By Judy Carmack Bross
(l to r) Gala Co-Chairs Timothy Patenode (Evanston) and Alexandra C. Nichols (Winnetka); Richard D. Colburn Award recipient Sang Mee Lee; Gala Co-Chair Scott Verschoor, and Dushkin Award recipient Paquito d’Rivera
Starting with Cuban music at cocktails and ending with a standing ovation performance by Latin Jazz clarinetist and an evening award winner Paquito D’Riviera, the Music Institute of Chicago’s recent annual Gala showcased what the Institute is all about. Throughout the evening current students, faculty, and alumni entertained to the delight of the 250 guests in the ballroom of The Four Seasons Hotel Chicago. By the end of the evening, almost $700,000 was raised.
(l to r) MIC Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Jen Hanson; Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Marcia Rubin; Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Sue Polutnik; Former President and CEO Mark George; Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs Emily Abraham; Vice President and Chief Development Officer Jennifer Bienemann
D’Rivera, recipient of 16 Grammy and Latin Grammy awards, received the David and Dorothy Dushkin Award, named for the organization’s visionary founders, which was presented by Board Chair Scott Verschoor. Among his many international accomplishments, D’Rivera co-founded the United Nation Orchestra, then organized by Dizzy Gillespie to showcase the Latin and Caribbean influences on jazz. The Cultural Visionary Award went to J. Thomas Hurvis and the Richard D. Colburn Award for Teaching Excellence to Sang Mee Lee, Chair of the Institute’s String Department and violin and viola instructor whose current and former students honored her with their music that evening.
MIC Board Chair and Gala Co-Chair Scott Verschoor presents the Dushkin Award to Paquito D’Rivera
Honorary Co-Chairs Fran and John Edwardson
Fran and John Edwardson served as Honorary Co-Chairs with Alexandra C. Nichols, Timothy Patenode and Scott Verschoor as Gala Co-Chairs.
Proceeds from the Gala support excellence in teaching, a standard and tradition for nearly 100 years, 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 impacts thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds from nearly 100 Illinois communities and scores of Chicago neighborhoods.
(L) MIC Gala Co-Chair Alexandra C. Nichols and MIC Board of Trustees Vice Chair Lee Ann Stoddart
(l to r) Musicians Fareed Haque, Victor Garcia, Richard Peña, Paquito D’Rivera, Javier Quintana-Ocasio, and Freedy Quintero
Board Chair Scott Verschoor presented a special award to Mark George for his 15 years of service as President and CEO. “Music education is about more than notes and rhythms,” Verschoor said. “It fosters creativity, discipline, empathy and a deep sense of community. It gives people a voice and the tools to thrive in every aspect of life.”
(l to r) MIC 2025 Gala co-chair Scott Verschoor, with Cultural Visionary Award for Chicago recipient J. Thomas Hurvis, and Gala Co-Chairs Alexandra C. Nichols and Timothy Patenode
J. Thomas Hurvis, co-founder of Old World Industries, LLC, together with his late wife Julie founded Caerus Foundation, Inc. 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.
Richard D. Colburn Award for Teaching Excellence honoree Sang Mee Lee with current and former Academy students Neena and Sameer Agrawal
Earlier, Sang Mee Lee, recipient of the Colburn Award, told us:
“My relationship with the Music Institute of Chicago began when I was just 12 years old, as a student at what was then called the Music Center of the North Shore in Winnetka, just one building at the time. We now have many campuses where hundreds of students attend. My violin teachers Almita and Roland Vamos, who are among the first recipients of the Colburn Award and still on faculty here at MIC, also became personal mentors, and I now teach just down the hall from where I took hours and hours of lessons from them every week. It feels like life coming full circle.”
(l to r) MIC faculty and alumna Sang Mee Lee recipient of the Colburn Award, with her teachers Roland and Almita Vamos, and her mother
Award-winning Vermillion String Quartet (l to r) Magdalena Masur, Emily Chen, Gavi Raviv, and Brayden Wu
For further information about the Music Institute, visit: musicinst.org
Photos By Layne Dixon and Mary Rafferty
