Since completing apprenticeships with the Santa Fe Opera and the Chicago Lyric Opera, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley has appeared in leading roles with opera companies throughout the country, and has been featured as a soloist with orchestras led by George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw and Pierre Boulez. She performs in Chicago with Mostly Music, CUBE, the Contemporary Chamber Players, the Orion Ensemble, Pinotage, Ensemble Noamnesia, Fulcrum Point, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Opera Theater, Concertante di Chicago, Music of the Baroque, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the MusicNOW series at Symphony Center with conductor Cliff Colnot. She has been a regular guest artist with the Chicago Chamber Musicians' Music at the Millennium and Composer Perspectives series, most recently in works by Berio, Carter, and Boulez under the direction of Mr. Boulez. In 2001 she appeared to critical acclaim at Carnegie Hall, also with Mr. Boulez, as the soloist in Le Marteau Sans Maître. She has recorded on the Albany, Cedille and Tintagel labels. Recent engagements have included performances of the Messiah with the Apollo Chorus at Orchestra Hall, and appearances with the Ars Viva Orchestra and the Bach and Handel Week Festivals, as well as chamber music series in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. Last season she sang La Cenerentola for Sacramento Opera, Meg in Little Women for Dayton Opera, and Time Cycle by Lukas Foss during the composer's Chicago residency.

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A member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1989, violist Catherine Brubaker is a graduate of the Julliard School, where she was a student of William Lincer.  Other teachers include Karen Tuttle and Masao Kawasaki.  Catherine is a former member of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Seattle Symphony Orchestra.  She has served on the music faculty at Northwestern University teaching orchestral repertoire for viola.

An avid performer of chamber music, she appears annually on the CSO Chamber Music Series and has been a guest artist on radio broadcasts over WFMT, including the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series. Other recent appearances include performances with the North Park University Chamber Players, the Lake Winnipesaukee Chamber Music Festival, the Virgin Gorda Chamber Music Festival, and on Northwestern University’s Winter Festival of Chamber Music.

Catherine is a founding member of the Sheridan Chamber Players, a mixed chamber ensemble based in Evanston.  While a member of the Seattle and Dallas orchestras, she was a founding member of 2 string quartets, the Senora String Quartet and the Tesoro String Quartet.

Raised in a musical family, Catherine has siblings in the symphony orchestras of Houston and Tucson.  Both her parents were active music educators in Arizona, where she was raised.  A resident of Evanston for over ten years, Catherine and her husband have two young children.  When not involved in her musical endeavors, Catherine enjoys gardening and participating in her children’s activities.

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Kozue Funakoshi joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2000 after three years as a member of the Cleveland Orchestra. A former concertmaster of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, her teachers include Hideyuki Nimura, Joseph Genualdi, and Sando Shia. She was born in Yokohama, Japan and grew up in Kamakura.She received first prize at the All Japan Young Musicians Competition in 1987 and was awarded a full scholarship to the Tokyo College of Music where she received a bachelor's degree.

She has performed on the Cleveland Orchestra's chamber music series, the Chicago Symphony's chamber music series, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Kurashiki Music Festival with director Takashi Asahina, and as soloist during the Thuringer Philharmonic Orchestra's 1993 tour of Germany. Funakoshi also served as concertmaster for the Tokyo College of Music Symphony Orchestra's 1993 United States tour, which took her to Orchestra Hall, Carnegie Hall, and Kennedy Center.

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Dileep Gangolli is Artistic Director of the Sheridan Chamber Players which he founded in 2001.   He regularly appears with many of the area’s leading ensembles including the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Ars Viva Orchestra, and Fulcrum Point New Music project.  Prior to establishing his career in Chicago, he was a member of the4 Seattle Symphony Orchestra.  He is also a frequent guest on WFMT’s Live from Studio One broadcasts.  He earned his music degrees from Northwestern University, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Washington.  He has studied with Robert Marcellus, Anthony Gigliotti and Ronald Phillips.  In 1986 he was awarded a Fulbright Grant to the United Kingdom. He is a former member of the faculties of North Park University and the University of Puget Sound. 

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A native of Dalian, China, Lei Hou earned her degrees in violin at the Peabody Conservatory.  She joined the Chicago Symphony in 1997; prior to her engagement she was accepted by the Cleveland Orchestra, and she also played for six years in the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C.  She has served on the faculties of the University of Maryland and the American University’s Preparatory Department.  In addition, she is active both as a chamber musician and soloist, having appeared regularly at the Marlboro Festival, as well as in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland and Luxembourg.  She is also a member of the Manchester String Quartet and a founding member of the Aurora Trio.  Lei Hou has recently been appointed permanent 3rd chair of the Second Violin section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

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Mark Lekas was a full scholarship student at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Paul Katz of the Cleveland String Quartet.  Other teachers have included Zara Nelsova, Steven Kates, Michael Haber and Leonard Chausow.  Mr. Lekas was a member of the Columbus (Ohio) Symphony Orchestra, the New American Chamber Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the Salem String Quartet.  He currently enjoys an active musical life in Chicago as Principal Cello with the Indiana Symphony, as a member of the Lake Forest Symphony, and the Grammy-nominated Nashville Chamber Orchestra.  In addition, he is a regular substitute cellist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.  Mark frequently performs chamber music with the North Park Chamber Players, the Brass String Chamber Ensemble, the Pilgrim Chamber Players, and the Lekas Trio.  He has performed many times on WFMT’s Live from Studio One series.  He is also an active studio cellist, recording for television and radio jingles, and has just received a gold album certification for his work on Michael W. Smith’s CD Healing Rain. He also plays musicals for Broadway in Chicago, and is presently the cellist for the show Wicked.  He is currently on the faculty of North Park University.

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