Isbella Lippi selected for Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame
Elgin Symphony Orchestra Violinist and Concertmaster Isabella Lippi is one of four artists to be included in the 2024 Class of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame.
Pictured, from left to right: Fox Valley Hall of Fame Board members Jim Gibson and Susan Starrett; Isabella Lippi; Patty Harkin, ESO Board Governance Chair; Fox Valley Hall of Fame Board members Murna Hansemann, Susan S. Starrett, and Joanna Wester.
Elgin Symphony Orchestra Violinist and Concertmaster Isabella Lippi is one of four artists to be included in the 2024 Class of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame. She is joined in the 2024 Class by former Aurora residents Jerry Rose, producer and broadcaster, and Tom Skilling, WGN-TV meteorologist, and former Elgin resident Robert Rosengarden, bandleader and drummer, who is being honored posthumously.
Isabella will officially be inducted at the Fox Valley Hall of Fame banquet on Friday, April 19, at Villa Olivia.
“I am extremely honored to be part of this incredible organization that recognizes artists here in the Fox Valley and to be included with all the other incredible artists,” Isabella said.
This prestigious honor is bestowed upon artists associated with the Fox Valley who have completed at least 20 years in their professional field and have achieved international or national acclaim. With the induction of the Class of 2024, there are 73 artists in the Hall of Fame. The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame was founded in 2001, with the first class being inducted in 2002. Classes are inducted every other year.
” All of us at ESO are thrilled for our Concertmaster, Isabella Lippi, as she receives this honor,” said Patty Harkin, ESO Board Governance Chair, who oversaw Isabella’s nomination. “This year marks Isabella's twentieth anniversary with ESO. During that time, we and our audiences have admired her talents as a soloist and as an ensemble violinist. But we have also witnessed her considerable, if often hidden, administrative skill as Concertmaster. Isabella has given us the truly remarkable sound of the ESO strings and we are proud and thankful.”
Isabella, Concertmaster at the ESO since 2004, began performing in public at the age of 10, when she made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1998, she won the St. Louis Symphony Young Artist Competition and, for the first time in the competition’s history, was invited to perform with the Symphony under the direction of Maestro Leonard Slatkin.
Isabella has made her musical mark in the Fox Valley, as Violinist and Concertmaster of the ESO, participating in the ESO’s Musicians Care program, and providing recitals at Elgin’s Gail Borden Public Library. She has also performed with Chamber Music on the Fox, at recording sessions, operas and numerous other performances.
“Isabella, as Concertmaster of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, has greatly enhanced our standing, both in the Fox Valley and the greater musical world,” said Marc Thayer, ESO executive director.
Watch Susan Starrett, Fox Valley Hall of Fame Vice President, Selection, as she made the announcement of Isabella’s induction.