Miriam Fried

Miriam Fried was born in 1946 in Satu Mare

Miriam Fried was born in Satu Mare, Romania, on 9 September 1946. Her family moved to Israel and settled in Herzliya. Her father, Tibor, was an accountant, and her mother, Lili, taught piano.

She first learned piano, then began violin at age 8 with Alice Fenyves at the Tel Aviv Academy. She spent a year with Lorand Fenyves in Geneva. With a scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, she studied with Josef Gingold at Indiana University and Ivan Galamian at Juilliard.

She won the Paganini Competition in Genoa in 1968 and a prize at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 1971. She has played with orchestras in the United States, Israel and Europe, and with the Mendelssohn String Quartet. Donald Erb wrote his Violin Concerto for her, and Ned Rorem and Alexander Boskovich also wrote works for her.

She recorded Bach's solo sonatas and partitas and the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Since 1993 she has directed the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival. She taught at Indiana University and the New England Conservatory, and plays a 1718 Stradivarius.

She is married to violinist and violist Paul Biss. Their sons are pianist Jonathan Biss and Daniel Biss, mayor of Evanston, Illinois.