Supporting Young Musicians: The Story Behind the Arkady Fomin Scholarship - Violinist.com

May 7, 2025, 4:29 PM · Late last century, in a country half a world away, two very gifted teenage musicians – violinist Vadim Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe – faced an uncertain future.
Both had grown up in a Jewish community behind the Iron Curtain, in Riga, Latvia, and just as the Soviet Union was falling, their families had decided to emigrate to Israel. Once there, they connected again through music – and that’s when things got interesting.
First, after knowing one another since childhood, they fell in love. Second, they came to America. Now, some 35 years later, they are a married couple, balancing international careers with a deep commitment to the community in suburban Chicago they now call home. (And they have a 21-year-old daughter!)
But it never would have happened without a man named Arkady Fomin, a family friend, exceptional violinist and mentor to both of them. Fomin was the force of nature who allowed them to come to the United States with nearly nothing and build a life and career here.
On June 4, their North Shore Chamber Music Festival will begin in Northbrook, IL, celebrating its 15th anniversary season. As part of it, they also celebrate the 10th anniversary of their Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund, created when their beloved friend and mentor passed away.
Angela told me that Fomin had an enduring philosophy: “If you see talent, you need to stand behind it.”
It’s a philosophy that Vadim and Angela have adopted for themselves. Over the last 10 years they have grown the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund with supporters from around the world, and they have awarded scholarships to more than 60 talented young artists from more than 20 countries.
Here is the remarkable story of how it all began.

Picture from last century: violinist Arkady Fomin with violinist Vadim Gluzman and pianist Angela Yoffe.

Angela was born in Riga, in Latvia, and Vadim was born in Ukraine, and his family moved to Riga. Both of their parents were musicians, and they grew up in tight-knit Jewish and musician communities.
“We kept crossing paths through concerts and through schools,” Angela said. Both of them went to the Emils Darzinš Music School, a well-known school for gifted children that had some remarkable graduates: Gidon Kremer, Philippe Hirschhorn, Mischa Maisky and even the dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov.
Importantly, Arkady Fomin also had gone to the school – he had been close friends with Angela’s father. Fomin was a student of the renowned Latvian teacher Voldemar Sturestep.
When both of their families decided to immigrate to Israel in the early 1990s, Vadim and Angela were still building their careers, but at this point they had become immigrants without resources. That is when Fomin stepped in to help.

“Arkady Fomin was basically building a new scene in a new place,” Angela said. Fomin had emigrated to America in the early 1970s, and by that time he was a first violinist in the Dallas Symphony.
After he joined the Dallas Symphony in 1975, Fomin came back to Russia on a regular basis to listen to young musicians and then bring them to Dallas. “He would find them a stipend, he would find them an instrument…it was amazing,” Angela said. “His purpose was to give to young kids what they couldn’t get for themselves.”
Fomin built his own conservatory – starting it in Taos, New Mexico, and then moving it to Dallas, where it became the New Conservatory of Dallas. He was close friends with Pinchas Zukerman, who came to Dallas to teach at Fomin’s festival for many years.
Fomin’s festival took place every summer, and in 1992, he invited Angela and Vadim to participate. He brought them to the festival in Dallas as regular students, also taking private lessons. Gluzman had taken from a number of teachers, but when he started studying with Arkady Fomin, it really clicked.
“The festival was done beautifully,” Yoffe said. “We participated in masterclasses, and I studied with Joaquín Achúcarro.”

In 1992, both of them played auditions and were accepted at Southern Methodist University, where both Fomin and Achúcarro taught.
“And so we started this journey with Arkady,” Angela said. “He and his wonderful wife Sophie were our ‘parents’ in America – they gave us everything. They brought us to Dallas, they paid for everything because we were immigrants – our parents had only just arrived to Israel with literally $400 in their pockets.”
“Arkady was creating concerts for us to play, getting us scholarships, signing up for competitions and paying the fees, finding opportunities and making us stronger,” Angela said. “Without him, we definitely would not be where we are now.”
Arkady Fomin went the distance for his students – Angela and Vadim would play for him up to three times a day before a competition or big performance. His dedication was extraordinary.
“Arkady was guiding us in everything – with our playing, and emotionally, and financially,” she said.
At a certain point Arkady told Vadim that it was time to go to New York to study with Dorothy DeLay, the great violin pedagogue who taught at the Juilliard School and cultivated the talents of Itzhak Perlman, Sarah Chang, Midori and many other great violinists. And that is exactly what Vadim did, and Angela went with him and worked for four years as a pianist in DeLay’s studio.

Musical and life partners: pianist Angela Yoffe and violinist Vadim Gluzman.

Angela and Vadim moved to Chicago in 2002, and they started their North Shore Chamber Music Festival in 2011. Unfortunately, just a few years later – in 2014 – Arkady Fomin passed away at the age of 67. Knowing they wanted to honor him in a special way, they decided to start a program to help a new generation of talented young artists, and to call it the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund.
“Arkady knew how to give all of himself to his students, selflessly and wholeheartedly, his belief in the importance of music was inspiring and absolutely contagious,” Vadim Gluzman said. “It is up to us to carry the torch that he has lit – and we do it with great pride.”
Violinists Elli Choi and Masha Lakisova were the first musicians to receive a scholarship in 2015 – the other recipients are all listed on this page. Recipients through the years have included Daniel Kaler, Jacqueline Audas, Hina Khuong-Huu, Michael Shaham, Joshua Brown, Daniil Bulyev, Janice Carissa, Katherine Audas, Julian Rhee, Fiona Khuong-Huu, Njioma Grevious, James Baik, among many others.

Some recent recipients of Arkady Fomin Scholarships.

The Arkady Fomin Scholarship is not a competition; anyone can send an application, and then an advisory committee determines recipients. Applicants send an unedited recording or video, along with a letter explaining why they need the scholarship, then a committee reviews the applications, using numbers instead of names, so they don’t know who is playing. While they have granted scholarships to many violinists and pianists, they also have given to others, such as a videographer and a composer.
There are several kinds of awards: The Arkady Fomin Scholarship is a $1,000 award. The Arkady Fomin Opportunity Awards are for ages 14 and under, and they are for one-time needs such as the purchase of an instrument or festival fees.
But it doesn’t stop with the monetary awards. “The minute they are under our roof, we help them in many ways.” For example, they have a program called “Stars of Tomorrow,” which pays fees and expenses to give recipients concert opportunities through collaborations with different orchestras.
“It warms our hearts to look back at 10 years of the Arkady Fomin Scholarship Fund’s unforgettable moments, granting scholarships and performance opportunities for young talented artists, and forging educational collaborations with organizations around the world,” Vadim Gluzman said. Their current collaborative partners include the Kaufman Music Center in New York, Colorado Music Festival in Denver, ProMusica Chamber Orchestra in Columbus, Northbrook Symphony Orchestra in Chicago; Grand Piano Series in Naples, and the ArtForFuture initiative in Vienna, Austria.
“We are creating partnerships to help young artists and boost their confidence – that is exactly what Arkady did for us. He allowed us to dream big, but was always there to help, advise, and reassure that we are on the right path,” Angela said. “His motto was to help the young talented generation to reach their dreams. He was sincere, and strong. He taught us to be the same way, and we will be forever grateful for that.”
To learn more about the Arkady Fomin Scholarship, click here.
Angela and Vadim’s North Shore Chamber Music Festival will take place June 4, 6 and 7 at the Village Presbyterian Church in Northbrook, Ill., featuring violinists Vadim Gluzman, Julian Rhee and Hina Khuong-Huu; violist Atar Arad; cellists Ani Aznavoorian and James Baik; double bassist Kurt Muroki; clarinetist lya Shterenberg; pianist William Wolfram; and the Ariel String Quartet. For more information click here.
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