Featuring Winners of the 2026 National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition

This concert in the Music at the Fort Series features Quintet ZaRiah, the Grand Prize Senior Division Winners of the 2026 National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The wind quintet includes Ben Smith, Jamison Hillian, Katelyn Poetker, AJ Neuburt, and Oved Rico. Learn more about the award-winning ensemble below.

Music at the Fort is a concert series presented by Midwest Young Artists Conservatory featuring MYAC’s faculty, alumni, student competition winners, and guest artists.

Concerts within this series are free and open to the public, but we encourage you to reserve your seats in advance. The concerts are held on Sundays at 6PM at MYAC Center, 878 Lyster Rd, Highwood, IL.

More about Quintet Zariah: A world-class emerging ensemble, ZaRiah is a collaboration of multifaceted artists who are guided by their various backgrounds and cultures. ZaRiah is the Grand Prize winner of the 2026 Fischoff National Chamber Music competition, an honor that has not been won by a wind quintet in nearly three decades.

Known for their dynamic interaction and audience engagement, ZaRiah is the 2026 Artist-in-Residence with the Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City and First Prize Winner of the 2025 Frances Walton Chamber Music Competition. They have embarked on multiple tours across the U.S, and have featured performances on Classical KING-FM’s Northwest Focus Live as well as NPR’s Live Sessions. In 2025, ZaRiah was in residence at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and presented numerous concerts featuring a diverse selection of repertoire. This past summer, ZaRiah has received the honor of being named 2026 Shouse Institute Artists at the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

With three out of the five members being first-generation college students and three members being from the rural south, the group is dedicated to increasing music accessibility in underserved communities.