Fire and Brilliance

Njioma Grevious

Described as “superb” by the Chicago Classical Review, violinist Njioma Chinyere Grevious is a winner of the prestigious 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant. She has been praised for her expressive tones and elegant playing, recently earning accolades for a “dazzling performance” with the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington, DC.

A passionate and versatile solo, chamber and orchestral musician, Njioma is a graduate of The Juilliard School and a winner of its John Erskine Prize for scholastic and artistic achievement.   In 2023, Njioma won the Grand Prize of the Concert Artist Guild (CAG) and the Young Classical Artist Trust (YCAT) CAG Elmaleh Competition, as well as the Robert F. Smith First Prize and the Audience Choice awards in the Senior Division of the Sphinx Competition.  In 2022, she was the winner of concerto competitions at the University of Delaware and the Newark Symphony Orchestra. Njioma was also a winner of the Music Academy of the West Keston-Max Fellowship to study and perform in the London Symphony Orchestra in November 2022.  She won First Prizes for Performance and Interpretation in the 2018 Prix Ravel in Fontainebleau, France.

As a soloist, during the 2024/25 season Njioma debuted at Carnegie Hall with the Sphinx Virtuosi. In July she will debut at The Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the Brussels Philharmonic. This season she also made her Wigmore Hall debut, undertaking a UK tour as part of the Young Concert Artists Trust. She also appeared with the Florence Symphony, in a return to the Chicago Philharmonic as the inaugural Artist in Residence and in solo and chamber music recitals across the United States that include the Strathmore Mansion, Cal Performances, the Mesa Arts Center, Kaufman Music Center, Pepperdine and the Seattle Chamber Music Society.  Njioma has previously appeared with the Boston Pops, Minnesota Orchestra, Western Michigan Symphony and the Salisbury Symphony, among others.

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 also 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, and 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.

Njioma is a member of New York City’s Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. She has been invited to perform in numerous series and festivals including the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, La Jolla ChamberFest, Jupiter Chamber Players, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, North Shore Chamber Music Festival, Chiarina Chamber Players, CMSCV, 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.

For many years, Njioma was a scholarship recipient through Boston’s Project STEP string training program for Black and Latino youth and at the time also earned summer study scholarship assistance through Winsor Music.  Her principal teachers have also included Ronald Copes, James Buswell, Irina Muresanu, Mariana Green-Hill and Farhoud Moshfegh. Njioma, who began studying the violin at the age of 4, has since performed in numerous volunteer concerts with her siblings and many others.  As a Juilliard Gluck Fellow she performed regularly for the medically vulnerable, retirees and children. Njioma has taught composition and collaboration to NYC elementary and middle school students from underrepresented communities through the Opportunity Music Project. She has shared her knowledge and love of her craft with school children across the United States.

Njioma is the recipient of an outstanding violin by Pietro Guarneri of Mantua c. 1679 on generous loan from the Stradivari Society.

Carrie Bean Stute

Cellist Carrie Bean Stute is co-founder and co-artistic director of the Washington, DC-based Chiarina Chamber Players, a chamber music series and flexible ensemble that has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming. Carrie’s chamber music performances have been broadcast on Classical WETA’s Front Row Washington. In DC, she performs with the National Symphony Orchestra, has served as an adjunct professor of music at George Washington University, and is currently assistant principal cellist of “The President’s Own” Marine Chamber Orchestra, where she performs in such diverse settings as the White House, area public schools, and for events hosted by the United Nations and State Department.

A performer who seeks out the voices of today, she collaborates with a growing set of composers, including Reinaldo Moya, Mary Kouyoumdjian, Juhi Bansal, and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon. Carrie authored a doctoral dissertation on the cello works of Pēteris Vasks and in 2021 performed as soloist in the North American premiere of his Cello Concerto No. 2. She took part in the Carnegie Hall workshop “New Voices, New Music” and has performed chamber music at such venues as the Phillips Collection, Zankel Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Roulette, and an in-house educational residency at the 92nd Street Y.

Carrie holds degrees from The Graduate Center at the City University of New York (Doctor of Musical Arts), Indiana University, and the Eastman School of Music. She was a fellow at the New World Symphony and Tanglewood Music Center. Forthcoming in 2024-25 are recordings of chamber music by Carlos Simon (with Domenic Salerni, Efi Hackmey, and Carl DuPont) and clarinet trios by Brahms and Beethoven (with Robert DiLutis and Rita Sloan).

Efi Hackmey

Praised for his highly personal interpretations and “feather-light pianism” (Washington Classical Review), Efi Hackmey is recognized for his lyricism and beauty of tone. As Co-Founder and Co-Artistic Director of Chiarina Chamber Players he performs regularly on Chiarina’s concert series, which has won critical acclaim for its artistry and innovative programming, called “some of the most compelling chamber programs in town” by the Washington Post. Efi has performed at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Rose Studio, the Kennedy Center and Bargemusic, and in the Friends of Mozart series in NYC. In his native Israel he performed as soloist with the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, as well as at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Jerusalem Music Center. Efi is often featured on WETA Classical’s Front Row Washington.

A passionate chamber musician, Efi has collaborated with the Attacca Quartet, Imani Winds, clarinetists Ricardo Morales and Charles Neidich, baritone Randall Scarlata, cellist Marcy Rosen and violinists Catherine Cho, Todd Phillips and Nurit Bar-Josef, among others.

Efi’s recordings include the 2025 release of The Best Cuisine: Music of Carlos Simon on the Azica label, and the 2013 album Polish Violin Music on the Naxos label, among others.

Efi has served on the piano faculty at DePauw University, and he also taught at the Indiana University system. He holds a Doctor of Music degree from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and degrees in piano and conducting from Tel Aviv University. He studied with Menahem Pressler, Pnina Salzman and Dina Turgeman, and has had additional coaching with Lazar Berman, Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Janos Starker and Jaime Laredo.