated into twenty languages. His third book in the series, Ballet for Dummies, was released to great acclaim as well. For more information visit www.scottspeck.org.
About Elzbieta Sikora, Featured Composer
Born in 1943 in Lwow, Poland, Elzbieta Sikora studied music composition with Tadeusz Baird and Zbigniew Rudziński in Warsaw, Poland, with Betsy Jolas in Paris and electro-acoustic music composition with Pierre Schaeffer and François Bayle in Paris. In 1973 she founded, with Wojciech Michniewski and Krzysztof Knittel the Group of Composers KEW. Scholarships from the French Government at IRCAM, Paris, the City of Mannheim, and the Kosciuszko Foundation at CCRMA (Computer Center for Research in Music and Acoustics), Stanford, have enriched the composer’s international outlook.
Elzbieta Sikora has received among others: II Prize for her opera Ariadna, at the Composers Competition in Dresden, Germany, Prix Magisterium for Aquamarina in Bourges, France. She has been awarded by SACEM, received the SACD Prize Nouveau Talent Musique, in Paris, France for her opera L’Arrache-coeur. She received the Cross of Merit from the Polish Government in 1997. In 2004 she was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. From 1985 to 2005 Elzbieta Sikora thought at the Music Conservatory and at the Fine Art School in Angoulême. In 2004 and 2007 she was visiting professor at the University of Chicago. For her last opera Madame Curie she received several prizes in Poland and in France. From 2011 to 2017 Elzbieta Sikora was artistic director of Musica Electronica Nova Festival, Wroclaw, Poland.
Elzbieta Sikora lives and works in Paris, France. Her works, published by PWM, are performed around the world. Many are on CD’s.
About the Chicago Philharmonic
Founded in 1989 by musicians of the Lyric Opera Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic Society is dedicated to reimagining the orchestra concert experience. With nearly 200 musician members and a unique system of musician governance, Chicago Philharmonic is recognized as one of the most versatile, innovative, and ambitious orchestras in the country.
Chicago Philharmonic proudly collaborates with the world’s greatest artists across multiple genres. Past partnerships include Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, Joshua Bell, Kishi Bashi, The Joffrey Ballet, English National Ballet, Tank and the Bangas, William Basinski, American Ballet Theatre, Ryan Speedo Green, and more.
Since Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 honoree Terell Johnson became Executive Director in 2021, the orchestra has continued to expand its artistic reach and push the boundaries of symphonic performance. Notable recent milestones include a history-making debut at Lollapalooza as the first orchestra to perform at the festival, a sold-out Carnegie Hall debut with Sleeping At Last, and a world premiere tribute to Whitney Houston at Ravinia Festival. From groundbreaking live film concerts to dynamic collaborations with today’s most exciting artists, Chicago Philharmonic remains at the forefront of innovation and inclusion in the city’s performing arts landscape.
