Music Institute Annual Gala Celebrates Music Education
The event is on May 13.
By: Stephi Wild Apr. 08, 2025
The Music Institute of Chicago will host its Annual Gala on Tuesday, May 13 at 5:30 p.m. at The Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, 120 East Delaware Place. Event highlights include the presentation of the prestigious Dushkin Award to Paquito D’Rivera, the Cultural Visionary Award for Chicago to J. Thomas Hurvis, and the Colburn Award for Teaching Excellence to Sang Mee Lee.
Honorary Chairs are John and Fran Edwardson, and Gala Co-Chairs are Alexandra C. Nichols, Timothy Patenode, and Scott Verschoor. Proceeds from the Gala support excellence in teaching, upholding a standard and tradition that has evolved and thrived for nearly a century, and provide the single-largest source of funds for scholarships and merit-based aid, tuition-free community engagement, and neighborhood-based service activities. Each year the Music Institute positively impacts thousands of individuals of all ages and backgrounds from nearly 100 Illinois communities and scores of Chicago neighborhoods.
As guests arrive, trumpeter Victor Garcia, guitarist Richard Peña, bassist Josh Ramos, and percussionist Javier Quintana-Ocasio kick off the evening with a processional, playing the enchanting sounds of traditional Cuban music. Following a private cocktail reception, an elegant dinner features performances by Dushkin Award honoree Paquito D’Rivera with guitarist Fareed Haque and Music Institute ensembles, including a cello octet of Music Institute Academy students, alumni, and faculty; the award-winning Caspian and Vermillion Academy String Quartets; piano student Eric Wang; and a tribute to Colburn Award winner Sang Mee Lee by siblings Sameer (Academy alum) and Neena Agrawal (current Academy student). The ceremony honoring the 2025 award recipients concludes an evening celebrating the Music Institute’s vision of cultivating a lifelong relationship with music for everyone.
Established more than 30 years ago and named for the Music Institute’s visionary founders, Dorothy and David Dushkin, the Dushkin Award recognizes international luminaries in the world of music for their contributions to the art form as well as to the education of youth. Previous award honorees include Marcus Roberts, Marin Alsop, Hilary Hahn, Zubin Mehta, Wynton Marsalis, Stephen Sondheim, Maestro Riccardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, and many others.
Dushkin Award recipient Paquito D’Rivera has won a combined 16 Grammy and Latin Grammy Awards and is celebrated for his artistry in Latin jazz and his achievements as a classical composer. Born in Havana, Cuba, he performed at age 10 with the National Theater Orchestra, studied at the Havana Conservatory of Music, and, at 17, became a featured soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. He was a founding member of and for two years directed the Orquesta Cubana de Musica Moderna, at the same time playing the clarinet and saxophone with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba. He was a founding member and co-director of the innovative musical ensemble Irakere, offering a never-before-heard, explosive mixture of jazz, rock, classical, and traditional Cuban music. His numerous recordings include more than 30 solo albums. He was a founding member of the United Nation Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase the fusion of Latin and Caribbean influences with jazz. His contributions to classical music include solo performances with the London Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. His complete bio is available here.
The Cultural Visionary Award for Chicago recognizes individuals who make an indelible impact on the community through their philanthropic, civic, and cultural leadership. This year’s honoree, J. Thomas Hurvis, is co-founder of Old World Industries, LLC, among the largest privately held companies competing in the automotive aftermarket. In the 1960s, before establishing Old World Industries, he founded his boutique advertising agency, Hurvis, Binzer & Churchill. He is president of Caerus Foundation, Inc., which he and his late wife, Julie, founded in 2001 to support organizations and programs that expand educational opportunities for young people, cultivate a more inclusive arts community, preserve the natural world for future generations, and engage communities to alleviate poverty, reduce violence, and build self-sufficiency.
The Music Institute presents the Richard D. Colburn Award for Teaching Excellence to faculty members who exemplify the high standard of excellence set by Richard D. Colburn in his many musical endeavors. Sang Mee Lee is chair of the Music Institute’s String Department and a violin and viola instructor in the Community Music School and the Academy, a pre-college conservatory program for advanced string and piano students. She has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Korean Broadcasting Orchestra, and the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. She has presented solo performances and recitals in the U.S., Europe, and the Far East. Her many awards include First Prize at the Tibor Varga international Violin Competition, Leopold Mozart International Violin Competition, Irving M. Klein International String Auditions, Seventeen Magazine/General Motors Concerto Competition, William C. Byrd Competition, and the Stulberg International Strings Competition. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in violin performance from The Juilliard School.
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