RESILIENCE: “Lost and Reclaimed Voices from the Holocaust” with Desirée Ruhstrat, Melissa Reardon, and Wendy Sutter
About This Event
At Bargemusic, violinist Desirée Ruhstrat joins violist Melissa Reardon and cellist Wendy Sutter for RESILIENCE: “Lost and Reclaimed Voices from the Holocaust.” Ruhstrat brings an academic and orchestral profile — she teaches at Northwestern’s Bienen School and has appeared as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — while Sutter’s crossover work and lean toward contemporary minimalism help shape a trio that emphasizes clarity and structural focus.
About RESILIENCE: “Lost and Reclaimed Voices from the Holocaust”
At Bargemusic, **RESILIENCE: “Lost and Reclaimed Voices from the Holocaust”** brings together classical writing and rock/pop-inflected elements to foreground music shaped by persecution and survival. Violinist **Desirée Ruhstrat**—a Bienen School professor and member of the Lincoln Trio and Black Oak Ensemble—appears with **Melissa Reardon** and **Wendy Sutter** in a program that treats performance as historical retrieval. A clear New York premiere history has not been publicly established, but its significance here is civic: presenting recovered voices in a city built from diaspora. The work’s restraint lets the testimony sit in the foreground.
About the Artists
Desirée Ruhstrat
Desirée Ruhstrat is an American violinist whose work spans solo performance, chamber music, and teaching. Based in the Chicago area, she serves on the violin faculty at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music and appears with ensembles including the Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio and the Black Oak Ensemble.
Melissa Reardon
An experienced Folio award-winning lifestyle magazine editor and journalist, Melissa Reardon pens and publishes stories about travel, outdoors and adventure, food and beverage, arts, culture, and architecture from her home base in Asheville, North Carolina.
Wendy Sutter
Wendy Sutter is a cellist whose work moves between classical repertoire and rock/pop contexts, with a recent footprint in New York City through appearances at Bargemusic. She has performed in chamber settings with violinist Desirée Ruhstrat and violist Melissa Reardon, including the program RESILIENCE: “Lost and Reclaimed Voices from the Holocaust.