De Israelische Miriam Fried, de eerste vrouwelijke winnaar van de Elisabethwedstrijd, viert vandaag haar zeventigste verjaardag.
Dat was in 1971 en ze deed het met het vioolconcerto van Sibelius. Nadien heeft ze zich echter vooral op kamermuziek toegelegd. She plays a 1718 Stradivarius believed to have been formerly owned by Louis Spohr, and also by Regina Strinasacchi, for whom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Sonata in B-flat, K. 454. She is a member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet and of the faculty of the New England Conservatory. She is Professor of Violin at the School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington. Her students include Pekka Kuusisto and Nancy Zhou. She is married to the violinist Paul Biss, the son of the Russian-born cellist Raya Garbousova. Their sons are the pianist Jonathan Biss, with whom she often plays (as shown in the picture), and Illinois State Representative Daniel Biss.
