PERFORMER BIOS

The Heifetz Play It Forward tour 2025

Violinist Kitty Amaral hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwestern Virginia, where she first heard an fell in love with the sounds of Old-time and Bluegrass Music at the age of 6. In 2013, on a whim for a summer fiddle contest, Kitty formed the band; “Kitty & the Stray Cats,” and was soon playing at folk and bluegrass festivals up and down the East Coast. In 2019, Kitty attended the Heifetz Institute for the first time, dazzling patrons with her multifaceted talents both in the concert hall and under the Heifetz Hootenanny Tent. Currently a student of Miriam Fried at the New England Conservatory of Music, Kitty will be attending the Heifetz Institute for the third time in 2025, as full-scholarship member of the prestigious Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar, the Institute’s “program within a program,” under the tutelage of renowned instructors Shmuel Ashkenasi of the Curtis Institute, Ralph Kirshbaum of the the University of Southern California, and Heifetz Artistic Director Nicholas Kitchen.

19-year-old Baltimore native Runa Matsushita will also be attending the Heifetz Institute for the third time in 2025, and joining the Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar on full scholarship. Runa started playing the violin when she was three years old, and by the age of seven, she joined the Baltimore Symphony Youth Orchestra. She won First Place in the BSYO concerto competition each year that she has competed. She has soloed with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra numerous times, most recently the Season Opening Gala with Music Director Jonathon Heyward. She has also performed with the Amadeus Chamber Orchestra and the National Chamber Ensemble. Runa is also a National YoungArts winner, and has won prizes in many other competitions,and was an alternate for the Stulberg International String Competition. This fall, Runa will enter Harvard College as freshman after her graduation from Towson, MD High School.

Chicago native Steven Baloue will be returning to the Heifetz Institute for the fifth time in 2025 as one of just eight young artists selected to be a full-scholarship Heifetz String Scholar. He is currently pursuing his Masters’ degree with Heifetz faculty member Atar Arad at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Steven’s history with the Heifetz Institute also includes performing as a member of the Heifetz Holiday Tour troupe and as a member of the HEIR: Heifetz Ensemble in Residence program. Steven is also a recipient of a 2022 WCEJ Thornton Foundation Music & Art Scholarship. In 2019, Steven was a FOOSA Fellow and Concerto Competition finalist. He also performed at the 2019 Chicago Mayoral Inauguration. Steven was selected as a 2018 Rising Star by the City of Chicago. He won the 2018 Merit School of Music Conservatory Concerto Competition and is a recipient of the Alice S. Pfaelzer Leadership Award and scholarship. Steven is also a recipient of the 2018 Congressional Black Caucus Spouses Performing Arts Scholarship. In 2017, Steven was chosen to be a member of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) which performed at Carnegie Hall along with various halls in Mexico, Columbia, and Ecuador. He was also selected to participate in the inaugural year of National Youth Orchestra 2 in 2016. Steven is a 2017 recipient of the Sphinx Organization MPower Artist Grant. Previously, he served as principal violist with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Merit School of Music. Steven has participated in masterclasses with Li-Kuo Chang, Roger Chase, Paul Katz, Matthieu Herzog, and the Calidore String Quartet.

19-year old cellist Amelia Zitoun hails from Shorewood, Wisconsin, and will be attending the Heifetz Institute for the second time as a member of the Heifetz Chamber Music Seminar. Amelia has just concluded her freshman year at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, studying with the acclaimed cellist Clive Greensmith. She was formerly ois a scholarship fellow at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Academy, a training center for advanced pre-college students. She was a student there for five years as a student of Heifetz faculty member Hans Jørgen Jensen. Most recently, Amelia performed with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, and won 2nd prize at the 2024 Klein International String Competition. She also was chosen as a finalist in the 2024 Concert Artists Guild competition. Amelia is the Gold Medal prize winner of the 2023 Stulberg International String Competition. Consequently, she has performed with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. In 2023, she won the Walgreens National Concerto Competition, and the first prize at the Bolz Final Forte Competition where she played multiple times with the Madison Symphony. In 2022, Amelia was the winner of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra’s Stars of Tomorrow Competition. As a result, she has performed on numerous occasions with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. She was also a winner of the 2022 Civic Music Association of Milwaukee’s High School Competition. Amelia is also an active chamber musician. As member of the Pelios String Quartet, she won the Silver Medal at the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Additionally, Pelios won the Gold Medal and Haydn Prize at the 2023 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. They were also awarded second prize in the Barnett Chamber Music Competition. In 2022, as a member of the Hermes Piano Trio, she competed in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition.

Heifetz faculty pianist Andrew Rosenblum enjoys a multifaceted career as a pianist and harpsichordist. He has performed with singers and instrumentalists at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, The Kennedy Center, and The Phillips Collection. In the 2022-23 season, Mr. Rosenblum joined cellist Seth Parker Woods in recitals at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., The Gardner Museum in Boston, and The Wallis in Los Angeles, having performed with Woods the season prior at the 92Y in New York, and Strathmore in North Bethesda, MD. Mr. Rosenblum has received critical acclaim for his recordings of the art songs of Lori Laitman: Colin Clarke described his playing on Naxos’ 2019 release Living in the Body and Acis’ 2022 release The Ocean of Eternity as “beautifully responsive” and “superb” (Fanfare Magazine), while Robert A. Moore, in his review of Acis’ 2021 release Are Women People?, described him as “sensitive…wonderfully attentive to the nuances of the pieces” (American Record Guide)