Musician Bio

Ursula Steele, born in Chicago in 1996, is a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. She received her Bachelor’s, Master of Music degree, and Artist Diploma while studying with Atar Arad.

She has had enlightening chamber music opportunities including performing with Atar Arad, Eric Kim, Kim Kashkashian, Eric Silberger, and the members of the Pacifica Quartet.

While at Jacobs School of Music, Ursula was awarded the yearly Kuttner Quartet Scholarship four times, which consisted of an intensive chamber music residency including mentorship from the Pacifica Quartet. She was also awarded a quartet residency at the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn, Germany. Her quartet attended the Robert Mann String Quartet Seminar, the Ashkenazi/Kirshbaum Chamber Music Seminar at Heifetz International Music Institute, and the Chamber Music Residency at the Banff Center.

In the summers of 2018 and 2019 she was a participant of the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Program for Piano and Strings, giving her the opportunity to study with faculty such as Atar Arad, Miriam Fried, Paul Biss, Martha Strongin Katz, Kim Kashkashian, and Mark Steinberg. She was the winner of the 2019 Viola Concerto Competition at Jacobs, thereby performing Alan Shulman’s Theme and Variations with orchestra conducted by David Neely. In early 2023, via a trial period for co-principal viola, she had the opportunity to play in the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm.