Join us as we welcome violinist Noelle Midori Takebe Naito for an evening of music. Noelle will perform the program she has prepared for the 2026 Long-Thibaud International Competition, one of the world’s most prestigious violin competitions.

Noelle has performed at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Cadogan Hall in London, and Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo. She has toured internationally with LGT Young Soloists and appeared as a soloist with the Kansas City Symphony. She is now studying with Ben Sayevich in Kansas City. For this performance, she will be accompanied by Lolita Lisovskaya Sayevich.

Admission is free, but seating is limited, so please reserve your spot in advance

The Program

Eugène Ysaÿe: Caprice d’après l’étude en forme de valse de Saint-Saëns, Op.52

J.S. Bach: Violin Sonata No.2 in A Minor, BWV 1003III. AndanteIV. Allegro

Niccolò Paganini: Caprice for Solo Violin, Op.1, No.15

Eugène Ysaÿe: Violin Sonata in D minor, Op.27, No.3 “Ballade”

***** Intermission *****

Mozart: Adagio in E Major, K. 261

Francis Poulenc: Violin Sonata, FP 119I. Allegro con fuocoII. IntermezzoIII. Presto Tragico

Maurice Ravel: Tzigane

Japanese-American violinist NOELLE MIDORI TAKEBE NAITO is establishing herself as a compelling young artist on the international stage. Since making her orchestral debut at age nine with the Kostroma Symphony Orchestra, she has appeared as a soloist with ensembles including the United States Army Orchestra and the Flint Symphony Orchestra and has performed at venues throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, including Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Cadogan Hall in London, the Franz Liszt House in Weimar, the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., Hamarikyu Asahi Hall in Tokyo, and the German Consulate in New York City.

Noelle is a member of LGT Young Soloists, with whom she has toured internationally across North America, Asia, and Australia. Recent appearances have included performances in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Sydney, Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong. She has also performed with the Kansas City Symphony and appeared as a featured artist in recital and chamber music engagements throughout the United States and abroad.

In 2026, Noelle was selected to participate in the Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris. Her previous honors include prizes at the William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition and the United States Army Orchestra Young Artist Competition, as well as the Anna Y. Tringas Award for Violin and the Sidney D. and Nina Josephs Chamber Music Prize from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She has also been featured on WFMT Chicago’s “Introductions” as both a soloist and chamber musician.

Her musical development has included studies and performances at the Heifetz International Music Institute, Aspen Music Festival and School, Taipei Music Academy and Festival, and the Écoles d’Art Américaines de Fontainebleau. In 2019, she was selected as a Student Artist for the Starling-DeLay Symposium at The Juilliard School, where she performed in masterclasses for Midori and Kathleen Winkler.

Noelle is currently pursuing a Graduate Diploma where she studies with Ben Sayevich. She received her Bachelor of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where her principal mentors included Jaime Laredo, Malcolm Lowe, Jan Sloman, and Stephen Rose.

Born into a Tashkent (Uzbekistan) musical family, LOLITA LISOVSKAYA SAYEVICH began studying piano at the age of 4. In 1985 she entered the Uspensky Central Music School in Tashkent. In 1993 she started attending a private school for young musicians in Moscow, and that same year received the first prize at the Chopin International Piano Competition in Göttingen, Germany. She entered the Tchaikovsky Special Music School in 1995, and two years later was accepted to the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory under the tutelage of Vera Gornostaeva, with whom she continued postgraduate study from 2002 to 2004. Lisovskaya-Sayevich also studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at Park University.

In 1996 Lisovskaya-Sayevich received the first prize from the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Competition, and in 2007 the first prize at the Iowa Piano International Competition. She was awarded scholarships from the Rostropovich Foundation, the Spivakov Foundation and the Nikolai Petrov Foundation. She has also earned the laureate designation from the international program “New Names,” and the festival “Virtuoso 2000” in St. Petersburg, Russia. Lisovskaya-Sayevich has recorded at the Hessen Radio Station in Frankfurt, Germany, and at Orfei Radio in Moscow.

Lisovskaya-Sayevich has presented numerous solo recitals and has played as a soloist with orchestras in Austria, France, Japan, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Russia. She has participated in many music festivals, including the Bashmet Festival in Tours, France, “Wave 2000” in Japan, International Musical Arts Institute in Maine (USA), Killington Music Festival in Vermont (USA), “Ars Longa” and “Primavera Classica” in Moscow. She collaborated with such renowned musicians as Daniel Muller-Shott, Shmuel Ashkenazy, members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and many others. She now performs extensively in chamber music ensembles.